TargetTalk

Well, time for the idle Saturday PM question....

On virtually all grips there is a shelf for the thumb that points straight ahead, up above the level of the trigger. Is there some specific physiological reason why one eould not want their thumb oriented in some other manner, say down at a 45' angle? Is it to avoid inadvertent squeezing between the thumb and index finger? Has anyone toyed with different placement? I'm hesitant to grind away my thumb shelf to find out.

Mr. Horton, you are apparently a virtuoso grip maker. Could you chime in?

A few years a ago I bought a Manurihin with a Morini grip on it that was rather large - it had a thumb shelf that was horizontal. I reshaped and resized the grip and turned it into what resembled a Knill grip with a thumb shelf that turned down - the result being that the subsequent down turned thumb position results in too much inadvertant pressure being applied. A horizontal thumb position is a much more stable position.

I don't think this can be answered in general. The angle of the thumb would depend on the vertical and horizontal grip angle, as well as the individual hand and the discipline (FP/AP/CF etc) in question. Look at the pics on world class level, you'll find nearly everything. Or check out the development of Cesare Morinis grips from the early 80s to today's at Matchguns - the thumb wandered all over the place, from high/stretched to high/relaxed to medium high/horizontal to high/low now (with a inward turned hand). He's rotating the wrist (right handed) more and more clockwise, so the thumb will always come out pretty high. Nill doesn't rotate the wrist at all (imho) and depends very much on grip strength to hold the pistol, kind of old style CF philosophy. They changed that on the Steyr LP / Pardini SP grips, and I have to say that those don't work for me at all. Rink uses a slightly left rotated grip (for my feel) with a very low and straight thumb, not my taste either. Ralf Schumann won nearly everything there is to win in RF with a inward turned hand, shallow angle and turned down thumb. So in the end I think it depends on a lot of individual try and error, and a sound philosophy in designing the grip.

I never shot a revolver in competition and considered the thumb obsolete with the dominance of self loadering pistols. I never have told a shooter that his thumb position is incorect and ignore that issue. Comfore is an issue but not as important as natural sight allignment, consistancy, trigger finger placement and steadiness in hold. Do what feels best to you and and allows you the most consistance performance. Shoot lots of tens and enjoy the competitions. Good Shooting Bill horton

Tom:

Agree with Bill on this one. I think you'll find the closest thing to a consensus among "world class" shooters and coaches:

1. There are a whole lot more important things to worry about than thumb position
2. And even at that, thumb position in itself is meaningless except for how it affects other things; especially the quality of your trigger control

Pretty much the only time thumb position becomes important is if it is messing up something else that actually is important, like trigger control/follow through.

Think about it over time- I think you'll find that the vast majority of stuff that gets labeled as "no one right answer" and "whatever works best for you" is classified that way simply because it isn't that important in and of itself. That sort of stuff is important only in the way it affects the other, more important stuff.

Just my not-so-humble $0.02

Steve

Hi

Shooting bullseye, but helping to teach International air pistol in 4H. One of our other coaches, (the one that has actually won Bullseye matches) is teaching the kids to not grip with the thumb. He's teaching to grip with the palm and three fingers. I've been trying this method for about 2 months, and I'm improving slowly.

If you aren't using much (any) thumb pressure, then lying the thumb horizontal would make it more difficult to grip with the thumb.

Just my $0.02.

Mike