When a group of students first learn this gun defense the most common mistake is gripping/controlling the weapon incorrectly. This video will show you the correct hand position for redirecting and controlling the gun while doing this defense. The video explains two problems that can happen if you do it incorrectly.
Transcript:
“Hello, this is Glenda, I’m Randall, KravMagaTraining.com. In this video I’m going to discuss how to defend a handgun threat from the side when it’s in front of your arm, and specifically, how to control the weapon properly because that’s the biggest mistake I see with beginners is that they actually don’t grip the, control the weapon properly with their hands.
This is what I’m talking about. Glenda threatens me. It’s on my ribs. It’s in front of my arm. This is the initial defense. Redirecting the line of fire off of us. Controlling the weapon like this. Notice my hand position. My fingers are turned down in this position while I’m gripping. However, the biggest beginner mistake is this. When the gun goes on them they want to do this. Notice now my fingers are turned up. I think the reason why beginners make this mistake is because it’s natural for people to have their hands turned this way when grabbing. Where this doesn’t feel as comfortable. However, there’s a couple of reasons why you don’t want to grip this way.
Here’s the first reason is one is if I decide to grab this way notice how my arm has to take this big circle around to grip. Like this. Bigger movements are slower movements, and slower movements aren’t going to work as effectively. Can you go over here Glenda? So I’m going to do it slowly so you guys can see. When I sidestep over here, if I have to move this arm all the way around like this to grab it’s too slow. Now when I do it and keep my fingers down, it’s a straight line. Straight line like this. The other way is a circle. So the shortest point from point A to point B is a straight line. So when I keep my hand turned this way, I can go straight to it. Same with the other one. One – two. This one I have to draw a big circle.
Another problem that I found out that happens with this, Glenda, is this will happen a lot too. If you try to grip that way, a lot of times you will accidentally brush the gun or hit the person’s arm. And the problem is when you brush it, it tends to go up. It’s redirecting the line of fire up on you. If you do it this way and keep your fingers down, the worse case mistake if I miss the grip, it redirects the line of fire directly to the side off of me so I’m actually redirecting it properly even when I mess up. This will happen sometimes. Especially when you’re under stress, you make a mistake, I can live with that mistake. This, I can’t live with this mistake. So I found that happens a lot too when you’re under stress or you make a mistake. If you try to grip this way and move around a lot of times you will brush it up and make the situation worse. Whereas if I fucked up the other one, I can live with that one.
So this is a pretty simple defense but I found out that’s the biggest mistake and I just gave you guys a couple of reasons why you want to grip this way. Fingers down like this. Not fingers up like this. So make sure when you’re practicing double check. One – two like this. Not one – two like this.
All right. That’s the end of the video. Simple video but just make sure you’re doing it. Those are a couple of reasons why. Thank you.”
“Gun defenses, especially the initial re-directions, must involve the least detectable motions possible.”
