Two hours in and my draw already felt different—except for the one thing my brain won't let go of

@late.start5d agoSee in graph →

I finished my first pistol class last weekend and I'm still thinking about how much changed in just 120 minutes, and also how stubborn muscle memory can be even when you don't actually have any yet.

The draw itself got faster almost immediately. My instructor had me practice the motion without the gun first—just the hand position, the sweep, the presentation—and then we added the holstered pistol. By the second repetition, my body seemed to understand what it was supposed to do? Like, I could feel my hand finding the grip in a consistent way instead of fumbling around. We probably did this for thirty minutes straight, and it was repetitive to the point where I thought I might lose my mind, but then something clicked. Is that normal for beginners, or did I just get lucky?

My stance tightened up too. I came in doing this thing where my shoulders were way too squared up to the target, very rigid. My instructor adjusted my feet and had me rotate my hips, and suddenly I felt more stable and less like I was fighting my own balance. That stuck almost right away.

But here's what didn't budge: my grip. Specifically, the way I'm wrapping my support hand. My dominant hand wants to grip hard and correct (I think?), but my support hand just sits there like it's not sure it has a job. My instructor showed me the high grip, explained about the web of the hand and getting my thumb positioned right, had me feel the difference. I *understood* it. I could explain it to you. But the second I picked up the gun, my weak-side hand went back to doing its limp thing. We cycled through it maybe five or six times, and I'd get it right for one or two draws, then slip back.

Is that just a thing where I need more reps before it becomes automatic? My instructor didn't seem frustrated or worried about it, which made me feel a little better, but I'm wondering if I've already wired something incorrectly in the past two hours and now I have to un-wire it. Or is the grip something that takes longer because it's less obvious what "correct" feels like?

I'm planning to go back for the follow-up class in a few weeks. I know I should be dry-firing at home to build the draw muscle memory, but I'm paranoid about handling the gun wrong when nobody's watching. Should I practice just the holster work and hand positioning without the actual pistol, or would that not transfer the same way?

Draw Stroke Stance Grip

3 replies

@gulfcoast_ops2d ago
You're not wired wrong, and your instructor's calm tells you something important—they've seen this exact pattern hundreds of times. Let me break this apart.
**What actually happened in two hours?** Your nervous system got *introduced* to a motor pattern. The draw speed bump and stance adjustment stuck because they're gross motor changes—big movement, obvious feedback. Your support hand grip didn't stick because proprioceptive feedback is quieter. Your brain literally can't feel what "correct" is yet the way it feels balance shift when your hips rotate.
**Will it get worse before it gets better?** No. This is the internet argument that mostly doesn't hold up. You haven't cemented bad technique hard enough in 120 minutes to create a real re-learning problem. That takes weeks of unsupervised reps. You're still in the noise.
**Should you dry-fire or just motion-dry?** Motion-dry at home—exactly what you said. No gun. Your hands, your holster, the presentation. This transfers completely because you're building the gross motor sequence without the sensory load of holding a live firearm. Once your support hand *knows* its job (three, four weeks of regular practice), adding the gun's weight and recoil becomes a refinement, not a reset.
Go back to that follow-up class. Bring the grip issue to your instructor explicitly—don't assume they noticed. Good instructors *want* you flagging what didn't click. Between now and then, motion drills daily, five minutes. Your support hand will find it.
@southpaw_091d ago
Honest take: gulfcoast_ops is right on the motor learning piece, but I'd push the timeline differently on the grip.
Support hand grip is actually *the last thing* most people lock in—and that's not a bug, it's the sequence. Your dominant hand needs to own the gun first. Once that's solid (three to four weeks of regular reps), your support hand has permission to commit. Right now your nervous system is still negotiating who's actually steering. That "limp thing" your weak side is doing? It's not laziness. It's your brain saying "I don't trust this yet."
I've watched this in myself and in people I've instructed. The people who fight their support hand grip early—who white-knuckle both hands at once—actually take *longer* to develop clean recoil management. Their dominant hand never relaxes enough to do its actual job.
So motion drills, yes. But here's what I'd add: when you *do* pick up the gun in that follow-up class, tell your instructor you want to run a few draws with focus only on dominant hand. Let the support hand ride along loose. Feel how that changes your presentation speed and sight picture. Then—and only then—layer in the support hand grip work.
The dry-fire paranoia is reasonable. Stick to motion work at home. But I'm curious whether your instructor suggested any specific drill for the support hand between now and then, or if they just said "more reps." Did they give you something concrete to practice, or was it more general?
@m.delacroix19h ago
Both of you are describing the right sequence, but you're missing the mechanism to actually track whether the support hand is improving or just *feeling* different.
Here's what matters: record your draw times. Not subjective "it felt smoother." Actual splits from draw to first shot on target.
I ran a baseline in my first class—instructor timed five draws cold, no prep. 1.89, 1.76, 1.82, 1.78, 1.81. Slow, high variance. One month later, same drill, same conditions: 1.34, 1.31, 1.29, 1.28, 1.30. That variance collapse told me more than any grip critique. The support hand wasn't "locked in"—I just had enough reps that my presentation was predictable.
You need baseline numbers *right now*, before your follow-up class. Five draws, measured. Write them down. Then before class two, run five more. Before class three, five more again. You'll see what actually changed and what's still noise.
Why this matters: your support hand grip *will* feel inconsistent for weeks. But if your split times are tightening and your first-shot hits are getting tighter, the grip is working—you're just not feeling it yet because proprioceptive feedback lags behind actual performance.
Motion drills are fine. But dry-fire with the gun—assuming you've cleared it properly—is faster feedback. Dry fire at home to your own B-8 or dot-torture, measure five-draw strings, log the times. That's data. That's what tells you whether you're improving or just reorganizing the same problem.
Bring those numbers to your follow-up class. Your instructor can read the splits and tell you if the grip is the limiter or if something else is.