Originally Posted By Mach:
IMO this is largely wrong and not how I was taught at FLETC . The differences being the thumb not sticking out and the gun not angled down as much and the elbow more against the body giving much more retention instead of a chicken wing approach. I think that elbow, the forearm and the bicep hard against the rib cage needs to be all that for solid retention using the big muscles. This is about retention and drawing and rounds on target in min time with hands on. Also stepping forward with the support foot to increase distance from the threat to the gun side ( I don't appendix carry ) is important for retention also. I think consistency and muscle memory is important and don't see the need to put the thumb straight up. Even if you practice shooting from a contact retention position a lot, and you should, I doubt that thumb is going to be standing straight up because you never do that any other time. Keeping a solid muscle memory grip and the weapon aligned with your forearm like it is in any other shooting stance is also important because that keeps the slide action clear. In the contact retention position, now more than ever, you need a strong combative stance and you also do not want your support arm across your chest as they are doing, you need to protect your neck from an edged weapon attack from the outside of the left side of your body with that arm. Let your support arm take the cuts, not your neck. Hand across your chest like one hand point shoulder stance is inappropriate in this situation, all that does is keep an injured hand out of the way of your rounds. In a contact stance you need to start out at least ( it will change ) using that hand and arm to protect your neck from an outside edged weapon attack.