This month’s article is about strength training. Although it is self-evident that fitness is an integral part of officer safety, it is important to consider strength training as a part of shooting training. For this article, we will concentrate on grip strength and delivering a decisive strike.
When I first learned the basics of law enforcement tactics, I found that grip strength training improved the control in control holds. Whenever I train a beginning shooter, I always recommend doing exercises for increasing grip strength. KP, my fellow Officer.com contributor and CEO of Fit Cops says it best:
A vital aspect of Police fitness is grip strength. Grip strength is important because we must maintain the ability to grab and hold on to suspects daily, possibly pull an unconscious passenger from a burning vehicle on occasion, and on a really bad day, be able to maintain a solid grip to deploy our duty weapon if necessary.
KP is a veteran police officer, mom, wife and fitness competitor. Having faced the challenges of being a small (5'-3") woman on the street and all the negativity that faced her as she entered the fitness competition realm, KP started an online community via Facebook (facebook.com/fitcops) and Twitter (@fitcops) and Instagram (@fitcops and @kpatfitcops) to support fitness oriented officers. That online community has grown and she's started a third career as a writer to help share the fitness message and to focus on challenges that face female police officers in today's world.
At Fit Cops (www.thefitcops.com), we promote overall health and fitness (including mental health) amongst public safety employees as well as their supporters. Part of what Fit Cops does is post new and varied techniques to increase your strength online (@fitcops on Instagram and Fit Cops on Facebook). I work to increase my grip strength by doing a couple of different things. I do different variations of pull-ups and make sure to change my grip often. I have recently started challenging my growth by doing "Towel-grip pull-ups" which focuses on increasing the strength in your hands and forearms. Don't limit yourself! Be creative when you work out and come up with unique ways to increase your grip strength.
Training grip strength has to be multi-dimensional. A quick look at the way most of us train should clarify that. I have always carried a handball in my car. It used to be for recovery therapy (from several surgeries), but now I just use them for grip strength. I kept them in my patrol bag also. In between calls and while writing reports, quick breaks were punctuated by a few hand exercises.
Some agencies require a baseline grip strength, measured on a dynamometer, as a prerequisite for hiring.
There are grip trainers that use two parallel bars, one on top of the other. The bottom bar is weighted like a dumbbell, while the top one is fixed. The user squeezes them together for training. This can also be done with a single dumbbell by selecting a lighter weight and opening and closing the hand while the barbell is parallel to the ground.
When training for grip strength, don’t forget to work fingers and forearms. Try the Twist Yo’ Wrist from Ironmind.com. This is a yoyo shaped tool that where the string (rope) in the middle is attached to a weight. The user rolls the Twist Yo’ Wrist to raise the weight.
Here are two superior products for increasing grip strength. They are highly recommended because the grip improvements are quantifiable.
ProHands TACTICAL
The latest in training products combines firearms training and hand conditioning training in the same product. My ProHands TACTICAL rides in the center console of my car. For approximately 10 minutes of driving, I do a set of 10 on this product. I am constantly sighting the laser on objects in my house. Using this product allows a shooter to train strength and dexterity into individual fingers. These skills are combined with training for accuracy. The ProHands TACTICAL training device will help anyone’s shooting. It is an inexpensive trainer that any officer can, and should own.
ProHands Tactical products take a different approach to finger strength. Each finger is viewed as a separate and distinct set of muscles and nerves, in the hands, wrist and forearm.
These trainers consist of gripping devices that have individual tension springs for each finger. The user can insert blocks so individual fingers can be trained. This is where shooters can fine-tune the training program.
I spent my first week with the product just teaching myself to be able to depress individual fingers. The handgun training tool product comes in three different resistance settings. I found that the Heavy tension (9 pounds per finger) was just right for me. Simply training to be able to depress one finger at a time on this product is an accomplishment. However, the tactical trainer has a set of removable stabilizer plugs. These plugs prevent that area (or finger) from depressing. If you are following me, you should already see where I’m going.
I set my ProHands TACTICAL training device so that the only thing that moved was the trigger finger. I practice pressing the trigger to the rear smoothly and slowly. After that, I added the removable laser device. The laser device is a snap-on fixture that rides on top of the ProHands training device in the same manner as a handgun. The idea is to fix the study beam of the laser on a target about 10 m away and press the trigger.
It’s harder than it looks. I found that training the trigger finger on the device made it very easy to press the trigger on my Glock after a training session. The trigger improvement was noticeable after the first few sessions.
It’s funny, when I first demonstrated this product to a friend, we were easily able to steady the laser with a two handed grip. However, training one hand at a time caused the laser to bounce quite a bit. The more we trained, the steadier the pressed trigger.
I don’t drive down the road and practice with the laser device. I play games with the trainer with the laser removed. Most firearms instructors know that the power in the grip that allows the shooter to resist recoil is actually in the smallest finger. Often, I isolate this finger with the trainer and practice holding the device steady while compressing this finger. If you do this while driving, I recommend that you keep the trainer outside of the viewing ability of people around you. You know, from a distance, it looks a little ominous.
ProHands.net has several other exercise recommendations, including a key pinch, where the user grasps the device between the thumb and the bent index finger. This is not just a good shooting exercise. Strength in this part of the hand significantly improves control holds.
Captains of Crush
The Captains of Crush Grippers (ironmind.com) are calibrated grippers designed to incrementally train grip strength. The Grippers share the same type of design as what people normally imagine when they think of grip trainers. They consist of two machined aluminum bars with a tension spring connecting them on one end at an approximately 45-degree angle. Users grasp a Gripper in their hand and squeeze until the bars meet.
The CoC training products range from 60-pound (Novice, rehab) to 365-pound (Be like Magnus Samuelson). My martial arts training friend introduced me to CoC. They are not to be confused with cheap imported grip strength training products. These are made in the US of aircraft grade aluminum handles and precise GR8™ springs. That is, they are the highest quality trainer products out there.
One of the reasons why it is important to get a quality product like CoC Grippers is the fact that they make the level of grip strength easily quantifiable in a training setting. That is, I use the Trainer (100 lbs) and my friend uses the 2.5 (237.5 lb). “Quantifiable” means I need to get to work. “
If your agency has a gym, I recommend purchasing a full set, plus their CoC Silver Bullet. Have a look at ironmind.com to see what I mean.
The Drill
This is a three stage drill designed to improve striking speed and transition, grip strength and accuracy. The three stages, distraction strike, sand bag throw, and headshot, can be performed separately for training. However, when it comes to putting stress on the officer, the whole drill should be timed in order to measure improvement.
We did this drill on our range, which is about 15x15 yards. This is enough room for training small groups. This drill should be performed wearing a full duty belt. When the officer gets to the second stage, where he throws a sandbag, the bag has to clear the equipment.
Begin at Stage 1, then continue through all three stages without stopping. Since there isn’t a standard time for this event, officers must compete against the best time, if the intent is to inject a little competition.
Stage 1 Distraction Strike
A distraction strike is a quick strike that an officer would use to regain control of an encounter. We discussed the viability of the distraction strike and some of the applications, such as striking and driving the suspect backwards, in the June 2015 issue of Law Enforcement Technology.
We brought a free standing punch bag onto our range for this stage. Ideally, your agency should use a human shaped strike target for this stage, like a Century Martial Arts BOB.
Let me interject here: When my team and I were putting this drill together, we waited almost a couple of weeks for the weather to get below triple digits. It never did. When we headed to the range, it was still 108.
I worked in sweltering heat in the summer, and I don’t do hot weather well. I’m saying this because when it comes to application of force, we have to consider all of the factors when it comes to reasonable officer. That is, hot weather can burn away the first three rounds of fight in an officer before they step in the ring. The same goes for days when I had a cold, but was not sick enough to call in, days where my back was a little tender and so on. If the officer would go to a different force option because one is not working, would their preexisting condition cause them to make this transition earlier? This is an intangible factor that only the use of force investigation could uncover. That is, the average citizen viewing an “after-the-fact” video is not only unqualified, they may be completely uninformed.
The Distraction Strike drill begins with the officer facing the striking bag. On the “threat” command, the officer strikes the bag, then draws, firing on a target downrange. We used a qualification target, placed 5 yards away. It simulates firing on the opponent in front of the officer, but gives him a more challenging target.
Originally we planned to use a live opponent for this drill, but this practice either puts a person forward of the firing line, or a shooter facing the wrong way. When we practice the strike, we use a Tony Blauer Tactical Systems High Gear Training Suit.
For this drill, we struck with the shooting hand, then with the support hand. When the support hand strike went out, the shooting hand began the draw. Yes, that’s correct. We struck with the shooting hand first.
The transition strike from the shooting hand to the support hand gave us a quicker hand placement on the gun then going from the shooting hand to the gun. That is, two strikes bought a little time.
Stage 2 Throw a bag of sand
This stage is set up by placing two chairs, facing each other, with the front edge of these chairs at the 5 yard line. We used a 50 lb bag of sand. We used an old duffel bag so the bag didn’t have any kind of structural rigidity. In order to pick it up, one has to grab some of the canvas. It also couldn’t be balanced against the chest.
Downrange, we used a rack of 6 steel plates. Paper targets can be used, but nothing gives the shooter immediate satisfaction like steel. Another substitute can be a single steel silhouette.
This stage begins with the sandbag in front of the chairs. The shooter picks it up and throws the bag over the chairs. The shooter jumps over also. From about the 7 yard line, the shooter engages the plates.
After the plates are down (or a similar standard, depending on the target used), the shooter picks up the bag and tosses it over the chairs. From about the 5 yard line, the shooter engages the plates again. When the plates are down, its time for Stage 3.
Picking up a loose bag of sand, or any bag of sand, requires a little strategy. The officer has to protect his back in the process. It takes grip strength to hold the bag, let alone throw it. In order to throw it, the officer has to project the bag through the target.
If the officer has to go hand to hand, the ability to apply control holds, wrestle and project (throw) a person is critical. I was fortunate enough to have a really good instructor that understood balance, joint manipulation and throws during my career. There really is no “best” martial arts system for police work, but my Kensujitsu (Kenpo, Judo/Jujitsu) instructor Professor Joe Souza, with whom I still train, assessed my needs as a Law Enforcement officer and worked on things that would be useful to me.
In Kensujitsu, I learned a lock flow, a series of joint manipulation locks, designed to teach the practitioner quick transition from one joint lock to another. These are used in handcuffing techniques. Grip and forearm strength only increases their effectiveness.
Stage 3 Headshot
If the officer exerts himself enough in the first two stages, they should be slightly winded. It’s time for a headshot. This is a simple 7 yard shot from a standing position at a qualification target. It is one shot to the head.
The headshot should always be at the end of a training sequence. The officer who must deliver a headshot is most likely the one who has an adrenalin dump, or a sprint to get there. For some shooters, it’s hard enough to deliver a standing, static headshot. For every shooter, it should be trained under stress.
Sometimes, it’s a good thing for an officer to put on all their safety equipment, run a couple of miles, and train for headshots. This simulates a good adrenalin dump or fatigue from a hard fight.
Train, Train, Train
Right now, Law Enforcement has been made more dangerous by critics who really don’t have any idea what we do for a living. This is something we really cannot control. What we can control is the fact that our diligence in training and professionalism are what we have in common. Keep training.
