How do you hold it?

As a child I naturally held my torch in my fist with my thumb towards the front, and my hand low. In many "cop" TV shows I see people holding them the other way around, and with their hand high. I can see that rear clicky switches are designed to be held like that. Yet to me that grip tires my arm quicker, because I am holding the flashlight higher, and if the weather is misty I seem to get more reflected glare in my eyes (because the torch is nearer my head and more of the glare is reflected at 180 degrees). So, what's going on?

Are there other common ways to hold lights? Do the different grips have names, and what are their advantages?

Sorry if this is a FAQ - I did look but couldn't find a list.

I think you see the "other way around" because of use with a firearm. Some of the lights even have rubber spacers to assit holding the light with one hand while also holding pistol.

This question is one of philosophical and personal proportions
And maybe also a question of who you are and why you use your light ... think SWAT vs. civilian.

"Civilian Grip"
As you described, preferably with a side switch or you need to change your grip to reach the rear switch. Think Mag-Light or Lion-Series by MrBulk. Also works well with head twisties.

SureFire/Rogers-Technique
Holding your light between your fingers and activating it by pushing the rear switch against your palm. Light needs some ergonomical structures to support this, e.g. rubber rings or specially formed bodies. Think Surefire. THis is a battle grip.

Overhead Grip
With hands high and thumb on the rear switch. Also more combat oriented.

FBI-Style
Hold it high and away from your body so that the bad guy fires at the light ... and misses your body.

Cigar Grip
A more relaxed SF/Rogers grip where you activate the rear switch with your thumb.

Mouth Bite
For all those without headlamps ... taste your light to have two hands free ...

And many many more ...
As I am a civilian I have no real clue about this.

You might wanna surf the SureFire website, they had some nice onfo on this, but I don't know if it is still up.

bernie

The ways that those cops on TV hold their flashlights is dependant on their training and most of the time they are used to holding a gun and the flashlight, holding those guns for long periods of time with one hand can be tiring as heck :S

There's a lot written on the subject of flashlight holding
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1581600267/103-1486783-2168667?v=glance
Fight at night is the 1st good hit but that's cause there is a massive network of dodgy links linked to it...

This is my favourite Article to Flashlight holding
Michigan State Police Newsletter
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/spring97_8506_7.pdf

This seems a good starter to holding the lights
http://www.themartialist.com/1203/fightwithlight.htm

In reference to the techniques
SF website has image galleries of the various techniques it shows

Harris Technique, the standard cool looking crosshanded technique
http://www.surefire.com/surefire/content/harries_top_small_large.jpg
http://www.surefire.com/surefire/content/harries_front_large.jpg

Police Technique (If i remember correctly, it's the stick the light on your neck, but risky though cause from what i've read the people usually shoot for the light)
http://www.surefire.com/surefire/content/neck_index_large.jpg

FBI Technique, Hold the light well away from you so when they shoot the light u're body is pretty far away
http://www.surefire.com/surefire/content/technique1_large.jpg

SF/Rogers Technique, It looks a bit awkward without the grip rings on various 'tacticool' lights but it seems to look like it works
http://www.surefire.com/surefire/content/litetouch_rs_large.jpg
http://www.surefire.com/surefire/content/litetouch_top_small_large.jpg

There's heaps of plugs for the low light courses out there on the Net, maybe some of the LEO's in CPF here could enlighten us :candle: on what is taught out there.


PS. I'm just a civilian

Ask a simple question - get the CPF answer!

Isn't it great here?

Kiessling said:

Overhead grip
With hands high and thumb on the rear switch. Also more combat oriented.

Click to expand...

This is the way that I grip my SF's..

Mouth Bite
For all those without headlamps ... taste your light to have two hands free ..

Click to expand...

This method can be really hard on your teeth and gums, especially if the light in question has a HA-III finish..

Schuey2002 said:

This is the way the way that I grip my SF's..

This method can be really hard on your teeth and gums, especially if the light in question has a HA-III finish..

Click to expand...

Not if you have one of these
http://www.niteize.com/productdetai...82&PHPSESSID=d6371c70dee7080c92f79a289054dbd4

Anyone made one that fits SF's or does it already fit?

I've noticed that when I hold the light up high, aiming a bit downward, it seems to do a better job of illuminating an area. I seem to marvel at this quite regularly as I shine my light from a hallway across the living room and into the kitchen. It always makes me think, "wow!".

Because when i use my flashlight, it is usually for spotting scorpions and black widows outside of my home i tend to hold my light near my head at a diagonal angle, although i occasionally use the rogers surefire technique with my bottle of bug spray.

What method of carry do I prefer for my lights depends on what I am doing. For me about 9 times out of 10 I prefer the "combat/tactical" hold.

General safety tip...
-If a cop is holding a light low (civvie grip) he's usually relaxed and things are cool.
-If a cop is holding a light high (overhand grip) things are a little tense and you should do what the nice officer says quickly and without complaint.

It really depends on what I am doing when I'm holding it.

On the different techniques shown in quokked post, those with two hands together are much stonger and stable for shooting. With the light closer to your head you see less shadows. Neck indexing, FBI Modified, and Harries techniques flow together well.

Few light and handgun styles have you holding the light with thumb side of hand towards the front of the light as it makes it hard to get at the switch with most lights. All the different grips have positive and negative aspects, some are nearly impossible to use in some situations.

Comfort takes priority in casual situations.

Most of the time for me, it's the typical, thumb on the button (Mag style). Once in a while I use the tactical style holding it just above my shoulder.

Call me weird but I hold lights as tho I'm holding a pen. Works for me!

AlanP said:

Call me weird but I hold lights as tho I'm holding a pen. Works for me!

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That's basically how I hold my MagCharger. It's a variation of the "high hold." It lets me look down the beam, and it's a quicker way to use the light as an attitude adjuster if the need were to ever arise.

I hold it lower in foggy weather so that there is less light bounced back at me though.

Havana grip!

Kiessling said:

FBI-Style
Hold it high and away from your body so that the bad guy fires at the light ... and misses your body.
bernie

Click to expand...

I was taught this in MP school in 1963 or so. 10 years later I walked around the corner of a building and came face to face with a prowler.
Without thought, my hand was as far away from my body as it could get and the guy was blinded by the bright, even for today, dive light I carried on patrol.
My first prowler! And I let the guy go. He was a sad sack school teacher who had just found out that the love of his life was picking up guys in bars and taking them home with her. He had followed them.

Thanks for the replies. Especially for some of the names ("Harries", "Rogers"), which I was able to use to search for more information. What I found was more gun-oriented than I expected. On TV unarmed nightwatchmen carry torches too. I gather they are often torches designed for guns, or else the chap wants to be ready to draw a weapon even if he doesn't have one at the moment.

I found this article: http://www.spw-duf.info/flashlight.html quite useful, and also one called "A Training Frontier: Reduced Light" for which I don't have a link because it was in google's cache.

I think this fun quote from Dansdata is appropriate here:

Daniel Rutter said:

"Tactical" flashlights are a special breed.

They're generally stubby little things, wider than a standard 2-AA-cell light, but not as long. They generally also have a chunky, brutal, knurled-and-finned appearance that tells you they're meant to be used by people whose daily activities may involve a certain amount of killing.

(Although, like everything else "tactical", these lights are actually mainly bought by people who haven't killed even once.)...

Tactical lights almost always have a pushbutton switch on the end of the light, so you can hold them in your fist with your thumb on the switch for easy momentary blasting, or amuse yourself with various macho cross-wristed flashlight-and-gun poses.

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M*g AA = Civlian hold, but with somewhat simlar to mechanical pencil hold (So I can turn it on and off rapidly)