That grip is becoming popular everywhere I think. I have watched the first part of the Magpul pistol training videos and they show the same grip.
Is that a new Magpul video? I've seen the original Magpul pistol videos, and while they go for a thumbs-forward grip, I don't see them having it that far forward.
(To my way of thinking, the major difference between Vogel's grip and the rest out there is the serious adherence to torquing both hands inwards with that inward rotation.)
A number of other people put the off-hand at various levels of "forward," some more than others. Most people who put them VERY far forward end up locking their wrists, raising their shoulders, and doing the tactical turtle to keep the grip out there. Vogel doesn't end up doing that simply because his grip is so ridiculous he can keep his elbows relatively relaxed while still gripping the gun strongly.
I note that for me, my hands aren't big enough (compared to the gun) to get my off-side hand that far forward without ending up with
less grip strength. Vogel's actual grip strength is insane, though. Manny Bragg got him started on the Captains of Crush grippers awhile back, and he built up some crazy grip strength with them. (Like Lorimor, I'm only on a #1. However, since I don't have gorilla-sized hands, I'm just never going to be that strong, either.)
Most of the class was spent running drills of various kinds. And of course, we got introduced to the "Vogel" grip, which is weird and uses muscles in my arms that I normally don't use. Suffice it to say, he has you gripping and torquing the gun in ways I hadn't considered before.
It's an interesting grip. Vogel is a beast, and an seriously good shooter. (And knows his stuff from a tactical point of view, too. I bet they didn't ask HIM if he thought this was a tactical class...)
If you look at his hand size on the G34 (size of palm and length of fingers), it starts to make sense why that grip works so well for him. He gets all of both hands on the grip, can cover most of the gun well up towards the front without giving up any grip on the back, and can clamp down with all of his strength to lock it in place without actually locking up his elbows and shoulders.
For myself (in terms of what of his method I can apply to my shooting), the "get the hand high on the gun" is important (which I already emphasize to myself), the "don't use a monkey grip" is VERY important, and I haven't thought about it that way before---I was using the correct method of gripping, but that is a REALLY good way to describe the bad grip. We don't want to grab the gun like a hammer, we want our grip to extend our hand upward as high as possible on the backstrap.
His far-front hand position just isn't going to work for me unless I either grow larger hands, or manage a #3 CoC gripper, neither of which is likely in the near future.
The "inward torque" of both wrists is interesting to me---I've tried it several times, and it always results in my tensing my upper body so much (to create that torque) that my transitions slow WAY down. (Without a commensurate increase in recoil control.)
I know a couple of big guys who love it, though.
Fun thing about technique---so far, there isn't just
One Right Way (though it is certainly true that there are plenty of techniques that are significantly sub-optimal)---and one good thing to do is to find a really good shooter whose hands and grip are similar to yours, and look and what works for them.
Vogel is about my size (-ish) but his hands and grip bear no resemblance to mine.
On the other hand, I've had the best luck with Manny Bragg's shooting grip/concepts, and HIS hands don't match mine in any way either. Go figure.
Proctor class in October? He doing just pistol, or pistol and carbine? (I want to take his pistol/carbine class....)
