When I first encountered this student, he had the habit of doing several things including:
-- Regardless of starting position, he would drop his left hand (he is right-handed) completely down to his side when he would draw. Obviously, this is inefficient and slowed his ability to quickly get a proper firing grip.
-- As he drew the pistol, he would point the muzzle upward as he extended the pistol and leveling only when he reached full extension (instructors often call it fishing or fly casting – the opposite is lowering the pistol when it clears the holster in a scooping or digging motion).
-- And most concerning, when he finished a string of fire, he pointed the muzzle straight up in the air next to his temple and dropped his left hand to the side once again.
These habits we so ingrained in his subconscious that he found it extremely difficult to break them. In the first class he attended, I finally took him aside and told he that if he did not stop pointing the muzzle straight up that I would have to remove him from class for safety reasons (it was also a violation of the range rules).
The student subsequently took several private lessons and practice sessions from me where we concentrated on breaking these habits. Eventually, with a great deal of time, money, and effort he suppressed the habits and his shooting substantially improved.
Fast forward fifteen months at the Steel Challenge match. As I welcomed the student, I commented that I had not seen him in a while. He remarked that although he had not been participating in any shooting matches, he had still been practicing with his pistol. He was on my squad in the match, and I noticed that two of his three bad habits had returned in full.
He was once again dropping his left hand completely down to his side and he was pointing the muzzle upward as he extended the pistol during the draw. In his “practice” sessions he had reverted to his bad habits. His previous time, money, and effort had been wasted, and his shooting had suffered accordingly.
Many shooters (such as this student) engage in Mindless Practice. Have you ever observed an athlete, musician, or shooter engage in practice? You'll notice that the activity generally follows a pattern--we simply repeat the same thing over and over. The same tennis serve, the same passage on the violin, the same draw and shoot holes in the target— a routine we execute while our brains are on autopilot and simply coasting through the repetitions. While this might look like practice, it is really nothing more than mindless repetition.
Unfortunately, there are several problems with practicing this way. First, it's a waste of time because very little productive learning takes place. This is why you can "practice" something for hours, days, or weeks, and still not improve very much. Even worse, you are probably digging yourself a hole (as was this student) because this model of practicing strengthens undesirable habits and errors as well. This model also makes it more difficult to correct performance problems later—as you are essentially adding to the amount of future practice you will need to eliminate the undesirable habits and errors. Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
For more information on the correct way to practice see: Deliberate Practice Makes Perfect
https://www.sensibleselfdefenseblog.com/2017/11/deliberate-practice-makes-perfect.html
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