Shooting Drills w/ My New SIG P320s

Last Friday my buddy Steve and I both took the day off.  Where did we go?  To the range of course! What did we do? Pistol drills!  I started working with my new SIG P320 Carry and Compact that just came back from Suarez International with RMR modification on the slide.  Suarez did a great job as usual on both slides.

I am slowly changing the family of pistols I use from the S&W M&P to the SIG P320. This is an on-going process as I have been evaluating what works for me over the past several years.  I started with the Springfield XD family and I could shoot them well.  In fact, I used the XD family over the 18 months when I trained and ultimately shot Master in 5 IDPA Divisions (the 6^th being revolver).  The only issue I have with the XD is the grip safety and the inability to easily mount a carry optic due to the design.

I carried Glocks for many years officially and as a private citizen; however, had not carried one in some time.  When Suarez started providing the RMR Glock slide modification, I decided to try the Glock family once again. After struggling with Glock for a number of months, I relearned a lesson I had discovered many years ago—the Glock grip angle just does not work for me.  My natural point of aim with a Glock is always a bit high and I have to tilt my wrist slightly down to achieve a proper sight picture.  Is that something I could overcome through practice? Certainly; however, I did not wish to put in that effort when other pistol families probably would work for me.

I then tried a friend’s S&W M&P and shot it well.  When S&W introduced the M&P Pro Series® C.O.R.E.™ I thought I had finally found the right combination.  Not quite. No issue with grip angle; however, my goal is to have two as close to identical pistols as possible, with effectively indistinguishable trigger pulls. One for training, one for carry, and rotating the two pistols periodically through each task.  Although my M&Ps are close, there is a subtle, but noticeable difference in the trigger pulls.

Enter the SIG P320 with its modular fire control system.  Although I still have high hopes that Grayguns can provide me with two identical carry triggers, at the end of the day I can always just swap the modular fire control system between frames if necessary.

On to the range session.  After I sighted in the new P320 Carry pistol and RMR, we started with the IDPA 5x5 classifier as a warm up.  I fired two solid Expert runs with a 23.46 and a 23.85.  We then transitioned to one shot draws on an 8-inch steel plate at 15 yards.  My draw to hit times hovered around 1.5 seconds which is a tad bit slow for me (with the M&P my average is usually 1.35-1.45 seconds).  I was still learning the P320 presentation from the holster and wasn’t quite nailing it every time. 

I routinely read Greg Ellifritz’s Active Response blog and recently read a post where he spoke about Gila Hayes’ 5 x5 Shooting Drill from her book Personal Defense for Women.  It isn’t a drill just for women, but rather a drill that can measure your basic competence with a given pistol.  The drill is five shots, in five seconds, from five yards at a five-inch circle starting with the pistol at low ready.  Lucky Gunner has a nice PDF target with instructions that I printed and used for this session.

Steve and I did not do the standard drill described above. Instead, we started each run with a holstered pistol and did two runs at 5, 7, and 10 yards respectively to get a feel for the drill. We then did the drill five times from 5 and 7 yards.  I initially used my P320 with the RMR; however, I ran it once again at both distances using my P320 X5 with iron sights.

I was satisfied with my performance for the most part.  I really do not have a comfort zone with the P320 so I did not push myself too hard.  I have been training and shooting the M&P for almost 2 years so skill with the P320 will come with time as I adjust to the different grip, trigger pull (it still has a factory pull), and controls.  You can see the results of the practice runs below.

Come out and shoot with us on the 2nd Sunday at Cedar Ridge Range in San Antonio.

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Deliberate Practice Part 3--Putting it all Together

So you’ve read the articles, books, blogs, and watched all the videos of the Distinguished Masters you can do this—Right? This is where most people breathe a sigh of relief and go back to their repetitive practice routine (if they practice at all). And then they fail miserably because at the end of the day becoming a better shooter is not about knowing—it is about doing. In the first article in this series I discussed the concepts associated with Deliberate Practice. 

In the second, I discussed practice physiology and how our brains and bodies develop as a result of practice. I also discussed how to examine each task associated with an activity and break it up into discrete steps for deliberate practice. In this article we’ll be putting it all together and look at how we can improve our shooting through specific exercises and drills using deliberate practice methods.

I have always admired the IDPA Classifiers (both the 90 round original and the current 72 rnd classifier). The team that put the current IDPA classifier courses of fire together captured the 10 major tasks you must perform in the course of shooting a match. These are:

In Stage One:

-- Safely draw the pistol

-- Extend to fire

-- Transition between targets

-- Reload the pistol

-- Execute precise shots

-- Shoot the pistol unsupported with either hand

Stage Two adds the following to the Stage One tasks:

-- Turning then drawing the pistol

-- Moving while shooting

Stage Three adds:

-- Shooting from cover

-- Moving from one shooting position to another

Each of these major tasks is composed of sub tasks that also must be performed correctly. We can break each major task down into sub tasks and then apply the deliberate practice methodology to improve our skills. For example, as we analyze the major task of turning then drawing the pistol, should we turn toward the side where our pistol is holstered (in my case the right side) or the side opposite our pistol. How should we move our feet? Where should we be looking? When do we draw the pistol from the holster? When does the support hand contact the pistol? Lots of questions--there are probably others.  Some experimentation shows that the distance to the target is shorter and our ability to get the pistol on target is faster if we turn toward the side with the holstered pistol.

Another example--moving from one shooting position to another. Do we dismount (lower) the pistol as we move or keep it mounted (in the firing position)? If you are only moving a few feet then keeping the pistol in a firing position is fine. If you must move more than a few feet then dismount the pistol (muzzle awareness at all times) and run normally to the next position keeping the pistol high. As you cover the last few yards, mount the pistol so that as you glide into a stop at the firing position you have the pistol ready to fire as you acquire the target. This saves you the additional time you would spend if you had waited until you came to a complete stop to bring the pistol onto the target.

Drills:

Drills can help us deliberately practice and master the subtasks associated with each major task. However, a key point: You should push yourself with a par time goal that is challenging but not impossible for zero down with each sequence. Ideally you only want to be succeeding in 50-80% of your attempts. Less than that and you’ll get frustrated--more than that and you’re not pushing yourself hard enough and that’s how you get better. When you can meet the par time consistently--speed up. This criteria applies for every deliberate practice session and every drill. Let’s look at a few drills that can help you work on your weak points.

1. The 1,2,3 Drill: This is one of the simplest drills. Starting at a distance that is challenging for you, draw and fire one shot at an IDPA, USPSA, 8 inch paper plate, etc. Reholster and then draw and fire 2 shots; reholster, draw and fire 3 shots. Five yards is a good starting distance for a novice, 7 for a more experienced shooter, 10 yards and greater for a better shooter. Concentrate on the fundamentals of a perfect grip, stance, sight alignment, sight picture, trigger press, etc. 

2. The 1-Reload-2 drill: Once again, starting at a distance that is challenging for you, with your finger on the trigger, and pistol aimed at the target. On the start signal, fire a single round at the target, perform a reload, and fire two more rounds at the target. This reloading drill forces you to reestablish a proper grip and sight alignment/picture after the reload in order to control the pistol and get accurate and fast hits. Practice every style of reload (e.g. slide lock reload, speed (aka in-battery) reload, and retention reload if you shoot IDPA competition). Start at a distance that exceeds your point shooting ability to ensure that you are actually doing the post-reload actions correctly and not just point shooting.

3. The Quick and Precise Drill. Place 4 targets in a line with a 2 yard separation between targets. Starting with your pistol holstered and concealed if you wish. Draw and fire two body shots at T1, a head shot at T2, two body shots at T3, and a head shot at T4. Reload (if necessary) and reholster your pistol. Then reverse the sequence fire two body shots at T4, a head shot at T3, two body shots at T2, and a head shot at T1. Reload and reholster your pistol. Then draw and fire one head shot at T1-T4 in any order. When you finish you will have 2 body and 2 head shots on each target.

The Quick and Precise Drill permits you to practice most of the major tasks in the IDPA classifier Stage 1 including the draw, transition between targets, and executing precise shots. (see figure #1)


 

A variation is the "X" drill with two targets. Shoot one head shot on the left target, transition to the right target and shoot two to the body.  Transition to the right target head and shoot one shot, transition to the left target and shoot two to the body. 

4. The 1-Move-1 Drill: Place a single target at a distance that is challenging for you some distance from a barricade or similar prop and fault lines in place on the left and right sides. Start in the open 10-15 steps from the left or right side of the barricade. On the start signal, fire a single round at the target, dismount the pistol, move to the barricade, as you approach the barricade, remount the pistol, and when you acquire the target fire one shot to the target. Repeat from both sides of the barricade. For variations of this drill you can use barrels and other props and go from standing to kneeling, etc.

The 1-Move-1 Drill helps you practice moving from one shooting position to another. It helps you plan your entry, determine where your feet need to be when you stop, identify visual clues for where your pistol should be as you come to a stop in relation to the target, and plan your exit.

5. The 5 X 5: IDPA now has two classifiers for clubs to choose from. If you are in a hurry or have limited space, you can run the abbreviated 5×5 classifier and upload the scores. I believe the 5x5 also serves as a good training drill. The 5x5 is shot on a single target placed 10 yards from the shooter as follows:

String 1: Draw and fire 5 shots freestyle. 

String 2: Draw and fire 5 shots using primary hand only

String 3: Start with only 5 rounds in your pistol. Draw and fire 5 shots, emergency reload (slide lock) and fire 5 additional shots freestyle

String 4: Draw and fire 4 shots to the body and one shot to the head freestyle

I initially dismissed the 5x5 as too easy—that was until I actually went out and shot it. Although I have fired Master using the 5x5 in every IDPA division, this was not a trivial endeavor. The 5x5 is ideal for ranges with limited space. If your range does not permit drawing from a holster, then start from low ready. (see figure #2 and a video of the 5x5)



These are just some drills that you can perform. There are literally hundreds of different drills available through a cursory search of the INTERNET. One point to keep in mind—if the drill does not push you out of your comfort zone then it is not helping you get better. To improve, you must to get out of your comfort zone--mindlessly going through the motions does not improve performance.What else can you do? Attend matches and observe the best shooters. 

What are they doing that is different than what you are doing? If they are willing to discuss your performance after they have shot the stage, ask this person to help you identify what you might need to change in order to be able to do what they are doing. Ask them to watch you shoot and critique your performance. Note: You are more likely to receive feedback of this nature at local club and perhaps regional matches where the stakes are not that high.

Developing master-level shooting ability requires good old fashioned hard work. Employing the deliberate practice methodologies, understanding the physiology of practice and how your body develops skill at a particular task, and then performing shooting drills that develop and test these skills will lift you to the next level. 

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Any Doubt? Put Your Hand on the Pistol

I’m not a big fan of open carry and rarely do it for a variety of reasons.  However, I do see a side benefit to the open carry because someone seeing you simply place your hand on the pistol (without drawing) would is not a violation of the law as it was in Texas prior to open carry.*

 

Why is this important?  Joan N. Vickers and William Lewinski published research on police officers performance under pressure in “Performing under pressure: Gaze control, decision making and shooting performance of elite and rookie police officers.”** Vickers and Lewinski discovered that more experienced police officers placed their hand on their pistol and often drew their pistol earlier in a confrontation and thereby gained precious time in responding to a threat—often shooting before the threat could fire at them. Unlike a police officer however, a private citizen cannot simply draw his pistol at any perceived threat without risking arrest. 

In any event, after reading the Vickers and Lewinski research I started collecting data to determine how much of a time advantage was gained by placing your hand on the pistol versus starting with your hands in some other location (e.g. hands at sides). My goal was to determine how long it took a competitor (granted, not necessarily the average private citizen licensed to carry) to draw and fire single shot. 

We have timed the draws of 264 individuals over a period of several years during our local IDPA and Short Range matches. We have measured 1,843 specific instances of drawing the pistol and firing a shot from concealment, 967 draws with the pistol not concealed, and 892 instances when the competitor started with their hand on the holstered pistol. We only included instances where the competitor's shot stuck inside the -1 or 0 of the standard IDPA target in the data set. 

The skill level of the competitors varied from new shooters participating in their first practical match, Novices, Marksmen, Sharpshooters, Experts, and two Masters--unfortunately we have few Master class shooters in our local matches. This video (click here) shows me drawing and shooting in a Short Range Match replication of a robbery in a Tampa convenience store.  The first number the Safety Officer reads from the timer is the total time for the string of fire.  The second number is the time from the beep to the first shot or the draw time. My draw time for the first string from concealment is 1.33 seconds. My draw time for the second string from concealment; however, with my hand on the pistol is .73 seconds.  The time difference with my hand on the pistol was .60 seconds.

We have discovered that for all experience levels, placing your hand on a pistol concealed or openly carried early in a dangerous situation can provide an average of a .74 – 1.25 second time advantage (depending on the individual skill level) if you must draw compared to starting with the hands in some other position.  This is not trivial—3/4th of a second to 1.25 seconds faster can be a lifetime in a deadly confrontation.

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We announce our matches on practiscore under SSD (https://practiscore.com/search/matches?query=ssd) if you are interested in joining us (in Texas, not Italy).

 

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* Is placing your hand on a holstered pistol a violation of the law as long as the pistol remains in the holster?  I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice; laws vary by state—check your local laws as appropriate.

**You can find this article on the Force Science website at:

https://www.forcescience.org/2009/10/major-new-study-how-your-eyes-can-cast-your-fate-in-a-gunfight-part-1/

Shooting and Musing about the New IDPA 5x5 Classifier

IDPA now has two pistol classifiers for clubs to choose from—the Standard Method (the 72 round, 3 stage classifier) and the Abbreviated Method (the new IDPA 5x5 classifier).  I initially dismissed the 5x5 as too easy—that was until I actually went out and shot it.

The 5x5 is shot on a single target placed 10 yards from the shooter as follows:

String 1: Draw and fire 5 shots freestyle.

String 2: Draw and fire 5 shots using primary hand only

String 3: Start with only 5 rounds in your pistol. Draw and fire 5 shots, emergency reload (slide lock) and fire 5 additional shots freestyle

String 4: Draw and fire 4 shots to the body and one shot to the head freestyle

A video of the 5x5 classifier is here: Click

Over the course of 3 shooting session in 2 weeks, I fired Master using the 5x5 in all divisions including under the new Carry Optic criteria. Although this was not a trivial endeavor, it clearly was an achievable goal.  Should it have been?  Although I am an IDPA 6-gun Master, I have not practiced in every division in well over 18 months.  I primarily practice with and shoot my carry pistol which is a 9mm CCP pistol.  Although it has a carry optic, I grew up using iron sights and can still shoot iron sights with no problem.

I friend of mine who is also an IDPA 6-gun Master shot master in all divisions as well.  As we went through the process, I quickly fired master in CCP, SSP, ESP, and BUG—1st run in all 4 divisions.  CDP took more effort; however, revolver was a challenge. I have not consistently practiced with a revolver since the 2016 IDPA Nationals and my lack of reloading practice was evident. However, some dry practice put me over the top and I shot a 19.37. My friend Steve had a little trouble with the CDP and BUG (he primarily shoots revolvers), but shot Master in the other divisions easily and CDP and BUG soon after.

I have always admired the IDPA Classifiers (both the 90-round original and the current 72-round classifier) and believe they provide a good test of shooting ability. These courses of fire capture the 10 major tasks you must perform in the course of shooting a match. These are:

1. Safely draw the pistol

2. Extend to fire

3. Execute precise shots

4. Transition between targets

5. Reload the pistol

6. Shoot the pistol unsupported with either hand

7. Turning then drawing the pistol

8. Moving while shooting accurately

9. Shooting from cover

10. Moving from one shooting position to another

The new 5x5 classifier only tests the first 5 major tasks.  The fact that the IDPA classifier no longer tests shooting from cover nor moving while accurately shooting may reflect IDPA’s recent direction with fault lines and discontinuing the practice of giving procedural penalties for movement.

I initially suspected that the new 5x5 classifier could result in significantly greater numbers of shooters moving up in classification.  Removing the “athletic” portion of the classifier in theory may permit older shooters and those who are perhaps not in great physical shape to do better. These individuals may be able to shoot very well; however, moving between shooting positions takes time. The 5x5 does not penalize a shooter’s inability to quickly move from point A to B.

However, the sandbaggers may prove me wrong. Our local IDPA club shot both the 5x5 and the 72-round classifier today. No shooter scored Master and only a couple squeaked into Expert. Yet many of these shooters always place well and/or win our local matches. I would never question a shooter’s integrity; however, it’s hard to imagine why some of these shooters did so poorly.  Oh well—it’s a game after all. 

Please note: This video is for educational purposes only. Do not try this yourself without proper instruction. Inexperienced shooters often put their finger on the trigger too soon in the draw with negligent discharges the result.

Come shoot and train with us.  For more information go to: Sensible Self Defense

Practice 2018: The First Low Light Session

We completed our first Low Light practice session for 2018 in January. This is the 5th year for our low light curriculum and the shooters who have completed these classes and continued with practice sessions have noticeably improved.

Early in the evening, we had a good moon that was providing about 78% illumination. This was enough to see shadows, but not enough to see what an unknown contact might be doing beyond 10 yards, nor enough to see pistol sights without tritium. After we fired the first low light qualification, the moon was cloud covered with a significant reduction in illumination. 

One student brought a 3-cell old technology Maglite® with an incandescent bulb and intended to use this light for the class and qualifications. Although I remember when these were state of the art, I have not tried to use one for low light applications in over 25 years. As I tried to lead the student through the techniques using the Maglite®, it was amazing at just how difficult it was to use this technology for handgun low light engagements.

I always bring spare lights, so I finally told the student that he was needlessly handicapping himself by trying to use this light. I was also certain that the light output was not going to be acceptable for the longer distances (25 yards) of the TCLOE qualification. Once night fell, we did test the Maglite® at 25 yards and indeed it was little better that the available moon light. Absolutely no comparison between the old style Maglite® and modern LED lights such as the Surefire®, newer Maglites®, Fenix®, and many others.

For this session we used two qualification courses—the Texas LTC qualification course and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) Firearms Instructor Handgun Qualification Course. We shot one LTC qualification in low light with flashlights, one TCOLE qualification in low light, and one LTC qualification using only vehicle headlight-provided ambient light with no flashlight. These courses of fire do not represent the typical citizen/bad guy engagement range of 3-7 yards; however, they are a good test of the shooter’s abilities under different lighting conditions.

In general, I don’t believe that tritium night sights are particularly useful and that you are better off using a flashlight to identify your target. However, one shooter did very well using his tritium sights for the ambient light LTC qualification achieving a 249 out of 250 (he called the dropped point). For this qualification, the vehicle headlights were pointed to the sides of the range, not directly at the targets.

Several of the shooters who just attended the practice session had not used (nor practiced) low light techniques in over a year. Perhaps not surprising, they struggled with the qualifications and shot significantly worse that they would have shot in daylight. As we’ve discovered, students simply don’t master the low light techniques from class--you cannot practice it once and get it down pat. Using light techniques with a handgun is difficult and it requires practice to have any hope of using them under stress.

Thankfully you can practice the techniques with live fire during daylight if your range won’t allow night shooting. If your local range has IDPA matches, shoot the course of fire using your flashlight if the match director will permit it. Remember to activate the light (light on, light off) as you move through the stage. Otherwise you are not really practicing the techniques. 

Your score probably won’t win the match; however, you will learn how to shoot and manipulate your light under some stress. Practicing how to search a structure (like your house when nobody is home) in the dark is important as well. Do this with a blue gun or AN UNLOADED PISTOL (check it 3 times!). This helps you identify how the various angles and corners in your house make one low light technique a better option than the other.

Depending upon which study you believe, somewhere between 60 and 85 percent of all police officer-involved shootings occur during the hours of darkness. No such data exists concerning private citizen-involved shootings with criminals; however, since a lot of criminal activity occurs in low light conditions, we can assume that there is a likely correlation. There are several reasons to use a flashlight: to observe and detect, to illuminate and navigate, to eliminate anonymity, and to identify and engage threats. Used properly, a flashlight lets you see danger before it can affect you and it can encourage the danger waiting in the dark to go elsewhere.

Deliberate Practice Makes Perfect--Part 2: Practice Physiology

In part 1 of this series I discussed the principals of deliberate practice. In this article, I discuss practice physiology and how it affects our skills.

When we learn a new skill, we are changing how our brain is wired on a deep level—deliberate practice literally rewires our brains. Neuroscience uses the term plasticity to describe the brain’s ability to form new connections between brain cells (neurons) and to reorganize itself throughout our lives. There are three main drivers of this process:

-- Young immature brains at the beginning of life that are initially organizing

-- Brains that have received injury and are compensating for lost function

-- Brains that are exposed to new experiences or are learning something new

Scientists once believed that as we aged, the connections in the brain became fixed; however, modern research has shown that the brain never stops forming and developing through the process of learning. While younger brains can learn some things more easily than adults (e.g. a new language), all of us, regardless of age can transform our neuro circuitry through learning new skills. [1]

Does this really work and is it applicable to the shooting sports and self-defense? Yes. To perform any kind of task we activate various portions of our brain. To draw and fire a pistol accurately, our brains must coordinate a complex set of actions involving both our fine and gross motor functions, visual and spatial processing, and more. When we initially begin learning a new task, the action is often slow, awkward, or clumsy; however, as we repeat the process it gets smoother and feels more natural and comfortable.

Practice makes permanent, regardless of whether we are performing an action correctly or incorrectly. This is why the principals of deliberate practice I mentioned in part one of this series are so important. What our practice is actually doing is helping the brain optimize for a set of specific coordinated activities through a process called myelination. Our neural networks -- groups of neurons that fire together along electrochemical pathways -- shape themselves according to the activity and the manner in which we performing the activity.

When we stop practicing a movement or activity our brain will eventually reduce or perhaps even eliminate the connecting cells that formed these pathways. That’s why the swift, accurate execution of the fundamental shooting skills is perishable.

How Does This Work?

Some basic neuroscience: neurons are the brain’s cellular building blocks. A neuron is made up of dendrites, which receive signals from other neurons, the cell body which processes those signals, and the axon, a long neuro cable that connects and interacts with other neuron’s dendrites. When different parts of the brain communicate and coordinate, the brain sends electrical impulses that travel down axons to the next neuron in the chain. This process repeats from neuron to neuron, until the nerve impulses or signals reach their destination. These firings happen incredibly fast, which is why you are able to duck a ball thrown at your face without conscious thought.

Myelin’s Role

Perhaps you have heard the term “grey matter” when someone referred to the brain. From the outside, the neuron cell bodies do look somewhat grey. However, there is also a lot of myelin or “white matter” in our brains. Myelin is a fatty tissue that fills nearly 50% of our brains and covers much of the long axons that extend out of our neurons. The most important purpose of the myelin sheath is to strengthen and speed up the electrical signal propagating through a nerve cell. Without myelin we could not function (as we can see in neurological disorders that damage myelin). The myelin sheath effectively insulates the electrical impulse and prevents it from leaking out of the axon. Myelination is the process of how our bodies thicken the myelin sheath through activity and learning. [2]



Practice Increases Neural Activity Which Causes Myelin Growth

How does our body thicken the myelin sheath on our nerve axons? A lot of myelination happens naturally, much of it during childhood. As we get older, we can still generate more myelin onto our axons; however, this happens at a slower rate. Scientists believe that two non-neuron cells in the brain, play a role in creating new myelin. These cells monitor neuron axons for activity and when we generate numerous repeat signals from a particular axon this triggers the release chemicals that stimulate myelin production which thickens the myelin sheath along that particular axon. [3]

So as we practice, we trigger a pattern of electrical signals through our neurons. Over time that triggers the body to myelinate those axons, thereby increasing the speed and strength of the signal.

How do we know myelin improves performance? A key factor demonstrating myelin’s importance in enhancing our ability to perform an activity is what happens when myelin is missing. Demyelination is a known factor in several neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. multiple sclerosis) which produce symptoms such as loss of dexterity, blurry vision, balance, and general weakness and fatigue.

Practice Makes Myelin, So Practice Deliberately

Understanding myelin’s role means not only understanding why the quantity of practice is important to improving a skill (repetition causes the same nerve impulses to fire over and over and thereby increase the myelin thickness on those axons) but also how practice quality is important. Conducting practice without identifying and correcting errors will cause our bodies to myelinate those axons and increase the speed and strength of the error signals – we are actually improving our ability to perform the error. This obviously is not desirable.

Deliberate practice with a focus on quality is critical for improvement. Deliberately and correctly practicing skills over time causes those neural pathways to work better in unison via myelination. To improve your performance, you need to practice FREQUENTLY, and get lots of feedback so you practice CORRECTLY and enhance the right things.[4]

So how do we ensure out practice is achieving our goals? There are several ways we can do this.

1. Break it up – Examine each task and break it up into discrete steps for deliberate practice. For example, instructors often teach how to correctly draw a pistol as a series of steps. As we look at these steps, it is clear that each step of a standard draw consists of a series of specific actions as follows:

-- Initial hand movement consists of simultaneously moving both hands to their initial draw positions. For right handed: the right hand goes to the pistol and establishes a correct firing grip. The left hand may move to the body center line and prepare to receive the pistol to establish the two hand grip.

-- The draw movement begins as the right hand removes the pistol from the holster and rotates the elbow down and orients the muzzle toward the target. The shooter then raises the pistol into position for the left hand to establish its grip and prepare for extension to fire. The trigger finger may be on the trigger or it may wait until the next step.

-- The extension to fire begins and the two hand grip is rotated into place and established. As the shooter extends the pistol, the trigger finger contacts the trigger and takes up any slack (the preparation or prep phase) assuming that the shooter has made the decision to fire immediately.

-- As the shooter completes the extension to fire, she obtains a proper sight alignment and sight picture. The trigger finger increases pressure on the trigger while the shooter simultaneously maintains the correct structure, sight alignment/picture, and the pistol fires.

Regardless of whether the shooter intends to fire additional rounds or return the pistol to the holster, an entirely new task and new sequence of steps begins.

2. Start slowly and then speed up – Start slowly and deliberately practice each of these discrete steps and specific actions separately. Learn what doing it correctly feels like as you identify and correct errors as they appear. And they will appear. As your skill develops, speed up until errors begin to appear once again. Identify the cause of these errors, correct them, and speed up.

3. Repeat over, and over, and over – Ensure that each movement and discrete action has the full focus of your attention. Concentrate on what you are doing without dividing your attention between your practice and distractions (e.g. the TV if you are dry practicing). This is not the mindless repetition I mentioned in part 1, but rather deliberate practice.

4. Push – You must push yourself outside your comfort zone. If you can consistently draw and hit an 8-inch steel plate at 7 yards in 1.5 seconds, go faster and strive for 1.4 seconds. Learn what it feels like to move your hands faster and extend to fire faster. You will miss the target occasionally. Is it because you are extending so fast you get a bounce with full extension which is corrupting your alignment as you press the trigger? Is there another portion of the movement that you can speed up while extending to fire just a tad slower? What changes can you make to correct your errors? Explore what each movement feels like and experiment with adjusting the speed and timing. You will reach a point where you can consistently do it in 1.4 seconds. Then speed up again and repeat the process.

In the third article of this series I will provide some drills and further insight into how you can improve your shooting performance.

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FOOTNOTES

[1] “Studies of adult brain plasticity have shown that substantial improvement in function and/or recovery from losses in sensation, cognition, memory, motor control, and affect should be possible, using appropriately designed behavioral training paradigms.” Brain plasticity and functional losses in the aged: scientific bases for a novel intervention

[2] “Myelin is a unique way to increase conduction speeds along axons of relatively small caliber … Myelinated nerves, regardless of their source, have in common a multilamellar membrane wrapping, and long myelinated segments interspersed with ‘nodal’ loci where the myelin terminates and the nerve impulse propagates along the axon by ‘saltatory’ conduction.” Rapid conduction and the evolution of giant axons and myelinated fibers.

[3] “These findings show that LIF is released by astrocytes in response to ATP liberated from axons firing action potentials, and LIF promotes myelination by mature oligodendrocytes” Astrocytes Promote Myelination in Response to Electrical Impulses

[4] “Long-term training within critical developmental periods may thus induce regionally specific plasticity in myelinating tracts.” Extensive piano practicing has regionally specific effects on white matter development