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If you go to enough shooting schools eventually you will hear an instructor pass along a piece of age old wisdom, "Speed is fine, but accuracy is final." Unfortunately, reality is a bit more complicated. If a typical gun fight lasts three seconds but you need four seconds to draw and deliver your first supremely accurate shot… the only thing that will be "final" is your life.
Practical shooting - whether it's for fighting or for competition - necessarily requires a balance between speed and accuracy. How you balance them is dependent on the target, distance, situation, and your skill level. But balance them you must Accuracy alone isn't going to win the day. If you cannot deliver metal on meat faster than your opponent..guess what? You lose.
Accuracy is easier to learn than speed.. Basic marksmanship can be taught in very little time and the fundamentals are well known and understood by most instructors. Essentially, it just boils down to proper sight alignment and proper trigger manipulation. Learning those fundamentals well enough to hit a torso at 25 yards is no challenge
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Too often, instructors approach speed as if it were some kind of natural evolution. "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast" is another one of those silly lines instructors bandy about without really understanding the underlying principles. The fact is, if you practice slow deliberate perfect marksmanship all the time the only thing you'll be good at is slow deliberate marksmanship. Speed won't just happen on its own.
If you want to learn to shoot fast you need to spend time working on speed. Like anything else, the only way you'll make significant gains is by pushing the envelope. As we've already determined, accuracy and speed exist in balance. Push one to the limit and you'll necessarily see the other suffer. So if you really want to learn to shoot fast, you need to accept a frightening truth. It's ok to miss, sometimes.
A common exercise used to build speed is to draw and fire six shots as fast as you can guarantee six good hits. But if you are getting six good hits every time you do a drill, you aren't pushing yourself. You aren't challenging yourself. And you aren't going to improve much. Instead, find a pace that has you missing a shot every drill or two. Missing 10-15% of your shots means you're in the zone. If you miss more than that, you need to slow down and work on marksmanship. If you miss less, you need to speed up.
By taking this approach, it is easy to regulate how fast you should be going. You'll get immediate feedback. If you're shooting a fist-sized group at seven yards, you are going too slow. If you can't keep most of your shots within an 8" circle at that distance, you're going too fast. Adjust your tempo and try again. Pay attention to what the gun and target are telling you. Learn from them.
Why are we purposely missing the target? As stated earlier, learning to shoot fast is harder than just learning to shoot accurately. Shooting fast means learning to go faster than you have before. You need to learn to draw faster, manipulate the trigger faster, control muzzle flip better. Learning to shoot faster means getting a little out of control. Not a lot, but just enough to feel that edge, to find the limit of your performance and push past it just a little.
Shooting fast is no less a skill than shooting accurately. And unless the only thing you care about is bullseye shooting, learning to shoot faster is a fundamental aspect of becoming a better shooter. The only way to get faster is to go faster. Push yourself, stay focused, and have fun.
The purpose of this article is to make you think about and to open up a discussion concerning your holster of choice and your carry methods. Be it IWB, OWB, Ankle, Tuckables, Crossdraws, Pocket carry, fanny pack, purse etc, When or if actually violently confronted how long would it take you to draw and fire if needed? Does speed matter or are you going to pray you have the time to access your firearm if needed. Is comfort and printing more of a concern for you than who gets off the first shot? I understand we all make compromises but at what price?
There is no second place winner in a lethal force encounter--only first and first loser. When the stake is one's life, losing is not an option! To be prepared, one must possess the necessary knowledge, skills and mindset. Achieving these skills requires proper training and continuous practice.
Practical shooting - whether it's for fighting or for competition - necessarily requires a balance between speed and accuracy. How you balance them is dependent on the target, distance, situation, and your skill level. But balance them you must Accuracy alone isn't going to win the day. If you cannot deliver metal on meat faster than your opponent..guess what? You lose.
Accuracy is easier to learn than speed.. Basic marksmanship can be taught in very little time and the fundamentals are well known and understood by most instructors. Essentially, it just boils down to proper sight alignment and proper trigger manipulation. Learning those fundamentals well enough to hit a torso at 25 yards is no challenge
.
Too often, instructors approach speed as if it were some kind of natural evolution. "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast" is another one of those silly lines instructors bandy about without really understanding the underlying principles. The fact is, if you practice slow deliberate perfect marksmanship all the time the only thing you'll be good at is slow deliberate marksmanship. Speed won't just happen on its own.
If you want to learn to shoot fast you need to spend time working on speed. Like anything else, the only way you'll make significant gains is by pushing the envelope. As we've already determined, accuracy and speed exist in balance. Push one to the limit and you'll necessarily see the other suffer. So if you really want to learn to shoot fast, you need to accept a frightening truth. It's ok to miss, sometimes.
A common exercise used to build speed is to draw and fire six shots as fast as you can guarantee six good hits. But if you are getting six good hits every time you do a drill, you aren't pushing yourself. You aren't challenging yourself. And you aren't going to improve much. Instead, find a pace that has you missing a shot every drill or two. Missing 10-15% of your shots means you're in the zone. If you miss more than that, you need to slow down and work on marksmanship. If you miss less, you need to speed up.
By taking this approach, it is easy to regulate how fast you should be going. You'll get immediate feedback. If you're shooting a fist-sized group at seven yards, you are going too slow. If you can't keep most of your shots within an 8" circle at that distance, you're going too fast. Adjust your tempo and try again. Pay attention to what the gun and target are telling you. Learn from them.
Why are we purposely missing the target? As stated earlier, learning to shoot fast is harder than just learning to shoot accurately. Shooting fast means learning to go faster than you have before. You need to learn to draw faster, manipulate the trigger faster, control muzzle flip better. Learning to shoot faster means getting a little out of control. Not a lot, but just enough to feel that edge, to find the limit of your performance and push past it just a little.
Shooting fast is no less a skill than shooting accurately. And unless the only thing you care about is bullseye shooting, learning to shoot faster is a fundamental aspect of becoming a better shooter. The only way to get faster is to go faster. Push yourself, stay focused, and have fun.
The purpose of this article is to make you think about and to open up a discussion concerning your holster of choice and your carry methods. Be it IWB, OWB, Ankle, Tuckables, Crossdraws, Pocket carry, fanny pack, purse etc, When or if actually violently confronted how long would it take you to draw and fire if needed? Does speed matter or are you going to pray you have the time to access your firearm if needed. Is comfort and printing more of a concern for you than who gets off the first shot? I understand we all make compromises but at what price?
There is no second place winner in a lethal force encounter--only first and first loser. When the stake is one's life, losing is not an option! To be prepared, one must possess the necessary knowledge, skills and mindset. Achieving these skills requires proper training and continuous practice.
