… in your life. That’s how long you have to make the next shot.
What does that mean? It means you can go as slowly as you want as long as you have all the time in the world. But when time is a factor, you cannot go slow anymore. For some reason, many shooters seem to ignore that.
Speed without accuracy is wasted ammo.
Accuracy without speed is wasted time.
Yes, it’s important to be accurate. Yes, you need to go slow before you can go fast. And certainly yes, many shooters waste ammunition practicing to be fast before they can hit the target at glacial speeds. But at a certain point, anyone interested in shooting from a self-defense standpoint needs to realize that you can’t just take your time. While you’re carefully and precisely lining up that perfect shot, how many seconds — how many angry shots — are you giving the other guy?
A demonstration I like to do in classes is meant to illustrate this. First, with a shot timer, I’ll record how long it takes me to make a perfect dead-center hit on a 3×5 card from concealment. Usually it’s between two and two-and-a-half seconds. Then using that number as a PAR time on the shot timer, we repeat the drill except now I get as many hits as I can in an 8″ circle. Usually it’s six, eight, or even more. The lesson? Given equal skill, in the time it takes to make one perfect shot, someone else can make swiss cheese of your upper thoracic cavity.
Does this mean accuracy is unimportant? For the thousandth time, no. You can’t make hits fast until you can make hits slow. But at a certain point, accuracy alone isn’t enough. The next time you go to the range and feel proud of your bullseye hits, ask yourself if you’ll have enough time to be that accurate when it matters.
Train hard & stay safe!
Nice piece Todd – I have a question for the group to think about when talking about accuracy and speed. Obviously the goal is train up to be better shooters – to be good. That being said, how good is good enough? Who sets the standard for others to follow? Is there a point where we can drop our pack and say we’ve arrived as shooters? Just stuff to ponder 🙂
Bryan W — Good point to ponder. My friend Erik Lund (senior instructor at U.S. Shooting Academy) recently posted an article on their site about that very thing: Do You Need Extreme Pistol Skills?
I think the standards are out there, my personal favorite being the IDPA Classifier, the F.A.S.T Drill (and my modification of it, which involves shooting the body shots first in a quasi-FTS drill), and other static standards. The problem is we might fight with the pistol in force on force to add more dynamic elements to the equation and still we can’t be content. We might use the pistol successfully in anger and still we can’t be content – there is an excellent quote that I’ve misplaced that explains why some brave men are addicted to war – to ensure, each and every time, they find themselves up to the task.
My opinion – ruck up, it’s going to be a long hump.
Thanks for the article link Todd – Eric made some valid points for sure. You already know from previous posts, emails and drill submissions that I dig the hard drills 🙂
By the way, last weekend I hit a 25 yard bill drill in 3.11, clean with my M&P9.
MCHPD- I like the ruck up comment. The journey is never ending, which all serious students understand.
MCHPD — Just fyi, the reason the 3×5 card shots are first on the F.A.S.T. is to make sure that the first shot from the holster is a well aimed shot, especially if the shooter is using a DA/SA gun. It’s not meant to simulate any kind of tactical situation which is why there is no movement, cover, etc. It’s just a test of basic skills.
Ah, that makes sense. I think I’ll shoot them both ways from now on.
BTW, for such a simple, short drill, it really does give you a great snapshot of a student’s ability.
Oh, and 3.1 for a 25yd clean Bill Drill is sick.