A conversation with Jeff Gonzalez the other day brought up this interesting aspect that I thought you guys might like to hear more about. We were talking about holsters and I mentioned that I prefer the wider clip spacing of the newer Tenicor holsters, rather than the older narrow spacing or other holster makers who use a relatively narrow, centrally located belt loop or clip arrangement. My reason is that the draw is faster for me. That’s because the holster is more stable and does not move as much when my hand hits the gun. Now don’t get me wrong. The difference is not great, but it is noticeable.
The key here though, is not that its “faster” for my best times ever. It allows me to be consistently slightly faster all the time. Consistency is really the issue at stake. If you can’t do something consistently, then you can’t do it. It is aspirational at that point and that is great. You have to start somewhere, but if it is something you can only do on your best days when you are warmed up, then it is not yet yours. However, the fact that you did it once means you can probably do it again, and if you train well, it may become more repeatable. At some point, it may be repeatable enough to say that it is consistent and then you have a new skill level.
I am never interested in being faster in and of itself. Instagram is full of examples of fast shooting, but “one for the ‘gram” is a real thing and doesn’t interest me. I am going through this process with my split speed right now. I will pull .14’s and .15’s in many of my strings, but I can’t do it over and over and I can’t do it even once in a string for sure. At some point, I may be able to do it more frequently, and then maybe even on demand. Until then, it is just aspirational for me. And that’s ok. It means I have things I can improve on and it makes me smile when I can manage a very fast split, or any other small improvement.
I do not make the mistake of ever thinking that the speeds I am hitting in training are the actual speeds I can currently go at. They are training only, until some time in the future when I own them and can execute them as my actual speed.