It was over twenty years ago now when I first started boxing. Initially it was about learning fundamentals, which is a good place to start. I was taught stance and positioning and then we moved to throwing punches. I learned how to throw the jab was first, then the right cross, or what was called one’s and two’s. For two weeks I would show up at the gym and for the next two hours he had me throw one’s and two’s over and over again. I hated every second of it because it was boring and monotonous but I kept showing up each day and did the work.
After two weeks of throwing one’s and two’s for two hours a day my punches were crisp, accurate, smooth, quick, and seemingly effortless. I had literally thrown thousands of punches in that time frame, employing the techniques he had taught me, and I was starting to look like I might know something about boxing. Everything I learned since then was built off of the foundation, and discipline I established in that first two weeks. Twenty years later I still begin every boxing workout with drills focussed on fundamentals. I like to establish my fundamentals first to ensure I am doing everything correctly, then I progress to whatever I choose to train that day.
I approach my firearm training the same way. When I go to the range, I like to start off by establishing solid fundamentals before I move into more advanced training. When I check and then drill my fundamentals I can identify problems and make any corrections if needed. I walk through each element of drawing then firing my weapon checking to make sure my fundamentals are solid. The more repetitions I can do focussing on fundamentals, the more smooth and accurate I will be when shooting under stress or in less than optical conditions.
I also like to practice both tactical and combat reloads as well as malfunctions. I want to be confident that under stress I will be able to smoothly and quickly clear malfunctions, or reload if neccesary. I also spend time training one-handed shooting and shooting one and two handed with my support hand.
These are things very few shooters practice because they are not fun, but if you are in a gunfight there is a high probability that you may need to shoot single handed or with your support hand. You want to be accurate and confident and the only way to do that is to train over and over and over again until you are just as proficient and confident one handed or with your support hand as you are with your regular two-handed grip.
As an NRA Certified Law Enforcement Firearm Instructor I most commonly see men and women that only train their strengths and their primary goal is to shoot the best score they can with the tightest groups that they can on a static paper target. Training with a grip they never use means less accuracy and can be a blow to the ego. What I do my best to instill in my students is that as an armed professional our only focus should be learning how to win a gunfight in the event we are ever forced into one.
In boxing you can look like Mike Tyson when you are working the heavy bag but when the thing you are punching starts punching back, it’s very different. The same can be said for gunfighting. Paper targets don’t shoot back so while they can indicate problems with your fundamentals, a high score while shooting a qualification has little correlation to how you will perform in a gunfight.
Train your fundamentals tirelessly. Smooth is fast and strong fundamentals make you smoother and more accurate.
Train the things you are not good at far more than your strengths until you have no weaknesses. Your weaknesses may get you killed or the wrong person killed due to your inability to be accurate and effective. Don’t accept weakness, train it into a strength.
Create your training regimen based on what you need to train most. For example, this is my most recent training day.
Dry firing done at home before I go to the range:
- Draw and dry firing right handed two hand grip - 5 minutes
Draw and dry firing left handed two hand grip - 10 minutes
- Draw then switching from right to left hand two-hand grip and then back - 10 minutes
- Dry firing one handed left and switch to right then back - 5 minutes
- Tactical reloads - 5 minutes
- Combat reloads - 5 minutes
- Stage One Malfunction clearance (tap, rack, ready) - 5 minutes
Range training to drill fundamentals looks like this:
-
Load 4 magazines with 2 or 3 rounds each - change up strong and weak hand practicing combat reloads
- Load 4 magazines with 6 rounds each - change up strong and weak hand practicing tactical reloads
- Load 4 magazines with 6 rounds each - substitute one or two rounds per mag with snap caps to simulate malfunctions - change up strong and weak hand
When I identify a weakness - problem with accuracy, speed, smoothness, draw etc, then I will repeat that drill until I solve the problem. Once I am confident with my proficiency, I work to increase the speed in which I draw and shoot.
The grouping I shoot on the target then becomes an indicator of my skill level as well as proficiency with strong or support hand, one or two hands, standing, kneeling, shooting around obstacles, and how speed impacts accuracy which translates into how well we adhere to our fundamentals when we add speed to the equation.
Setting up to shoot your best qualification score with your most common grip with no distractions or challenges other than hitting the target is not an indication of your ability to win a gunfight. Being accurate while facing challenges with grip, challenges with speed, changing mags, simulating malfunctions, creating challenges with obstacles, and so on is more indicative of how you will perform when you face challenges in a gunfight.
