A disciplined dry fire practice routine is absolutely critical in weapons training; not only for keeping our skills sharp, but for taking our skills to the next level. On the one hand, you can spend hours at the range shooting hundreds of rounds to reach a performance peak only to return to the range a short time later to find those skills severely diminished. You then spend half of your range day shooting to get back to where you were and the next half gaining only marginal improvement. It's not just inefficient, it's just plain wasteful of time and ammo, neither of which are in surplus for most of us.
On the other hand, a few short minutes a week can not only help maintain our skills but actually improve them. None of this is really news but here's the rub: An unorganized dry fire practice routine can be just as inefficient if not as wasteful! So often we practice things at home dry and then get to the range and practice something completely different live. That's like an athlete training for a marathon by running sprints. Our live fire practice should be a verification of the things we practice and learn in dry fire practice.
Dry fire practice is a way to get the most out of your training investments. A wise man *cough cough* (Chappy) once told me at the conclusion of the first LMS Defense class I took that "the class was not training". While I scratched my head wondering what I was doing there if not training he continued, "this is a down payment on training, if you want to truly own these skills you must make your payments in dry fire practice. If you skip the payments you lose the skills".
Too often in this business students use courses as their only form of practice and end up frustrated when they don't see the desired improvement. But if they spent some quality time practicing in between their LMS Defense Pistol 1 and Pistol 2 classes, they would begin to see exponential improvement and realize the true value of their training. So how then do we get the most out of our dry fire practice time? A dry/live practice routine is a great way to see actual progress in our skills and keep our training interesting and relevant.
Example, choose three skills or techniques you want to work on the next time you go to the range, such as draws, reloads, and one handed shooting. Next, plan dry fire practice sessions between now and your next range day that incorporates each of these skills or techniques. Five minutes on each per session is plenty. Then at the next live fire range practice, spend the first hour at the range practicing draws, reloads and one handed shooting. While at this live fire practice, review the documented results of your dry fire practice time, note improvement, identify problem areas, and then you can move on to other skills. End your session with two or three things you will work on during the down time between your range sessions. You will now have fresh skills to work on and incorporate into your routine. This practice method can add value and efficiency to your training time and dollar.
And remember, always follow your dry fire safety protocol. Stay safe.
0 comments:
Post a Comment