Diagnostics day. Isolate the suck and eliminate it.

All iterations should be recorded for 10 rep average.

Tactile (No eyes. No sights. No target)

This is best done with a phone app shot timer that can pick up a dry fire click. I use Make Ready.

• Reaction time
  • From full presentation.
  • From strong hand only presentation
    • On beep, trigger press
      • Average: 0.3sec
      • Elite: 0.2sec

*I was running this at 0.2-0.25sec a few years ago. This morning, 4AM with a half cup of coffee onboard, the best I could manage was 0.31sec. That is important when considering total presentation time. I was managing C-zone hits at 7yd from concealment in 0.81sec this week. Assuming my reaction time was the same as this morning, 37% of my draw time is spent realizing that it is time to start moving.

• Draw
  •  Thumb pectoral
    • Without concealment garment
    • From concealment
  • Single Hand Presentation
    • Without concealment garment
    • From concealment
  • Full Presentation
    • Without concealment garment
    • From concealment

*there is no measurable difference for me between any of these with concealment. This means that managing the concealment garment is no longer a time-adding factor. There is only 0.1sec time savings to draw to a thumb pectoral index over single or full presentations. My average time is 0.7sec for single hand and full presentation. This means that on a 1sec draw to COM-A (center of mass, a zone), 30% of the time is spent strictly on seeing/deciding when to press the trigger. If you watch my slow motion footage here it is painfully visible.

Visual (No click. No draw. No cheating)

This is best done with a phone app shot timer using short par times. You must know the length of the beep. Mine is 0.3sec on the Make Ready app. This part is all visual. We are setting par times and reducing them until the beep happens before we can reliably complete the drill.

Sighting Time

• Gross Sighting
  • From compressed ready facing target
  • From full presentation, eyes on sights 90 degrees from target
    • On beep, achieve sight picture necessary to achieve C zone @5yd
      • Reduce par time until you fail.
• Precision Sighting
  • From compressed ready facing target
  • From full presentation, eyes on sights 90 degrees from target
    • On beep, achieve sight picture necessary to achieve hit on 4” square @5yd
      • Reduce par time until you fail.

*There is a large (and growing) gap in my gross and precision sighting. This is no surprise to me as my prescription eyewear is getting thicker. It takes me an additional half second or so to achieve a sight picture with the iron sights on my LCR. This time is reduced significantly when using any red dot sight and even more when using a green laser. For gear selection alone, this drill is worthwhile to establish realistic time expectations.

Summary

Of the 1 second it takes to draw to a COM-A hit:

• 37% is used to start moving
• 30% is used to start shooting
• that leaves 33% of total time for ALL of the doing

Seeing that breakdown has shifted my focus to processing information faster. For improvement on the initial shot, my efforts are better spent on computer speed games than on live fire reps. These exercises may reveal something very different for you.

Test it. Quantify the suck. Eliminate it. 

More to come.