"
How do you learn to shoot?"
I get asked that question a lot, with regard to handguns. Often from people who are interested in shooting, but have no experience at all. Other times, from people who know how to go to an indoor range, put a target on the frame, then stand there and shoot at it slowfire for group.
I finally decided that I've give a complete answer to that, instead of making some quick comments, and it turned into a fairly long blog post about actually learning
correctly, meaning learning in such a fashion that you build
solid safety habits, learn
efficient, effective technique, and build
significant competency.
...and do it in such a way that you
keep learning, and don't let your skills stagnate. How many people know someone who says they shoot pistol "a whole lot and are really good" but who still use a Weaver stance, or advocate one-handed point shooting as a primary choice, or are adamant that what they learned in the military (20 years ago) is still the best tactical choice?
I know a number of people like that. And there is nothing wrong with Weaver stance---but if teaching a new shooter, there are better stances and grips that are quicker and more efficient. There is nothing wrong with one-handed point shooting in certain, limited sets of circumstances---but you wouldn't want to start out a new shooter teaching that skill set. And what the military taught for pistol shooting 20 years ago bears no resemblance to what citizen self-defense skills are necessary now.
In the blog post, I give a training/practice skill progression from "complete new shooter" up to "solid mid-level competency." The problem, of course, is that many people who currently are gun owners believe that they are already at mid-level competency and so they take "advanced tactical training" and such----but really
aren't at that level. That's okay, many "advanced tactical training" courses are just mid-level handgun technique courses with some self-defense commentary thrown in. (Seriously---shooting on the move, shooting SHO and WHO, and learning to draw/shoot from the retention position aren't "advanced tactics," they are mid-level shooting techniques.)
Of course, if your basic draw, reload, and transitions aren't mid-level ready, trying to draw to retention position, shoot, then move obliquely while shooting SHO isn't really going to work for you. I'm not saying that many shooters need to go back to the "Introduction to Handguns" level---but they could gain significant skill by going to a mid-level technique class.
Anyway---
post 1 in the series of three is currently up on the PRT blog. In part 2, I'll talk about effective live and dry fire practice. And finally, in part 3 I'll talk about what you can do so that your skills DON'T stagnate over time.
Let me know what you think.
(Yes, I link a lot to the classes I teach in that post. Sure, I'd love people to take more of those classes. But mostly, because the class descriptions show exactly what I mean in terms of skill progression. If you want to think of it as blatant advertising, go ahead
but that really isn't why it is there.)
