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Measuring long-term performance gains...

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abbafandr:
I have used all 3 drills ( with varying degrees of ineptitude :laugh:)  You don't feel they are good ones to practice, but for diagnostic purposes only?

JTH:

--- Quote from: abbafandr on November 17, 2016, 04:53:30 PM ---I have used all 3 drills ( with varying degrees of ineptitude :laugh:)  You don't feel they are good ones to practice, but for diagnostic purposes only?

--- End quote ---

Pretty much, yes.

Take the FAST drill, for example.  It tests a concealment draw, low-percentage shots, emergency reload, and grip/stance/trigger for repeated high-percentage shots.  And it tests the shooter on their ability to move smoothly from one skill to the next (which many people are ALSO bad at doing).

As a test, it makes a really good diagnostic, because it tests many skills in a short amount of time, and if you track all of your shot times (the splits and everything) you can get data not only on the test as a whole, but on the specific skills throughout.  (If you have a 1.2 emergency reload but 1.3 splits on the headbox shots, that tells you what you should be working on.)

The problem with the FAST as a drill is exactly the reason why it makes for a good test---it has so many skills all put together at once.  In general, to get good at a particular skill, you need to start by working it in isolation.  If you want a quick, consistent reload, you break down the reload into sections, and practice those sections.  Then you practice some Burkett reloads to work on hand speed and making the the magazine hit the magwell correctly.  Then you work some shot-reload-shot drills to get used to starting the reload off the recoil.  Then you do full reloads in dryfire, using dummy rounds so that on each rep, you can tell if (for emergency reload practice) the slide is being released correctly so you always get a round in the chamber.  Then you go to the range and have small-but-random numbers of rounds in magazine, so that you end up with emergency reloads at odd times, and work on quickly getting the gun back in action.  Then you practice draw, one-shot, reload, two-shots, reload, three shot drills.

....or something like that.  That will make you better at reloads MUCH more quickly than running the FAST drill a number of times.

Correct repetitions make you better---and correct repetitions in which you focus on the exact skill you want to make better will make it happen faster.  Doing 20 Burkett reloads in dryfire then practicing 20 full reloads in dryfire will make a much larger difference to my reload skills than running the FAST drill 10 times---and it'll take me less time.  Taking the speed and precision increase that I just got in dryfire to the range, and working one-shot/reload/one-shot drills 20 times will help me take that skill increase and apply it at the right time including making sure my grip and trigger control after the reload is correct.

Running the FAST drill 20 times....just isn't going to get me that increase.  It has TOO MUCH going on to be good practice.

Sure, over time you'll need to start working on chaining skills (the ability to smoothly and quickly transition from one skill to the next is a skill in itself, and it also requires practice) but most people need to start just by working two consecutive skills.  Then three.  Then maybe four.  Oddly enough, for most competition stages (which tend to be a LOT more complicated than most citizen self-defense situations, in terms of shooting skill sequences, weirdly enough), you generally don't need to chain more than four skills without having a pause as you move to the next shooting position and then need to chain skills again.

But...like I said, chaining itself is a skill that needs practice.  And any trainer will tell you that if you want to most efficiently increase a particular skill (particularly one that need significant amounts of increase), initially doing it in isolation will make the biggest difference. 

Eventually you'll want to work that skill into other drills with other skills...but that should really be after you already have a solid lock on it at a competent level. 

I don't think I've ever shot the FAST more than three times in a row (or more than three times in any day)....and I normally don't shoot it more than once on any particular shooting day.  (I only shot it three times because I was doing one of the p-f.com drills of the week, if I recall correctly.)

The diagnostic drills I listed in my article are all fun to shoot.  But....if you want to get better at shooting skills, just shooting those tests won't help you increase your skills nearly as quickly as if you had instead started by practicing them in isolation.  They'll do something---but there are more efficient ways to increase your skills.

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