Dry Fire Practice

Skill Building Benefits

Dry fire practice is as important, if not more important, than live fire. Dry fire is how I personally learned to shoot. When I was starting out I couldn’t afford to practice all the time. Dry fire practice makes the difference when you need to burn in a new skill or can’t get out to the range. You can improve all of the shooting basic skills in dry fire or at least maintain you current level. Dry fire and live fire are separate activities in a shooting program. Tests have shown that shooters that are trained by dry firing first have fewer bad habits and score better than shooters that just practiced on the range. Obtain the benefits of both and you will enjoy the best training program. Dry fire can get boring and old. Change it around, practice different skills, and come up with new exercises to keep it interesting. There are many different ways to practice in your own home that don’t cost any money. Try all the exercises in this book and work on them until they are second nature.

When?

If you dry fire every day for at least 15 minutes you will enjoy improvement in your overall shooting. I don’t know anyone that can’t find 15 minutes in their schedule. Do it when you wake up before breakfast or before you go to bed. The morning is better as that is normally when the matches happen. If you get your body in the groove of handling a gun every day, next thing you know, the gun will feel like an extension of your body.

How?

Here are a few tips for making dry fire more enjoyable and easier. Trace out the sample targets onto cardboard and make cut-outs. This will let you set up specific arrays. The distances of each are included on the targets. (Sample targets included in book)

Getting Started

When starting to dry fire, work on a skill ten or twenty times in slow motion. Do it absolutely perfect. Now speed up slightly and get in the groove. After it starts feeling comfortable, push it as hard as you can. Now go back and the whole process again. Repeat this process over and over. This is the best way to learn a new skill and improve a current one.

Here Are A Few Exercises To Try Out.

Draws:

• Draws to a position: Kneeling, prone, around barricade, around a door, et cetera
• Draws from a position: Seated, out of a box, out of a drawer, tool box
• Turning draws
• Weak hand and strong hand draws
• Weak hand and strong hand transfers
• Target transfers
• Eye speed exercises

Reloads:

• Reload to strong or weak hand
• Reload to kneeling and prone
• Reload around door or barricade
• Movement around the house — practice going down a hallway, entering doors, etcetera
• Make up your own. Just make sure that your are practicing a specific skill and are performing that skill right.

Great Time to Practice Visualization

Dry fire practice is the perfect time to work on visualization. Go through each skill mentally prior to performing it. This will familiarize you to the skill and help you focus on the activity at hand.

Live Fire Practice

When you go out to the range, grab your gear and be mentally prepared to work on your shooting skills. When you are practicing focus on it, not the problems of everyday life. You have work to do. Track your performance using the tracking sheets included in this Manual. This will give you reference material. You will know exactly how much you are improving and if you are stagnating or have reached a plateau on a particular skill. Check several skills in each practice session. That way if you sustain an injury or can’t shoot for a month you will be able to look back and check what your performance level was.

Timers and How to Use Them Effectively

A timer is just that. It tells you what you did right then. It doesn’t predict what you will do in a match. Don’t get tied down by a timer. Sometimes, just go to the range and shoot. Watch what happens and learn. If you bought a timer that has the ability easily check first shot and transition times it will tell you where your current performance level is. Shoot with someone that is above your skill level and note their times. Work on your skills until you’re better than them. A printer helps when tracking performance as you can transfer the data to a tracking sheet later. If you don’t have a printer, write down your times immediately. Otherwise they might change by the time they get on paper. When practicing alone, always set the timer for random delay times. This way you never know exactly when the beep will go off and become accustomed to reacting to it. In Practical Shooting the start signal can come from one to five seconds after standby. Five seconds on the line can seem like an eternity. Don’t let them catch you off guard by delaying a start signal. Keep focused and turn up your auditory awareness.

Stages

When setting up stages to practice on, try to set up things that are going to be thrown at you in a major match. The first time you shoot a stage in practice, treat it as if it were a major match. Figure it out, visualize it, and shoot it for score. Then go back and review what problems you hand and what you can improve. Shoot it again on the edge and see what happens. What is the score difference? Now go and work on the specific skills that you found need help. Here are a few sample stages that are easily set up. You need a minimum of nine target stands, four shooting boxes and a chair.

Standards

Here are some time fire standards to practice. Two of them are at fifty yards and the other two are at 25. Always try to get in as much practice as possible at fifty yards. Once again use the tracking sheets to check your points on the standards.

Exercise

Exercise Schedule

You should exercise about three times a week — cardio one hour and light weights one hour. (Get checked by a doctor prior to exercising and get a personal trainer to set a schedule for you.)

• Off days, practice sprinting.
• Track your fitness level

General Health Benefits

Working out will not only lengthen your life but improve your shooting. You will be able to get moving faster, into positions quicker, and be more steady while shooting. There is no good reason not to do some type of workout, except for medical limitations. I don’t know of anyone that can’t work in at least 15 minutes a day to go for a walk. If you want to be the best you can be in life and shooting, working out will improve your attitude and performance. The following is a basic exercise regimen that will develop the necessary muscles for the sport. Warm up and stretch out for five minutes. (Some basic stretching exercises are included in the stretching section.)

• One-half to one hour of weight training. Light weights, lots of repetitions
• One-half to one hour of cardiovascular training. Either biking, stair stepper, walking or jogging.
• Cool down period of five to ten minutes.

Do this at least three times per week. Add in a good diet and you will soon be in the best shape of your life.

Cross-Training

One way to assist a training program and help out your shooting is to cross-train with other sports. The requirements for a sport to cross train in are cardio activity, speed, agility, and mental game. These are some sports that help with shooting. Racquetball: Probably the best speed builder.

• Golf: Great for the mental game.
• Mountain Biking: Great cardio builder.

There are many others also, but the important part is to do something

Nutrition

Your diet affects your shooting. Just like a car, bad fuel = poor performance. A low fat, high-carbohydrate, high-protein diet is the way to go. When you are working out you will need to increase your caloric intake.

Eating and Drinking “On-Site”

Remember that part of your performance depends on your comfort. Make sure that you take enough water to see you through the day’s competition; avoid carbonated and caffeinated drinks as much as possible. If you prefer, drink the sport replenishment drinks. These replace vital elements without adding unwanted caffeine or sugar to your system. If you’re taking water, freeze the bottles first — they’ll slowly melt, and stay cool until you use them. Watch what you eat — the stuff from the roach-coaches, local snack bars, et cetera can have a negative impact on your performance. You can’t compete if you’re worried about food poisoning or Montezuma’s Revenge. It’s better to provide your own food and know that you’re getting good nutrition without any surprises.