One Weird Trick To Shoot Better

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am here today to share with you a trick that the “BIG SCHOOLS” don’t want you to know.  If you don’t want to shoot better like a NAVY SEAL in just two hours, please leave this blog now.  This is for those who are serious, for those who want instant improvement in their practice.  This one “Weird Trick” discovered by a stay at home mom wanting to learn to defend herself from the upcoming zombie apocalypse.  Please, stay until the end of this blog if you are serious.

This one “weird” trick is called PRACTICE.  There are no slick fixes.  There are no pills, no potions that will take a D class shooter, and make them a Master class.

It seems the “ONE WEIRD TRICK” “HOW TO LOSE BELLY FAT WHILE EATING PIZZA THREE MEALS A DAY” or “FIND OUT THE REAL REASON OBAMA WANTS YOUR GUNS” meme has started to lurk into the firearms community. The sideshow barker lures you in with an instant cure for diabetes from an ad showing a Jelly Doughnut. Or warns you that “For those not serious about defending your family with the tricks of real world special forces operators need to leave this video now” all the while showing a bearded, multicam clad meat eater with his face blacked out.

I get that the firearms community has been hawking stuff for years with the claim of making us better and faster.  Variations of the sights that I call the “Alien versus Predator” sights that claim that it makes you faster on target.  Yet, every special ops unit and top tier competitor I know is using standard sights.  Some with a fiber optic front, some with a standard front blade.  If these huge, colorful sights that come together making an homage to the pharaohs were so good, you’d think they’d be on every gun in USPSA,, and CAG would order 500 sets of them.   Apparently, these folks haven’t discovered how fast these sights make you.

There is no magic fix other than practice. The more you dry fire, the more you practice, the better you will become. Say it with me, the faster you will become. Recently, I had a buddy of mine who is just getting back into shooting USPSA after a lay off come to me with a question.  At his last match, he won his division by a hair. He said that he sucked, but everyone just sucked a little more than he did that day. He was concerned that some of the younger guys were faster than him. He was sure that he was too slow, and wanted help putting a plan together to get faster. I asked him when the last time he devoted 15 minutes to dry firing and he replied “Oh, I have not practiced in months”.  There your problem, you’ve got mud in your tires.

We as a nation seemed to be fixated on quick fixes. Time and practice makes us better.

The one “WEIRD TIP” is the same that it has been for decades. Practice. Train with a plan.  Dry Fire. You’ll like the results.

This entry was posted in Competition, Gear, Modern Service Pistols, Training by Jerry Jones. Bookmark the permalink.

About Jerry Jones

Jerry Jones has been a Sheriff's Deputy in Kentucky since 1996. Jerry is currently assigned as a patrol deputy, firearms instructor and senior operator/training supervisor with a multi jurisdictional tactical team. Jerry is Kentucky POST certified to teach firearms, SWAT, and sniper operations and deployment at the Academy level. Jerry is also the President/CEO of Operation Specific Training and the Law Enforcement Representative for Apex Tactical Specialties.

4 thoughts on “One Weird Trick To Shoot Better

  1. Great article! I’ve been trying to get this same concept across to some of my friends. They will go out to the range shoot as fast as they can pull the trigger, hitting everywhere with the exception of their target then blame the gun. If you want to improve yourself it takes hard work and practice. By the way if you do find that trick that will cure my diabetes while letting me eat jelly doughnuts and lose belly fat share it with me please 🙂 so far all i have is diet, excersize, and insulin.

  2. Agree 100% I try to tell people all the time a new gizmo attached to the gun or action work won’t do squat without mastering the fundamentals.
    Other problem is people want to run before they can crawl. Slow deliberate low round count practice sessions focusing on the fundamentals makes you better. I am as guilty as the next guy when it comes to mag dumps being fun- but high round count rapid fire sessions reinforce bad habits and should be avoided. I recently attended a Larry vickers class and he said just watch on e we get past about 400 rounds or 3 in the afternoon everyone’s groups will call apart and sure enough my final groups after 3 were the only shots outside of the black bullseye I had all day.
    I encourage peoe to practice for a max of one hour or 100 rounds a session otherwise by the end they are getting sloppy and tend to reinforce bad habits and the last practice shots you make – with whatever mistakes you made are the ones your subconscious remembers

Comments are closed.