Are you struggling with your draw? Often, the draw is one of the first gun handling skills that people start to train for, after they start having some success with their shooting fundamentals. Not only is the draw a potential life-saving skill, it is a fun and rewarding skill to practice and train. Achieving a draw that is capable of delivering an accurate shot in less than one second is a standard that many wish to attain—yet it eludes many of us.
In my classes and online lessons, the draw is often a topic of conversation. It is not uncommon for students of mine to be faster in their draw with just a bit of training and guidance.
There are several common mistakes people make when drawing a gun that hinders their progress, and this article will discuss them.
For the purpose of training and/or competitive shooting, the “stimulus” is usually an auditory beep or the threat command. However, the stimulus could be visual or something else, depending on the situation. For instance, in a defensive encounter the stimulus could be an attacker charging at you, or going to draw a firearm of their own. In either event, you want to react to this fast and without hesitation and in a SAFE manner. Using the beep of a shot timer as an example, the length of the actual “start” beep is 0.3 to 0.4 seconds long. Considering most human response time is around 0.2 seconds or so, we should see people starting to move before the beep is completed. However, often times I see people reacting after the beep is done. In this instance, you’ve already given several tenths-of-a-second away for free. This is time someone else owns—don’t let that happen.
Solution: Focus your attention on reacting to the “B” in “Beep.” This will help you be ready to respond instantly.
This could potentially slow you down and result in bad hits or misses on target. What I typically see is that the firing hand moves quickly, but the support hand is behind the curve. Some people don’t even move their support hand until the firing hand is bringing the gun to target. This causes the support hand to be on the gun late and usually disturbs the gun some way as it starts to apply pressure, if that pressure is even ready at all. Usually because the support hand is late on the gun, this also causes a “grip check” issue.
Solution: Both hands move immediately and in sync. I typically recommend the support hand thumb portion of the palm touches right around the chest. This allows the support hand to get on the gun immediately and start forming pressure quickly. If drawing from concealment, the support hand has to clear the garment to access the gun. As soon as the gun is accessed, the support hand goes immediately to this spot.
You will see this most often when people start to shoot more than one shot at a target. I’ll see people run a draw at a good speed for one shot, but then when asked to deliver two or more shots to the same target, their draw is automatically 0.2 to 0.3 seconds slower. Why? Because they are performing what I call a “grip check.” A grip check is when the person gets the gun on target and has everything they need to shoot, except they focus on the perfect shot and hesitate. That decision-making process costs 0.2 to 0.3 seconds.
Solution: Have your grip ready before the gun is even on target. By performing these steps as the gun goes out to target, I find that my grip is complete and ready to shoot full speed at about 50 to 60 percent of travel. At this point, all I’m waiting for is to see whatever I’ve chosen to see in terms of confirmation. Once it’s there, I fire without hesitation or delay. I call this “predictable and immediate.”
This would almost seem self-evident, but many people I’ve trained just don’t move fast enough. It’s common for people, especially when a more difficult target is involved, to draw slower. They think by drawing slower they get more precision out of the draw. This is totally false. At a minimum, your draw speed should always remain the same.
Solution: Simply speed up your hand speed. Remember, this is like driving a car. There must be an acceleration and a deceleration to a relatively precise stopping point. The better your brakes (muscles and strength coordination) and the driver (nerve connections through training), the further you can push at a higher speed and still stop precisely.
Also, the harder the target, the faster I try to draw. The reasoning behind this is that the harder the target is, the more you will choose to see before you shoot—so if the gun moves around a little more, you will be cleaning that up anyway. For easier targets, I focus on reacting fast and getting the gun in two hands fast to allow a predictable and immediate presentation.
Many times, in the shooting community we want zero misses. After all, we are liable and accountable for every round we send downrange, right? While that is true and important especially in the personal protection and tactical worlds, it doesn’t truly allow for the growth that needs to happen through struggle and temporary failure. I spent a lot of time taking courses like this as a student, and while you will get somewhat proficient with this type of training, it won’t help you reach the upper echelon of performance. You need to bump up against struggles, challenges and obstacles to grow. It is both essential and necessary.
Once you learn to embrace new problems as success from previous ones, your growth can truly become limitless. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a time for tests—just that training and tests have a different set of rules to abide by. Tests are meant to show your performance under pressure and training is meant to challenge and stretch the limits. They are both necessary parts of a proper training program and, if used correctly and effectively, they enhance real world performance.
Article from the January/February 2024 issue of USPSA’s magazine.
Everyone with a CCW should be participating in our Shoot From the Holster sessions at the Livermore Pleasanton Rod and Gun Club. Remember the shooting sessions require an Outside the Waistband holster.
Also, we train with the five step draw as illustrated below.
Properly grip your firearm in the holster.
Bring the Firearm Straight Up From the Holster.
Rotate the Firearm Forward Keeping Elbow Tight to Body.
Bringing the Firearm Up To Eye Level Your Weakside Hand Joins the Firearm.
Press out firearm while stepping off center.