Dry-Practice. Everyday
Practice For Everyday People

By Tiger Mckee. Sept 5, 2022

While firearm's training has been discussed before it is always worthwhile reviewing the subject. This article deals with various aspects and is well worth a read in order to be a reminded of what is important for safety, familiarity and user skills.

To fight effectively with firearms requires training – receiving instruction on fighting techniques and combative theory – and practice, the actual learning and improvement of those skills. During a firearms class, you'll perform numerous repetitions of the material being presented, but the bulk of the learning process begins after class. Applying these skills under the stress of actual combat requires learning at the subconscious level, which is only obtained with thousands of repetitions. Whether you have a firearm for self-defense or carry a weapon professionally, the best way to develop and hone your fighting skills is with dry-practice.

You can dry-practice with an actual weapon, using dummy ammo or snap-caps to drill on the fundamentals of marksmanship or manipulations. You can practice with plastic dummy weapons or airsoft weapons, realistic replicas that fire plastic pellets are valuable training tools when used properly.

In the absence of other training tools, the simple repetition of working on smooth movement, the geometry of slicing around corners, or using cover is highly effective. Then there is "mental-imagery" practice, a valuable and underrated practice technique where you vividly imagine yourself performing complex tasks under duress. The point is there is no excuse for not practicing your fighting skills everyday in some form or fashion.

The Fight

A typical fight (if such a thing exists) includes the following: target acquisition/identification, movement, communication, using cover, shooting accurately, manipulation of your weapon, plus a variety of other skills. The actual combative portion of the fight usually only lasts a few seconds. (Although there are always exceptions to this!) To perform the tasks required in such a compressed time frame, most of these actions must be executed using the subconscious mind. The conscious mind can only focus on one thing at a time. .....