I have written extensively about dry practice. I’m not even going to attempt to link to dry practice articles here because this blog is littered with them. I will, however, quickly extol the virtues of dry practice. It is very inexpensive, it is accessible in areas not optimized for live fire, it allows you to practice things your range doesn’t allow. As awesome as dry practice is, there are tools that can make it objectively better. Today I am going to talk about one of them: the MantisX.
Your Dry Practice Plan: 1 – 30 June 2020
During this month I introduce a couple skills that are completely new and novel. You’ve probably never seen these things in a range or dry practice training plan before.
Image Based Decisional Drills
Uncertainty is very difficult to create in firearms practice sessions. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred when you draw your pistol you are about to execute a predetermined course of action. You know that you’re going to fire and exactly how many rounds you are going to fire. And you know this long before you draw. It can be difficult to build decision-making into the process of firearms training, and especially solo practice sessions. I recently discovered a product called Image Based Decisional Drills that is designed to help with that.
Post Engagement Part II: Calling 9-1-1
In my last post-engagement article I wrote extensively about the post-engagement search and assess. If you haven’t read that, I would encourage you to go back and check it out. Not to pat myself on the back but I think it’s about the most thorough treatment of the topic out there. Today I’m going to talk about calling 9-1-1.
Your Dry Practice Plan: Movement, Handheld Light, & 911
This month was rough. I missed three days of dry practice and broke my streak that was almost 140 days long – shattering last year’s longest streak of 46 days. Still in the first five months of this year I have trained with my firearm all by three days. I’ll offer you some ideas in this post to work some “advanced” skills into your dry practice routine.
Your Dry Practice Plan: 1 – 30 April
If you’re looking for some tips on practicing your shotgun skills, check this out.
Dry Practice Tools: The CoolFire Trainer
I get it, dry practice sucks. Dry practice is boring. You have to reset your trigger. There’s no recoil, so you train to hold the gun with a weak grip. For those of you with a myriad of excuses not to dry practice I have the antidote: the CoolFire Trainer!
How to Be a Good Student
Today I’m going to turn the instructorship articles around and talk a bit about the other half of the student/instructor equation: the student. I honestly don’t know what I’ve done more of in my adult life: teaching or being a student. As an adult I have spent thousands of hours in the student seat, and my learning has never stopped. It has slowed down significantly, and the chances I get to be a student these days are precious. Below are some tips on how to be a good student. This might be a standalone, or it might be a Part I….we’ll see.
Dry Practice Tools: A-Zoom Snap Caps
One of the best things about dry practice is the very minimal equipment demands and non-existent consumable demands. Dry practice doesn’t consume ammo, destroy targets, or require a lot of expensive tools. It is a very inexpensive training methodology – anyone can afford to dry practice. One thing you do need, however, is a good set of snap caps. Today I’m going to talk about A-Zoom snap caps.
Dry Practice Function Stacking: Targets
With a lot of you working from or otherwise hanging out at home, I hope a lot of my readers are using their time to learn some stuff. One thing I hope everyone stuck at home is doing is dry-practicing. Another thing that might nudge some into dry practice is the current ammo shortage. Today I’m going to talk about some very simple, low-cost things you can to do increase the value of your dry practice time.