There are hundreds of self-defense pistol drills from which to choose, and there seems to be a constant search for the new best thing. Too often, those looking for training drills look for fun activities as opposed to drills that will help them improve their ability to win a fight. A good defensive-handgun drill will allow you to isolate different areas you’re not performing well; particularly things that are essential to defending yourself with a handgun.

Pick a Spot

For live-fire, Start with your eyes closed or with a soft focus on the target. Next, quickly pick a small spot on the target—sometimes  put small stickers on the target for this purpose—then, as you’re presenting the gun to that small spot, quickly focus-in on a smaller aiming point on the small spot. When the sights arrive, switch focus to the front sight and engage with whatever firing practice you’ve chosen.

“The two most important elements in this exercise are forcing your brain and eyes to process an unexpected target area and choose its aiming point, and efficiently doing all of this as quickly as possible. The overall objective is to train the brain and eyes to see in a way that’s more efficient and advantageous to defensive shooting.”