Originally Posted by
John Hearne
I remain deeply skeptical about the various dry practice laser systems. I think that the Mantis X has some utility, but I don't know anyone who shoots well that uses the laser based systems.
Why? My take is that dry practice has two main roles. First, to help you develop the kinesthetic index you need to pre-aim the pistol when you rapidly draw. This is accomplished by confirming the pistol alignment with the sights. Second, dry practice teaches you to call your shots. You learn to do this by watching your sights when the hammer or striker falls. This is information that is masked when you live fire and you can ONLY get it in dry practice. Both of these primary task are accomplished by visual information supplied by the sights AND your eyes adjusted to the focal distance of your sights.
As soon as you start to look at something other than the sights, and at a focal distance other than that of your sights, you are defeating the primary purposes of dry practice. I think an IR laser might help with these concerns since there wouldn't be any flash to observe but a lot of people would be looking at their device to see where the hit registered.
The only benefit I see to the laser options is that they make dry practice more "entertaining" and may get people to dry practice who might not otherwise because it is boring. For a lot of folks, repeatedly lifting heavy things is boring so they don't do it and never become strong. If you are willing to do the work, dry practice has huge upsides but there is that four letter word: w-o-r-k.