Best drill for improving draw/first shot time?

[Dropkick]

SNarc's 2 questions thread got me thinking: how much time is spent in each part of the draw? For example, how much time from buzzer to #3 position or start of the pressout? And from there to the shot? Wondering if it would be productive to set up some dry fire par time drills for each part of the draw to see where the time is going (I guess a percentage of the time would be better). Also the second part would obviously be affected by size of target and distance.

The way draw speed was explained to me was:
Move your hands fast to gun (clear cover garment, etc.)
Slow down and make a deliberate combat grip on the gun
Draw and move to #2 fast, continue out to #3 fast
Slow down as necessary to find sights while pressing out to fire your shot.

Faster, Slower, Faster, Slower

Reason being is you can do the "faster" parts as fast as you can is because they do not effect your ability to fire an accurate shot. If you rush getting a grip and / or rush the press out it will show in your accuracy.

Hope that helps.

[NickA]

The way draw speed was explained to me was:
Move your hands fast to gun (clear cover garment, etc.)
Slow down and make a deliberate combat grip on the gun
Draw and move to #2 fast, continue out to #3 fast
Slow down as necessary to find sights while pressing out to fire your shot.

Faster, Slower, Faster, Slower

Reason being is you can do the "faster" parts as fast as you can is because they do not effect your ability to fire an accurate shot. If you rush getting a grip and / or rush the press out it will show in your accuracy.

Hope that helps.

Right, and that does help, but what I'm getting at is how much actual time or what % of the total is taken up by each step? For the sake of simplicity I'm putting the draw in 2 parts (holster to #3, #3 to shot). Make sense?

[Al T.]

Hate to be a simpleton, but I saw a lot of folks wait for the buzzer to end before starting their draw stroke. If you can condition your self to start an aggressive draw stroke at the instant the buzzer sounds, you will shave a decent amount of recorded time off your stats.

That being said, it's a gamer approach to a real world issue. I can usually get my hand on my gun through some careful movement, so step one of the draw stroke is eliminated.

[ToddG]

NickA -- I don't know if it's that easy. Different holsters, different body types, etc. will make those things vary from shooter to shooter. So will different techniques (i.e., press-out vs. no press-out).

The places where I see people lose the most time in the draw:

• Getting their hands on the gun slowly (fumbling with cover garments, retention devices, etc.)
• Not being ready to make an aimed shot when the gun gets to full extension

[NickA]

Eh, it was worth a shot. I suspect I'm wasting the most time in the press-out, will work on it and see what happens.

[beltjones]

If you watch the video of Todd's draw, you will see that his head doesn't move, his shoulders don't move, his hips don't move, etc. Only his arms move, and even then they're very efficient.

I think most people who can't seem to shave significant time off their draws would benefit greatly from video taping themselves and looking for any wasted movement. Unless you're some super human, you probably have quite a bit of movement you aren't even aware you're doing...

[NickA]

If you watch the video of Todd's draw, you will see that his head doesn't move, his shoulders don't move, his hips don't move, etc. Only his arms move, and even then they're very efficient.

I think most people who can't seem to shave significant time off their draws would benefit greatly from video taping themselves and looking for any wasted movement. Unless you're some super human, you probably have quite a bit of movement you aren't even aware you're doing...

Don't get me wrong, I've got plenty to work on before i even get close to "fast". It's just that I've caught myself pressing out without really focusing on the front sight and having to pause before breaking the shot. I'll be spending some dry fire time in front of the mirror this week and hopefully get some match video this weekend. I bet I can be very smooth and fast at home, probably different under pressure.

[Dropkick]

If you watch the video of Todd's draw, you will see that his head doesn't move, his shoulders don't move, his hips don't move, etc. Only his arms move, and even then they're very efficient.

I think most people who can't seem to shave significant time off their draws would benefit greatly from video taping themselves and looking for any wasted movement. Unless you're some super human, you probably have quite a bit of movement you aren't even aware you're doing...

I agree, video taping is a great tip. It helped me in the past identify problems I wasn't aware of.