Disclaimer, this is only my opinion. You don’t have to agree.
Dot torture when run untimed or liberally timed is like Tee ball.
It’s good for basic skill development and it is true, if you can’t hit a ball sitting there on a tee… you won’t be able to do it when it’s thrown at you.
But it’s very basic. The ball on the tee is like your sights on target. You get all the time in the world to make sure you can see and judge it.
What happens in the next step? When the pitch is thrown to you?
You learn to judge and do the math in a simple orientation. Vertical drop and the speed it comes to you. This is where recoil management and presentation at speed comes into play when shooting. You watch the sights go up and down, you get a quick sight picture and your brain does the math of where and when to “pull the trigger” whether with a bat or with a gun.
The better your ability to see and extrapolate timing quickly, the faster you can do this. You can hit faster pitches and you can time your recoil management to hit the center of the target on a “bounce.”
People who can draw and split quickly and accurately can do this. It’s the dynamic vision and triggering that’s missing from Tee ball.
Then what happens in the next step after that?
If you’re locked into the simple axis visual calculation and mechanics, then you can start managing fancy and complicated things.
Curve balls, breaking balls, etc. You know what the simple mechanics are supposed to look like, so you quickly can tell when it deviates from that and you can micro correct quickly. For shooting this is when you can do full transitions in the same time as a regular split (0.20 s or so). Your brain can process recoil movement AND physical movement at the same time off your vision cues.
IMO IMO IMO.
Untimed drills are Tee Ball.
Single target or just vertical transitions are simple pitches.
Many “tactical” drills are space constrained due to their setup and are just on a single target or small vertical transition.
IMO, lateral transitions are a more important skill than slide lock reloads for civilians, but it’s rare that there is much taught in that regard. USPSA and action pistol help address some of the complex visual geometry because like everything else, lateral movement and coordination is a skill that needs to be developed and practiced.