Shooting Fast (Enough To Matter)

​In this article, I want to cover the subject of shooting fast enough to matter. I am sure that most people reading this article are only going to register the first part of the title, but my goal is to anecdotally and logically assert my position on what shooting fast enough to matter actually means. There are several parts of shooting that take up time, depending on how much you work on them. I want to dissect the parts and traits of shooting and analyze the merits of concentrating on them individually during training. Shooting fast doesn’t just mean working the trigger fast, despite what the industry tells you.

THE OODA LOOP

​The first ingredient to putting rounds down range fast is target recognition either through peripheral or direct visual contact. This is the OBSERVE portion of your OODA loop. You must confirm that your target is indeed a target. The ORIENT part of the OODA loop will follow when you make the judgment that the target is a priority. Even if you have several targets, you will orient and focus on the threat that you judge to be the highest threat. Upon orienting your attention to the highest threat, you must decide how to engage this threat in the most effective manner. This could mean shots to the chest, head, or groin depending on distance, armor, movement, and weapon being used. Once you decide what to do, you must go straight into action.

​Part of the problem with many people in combat is freezing or delaying, even for a split second. This can be from common denial that you could ACTUALLY be in mortal danger, or morally questioning taking a life or causing harm. The moral component can and needs to be bypassed through drill. As for denial, you should believe and know that it is a matter of when, not if. Threats can and will find you eventually, and it is on you to act in a timely fashion in order to survive. An expedient OODA loop process can be trained so that you take a minimal amount of time identifying and acting on a threat. This is a crucial component many people do not appreciate in my opinion.

​This next part is a simple process of drawing or presenting your weapon, confirming you will make a good hit as decided, and pull the trigger without moving the gun. This is a simple process, but one that must be drilled constantly in order to be done quickly, but without any loss of the procedure. Many people will draw and fire as fast as they can with little consideration for their accuracy. This may be appropriate if you are extremely close to the target, but rarely does that kind of issue need to be drilled. You will need to intensely train your eyes and brain to register when your sights are superimposed over the focused target before quickly pulling the trigger without moving the gun. My recommendation is to have a personal competition at the range or at home with a laser trainer or SERT gun. Try to ID and engage the target as fast as possible.

IMPULSIVE VS RESPONSIVE

When practicing shooting, it is important that we spend some time with reactive targets or something that gives us some feedback we will have to respond to. Even good old paper targets would be a good start with a drill I use called “follow the shot” where you try to put your next round right over the top of the last. It is important to learn to stay focused on the threat and RESPOND to the threat needing more rounds or not needing anymore follow-up shots. This means you need to practice your follow up shots and train your brain to deliver them immediately when the target needs them and you have an acceptable sight picture to deliver that accurate shot. I say acceptable because your sight picture may not be perfect, but as long as you are still capable of making an effective hit, go for it.

​Shooting fast enough to matter doesn’t mean being lightning fast. Jared Reston of Reston Group LLC. trains his students based on his LE/SWAT experience where they must account for every round. His advice is to not “outshoot your brain”. For him, splits of .35sec or slightly less show that you are taking the time to deliver justified shots on the threat. It takes about a quarter second to go through the whole OODA loop process, and about .1sec to pull the trigger without moving the gun. This can be shortened, but that takes time. Shooting three rounds a second on average does not seem very fast when you look at other people shooting .1sec splits, but this is shooting as fast as you can truly judge that the threat needs to be shot. Shooting fast enough to matter is about shooting justified shots fast, not just shooting the gun fast. As the FBI HRT operators are drilled, shoot only as fast as you can hit accurately. Blind shots are bad shots, and only hits count.

​This next part is a simple process of drawing or presenting your weapon, confirming you will make a good hit as decided, and pull the trigger without moving the gun. This is a simple process, but one that must be drilled constantly in order to be done quickly, but without any loss of the procedure. Many people will draw and fire as fast as they can with little consideration for their accuracy. This may be appropriate if you are extremely close to the target, but rarely does that kind of issue need to be drilled. You will need to intensely train your eyes and brain to register when your sights are superimposed over the focused target before quickly pulling the trigger without moving the gun. My recommendation is to have a personal competition at the range or at home with a laser trainer or SERT gun. Try to ID and engage the target as fast as possible.

​You should spend time learning to judge, during recoil, whether the threat/target is going to need a follow-up shot. You will have to make that call around the time that you are snapping the sights back down on the threat. You will have to maintain a hard visual and cognitive focus on the threat while peripherally confirming that your sights are properly superimposed. This can be challenging if you were taught to stare at your sights, but it is best way to give most of your attention to the threat since their actions are what guide your responses. Do not be blind to the threats actions by staring at your sights or gun since this will rob you of properly judging the actions of the threat when delivering follow-up shots. Analyze their actions, align your sights, and send it if necessary. This all can and must happen within a split second.

​I’m sure that most of us know that the appropriate way to engage a threat is to shoot as many rounds as needed to end the threat. The problem is that there is still an obsession with shooting a set number of rounds like in a hammer pair. This is incredibly flawed from both ends of being highly likely to be delivering too few shots, but also delivering too many if one shot would have worked. Also, this impulsive hammer pair technique has only the first shot vetted while the second is done with no regard to accuracy or reason. This may fly in competition, but not in the real world.

PROCEDURAL REFLEX

​It is important to conduct reloads and correct malfunctions without looking at the gun. This is important because your eyes need to be planted on the threat and minding your surroundings/situation. It can take merely half a second for the threat to get the upper hand on you when you are trying to get your gun back in the fight if you are not paying attention. You must make sure that you are conducting reloads and correcting malfunctions without looking at the gun. The only times that I could understand looking at the gun are to initially ID the issue or if you have a serious fumble that requires you to look at the problem so you know what to correct. Even then, I advocate spending the minimum amount of time on this step so you do not miss out on critical visual information about the threat. Even a split second of unnecessary visual distraction from your threat can be enough for you to join the ranks of dead police who failed to monitor their threat while simultaneously and reflexively reloading. It is not easy to get to a skill level that does not require visual confirmation that you are not screwing up on your manipulations, but it is vital that you learn it and get good at it. 

TARGET TRANSITIONS

​Transitioning from target to target seamlessly is a vital skill that takes a lot of time to develop and hone. It is important to work on your ability to visually ID threats/targets quickly and then move straight to them without overshooting; no pun intended. Quickly identifying a second/third threat requires good peripheral sensitivity, which can be easily developed with simple techniques like reading while wiggling your fingers just inside your peripheral window. This keeps your sensitivity to peripheral activity high and will help you avoid tunnel vision, which can rob you of important situational information.

​Once you have spotted and confirmed a threat/target, you must orient your gun to the threat swiftly as if your life depends on it, because it most likely does/will. There are several techniques out there, but the idea is to move your gun fast and have it stop right on the threat/target. You can do this by locking your eyes on the threat or facing them. Regardless, it takes time to develop your visual acuity and sensitivity, along with the fine control and precision of snapping back and forth to new targets. It is worthwhile spending a good amount of time practicing this kind of procedure as it indirectly helps in other areas as well.

​Once you heave snapped to the next threat/target, you need to quickly confirm that your sights are properly superimposed for an effective hit before pulling the trigger without moving the gun. All of these procedures from identifying the threat to firing on the threat should take very little time and should appear seamless to the onlooker. However, you need to make sure that you are practicing enough so that your visual acuity and reflexes are well honed and you are able to process information quickly and act just as fast. This is to develop real speed and not just speed for show. 

WRAP UP

As I mentioned in the body of the article, shooting fast enough to matter is not just about operating the trigger fast, but identifying the threat, making the decision to shoot, and then shooting, FAST. But this does not mean slinging rounds quickly and indiscriminately just to make a certain time window. These shots are done only at the speed that you are capable of justifying and delivering them. This may not be lightning fast, but it is not as slow as frozen molasses either. It is at the speed that you are able to process and engage threats. If you actually spend time on the proper areas, you can easily hone these skills with little ammunition needed. It all comes down to training your brain to quickly process data, decide on a course of action, and act on it. There are other skills in-between, but that is the meat and potatoes of shooting fast enough to matter. The saying "speed is fine but accuracy is final" leaves out the important detail that you have to be fast enough to matter. You can build that speed while also being sure of each shot. You may be fast on the trigger, but if you miss or deliver an unnecessary shot, it was nothing more than a wasteful display of an unrefined shooter. Other than that, I have no opinion.