Pistol Combat Training

Mental Focus

Focus on your target. It would seem that is all that is required for shooting a target with a pistol. Pistol combat training takes the shooter several steps beyond focusing on targets, and trains the shooter to focus on critical decision making before pulling the trigger. Using judgment to take the right course of action when using deadly force is key in pistol combat training. Exercises like shoot/don't shoot with color-coded targets, or targets marked with knives or guns to indicate the level of the threat, develop target assessment skills.

The use of cover is a skill most often associated with military or police handgun training. This skill is in fact a combat skill used for target acquisition and the shooter's safety. Pistol combat training develops the skill for finding and using cover, and further challenges the shooter to shoot from cover using various shooting stances or body positions such as hitting a target from a prone position (lying flat on your stomach) to hit the target while remaining protected by cover. The ability to assess the threat level and immediately and instinctively look for and take cover is an essential combat shooting technique.

Low and poor light conditions adversely affect the shooter's ability to sight (align sights on the pistol barrel) on a target. For this reason, developing point shooting skill is of utmost importance for pistol combat training. Low-light-condition exercises include shooting with a mounted light (shooting light mounted directly on the pistol) or a small hand-held flashlight in the daytime first to learn the mechanics of shooting with a light. Once the shooter can train both the light and the front sight or the barrel onto a target successfully, the shooter moves to low-light or nighttime shooting. Distances for low-light shooting are commonly 15 yards or less. Distances beyond 15 yards tend to force the shooter to use sighting, which is extremely difficult in low-light or nighttime conditions.

Pistol combat training focuses on real-world scenarios like shooting at multiple targets and moving targets. Unlike paper targets, which are static, dynamic shooting exercises can be done with targets that spring up, incorporating target assessment, and then springing back out of view, giving the shooter only seconds to decide, aim and shoot. Dynamic exercises also incorporate multiple targets into pistol combat training for the shooter to practice threat assessment, and rapid firing sequences for the shooter to neutralize threats in the order of most lethal to non-lethal.

Timed shooting in pistol combat training is an intermediate-to-advanced shooting exercise that measures the shooter's ability to shoot rapidly and accurately. Timed shooting exercises time the draw, the shooting, the reload and many other factors depending on the exercise. A popular timed shooting exercise is shooting at steel reactive targets that fall flat when struck by a bullet. Reactive targets give the shooter instant feedback for hit or miss, and allow the shooter's focus to move forward to the next segment of the exercise.