Why Won’t You Practice the Flashlight Drill?

Brian and I just got back from teaching for four days at Ben Avery in Phoenix. They keep telling us they only get seven days of rain a year, but every time we come it rains. Then a cold front blew in and it got cold. I’m glad I had checked the weather and brought plenty of clothes to put on because I needed all of them!

We had four full days of new folks and some repeat students, but a lot of learning was going on. 

Do the Flashlight Drill!

I’m always confused why students won’t learn to move and mount the gun. The OSP flashlight drill is a very easy drill to do and will make all the difference in you being able to focus on the target and not have to think where the gun is. Do it every day for 21 days and it’s done.

But no one wants to do it! They would instead be happy with having that gun mounted and not being able to see the target until after it passes by the gun, making you have to hurry to get in front of the target. Panic in the streets! 

Even if you have the gun in a soft mount, get your eyes away from the barrel and put your nose back away from the barrel so you can see the target and begin your move away from the target when you see it. Your nose needs to stay on the target!

The Three-Bullet Drill

The three-bullet drill makes a lot of sense, and again, it takes 21 days to make it all make sense to the brain. I cannot stress enough how doing the simple three-bullet and flashlight drills can make such a big difference in your shooting. 

In your plan before you call “pull,” make sure you tell the brain what the sight picture is, either to the right of the gun or left of the gun. When I got my students to be stubborn with those two pictures, they were amazed at the results.