By Chris Cerino
Out in the high desert of Idaho working on smooth, fast presentations, this shooter
is in motion from the high ready to full arm extension.
Over the past couple of months I’ve addressed some serious topics about the cost and availability of ammunition and the directly related need for performance ability. With spring upon us the competition season is in full swing and will be from now until late fall. Everything from 3-Gun to Precision Rifle will cost time and money, but pay endless dividends in enjoyable family time and defensive preparation.
Hopefully you have somewhere you can get outside and shoot. Indoor ranges are great. Being an Ohio resident, no one knows the benefits of indoor ranges like a northerner. We are fair weather trainers and shooters.
However, indoor ranges do limit what you can do and how you train. Most around my side of town won’t let customers work from a holster. They also limit your rate of fire, sometimes limiting you to one shot per second. I understand, to a certain degree, that these rules are there to not only protect the customers but the range and equipment as well. Can you accomplish any valuable training in a range that prohibits holsters and rapid fire? For sure! I am not one to argue about the importance of practicing and rehearsing the fundamentals of marksmanship.
Even in a restrictive indoor shooting range you could work on most of your personal protection or competition techniques.
Every training class I have ever been to has had a slightly different list of the fundamentals of marksmanship. The list I have used for years is this:
• Platform (shooting position);
• Grip (the way you hold pistol or long gun);
• Presentation (of the weapon from a holster or already in hand);
• Sight alignment (putting front and rear sights together);
• Sight picture (properly aligned sights placed on a target to get the desired impact location);
• Trigger management (based on target size, distance and rate of fire);
• Follow through (maintaining all the fundamentals through the break of the round), and
Recovery (what you do after you’re done shooting).
When I work fundamentals I tailor them to meet my needs. Not only for the weapon systems I’m shooting but the locations I’m shooting in. For example, the difference between shooting my pistols or shooting my bolt guns. With pistols I generally have no concern with my shooting platform.
What I do from the waist down has no bearing on my ability with a pistol unless I’m shooting bullseye. With precision rifle and at long ranges, platform is a priority because it directly affects my ability to manage recoil recover and follow through.
So much good or bad can be practiced at any time at any given shooting range. If I’m outside and have the ability to fire from holsters and practice rapid fire, I will still try to slow down every once in a while to be sure my fundamentals are solid. We like to use a variety of paper targets, and steel targets are always fun to shoot.
Combining large targets with smaller targets helps to keep you focused.
It’s as important to work on your ability to speed up as it is to work on slowing down. I call it shifting gears or pursuit driving. Lots of gas and brakes, causing me to have to think! In 3-Gun there’s quite a bit of wide open fast shooting but you still have to be able to switch from shooting a large IPSC cardboard target with a rifle at close range to firing at 4-inch circles or similar rectangular steel pieces with your pistol.
There is a big difference between shooting at a humanoid target and a smaller geometric shape. You could say it’s like shooting “minute of man” vs. minute of angle.” I don’t always know what I see when I miss a target repeatedly, but I do know what I didn’t see and it’s usually the sights with the target behind them.
So, as you’re out practicing for the season think about how you can maximize the facilities you shoot at. If you can’t draw from a holster where you shoot, how about working on presenting your pistol from a high ready position? (Picture added.) You can work on the path to the target, picking up the sights, moving to the trigger and creating the desired sight picture. Conversely, you can practice riding that same path back to the high ready position. Coming off the sights, finger off the trigger, expanding your vision and working in reverse back to the ready position! Even if every presentation is only one shot, practice it with the intention of creating speed.
Slow is not necessarily smooth. Slow is usually just slow. Smooth is fast.
Your ability to perform smoothly will create the speed you need and desire.
When you begin to lose your ability to be smooth, then you slow down. The reality is that you are training your brain in the discipline to know what you are feeling and seeing. It is then that you will begin to learn what it takes to hit and why you miss. Then add multiple targets! Until next time.
Those who can, do. Those who understand should teach.
Chris Cerino is a nationally known firearms instructor and competitor who’s been training law enforcement officers and military for more than 12 years. Chris has worked in peace keeping positions for municipal, county, state and federal agencies spanning more than 20 years. A majority of those years have been spent in tactical and firearms related fields.
Chris’s skills are founded in life experience.
Literally immersed in pistol training; finding ways to get shooters to feel comfortable and perform to strict standards is what has made him the shooter and instructor he is today. Chris is the director of training for Chris Cerino Training Group LLC. Teaching in a “do as I do” fashion is what has caused him to be a respected instructor across the country.
Chris is a current peace officer while remaining immersed in the firearms industry by teaching and competing regularly across the nation. You can email him at: chris@cerinotraininggroup.com, or phone him at: 330-608-6415.
