Triad of Effective Training

There’s no way around it…

Firearms training is expensive and time-consuming.

At Tactical Hyve, we are constantly asking ourselves, “Are we getting the best bang for our buck? Is this the best use of our time?”

Hopefully, you are already asking yourself the same questions. The Triad of Effective Training is a three-step system we follow that will help you find the answers.

Step 1: Safety

Whenever you’re shooting, ask yourself, “Am I being safe? Is this safe?  Is what I’m doing right now safe?”

Because if what you’re doing isn’t safe, you are not training. Safety has to always come first. At no time should anyone involved in firearms training feel nervous or unsure of what to do.

Memorize the four rules of gun safety and keep them top of mind every time you’re shooting. They are:

1. Treat every weapon as if it were LOADED.
2. NEVER point a gun at anything you don’t want to shoot.
3. Keep your finger straight and OFF the trigger until you are ready to fire.
4. Know your TARGET and what is beyond it.

Step 2: Consistency

To get better at shooting, there are no short cuts. If you want to get good at something, you need to practice doing it over and over again.

To be specific, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, author of the book Leadership Dojo, has conducted the research and explains it takes 300 repetitions to develop a bodily memory of a skill and 3000 repetitions to fully embody it.

It’s been said that practice makes perfect. Well, that’s right; but when it comes to tactical shooting, you have to take it a step further. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

All seven fundamentals of marksmanship and all weapons and equipment manipulations need to be trained properly and consistently.

The seven fundamentals are:

1. Stance
2. Grip
3. Sight Alignment
4. Sight Picture
5. Breathing
6. Trigger Control
7. Follow Through

Only through successful, consistent training will you be able to build upon your skills and improve.

Every single aspect of your training should be a building block preparing you for the next level of performance and ability.

Step 3: Accuracy

The desired result of shooting any gun should always be accuracy. If you are training effectively, improved accuracy will be achieved. It’s okay to miss. In fact if you’re not missing some of the time, you’re not training hard enough. You have to push yourself to be better.

Safe and consistent training will lead to your goal of better, faster accuracy. Once this is being achieved you are training effectively.

Now, you can step it up a notch and repeat the cycle.