Live-Fire Drill: HARD EXIT

Setup Notes:

This drill requires two shooting positions. As usual, vision barricades are preferable to boxes. What you need to set up is a drill where you engage at least two targets from position A, and at least one target from position B. The targets from position A need to be “easy”, so you are able to comfortably shoot those targets while moving. The difficulty of the target in position B isn’t really an issue.

Procedure:

From position A, engage the designated targets. Move to position B and engage the designated target. The start position can be any desired position.

Focus:

This drill is designed to help you move out of a position while you are still shooting.

Goal:

The goal is to get moving from position A as soon as possible. This means you are already moving your feet while you engage the last target.

Commentary:

This drill is a good one to learn the basics of getting out of a position.

I like to remind myself that good movement in USPSA doesn’t come down to foot speed, it comes down to efficiency. The idea here is to get your movement started while you are still shooting. So, in essence the movement part won’t change, you are just going to start it sooner.

As always I like to make sure my knees are bent and I use them as shock absorbers. I want to keep a nice stable sight picture so I am able to be accurate as I get out of that position.

I also like to break up the movement when I leave into two categories. First, if you are shifting your weight towards position B as you are firing, that counts as moving. Getting your center of gravity going certainly helps save time. Shifting your weight and getting your body moving will show up in your shoulders. Just get your shoulders headed towards position B.

The other category is actually moving your feet. This is much tougher than simply shifting your weight, because as your feet come up off the ground it will usually disturb your sight picture to a much larger extent.

I any event, you should do a good deal of experimentation with this drill to figure out what is going to work for you and what isn’t. Everyone is a bit different and is setup (physically) in a little bit different way. You always want to be paying attention to your technique.

This Drill is from “Skills and Drills”