Progression get rid of

Have them prep the trigger so that upon presenting, they’re starting to prep the trigger.  They may use this to align the muzzle a little bit with their non-dominant eye but there’s a benefit to this because this “cheating” is actually  getting them to begin both eye open shooting, which is what we want since the red take up laser is down out of sight picture, they can only see it by using their non-dominant eye.  Don’t worry at this point if they’re left eye or right eye dominant. They’re going to figure that out and utilize it on their own at this point.

After they’ve done some reps at extending and hitting aggressively, have them turn off the take up laser so that they’re punching out, hitting targets aggressively and really building their natural point of aim and having a lot of fun at this time with the effectiveness of their pistol craft.

At this point, let’s parlay our fundamentals into a quick sight alignment drill.  Now, explain that when they align the muzzle they’re defacto aligning the sights.  The better natural point of aim they have by way of their grip establishment the easier it’s going to be sight alignment.  However, they don’t need their sights up close with a good natural point of aim but they will eventually need them at distance when the minute angle of the target is much, much smaller.  Therefore, let’s parlay the current winds and skills you have with the class by moving them as far back as you can and shooting, say an upper T-zone target as provided by Century at distance.  Instruct the students to extend out, prep the trigger and then pull their focus back to the front sight and get equal height and equal light.  You can explain what sight alignment is but honestly they probably have figured it out at this point on their own.  Nonetheless, make sure that there’s a complete understanding with the diagram of equal height equal light without a sight alignment and of course sight pictures having the target behind these aligned sights.  That is a very basic and clear and simple definition of sight alignment and sight picture.  Now, have them break the shot on the very small T-zone target at distance.  If available, use distance not a smaller target.  One reason you want to use a consistent T-zone is because it represents an upper incapacitating head shot.  Although this is a fundamentals class, we want to parlay the skills into defensive accuracy.  By using a T-zone representing the kill zone in a headshot, you are building intuitive knowledge into the shooters so they understand at what distance they need sights.  With a small target, they may get miscorrelated that they may need sights at 10 yards; however, we might as well use defensive accuracy targets (in this case incapacitating targets which is a head shot) and let them start to gauge the distance at which they actually need sights.  Of course, this is going to be dependent on your dojo but try to get as much distance as possible to these targets and observe their hits and watch those laser impacts to see if they actually have sight alignment.  Of course, they have to have trigger control to hold it on target.  You can remind them of dots not dashes but the fundamental focus is sight alignment.  Inevitably you’re going to see shots that are high on target this means that they’re having that front sight ride high in that notch.  Test their gun, grab their pistol or ask them if you can hold their pistol, extend it out and get some clean shots and confirm the sights are aligned.  If the lasers are not aligned with the sights then go ahead and take your 1.5 millimeter hex wrench and adjust it quickly or swap out an extra SIRT pistol so they have one that’s absolutely aligned on target.  Explain to them equal height equal light and reinforce that the front sight has to be focused and right across the upper surface of rear sight.

Let them journey on their own, don’t have to correct every shot, perhaps just let them have self-exploration for a bit and circle back to them in a few minutes after you coach up other shooters.  From the student’s perspective, it is really annoying to coach every rep where they need a little sense of spaciousness to explore and figure out technique on their own.

Have them pull back and do a reacquisition of sights every shot.  As a progression of this drill, have them shoot one shot on target and then pull back to high ready and recommence the whole shooting process.  The reason we do this is because we don’t want them to use a previous shot as a guide to the next shot as they can do with the lasers and, of course, with live fire as well in some circumstances.  So, if they reestablish and just get one shot on target, they have to exercise the fundamental and discipline of pulling their focus back to the front sight, getting proper alignment (which should be essentially aligned with a good grip and grip establishment), get final close loop feedback of any final adjustments while prepping the trigger and breaking that shot with the sight alignment and the target immediately there behind (sight picture).  This is a fun drill, it can go on easily for 10 or 15 minutes before boredom takes hold and the individuals get a high sense of confidence and satisfaction that they can actually align the muzzle and break the shot at distance with accuracy.  In an ideal world, you would transfer to live fire at some point and show immediate carryover but they’ll just have to take your word for it that these skills are immediately and highly transferable to live fire.

Of course, you can always do some recoil impulse drills and check their grips; however, we have found that because they understand dots not dashes and diagnostics portion, they will tighten their grips appropriately to cinch the gun down to get tighter dots.  Of course, they may be masking trigger mechanic issues but moreover, they’re getting a good solid grip even in dry fire where traditional dry fire generally the grip tends to weaken just because there’s less of a need with a simple click without any feedback of the actual muzzle movement.  This is a spillover benefit of the diagnostics of dots not dashes.