Which is more important ...
Fast or Accurate?
By Kathy Jackson
Sometimes a new shooter will ask, "Which is more important for defense
shooting? Should I work more on speed, or more on accuracy? Here's my
take.
Both speed and accuracy are important.
If you are aiming to defend your own life, it doesn't matter how fast
you were if you miss and your opponent doesn't. And it won't matter
how accurate you could have been if your opponent kills you before you
get a shot off. You need both speed and accuracy in order to prevail.
Which is more important for you to practice? Remember shooters
are all different, and have different strengths and weaknesses.
Shooter A is very, very fast, but sometimes has a problem with
trigger control. As a result, she's not terrifically accurate.
Shooter B is very, very accurate, but sometimes has a problem
committing to the shot. As a result, she's not very fast.
In a gunfight (or in competition), you have to shoot both fast and straight.
If Shooter A practices distance shots, it will help her learn the trigger
control she needs to learn in order to shoot straighter. Giving her tasks
which emphasize accuracy will help. But giving her a lot of timed tasks
won't help her much, because she needs to learn to work the trigger smoothly.
She already knows how to go fast.
But if Shooter B practices distance shots, it'll mostly reinforce her
already-bad habit of going slower than she should. Shooter B will benefit
more from moving in way close to practice going as fast as she can possibly
go. Moving her back and giving her smaller or more difficult targets isn't
going to help her learn to go faster, because she hasn't yet learned to
trust her shots.
Neither of them is going to benefit from continuing to practice what they're
already doing right .They each need to learn how to do the stuff they
aren't doing right.
The problem is that people tend to overlearn the stuff they're already
good at, instead of working on the dismally depressing stuff they're not
already good at.
Remember that you will need both speed and accuracy, and practice accordingly.
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