Part 4: Acceleration and Deceleration Drills During Dry-Fire Practice

Mike Hughes of Next Level Training is on the move in this video, presenting some of his favorite drills that can be done as dry-fire practice: acceleration and deceleration drills. The basic concept is to get the body moving and then slow the body down so it is ready to shoot.

Natural Motions

In a defensive scenario, the natural instincts are to drop the center of gravity, plant the trailing leg, and get the body moving. While doing this, you want to train to be accessing your gun, but when you stop moving to shoot is when you have to slow down, present the gun, prep the trigger, and break the shot. You can see these movements in many of our other handgun shooting drills videos.

Fine and Gross Motor Skills

What you can train in high volume as dry-fire practice includes body balance, muscular development, and how to position the body in the proper orientation for shooting—and tie all that into the fine motor skills of presenting the gun, prepping the trigger, and breaking the shot.

Mike demonstrates one of these dry-fire practice acceleration/deceleration drills and stresses that during the drill, he keeps pushing himself. There should be no lag time between movements. This drill is about raw athleticism, raw explosiveness, and raw ability to decelerate and re-engage body balance.

Expanding the Basic Drill

Like many dry-fire drills, this is a simple drill that can be expanded to add different motions such as forward presentation, lateral, and retreating. You can also work in reloads. Next Mike turns on the take-up indicator and shows how that changes the drill, as it gives you more information.

The fact that Mike gets out of breath doing this drill means it’s a good way to combine cardio with shooting.

See other videos in our Dry-Fire Training Drills training module:

• Part 1. Separating Live-Fire and Dry-Fire Training for Safety
• Part 2. Dry-Fire Training Drills off the Range
• Part 3. Dry-Fire Presentation from Your Holster & Reloads
• Part 5. Improvised Laser Training