ACCURACY VS. SPEED WHICH IS MORE VALUABLE IN A GUNFIGHT?

                Wyatt Earp, who needs no introduction, was known to have said “Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything”. Col. Jeff Cooper who is known as the father of the modern technique said “speed is the absolute essence of any form of combat”. One of these men was an old west gunfighter the other was a World War II, Korean War combat veteran and infamous firearm instructor. So who is right? What is more important in a gunfight speed or accuracy?  As law enforcement firearms instructors what should be our focus when teaching students?  We are sending these young men and women out to police an ever escalating violent society that offers them zero forgiveness for error.

                Before you read any further I want your opinion. Look at the two targets below. Let’s say these targets were shot by two different shooters. If the targets were shot at the same distance with the same pistol under the same conditions which of the two shooters would you say was more skilled?

                Most people would immediately say the target on the right was the target of the better shooter with the information given. What if I add an element of time? What if I told you the target on the right was shot in 30 seconds and the target on the left was shot in 3.75 seconds? Who would you say was better?

                The term “better” is very subjective. One person’s heaven can be another person’s hell. To put things in the proper perspective I have another request of you. Go to YouTube and search for police officer involved shootings. Watch a few videos and pay attention to how fast the incident happens once the decision to shoot is made. We are talking seconds or fractions of a second in every case. We also usually see a volley of shots being fired in rapid secession. We don’t see one shot fired then a long pause second shot fire long pause etc. as we see during the marksmanship portion of most law enforcement qualifications. From these observations we may come to the conclusion that speed should be high on our list of priorities.

Now, re-watch the same videos and pay special attention to the scene. How many by-standers do you see in the background and foreground? How about buildings and vehicles in the line of fire that could also be penetrated by wayward bullets? How many other law enforcement officers are in the line of fire once the shooting begins? Wayward bullets don’t stop threats. Wayward bullets that strike innocent by-standers open officers up to criminal and civil liability, unrelenting emotional trauma as well as the loss of trust from the communities we serve. We could conclude from these observations that accuracy is the more important element that officers need to possess.

The truth of the matter as with most things in life lies somewhere in the middle. Policing is a reactionary activity. As an officer you are always reacting to the action of the people you are engaging with. Action is always faster than reaction. Because of this there absolutely needs to be an element of speed to our firearm skills. We also have to consider accuracy as missed shots can send us to prison, the poor house, the unemployment line or leave us with lifelong psychological issues. I think we can easily conclude that we need the right blend of speed and accuracy. So how do we get there?

PAR TIMES

                Most law enforcement qualification courses have par times. A par time example would be something to the effect of “6 shots from the 15 yard line in 30 seconds” along with some accuracy standard. I understand that some parameters must be implemented so as to score our qualification courses but par times that don’t replicate life’s realities are a horrible method of testing the skills needed in real world encounters. You need to look no further than the picture in this article. If it takes one shooter 30 seconds to shoot a drill and another shooter can do the same drill in three seconds with the same accuracy but at the end they have the same score our measuring stick for skill is severely unbalanced.

REALISTIC QUALIFACTION EXPECTATIONS

                We hopefully agree at this point that speed and accuracy are both essentially possessed skills needed by officers. My personal belief on the percentage needed in each respective skill is a close 50 / 50. As far as speed goes you can’t miss fast enough in a gunfight to win. Correspondingly, your unabridged precision means nothing if by the time you can deliver, you already have acquired new holes in your body that you did not start your shift with.

In my own experience the marksmanship portion of a law enforcement qualification course that I have been shooting for over 20 years has an unrealistic standard. The bar is set extremely low. Low enough as to not prepare users for the potential predicament of finding themselves on a two way gun range. This particular course is shot from 7, 10 and 15 yards. A total of 30 rounds are fired and a total time of 95 seconds is allotted. I have shot this course for speed holding myself to the standard of shooting an “expert” score for the run to be a “pass”. I’m never over a total of 16 seconds and my fastest is just over 13. This course includes draws and reloads on the clock.

I see some fellow officers struggle to just get all their shots off in the allotted 95 seconds with accuracy that many times produces a failing score. How is it I can shoot this course in a fraction of the time given and still produce an expert score? The answer is the methodology of training.

PROPER TRAINING SEQUENCE

To master or even become proficient at shooting with speed and accuracy we need to focus on the correct sequence of learning. Much like a house you must first build a foundation. I’m not going to address specific techniques in this article but it should proceed in a foundation building order. First we have to teach things like grip, drawing and presentation, acceptable sight pictures and trigger control. You noticed I’ve left out some of the traditional “fundamentals” usually taught?  All of these skills can be practiced and dare I say mastered without the student ever firing one live round.

Now, all of this should be done with zero emphasis on speed. We want to build that solid impenetrable foundation of fundamentals before we are concerned with anything else. Through the practice of dry drills we can get thousands of quality repetitions in short order (minutes a day). Students benefit from learning these fundamentals dry without the distractions associated with live fire. No muzzle blast / flash, no hot flying brass, no unexpected muzzle blast from other shooters in close proximity, along with no concern or focus on “holes in the target”. Our students can one hundred percent focus on mastering the proper techniques.

Once these foundational skills can be completed correctly on a subconscious level without the pressure of time we should move to the next level. That level being the pressure of time. The time should start at a fairly reasonable and attainable standard. As students’ progress the time standard should increase until the student reaches their respective failure point. At that point the students should be directed to attempt to understand why they are failing and strive to correct the issue.  Speed is generally obtained through efficiency. You can move at a snail’s pace and still fire one round with accuracy in under 2 seconds with boring regularity if you are highly efficient with your foundational fundamentals.

Now, dry fire practice does have its limitations. You are limited in practicing sight tracking if your sights aren’t moving in recoil. You also need to fire live rounds with some level of speed to truly understand exactly what it takes to manage recoil at speed. Once we reach the point of live fire the same foundational approach should be executed. Student need to understand and experience just what an acceptable sight picture is. If your teaching “equal height equal light” you are not preparing your students to fight for their or others’ lives with a pistol. Students need to experience shooting at speed. Usually we teach one second, half second and quarter second rhythms in this endeavor. Without continuing to list an entire course of fire I’m hoping you’re getting the picture as to the importance of using the correct training methodology to achieve speed and accuracy on demand.

 THE PARTING SHOT

In summation accuracy and speed are the yin and yang, the hot and cold, the light and dark of skills needed by those who carry firearms for a living in defense of themselves and others. One without the other, especially in the extreme, will not suffice in this line of work. The path to speed and accuracy on demand lies in the proper training methodologies being implemented while instructing. As firearm instructors we owe our absolute best efforts to the next generation of law enforcement professionals we are guiding as well as to the communities we all serve.