In the world of firearms training there is often confusion when it comes to how to get better at shooting. You will hear terms such as “mindset”, “tactics”, and “hard skill development” being thrown around and used interchangeable, all in an attempt to describe one’s method for improving their outcome with a firearm. These terms are not so prevalent in the competitive shooting crowd but seem to be looked at almost as gospel in the tactical/law enforcement/military/armed citizen community.
There is an old school thought process that feels that if your “tactics and mindset” are spot on than that will more than make up for poor performance with a firearm, regardless of the situation and circumstances, and it just isn’t true. The goal should be to be able to perform on demand with a firearm every time the need to do so arises.
“Tactics” are simply decisions that are made regarding the method(s) that one would use to accomplish the task at hand. These decisions are made in accordance to one’s capabilities as well as the current amount of information being provided or observed in a given situation. Consider “tactics” as your playbook. Every football team has a playbook. That playbook is drawn up according to the capabilities of the team’s players, as well as what kind of offense or defense the team will be facing, but it only works if the team’s players can execute their responsibilities on demand. Most of the practicing these teams do is centered around skill development and improvement at the personal level. Without execution on demand the playbook is worthless.
“Mindset” is a term that is used to describe the change in a person’s though process that somehow magically improves their skill set with a firearm. It insinuates that a person can simply think differently and boom, their skillset instantly improves. It is nothing more than a false sense of confidence and security. When I hear the term “mindset” I think of “situational awareness” instead. Not letting your vehicle’s gas tank drop below a half tank so that you are not forced to stop in a bad part of town, at night, to get fuel. Or when you are walking out of the grocery store at night you are not looking down at your phone but instead you are paying attention to your surroundings as you walk to your car that is parked under a light because you thought about that when you pulled into the parking lot. These are just a couple of examples of what “mindset” actually means to me.
So how do you get better at shooting? You get better by simply improving your skill set as a shooter. We will refer to the skillset as “hard skills”. The hard skills are nothing more than your ability to perform with a firearm in a safe and competent manner in accordance to a set standard, and to be able to perform that skill set repeatedly, under perfect conditions and on demand every time. Just like improving most things in life it takes a lot of work. It takes working on gun handling skills such as drawing, reloading, malfunctions clearing, target transitions, mobility and visual acuity. These skills must be trained consistently through the use of dryfire and then confirmed during a live fire training session. Your live fire session tells you what you need to work on during dryfire and the cycle repeats. This is what is known as the dry fire/live fire loop. So there is no secret to getting better with a gun. It is simply the culmination of focus and hard work applied the correct way over time.