Dry-Fire Training: For the Practical Pistol Shooter

I have read and learned a lot from Ben's books. My skills are improving faster and it is reflected in my USPSA classification. Ben gives you drills for dry fire that if done correctly will improve your live fire skills. Now just reading the book will not make you a Grand Master, you have to put in the work. That means hours of dry fire training.I have been doing two sessions a day. 10-15 minutes in the morning where I focus on my draw, sight alignment, and trigger pull for my first shot. Then another 10-15 minutes in the afternoon or evening where I work on draws, reloads, turns, shooting around barriers, and movement. The differences in my live fire are drastic! Once you commit these things to muscle memory you can focus only on the target and draw quickly right up to your natural point of aim and get the first shot off consistently in sub 1 second times, depending on distance of course.This book breaks down everything into drills for skills that you need to acquire to get better at this sport. Now some may say "I don't need a book, I can figure out dry fire all by myself." Maybe, I thought so at first, then I read the book and realized Ben has really spent some time dissecting EVERYTHING about shooting. I never thought about slow fire trigger control, but after reading it and doing it, realized it makes perfect sense. The thought of Micro Drills never crossed my mind, but now I realize that in this sport you need to break everything down into smaller chunks and improve on each. Getting better and shaving off a few tenths of a second here and few tenths there really lessens your overall time on stages.You may think you do not have enough room in your house or basement to set up a dry fire range. Ben figured that part out too. You can use smaller versions of real targets to give you simulated distance stages. While I do have a decent sized basement, I cannot set up a target at 25 yards. But I can set up a smaller target that simulates 25 yards and gives me the same sight picture.Dry fire will improve your live fire shooting. But it must be done correctly and it must be done in a way that focuses on certain skills you need in live fire. It must also be done honestly. You need to call the shot and not just draw and shoot in .6 seconds and say you hit the Alpha. That will not help your live fire, and it will only cause your friends to laugh at you when you try to convince them you can do it.Many reviews state that something will improve this or that. I can absolutely state that if you read this book and follow the directions, if you put in the time to dry fire properly, and you dry fire repeatedly and consistently, you will improve your live fire skills drastically. I know I did.

If you want to be a better shooter then you have to do two things: Make up your mind that you are going to be a great shooter, and the second things is to do the work that needs to be done to be a great shooter. At least that is what I have heard many phenomenal shooters say. If you have decided that you are going to be a great shooter, then buying this book is a great next step to completing your goal. Dry-Fire practice is how you get from good pistol shooter to great, and even phenomenal. The problem with Dry-Fire practice is that the average pistol shooter doesn't know enough about how to do it long term to reap the benefits. This book ends that. Ben's book is what GPS is for the cross country driver. It is literally a road map from regular pistol shooter to great pistol shooter.Ben didn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to Dry-Fire training, and he didn't need to. This book contains no superfluous information. It simply contains just what you need to know in a clear, and very concise manner. This books does three things: it gives effective drills to follow, it gives details on how to do these drills correctly, and it gives the reader a long term plan on how to implement the drills depending on your needs as a shooter. The small dry-fire plan at the end of the book is worth the price alone as it gives you a plan to rely on when your schedule is busy. I personally think the drills contained in this book are exceptional. The illustrations are easy to follow, and they are separated into different skill sets so that you are always working on a different part of your shooting skills.My recommendation is to buy this book. If you decide too then do yourself a favor and either acquire some full sized or partial sized IPSC/USPSA targets to aid in the drills. If you are more interested in musing about what zen states to get in, in order to shoot better, then this is not the book for you. If you just want to get better and need proper directions, then get this book and start training.

I would think that most people who have found this know what it is, but judging from some of the reviews maybe that's a bit optimistic.It's a dry fire book. There's a bunch of drills you can do at home, with instructions. If you put in the time to do the drills regularly, you'll get better at sports like USPSA. If you don't follow the instructions you can build some bad habits. The first time you do live fire you'll figure that out. Example: just waving the gun around in the vague direction of the targets isn't very effective. You need to get some kind of sight picture that's suitable for the target before pulling the trigger.No, this isn't exactly rocket science.To recap - buy the book, follow the instructions, put in the time, use live fire as a feedback mechanism that you're doing it right, and start impressing your friends at matches.

Ben Stoeger is a cool dude both in his books and in person! The drills are very effective if you stick with them and follow instructions. I got my draw down from 1.6s to 1.2s after about 45 minutes of following the first two drills in the book. I also have a much better idea of how and where I need to grip the gun, and also what needs to happen for a good sight picture to appear in front of my eyes. Following the drills in this book has the potential to dramatically improve your gun handling, but you need to be honest with yourself about mistakes and be persistent. As with any skill!

Great book. Lots of good tools in the book, it is on you to implement them and realize the gains. It won't do much for you with one read through then putting it on the shelf. Speaks to the truth of competitive shooting or any pursuit really: there are no shortcuts and this is training you can do to improve, it's on you to do it. This book builds off of where "Practical Pistol" leaves off and really should be used in context of having read that so you're not building bad habits.

Well organized sections and useful micro drills. Includes everything for a really very well organized dry fire training.My original plan was to improve moving on stages where i see my big weakness (proved by results lists from matches). But in last three weeks i spend a lot of time in different areas because training shows other wreak points too. I know i have reserve on other areas too but i doesn't now how big they in reality are. But most important thing i see (and i measure) improvements in live fire just after 3 weeks of training half hour a daily.I really recommend this book to anyone who want to take a dry fire a serious way.

just the ticket for me

O autor Ben Stoeger é campeão americano de tiro prático (USPSA) e neste livro ele nos mostra como treinar com tiro seco para complementar o treinamento feito em estande com munição. O livro traz uma série de exercícios nos mais diversos níveis de dificuldades que ajuda o atirador novato (meu caso) a treinar os fundamentos do tiro, aprimorando a técnica para que atinjamos um outro patamar. Os exercícios são ótimos, as explicações claras e objetivas e no final o autor mostra algumas tabelas com sugestões para cronogramas de treino do básico ao avançado.Livro fantástico e leitura obrigatória pra quem quer se aprimorar e não pode estar todo dia num estande de tiro, podendo complementar o treinamento em casa de forma segura, focada e com metas bem determinadas.

Ein wirklich gutes Buch für alle die sich im IPSC Schießen verbessern wollen. Klar strukturiert in die Bereiche Learning Drills, Marksmanship, Core Skills, Field Course Skills und Short Course Skills. Dieser Aufbau gibt auch die Progression vom Einfachen zum komplexen vor. Alle Übungen werden genau beschrieben und begründet und (ehrgeizige) Vorgabezeiten angegeben.Für diejenigen, die sich nicht selbst Trainingspläne zusammenstellen wollen, enthält das Buch eine Reihe von Beispielplänen für die gängigsten Aufagen (accurate, but slow oder fast, but inaccurate).Und das Beste: Es funktioniert sehr gut, ich trainere ungefähr seit zwei Monate mit diesen Übungen und habe mich in dieserZeit sehr verbessert und das obwohl ich höchstens einmal im Monat zum IPSC-Training auf den Stand komme. Sind in meinem Fall zwar im Wesentlichen Beginner Gains, aber meinem Eindruck nach, hätte ich sonst viel länger gebraucht.Den größten Nutzen kann man aus dem Buch ziehen, wenn man auch andere von Ben Stoegers Büchern liest, Practical Pistol als Beschreibung und umfangreiche Erklärung der unterschiedlichen Techniken, Dry Fire zum Einüben, Skills und Drills zum Überprüfen des Gelernten im scharfen Schuß und zum Identifizieren neuer Aufgaben für's Trockentraining und dann das Video Trainig to Win, um zu sehen wie das alles zusammengesetzt wird.Dann hat man nicht nur ein komplettes Trainingssystem sonder lernt auch noch, wie man seiner eigener Trainer wird.

Herr Stoeger hat in seinem Buch gute Drills zusammengetragen und gibt dem Trockentraining eine Methode. Die Drills wurden gewählt, dass es vom leichten zum schweren gesteigert wird und in Gesamtszenarien endet. Eines sei erwähnt, in diesem Buch werden keine Techniken erklärt, sondern Übungen methodisch aufbereitet.