Safe At Any Speed Part 1: Training for Deliberate Speed

There are two metrics by which we judge someone’s performance with a firearm – accuracy and speed. It naturally follows that focusing too much on one will naturally lead to shortcomings with the other. A good trainer, and more importantly a good student, will focus on ensuring their training occupies that middle ground – where one is held accountable for both speed and accuracy. Anyone who has attended an LTAC class I have instructed or listened to the podcast knows that I often view things through the lens of history. That is because there is tremendous value in looking back on what was done by those came before us. It helps us put practices into context and helps us better understand our own era.

The early era of modern firearms training put tremendous focus on accuracy. Police officers were taught to stand still and take their time, firing single action with precise accuracy. This understandably led to problems in deadly force scenarios which were often launched by desperate crooks, in close quarters and with surprise. So, training began to shift towards blending speed with accuracy. Silhouettes with non-anatomical bullseye style scoring zones gave way to the now familiar FBI “Q” targets. Getting hits on a human body – anywhere – became the focus.

Now it seems that the pendulum has swung the other way, especially with the rise of social media, where instructors must constantly produce content to keep their audience engaged. Drills run at lightning speed are far more attention-grabbing, especially in apps where you must grab someone as they scroll through their busy feed. Now it seems that some are discarding accuracy in favor of speed. The temptation to focus on speed over accuracy is understandable, and I believe it is part of a shooter’s journey. Part of the issue is a lack of understanding of how certain tools should be used. It is no secret that I am a fan of shot timers – as are many instructors. However, as a training tool they should be used to guide your training by measuring your performance so that improvement can be gauged. Not to set an arbitrary time hack for you to frantically flail about in an attempt to meet.

Speed is only valuable when it is consistent and does not come at the cost of accuracy. If you attempt a drill, and blaze through it, but can only pass the accuracy standards one out of ten times, is that actual performance ability? You’re essentially passing by luck. However, if you slow down just slightly and pass the accuracy standards seven out of ten times, now you’re in the zone where shooter progression occurs.

Speed will be different for every shooter – it comes down to a mix of experience and equipment. It is much the same as driving – 80 mph on the highway looks far different if you are a brand-new driver in a rickety truck vs a trained driver in a performance sports car. Proper training is another variable. If you haven’t learned to slow down, you’re going to make a mistake. With both driving and shooting, mistakes made at speed often have deadly consequences that cannot be undone. There are some instructors who push raw speed – moving as fast as you can accurately shoot. That is fine for the world of competition but preparing for deadly force encounters requires a different kind of speed – what some call “deliberate speed.” Deliberate speed is moving fast, but only as fast as you can while still making sound decisions. Those who have attended a tactics course, especially one of our CQB or home-defense courses, have heard the training point being made about deliberate speed – usually after a no-shoot target gets shot. There is a quote that is often attributed to Wyatt Earp “In a gunfight, you gotta be slow in a hurry.” It was true in Earp’s time and it remains true today in what has become a high liability world for the police, the armed citizen, and even the military.

In summary, speed is not bad. Speed to the exclusion of high levels of accuracy IS bad. If you can go out and ten out of ten times crush a drill’s accuracy standards, then you need to speed it up until you throw some rounds. It is critical to push yourself to failure because that is where you find the limits of your performance, and then move beyond them – failure is where growth occurs. Only by finding your limits in training can you stay within them in the real world. Because in the real world there are some mistakes we cannot afford to make. Stay safe and I hope to see you on the range.

—“Flynn”