Fast Cold Weather Draw Stroke??

A couple of things caused me to do this video…

1. The number of people who have told me that they never do dry fire practice wearing the same winter clothes that they wear out of the house.
2. The difficulties that I’ve seen people have when they try to draw from concealment with winter clothes on…and how they stop and restart when they run into a problem instead of figuring out how to work through it like they’d have to in a real-world situation.

With that, I’ll get right into today’s video:

(Please click the “i” button to subscribe to my YouTube Channel.  To “like” the video, click on the logo in the upper left corner, head to Youtube, and click the “thumbs-up” icon.  These are ways to show your support for what we’re doing, even if you can’t afford to sign up for anything right now.)

What lessons can we learn from this?

1. There’s a lot that can go wrong with drawing and reholstering in cold weather, under multiple layers of clothing, and with gloves on.  Do 100% of your early practice with dry fire and the majority of your practice with dry fire even after you’re proficient.  Before moving on to live fire, consider using an airsoft, paintball, or sim platform and make sure to review LOTS of reps on video and/or with a critical training partner.  If your finger is sneaking into the trigger guard on the draw, if you’re muzzling yourself on the reholster, or your clothes/finger are sneaking into the trigger guard on the reholster, stop, slow down…do not pass go…and do not move on to live fire until you’ve modified your technique, practiced it over time, and tested it with dry fire or less-lethal rounds.
2. Early on in training a skill, you want to only do perfect reps.  Later, you want to make that skill resilient by making your response to adverse events automatic.
3. Drawing from concealment with winter clothes on can be super easy if you’re always going to keep your coat on…in those cases, you can carry in your coat pocket or use your coat as your sole method of concealment.  When you’re going to go about your daily life and switch back and forth between warm and cold conditions and need to maintain concealment, it gets a little more difficult…but not THAT much more difficult.
4. Modifications of a basic skill (digging though multiple layers of cover after practicing with a single layer) is more of a modification of a skill than a new skill.  Think of it as familiarization and exploration.  That means that it doesn’t take a ton of reps to get up to speed.
5. Whatever you’re wearing, it’s worth doing a couple of reps where you practice clearing cover and getting a grip on your pistol.  You don’t need to draw.  The pistol doesn’t need to move.  I practice 2 types of get-to-the-grip drills.  The first is getting to the grip quickly.  The second is getting to the grip in a sneaky manner using body position and distraction.
6. If you want to punch paper really well, train for that.  If you want to perform well in real-world situations, you want to incorporate factors from real world self-defense situations.

I mention Real World Gunfight Training in the video.  If you don’t have your copy yet, I encourage you to go to https://RealWorldGunfightTraining.com and either download the summary or pick up the paperback + digital combo.  Here’s just some of the recent reviews of the book…

“This is the best book on firearms Training, capital T, currently in existence, bar none.  The reason it’s the best is because it doesn’t focus on shooting, it focuses on how people learn.”
-Col. Randy Watt
Retired, US Army Special Forces
Retired, Ogden PD SWAT and Ogden Police Chief
Gunsite Instructor

“Real World Gunfight Training represents the very best firearms training methods available today. This is the most effective roadmap I know for learning-to-learn and quickly installing top-level shooting skills”

-Lt. Col. Chris Graham,
Former Force Recon Marine
Pre-deployment training instructor for elite USG teams

“I’m changing how I teach and how my instructors teach based on this book.  This book really is the most evolved explanation of HOW you should train to be better prepared to apply your skills that I am aware of. Mike shares an approach to training rooted in human behavior, neuroscience and an understanding of the difference between range performance and real world application.  It is the most evolved piece of work that’s ever been written on firearms training.  I will be changing and improving my training based on this book.”

-Rob Pincus
Professional trainer, author, and consultant

“Mike’s book shows motivated shooters how to get maximum benefit from their firearms training time, using modern training techniques not taught in carry permit or institutional (military/law enforcement) programs”

-Karl Rehn
USPSA Grand Master
KRTraining.com

Again, if you don’t have it yet, get it now at https://RealWorldGunfightTraining.com

Now…the book lays out how you can create your own training system and the science behind the process.

If you’re more interested in the done-for-you, step-by-step follow-along at-home video system that will walk you through a process that will help you build more real-world skill in less time than what’s possible with traditional training, head on over to http://dynamicgunfighttraining.com/ to watch a presentation on the training and then make sure to sign up at the end.  It is the absolute best and quickest way to take a shooter who has primarily done range training and give them the skills to handle real world shooting situations.  One of the best known industry leaders has privately told me that it’s “The Ultimate Shortcut” to real world skills with a gun.

Questions?  Comments?  Fire away by commenting below

Please follow and share: