The Back and Forth Drill

BACK AND FORTH DRILL

Rob Pincus designed the Back and Forth Drill to add movement to your handgun shooting drills and to get you from both the holster and your ready position directly to a shot, all in one drill.

In addition, it is a type of Balance of Speed and Precision Drill, though without any cognitive aspect, as you are shooting at both the head-size circles and the high center chest area on the Balance of Speed and Precision targets.

Two barrels are set up, though you can use different objects such as cones. These represent your shooting positions. The important thing is that they are set up far enough apart that you need to move, and move rapidly, from one object/shooting position to the next.

How far apart? Enough that you can get some speed going. The idea is that you shoot, bring the gun back into the ready position, move to the other barrel quickly, and stop when you realize you need to shoot, or when you reach cover, or encounter another threat, etc.

STEP BY STEP

Here’s one way you can perform the Back and Forth Drill as part of your handgun training and practice:

1. 1. From the first barrel/object, draw the gun from the holster and take multiple shots at the target’s high center chest.
2. 2. With the gun in the high compressed ready position, move rapidly to the other barrel.
3. 3. Stop, extend, and shoot at the smaller circle on the target. Holster the gun.
4. 4. Stay at this position and take a few more shots at the circle.
5. 5. Move quickly back to the other barrel and fire at the high center chest.

And then you can mix it up — shoot at the high center chest from both shooting positions, or shoot at the circle/head from both. The idea is to get some variation in what you’re doing even though this is a contrived, isolated drill.