There are no short cuts: 6 steps to proficiency
Google recently launched Gemini, its own AI service. Gemini gives people an easy way to access information. But information alone does not confer knowledge or skill. And that’s the danger. Confusing these things. Knowledge and skill come from applying information, practical experience, testing ideas, making mistakes, figuring out how to correct mistakes. It’s a process. In fact, it’s often a life-long process where there is no finish line, where there are no short cuts.
If “I watched a video” is your idea of developing a skill, you’re not developing proficiency. If you want to develop real proficiency, there is no way around training and practice —putting in the reps in dry fire and live fire— and testing your skills way beyond single round accuracy at 3 yards.
Here are a few ways I keep myself continuously learning and advancing my skills as a pistol instructor and competitor:
Find motivation. It can be difficult to prioritize practice when there’s no immediate application for the skill you want to develop. “Self-defense” is abstract. I needed to create urgency with a more immediate purpose to apply the skills I’m developing and keep me focused on regular practice. That’s where competition comes in for me. As a training tool, it’s an incredible motivating force. Competition offers a way to apply the skills I’m developing. I can measure my progress, compare myself to other shooters, identify gaps in skills, and set goals. My performance is scored, recorded and published. It creates accountability.
Find a mentor. I have an amazingly generous mentor who helps me stay motivated and focused on goals. He’s my biggest champion and is invested in my success. Subtlety, without me even realizing it sometimes, he pushes me to take the risks I need to take in order to develop. The wealth of niche experience, expertise and knowledge I get to tap into is invaluable, and can’t be found in a Google search. The coaching and feedback has enabled me to rapidly accelerate my development.
Fail. Failure is not a setback. In order to learn, to grow, I need to be pushing my skills to the limits. Pistol training is known for being a tough environment and I’ve failed spectacularly. But just like in bodybuilding, you need to break down muscle, lift increasingly heavier weights, repeat, repeat, repeat, before you get bigger and stronger. To improve as a shooter, I need to see where the wheels come off in my performance, see where it’s weak, and then put in the work to improve, through repetition and mastery.
Embrace incrementalism. Expertise doesn’t happen in a day, a week, a month, or even a year. There is no finish line to mastering a skill. Every day I think about moving the peanut. No grand leaps. Just patience, discipline and keeping it simple and focused on the basics. For me, that means dry fire every day. Sometimes it’s just 5 minutes. Sometimes it’s 30 minutes. I can’t see or measure differences in performance from day to day, but I can see differences over weeks.
Set goals. I always have a clear idea about what I want to achieve. SMART goals work really well here. My goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. For example, I want to shoot a Bill Drill from concealment at 7 yards, 6 rounds, all A zone hits on USPSA target, in 3 seconds, by February 28. This week I moved the peanut, shooting a Bill Drill in 2.70 seconds with 5 Alphas and 1 Charlie. Last month I was shooting all Alphas in 4 seconds. Taking more than a second off my time is specific, measurable progress. Without SMART goals, I can’t evaluate my performance and determine whether or not I’m improving.
Keep learning. I continue to train with professional instructors every year to get better as a pistol shooter. And in my role as an Instructor and Range Safety Office at my local gun shop, no day is like another, providing a gold mine of learning opportunities.
The path to proficiency isn’t easy, neat or quick. It’s messy and humbling and difficult. AI can give you a theory and put you on the path. But there’s no way any technology can beam information about pistol shooting into my head and make me a good shooter. I can’t watch a video and then compete at a Grand Master level. Nothing can take the place of experience. If you aren’t applying information, making mistakes and learning, you aren’t getting smarter or better.