Every time you tell a shooter to slow down without addressing an actual flaw in performance, you reinforce the idea that speed is the enemy of accuracy. The best shooters in the world are fast and accurate because they’ve mastered the fundamentals to the point where they can execute them efficiently. They didn’t get there by slowing down — they got there by doing things correctly, faster.
Words matter
Police trainers are notorious for catchphrases and comments that are repeatedly and reflexively tossed around. How many times at the range have you heard slow down, squeeeeeze the trigger, smoooooth press, let it be a surprise, and a host of other “S” words that provide no definable guidance.
When it comes to shooting, slowing down doesn’t make a shot group smaller, nor does it stop a flaw in accuracy from existing. I’ve seen people shoot slower than a sloth crawling up a hill and still miss what they wanted to hit. Slow down is a throw-away response to sub-optimal performance that offers no diagnosis or solution. Most importantly, slowing down is the opposite of what those officers are likely to do when they find themselves fighting for their life, or someone else’s. How many OIS have any element you could describe as slow?
I’ve seen people shoot slower than a sloth crawling up a hill and still miss what they wanted to hit.
We wouldn’t accept it as medical advice
Imagine going to a doctor about knee pain when you run. You limp into the office. The doctor glances up, says “slow down,” and walks out.You’d get a second opinion.
A competent doctor would observe your gait, ask about your shoes, check your form, identify that you’re heel-striking, and give you specific exercises to correct it. That’s diagnosis followed by treatment. Trainers should follow that same two-step process: diagnose and treat.
You can’t take action to correct and improve without knowing why it is happening. An instructor who watches someone miss and their complete advice is comprised of the words “slow down” hasn’t resolved anything.
There are only two reasons for missing, neither of which is speed
Suppose a shooter is missing the defined area that has been considered acceptable for accuracy, and the deficiency in that accuracy is the shooter’s actions (not the equipment). In that case, there are only two reasons why this is happening:
- The gun was not aimed at what the shooter intended to hit before taking the shot.
- The gun was moved as the shooter was manipulating the trigger to take the shot.
Missing the intended target area involves the shooter doing one or both of those things. Your job as the coach is to ascertain where the breakdown is and help the shooter recognize it, overcome it, and improve.
If the problem is a violent trigger movement, ensure they understand what they are doing, how it differs from what they need to do, and that their new speed is whatever allows them to be successful. Speed is not the enemy of accuracy. Unnecessary movement is the enemy of accuracy.
If the deficiency is a lack of understanding regarding what the sighting system needs to look like based on the size or speed of the target, then they need to know what that should be and how to consistently create that on demand.
When slowing down makes sense
There’s a difference between telling someone to “slow down” and deliberately reducing speed as part of focused practice. Focusing on technique may involve reducing speed, and that is okay. Slowing down may be a side effect of an intentional approach to a task. Slowing down isn’t wrong if there’s a reason for it to happen, but slowing down in and of itself is not a solution. It can be part of a diagnostic process. It can be part of skill building, but telling someone to slow down with no other input is not coaching, nor a means to declare that learning has occurred.
Your officers need to be conditioned to perform under stress. Stress doesn’t make people slower; it makes them faster, more aggressive and less precise. If your training emphasizes slowness as a means to get by, you’re programming responses that won’t exist when they’re needed most.
You can’t take action to correct and improve without knowing why it is happening.
The bottom line
Accuracy is a function of acceptable muzzle alignment and trigger movement. Speed is a function of efficiency in executing those two things.
Stop telling people to slow down. Start teaching them to shoot like lives depend on it. Your job is to show them how to hit fast! That requires you to know why they’re missing, to communicate that knowledge effectively and to provide them with the tools to correct it.
When fractions of a second count and lives hang in the balance, “slow down” isn’t advice — it’s a death sentence.
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