What if you could spend the same amount of time practicing yet dramatically improve how well officers retain their skills and apply them under realistic conditions by changing just one fundamental aspect of training?
Russian physiologist Nikolai Bernstein famously described expert practice as “repetition without repetition.” The idea sounds contradictory until you realize that no two real-world situations are ever identical. Effective practice doesn’t repeat identical movements. It repeats the objective while allowing the movement to adapt to changing conditions.
The good news is that research suggest we can become far more efficient with our training time. But first, let’s look at what is typical in police firearms training, whether at the agency or individual level.
Effective practice doesn’t repeat identical movements. It repeats the objective while allowing the movement to adapt to changing conditions.
The way we have always done it
Blocked practice — practicing one skill repeatedly before moving on to the next — is still the norm in police firearms training. We might perform 50 repetitions of drawing from an interview stance or run the same drill 10 times in exactly the same way. Blocked practice feels productive because we tend to see rapid improvement during that training session.
There are two major problems with this approach. First, those improvements don’t last. When we conduct retention testing later, we see a substantial drop in performance following blocked practice. We also see poor performance on transfer testing. Transfer is the ability to apply a skill or motor movement in new situations that differ from the practice environment.
Both are serious concerns for police trainers. The problem is that blocked practice creates the illusion of learning. Performance improves during practice, but much of that improvement disappears once time passes or conditions change.
Retention and transfer should be the two priorities of all law enforcement training. If a skill cannot be retained after training or transferred to the unpredictable environment of the street, then the value of that practice is limited. Retention and transfer — not temporary practice performance — should be the true measures of effective firearms training.
Retention and transfer should be the two priorities of all law enforcement training.
A better way
Variable and random practice produce superior results on the two metrics that actually matter. Officers and trainers can make simple changes to their practice so the underlying skills are available when they matter most.
Variable practice involves practicing the same skill while changing one or more conditions with each repetition. In basketball, instead of practicing a jump shot from the same spot, each repetition comes from a different place on the court. In firearms training, an officer may work on the draw, but instead of standing in the same position for 20 identical repetitions, they change something each time. They may vary the starting hand position, the distance to the target, the target area, or introduce a stepping or turning movement.
Random practice involves training different skills within the same practice session. The idea is to interleave related skills in a way that more closely matches the real tasks officers perform. In golf, this could mean hitting a 9-iron approach shot and then immediately putting. For firearms training, you might set up an array of targets at different distances and angles. On one repetition, engage them from left to right. On the next, go right to left. Shoot half the array, reload, and engage the remaining targets. Later, shoot while moving laterally or from behind cover. The goal is to combine skills and conditions in ways that better reflect what officers may encounter on the street.
A word of caution
Both methods will feel more difficult than traditional blocked practice. That extra effort is exactly what makes them effective. Variable and random practice create desirable difficulties that lead to better retention and transfer — the two outcomes that should matter most to both instructors and individual officers.
Random practice is not the same as chaotic practice. The variations should always be purposeful and connected to the skills officers are expected to perform on duty.
Blocked practice may still be appropriate for new learners or when changing an established motor movement pattern. Once the basic movement has been learned, however, variable practice becomes valuable at every level of expertise. As skill develops, random practice can gradually become a larger part of training.
The goal of firearms practice isn’t to become good at the range. It’s to build skills that survive time, stress and uncertainty. I encourage you to give these methods a fair try in your personal practice and department training. Like many things in life, the struggle is what creates growth.
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