Blind Drills

Blind Drills. 

Your stance is sort of a neutral or default position.  You may have to shoot up or down or off to one side or the other.  You or your target may be moving.  The ground may not allow you to position your feet right where you want them.  You may be sitting down.  Still, you want to be able to index your pistol toward your target by feel and then confirm or even correct the alignment with the target by using your sights so you’ll start with your neutral position. 

Kinesthetic awareness means knowing where you are in relation to your pistol and where you and your pistol are in relation to the target by feel.  The less time you spend visually correcting your aim when you come up on target, the better off you are.  Something that will help with that is being aware and concentrating on your front sight by feel as well as visually. 

What you want to do is unload your weapon and work so that you’re pointing in a safe direction should it discharge (the same as if you’re dry fire practicing).  Start at your ready position and align yourself with the target.  Now, close your eyes.  Concentrate on how your stance and pistol feel and, without opening your eyes, bring the pistol up on target.  Open your eyes and see where the sights are in relation to the target.  Make adjustments to your stance to bring your sights on target and repeat the process.  Fairly quickly you should not have to adjust your stance but should be coming up fairly close to your aiming point. 

Now do the same thing but just adjust where you point the pistol rather than your entire stance.  You should be able to develop a good feel for where the pistol is pointing and a reasonable neutral position that allows you to start out relatively aligned with your target.  Repeat to develop the pathways in your nervous system that lets your body “know” when it’s in the “correct” position.  Work slowly and correctly. 

Attached is a video of a live fire blind drill.  There are some obvious safety concerns with this one so it must be undertaken carefully. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27rjx93wwrg