One of the challenges in shooting practice is that two good pieces of advice can appear to contradict each other.
You need to push beyond your current speed if you want to become faster. At the same time, you do not want to repeatedly practice poor shots and turn them into habits.
So how do you learn what faster feels like without simply learning to miss faster?
A useful answer is to separate your training into different modes.
I learned this framework from Steve Anderson, who teaches a broader approach that includes Accuracy Mode, Speed Mode, and Match Mode. For this discussion, I want to focus on the two modes that are especially useful when learning to increase speed: Speed Mode and Match Mode.
The distinction is straightforward:
Speed Mode expands what you are capable of doing. Match Mode teaches you to use that capability while producing acceptable results.
Both matter.
You Cannot Learn Speed by Always Staying Comfortable
If every practice repetition is performed at a pace where you are completely comfortable, you will probably become very consistent at that pace. You may not become much faster.
At some point, improvement requires you to explore beyond what currently feels normal. A 6.9 second run may feel fast until you experience what 5.9 feels like. Once you begin finding whole seconds on a short stage, or tenths of a second within individual components, simply telling yourself to “go faster” is often not enough.
You have to experience the faster movement. That is where Speed Mode becomes valuable.
What Is Speed Mode?
In Speed Mode, the primary objective is speed.
For a short period of training, you temporarily reduce the importance of score so you can explore how quickly you are capable of performing the movement. The purpose is not to develop sloppy shooting. It is to remove some of the judgment that normally causes you to stay within your existing comfort zone.
Suppose you are practicing a draw. You may have a comfortable draw time that you can repeat almost indefinitely. In Speed Mode, you begin reducing the par time and force yourself to discover what has to change.
Maybe your hands need to move sooner. Maybe your support hand needs to meet the gun earlier. Maybe you discover unnecessary movement that never bothered you at the slower pace.
The faster time exposes inefficiency.
You can use the same approach with transitions, reloads, movement, entries, exits, or almost any other physical shooting skill. The goal is to learn what faster feels like.
The Timer Matters
Speed Mode works best when you have an objective measurement.
Without a timer, it is easy to think you are moving faster when you are really just moving with more effort. Tension and urgency can create the sensation of speed without producing much improvement.
The timer removes the guesswork.
If you normally perform a drill in 2.0 seconds and begin producing 1.8 second runs, something changed. You now have evidence that the faster performance is possible.
This does not mean every drill needs to become a race against the timer. It means that when speed is the objective, you need some way to determine whether you actually became faster. That fits directly with the measurement principles we discussed in Practice With Purpose.
Speed Mode Is Not Permission to Be Careless
This distinction is important.
Speed Mode does not mean pointing the gun vaguely toward the target, yanking the trigger, and celebrating a fast time. You still want good movement. You still want the gun going where your eyes direct it. You still want efficient technique.
What changes temporarily is your judgment of the result.
If your purpose is to discover what a faster transition feels like, an imperfect hit does not automatically invalidate the repetition. You may have learned something valuable about how quickly you can move the gun.
Likewise, if you are working a reload in dry fire, you may occasionally miss the magwell while pushing the pace. That does not mean missing the magwell is the desired behavior. It tells you that you have reached an edge that needs refinement.
Speed Mode is exploration with a purpose.
This Is Different From Practicing Misses
I have also used the phrase do not practice misses, and at first that can seem inconsistent with Speed Mode.
The difference is the objective.
Mindlessly repeating poor shots teaches you very little. Speed Mode has a specific purpose: expose yourself to a faster level of performance, identify what changes at that speed, and begin making that speed feel normal.
You are not trying to make misses habitual. You are temporarily allowing imperfect results so that accuracy does not prevent you from discovering greater speed.
Then you bring the scoring requirement back. That second step is critical.
What Is Match Mode?
Match Mode is practice performed to the standard you expect in competition.
Hits matter. Shot calling matters. Makeup shots matter.
If something unexpected happens, you handle it rather than simply abandoning the repetition. If you call a miss, you make it up. If you fumble a magazine, you recover and continue. The objective is to practice responding the way you intend to respond in a match.
You are still trying to go fast, but speed no longer gets a free pass.
The goal becomes:
How much of the speed I discovered in Speed Mode can I keep while producing acceptable match performance?
That is where the new capability becomes useful.
Bring the Speed With You
This is the part of the process that matters most.
Suppose your normal transition is .35 seconds. During Speed Mode, you begin seeing .25 or .27 transitions, although the hits are not always acceptable.
You now know the gun can move that quickly.
When you return to Match Mode, the goal is not to retreat immediately to .35. Instead, try to retain as much of the new speed as possible while restoring the visual and scoring requirements.
Perhaps your Match Mode transitions initially settle around .30. That is still progress.
Over time, what once required Speed Mode may become your normal Match Mode performance. Then you can push the boundary again.
Speed Mode expands capability. Match Mode makes that capability usable.
Match Mode Requires Visual Accountability
The biggest difference between the modes is not simply whether you look at the score afterward. In Match Mode, the shooting itself is accountable.
You use the visual patience we discussed in Visual Patience. You see enough to make the shot. You call the shot. If the call tells you a makeup shot is necessary, you take it.
You are practicing the complete decision process you want during competition.
That means Match Mode is more than “shoot a little slower.” You may still shoot extremely fast. The difference is that the speed remains subordinate to the information you are receiving from the gun and the target.
Handle Problems Like a Match
Match Mode is also a good place to practice unexpected problems.
If you drop a magazine during a reload, do not necessarily stop the drill and start over. Grab another magazine and keep going. If the gun malfunctions, handle it. If you call a miss, make it up. If your movement into a position is poor, solve the problem and finish the run.
There will eventually be an unexpected problem in competition. Your response should not be surprise followed by analysis. You want to recognize the problem, deal with it, and continue.
Practicing that response makes it more likely to happen naturally when the match does not go exactly as planned.
Dry Fire Is Especially Useful for Speed Mode
Much of Speed Mode can be explored very effectively in dry fire.
Without recoil, ammunition cost, and scoring concerns, you can concentrate on movement. You can push a draw, reload, transition, or entry much harder than normal and immediately repeat it.
That also helps avoid one potential downside of repeatedly shooting poor live fire hits while exploring speed.
Live fire is still necessary because eventually you have to prove that the movement works when the gun recoils and the hits count. But dry fire provides an excellent environment for discovering faster physical movement before adding everything else back.
When Should You Use Each Mode?
There is no universal percentage of practice that should be Speed Mode or Match Mode. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
If you are trying to break through a speed plateau, you may spend more time in Speed Mode. If you are preparing for a match, you should probably spend more time in Match Mode so the behavior closest to competition resembles the performance you want to produce there.
The principle is more important than prescribing an exact number of days: the closer you get to competition, the more your practice should resemble the performance you expect in competition.
Know Which Mode You Are In
Problems occur when the two modes become mixed unintentionally.
If you are supposed to be in Speed Mode but become frustrated every time the score is imperfect, you will probably pull yourself back into your comfort zone.
If you are supposed to be in Match Mode but dismiss every poor shot because you were “working on speed,” you are no longer holding yourself to a match standard.
Decide the purpose of the repetition before you begin:
Am I exploring speed, or am I practicing performance?
Both are legitimate objectives. They simply require different judgments.
Faster Is Not the Final Goal
Speed by itself is not enough.
The objective in practical shooting is not to become the person who can perform the fastest dry fire drill or post the fastest raw time while ignoring the target. You want speed that survives contact with scoring.
Speed Mode helps you discover what is possible. Match Mode forces you to turn that possibility into something you can use.
Over time, the line moves. Yesterday's Speed Mode becomes today's Match Mode. Then you push again.
Learn what faster feels like. Make it normal. Then make it accountable.
That is how speed becomes performance.