Firearms Training

Question # 5 – What is the most important weapon skill to master?

June 4th, 2006  

Hi, this is Ignatius Piazza, founder and director of Front Sight Firearms Training Institute. I’m answering the top ten questions as surveyed by our students on May 15, 2006.

Question No. 5: What is the most important weapon skill to master out of all of the training that is available out there?

Well, the most important weapon skill to master is clearly the three secrets: sight alignment, sight picture and trigger control. Now, you can be the fastest out of the holster. You can know all of the high speed, low drag tactics there are to know. But if you can’t hit with your first shot, makes no difference. In fact, all of the tactical training that you can get out there only gives you about 2 1/2 tenths of a second advantage on your opponent. All of the tactics are designed to make it so that you are acting and your opponent is reacting to you.

But if you miss with your first shot, the playing field is level. So the most important skill that you need to master is the ability to hit with your first shot, and the ability to hit with your first shot comes from mastering the three secrets: sight alignment, sight picture and trigger control.

And that’s why at Front Sight, we drill these into you through a number of different types of training techniques, training drills, through dry practice, through diagnostic trigger drills, and then we place you into live fire tactical simulators so that we can put a little stress on you. So that you can learn how to apply the three secrets, even when you’re under a stressful situation. And I think that’s really what separates us from everybody else is that we break everything down to its basic functions, and then we ingrain those basic functions into you so that at the end of a two-day or a four-day class, you leave a different person. You are able in fact to do all of the things that we’re teaching you. And those things will definitely save your life should you ever need to use a weapon to defend your life or the lives of your loved ones.

So again, three secrets: sight alignment, sight picture, trigger control. If you have to master one aspect, that’s it – being able to hit with your first shot because that makes all the difference in the world. Hopefully that has answered that question for you.

If you have any others, feel free to email me at info@frontsight.com. Thank you.

Entry Filed under: Dr. Ignatius Piazza,Front Sight.