Well, it's been a long year of training so far! In the last year I've been attending some monthly classes from a local instructor on fundamentals, trained with instructors like Todd Green, shooting low-probability targets on the move, and on the other side, Larry Vickers in a private class, moving through the shoot house in a high-speed, high-stress environment. I've been teaching most weekends until the beginning of the year; I've had less free time with all I've been doing lately. The two things that I've spent the most time on all year are: accuracy and speed.
One thing that defensive pistol students all seem to eventually learn along their journey is that these two factors, speed and accuracy, determine the ultimate skill level of a shooter. Some shooters along their journey buy certain products to help with speed, or develop bad habits along the way that may be quasi-unsafe. Other shooters may develop incredible accuracy with poor stances or grips that don't translate to shooting while moving, or shooting while grappling, etc. The mark of a good student is the ability to master proper fundamentals that correlate with a defensive mindset, work well with what the body does naturally, are very safe, deadly accurate, and can eventually be maneuvered at high-speed.
Quality training CANNOT be replaced! Students who wish to resemble a "good" shooter MUST get quality training.
Here are some drills to test your skills. You should at MINIMUM be able to:
Draw from concealment, fire 5 rounds on a 3x5 card at 3 yards in 5 seconds.
Fire 5 rounds into a 3x5 at 10 yards with no time limit, but with zero misses. You should be able to do this 100% of the time.
Draw from concealment, fire 10 rounds into an 8" circle at 3 yards in 6 seconds.
Fire 5 rounds into an 8" circle at 25 yards with zero misses. No time limit.
Test yourself. If you can do these safely and easily, you should attend advanced courses and continue your training. If you "think you can do these easily, but have not done them, or something that resembles them in the last month" you should attend a basic fundamentals course. If you cannot complete these, you should also attend a basic fundamentals course.
Continue your training! Become the shooter that you wish you were!
