How fast is fast enough? We’ve all heard and perhaps repeated the familiar tropes of pistol training. “Speed is fine, but accuracy is final.” “You can’t miss fast enough.” “Slow down and get your hits.” How much truth is there to these sayings? While accuracy is surely important, these truisms are often used by shooters to justify a lack of skill.
While it’s true that accuracy is very important, speed still matters: The first combatant to put acceptable hits on his adversary usually wins. How fast then is truly fast enough? If gunfighting requires a balance of speed and accuracy — and it most certainly does — we need to know how important speed is to that balance.
This isn’t as simple a question as it might seem, as there’s more than one kind of gunfight. A military-style engagement at more typical small unit distances of 100 to 300 meters can be slower-paced at times, almost methodical. Team-based dynamic CQB has a faster rhythm and pace, but movement for the most part is dictated by the speed of the element you’re operating in rather than the individual — although when it’s time to engage a threat, the speed at which you can get rounds on target is crucial. And then there’s the one-on-one gunfight at close range. Those happen very fast indeed.
The next element of the question is where to focus your speed. For the
