Jerk the Trigger Drill - My Favorite Dry Fire Drill!

[@hammerarmament]

I didn’t think that a 12 minute video about a simple exercise like this could be this full of value, but it is. Awesome job. Thanks for putting it out there.

[@SpecTrain]

Glad you liked it!

[@samschipper6766]

Definitely the best pistol coach on KZbin. I feel like everybody looks to the World and National Champs to learn from, but just being a good competitor doesn't mean you're a good teacher. Keep it up I appreciate you putting out all this information.

[@SpecTrain]

preciate it man!

[@wintersoldier4335]

I agree....hes giving you honesty sort of like Latham and Vogel....dont care for Stoger Lena Miculek (snit nosed brat) or most others...Spectrain is giving out gold as a NRA and other agency cert instructor.....this is gold!!

[@TheJdextreme]

I can’t believe this is on KZbin for free. Great content brother

[@charlesreeves3426]

Excellent discretion of the process of trigger control at speed. Slowing down just for the sake of slowing down should never just in itself be an answer to an issue one is training through. If its about more confirmation on a low percentage hit, that's not slowing down, but rather given the target the right amount of attention and the proper amount of input into the gun for the hit required. Quoting you, "speed up and get your hits." Or as Frank Proctor would say, "we dont have to slow down, but rather me must do everything right." Thank you for the great content.

[@SpecTrain]

Yep! video on confirmation levels coming soon!

[@MichaelPrice-0331]

Very well presentated

[@tropicalpines4585]

It’s always a good day when Billy posts a KZbin video!

[@normwilson117]

wish i had this drill years ago.. this is going to be part of my daily; grateful

[@shannondamron1456]

This is genius. Absolutely outstanding methods of teaching. I'm going to start using this in my sessions.

[@hopewilliams6705]

I have trigger finger in my middle finger of my firing hand and using less pressure helps me mitigate sympathetic movement but it is challenging

[@fortitudeconsulting]

Outstanding stuff, as usual! 👌🏼

[@unitfour3097]

I've been doing this same exercise lately without knowing it's an actual dry fire drill. Just kinda figured it out on my own and it has started to make a difference at the range. Hard to break old habits though, but I know right away that my trigger hand grip was too tight on poor shots. Kudos on getting through the entire video without any annoying edit breaks (at least I didn't notice any). Thanks for the content.

[@SpecTrain]

This is the way! The process of self coaching is absolutely crucial to growth as a shooter. I.e. figure out what you want to work on, and then figure out an exercise that will assess that skill. Love it!

[@bobl2833]

Solid info as expected. Truly expected and top quality.

[@Kimchi_Studios]

Great teaching

[@eddiepereira9628]

Awesome video. You are getting to be my favorite instructor over many other very good ones. I love your approach and how you explain stuff. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience with folks who just want to get better at shooting.

[@SpecTrain]

Thanks!

[@NDcompetitiveshooter]

Great content. I appreciate your wisdom and humility in the learning process. One thing I might suggest is that not quite everyone feels you should "crush" the pressures with the support hand. You need enough to control recoil sufficiently, but the most important thing is getting the sights to come back to the same spot predictably. I've seen where focusing too much on excessive support hand pressure can make it difficult to keep the firing hand relaxed enough for good trigger control. More pressure with the support hand is important, but there may be a point where it is detrimental. I actually wear a tennis elbow brace, because I'll get tendonitis from excessive support hand pressure. Thanks for the great content.

[@SpecTrain]

There are people that will disagree with everything I could possibly say. However what I stated is true, which is that every single TOP shooter I’ve discussed this with agrees on this point, which includes multiple world champs. Support hand tension and firing hand tension have absolutely nothing to do with one another, that’s just an issue of training through a problem. If you start crushing the gun and don’t equally train the opposite movement, tendinopothy is almost guaranteed, but I see this as motivation to train properly, not adopt a less effective technique.

[@KP-Pro2A]

I’m probably not in the same class as most of you advanced shooters. Great video- I understand the drill perfectly, I was hoping to get better description on how to correct a problem once identified. I absolutely can see my dot move when I press the trigger during dry fire, I’ve tried so many different amounts of grip pressures on my support hand to stop it from moving. I have strong hands, I’ve been digging and wrenching my whole life- I even recently started using grip putty to strengthen my grip more (for recoil control purposes). I just haven’t found a grip pressure combination that keeps the gun from moving I’ll keep working at it- I know the solution is here. I’ll keep at it. Thank you for your content. It’s just fantastic.

[@NDcompetitiveshooter]

@@SpecTrain I'm not trying to argue with you, just putting out some slightly more nuanced views that may be helpful to someone else if they have trouble getting this to work well for them. Ben Stoeger says that he's less concerned about crushing support hand pressure to squeeze every bit of recoil control out of it and more concerned with having the dot come back to the same spot predictably. He's definitely a world class practical shooter. Joel Park says that you should crush the gun with your support hand, but also acknowledges that doing that while trying to keep the firing hand relaxed is "easier said than done." Again, I appreciate your content and hope that you won't be offended by the addition of other views. What you are doing has obviously worked for you.

[@SpecTrain]

@@NDcompetitiveshooter Hey man it's all good, not taking anything personally. But please understand that debating shooting technique is my absolute favorite thing in the world, so you present ideas on my page that I have a different perspective on and I will certainly do my best to address them haha. Of course Ben would say that, Ben like myself is a big believer in being more concerned with the process vs the technique. But being "more concerned" doesn't mean the other part doesn't matter. I'll quote directly from Ben's book... "Crush the gun with your support hand so hard that it is uncomfortable... Commonly skin gets removed from the hands by the amount of pressure my support hand clamps down with. It takes conscious effort to force yourself to grip the gun properly..." Again you are certainly welcome to have a differing opinion. This is just something that every top shooter I'm aware of agrees on.

[@NDcompetitiveshooter]

@@SpecTrain Yes, Ben has found that "most people" are helped by explaining proper support hand pressure that way. Maybe I didn't explain myself well. I apologize. I'll put it concisely into one clarifying question. In your view, can one ever grip too hard with the support hand?

[@tacticalcowboy01]

Great video man

[@SpecTrain]

preciate it man

[@lobbyrobby]

This was great. Thank you. I like the "not everyone is this same" point. I can shoot alright but I know I jerk. My 9 not staying open after the last round isn't good but yet it's awesome to see how I'm jerking because I think there's a live round yet. It only happens with 1 magazine I have so I'm using it to my benefit. I'll try my best to random load a number of rounds. It's hard to get my mind not to count when doing it so I'll use several mags and stuff a few rounds in each trying not to pay attention.

[@GunnyUniform]

Great video bro.

[@empiricalshooting]

Awesome info here Billy. Keep pumping out the good stuff bro

[@SpecTrain]

Thanks! Will do!

[@shootlog6690]

great information and content sir! thank you

[@jamesbunkley7823]

I have a glock 34 gen 5. The trigger feels like it's too far for me to reach. Is there any way to have it reset farther back. It's weird. I wish I could make the grip a little larger and move the trigger back.

[@SpecTrain]

1. Make sure you aren't running any back straps that would increase length of pull. 2. Many aftermarket triggers will change the overtravel and break point of the trigger shoe. The tactical triggers are in my experience some of the best and are set a good bit farther to the rear than OEM.

[@jamesbunkley7823]

@SpecTrain 10-4 Thank you very much. Do you have any videos running a stock glock trigger? If not, what splits have you been able to achieve?

[@SpecTrain]

instagram.com/p/CmU4FSTjP8o/

[@stevenlacoste574]

I love you

[@glennhynes5263]

The idea that the trigger will only go straight to the rear says nothing about the excess amount of angled pressure you can put into that rear- moving trigger. You can hit a 5lb trigger with 20lbs if you approach on a 45° angle.

[@SpecTrain]

Allow there may theoretically but some truth to this, the idea that people are moving the gun significantly by pressing the trigger at an angle is a legacy training idea that is no longer emphasized by a single top shooter I'm aware of. Same thing with trigger finger placement on the shoe. Left and right shots used to be blamed on having too much or too little finger on the trigger, but never any more. Why? because anybody paying attention will see top shooters with different finger placements, and pressing the trigger differently.

[@greg9076]

Part of the reason they are using different finger placements is because of using different guns with different triggers. As to angled pressure… While the trigger can only move straight to the rear, I’ve found that students DO put enough angled pressure on the gun while moving the trigger to the rear that it will push the muzzle to the left (right handed shooters.) How? The issue is the trigger finger bottom joint moving towards the side of the grip as they pull the trigger. Stopping this and having only the middle joint be responsible for pulling the trigger to the rear, stops the muzzle movement to the left. Basically, they are gripping the gun like a hammer as they pull the trigger. Cheers.

[@HuyLe-rj4du]

Your video on fast splits helped me a lot with my cadence and I shot very fast the other day keeping my eyes on the target. When I count the rhythm in my head, I don’t get trigger freeze. However, when I don’t like in a match or just shooting, I tend to get trigger freeze What are some ways to combat trigger freeze ? Is it most mental or physically releasing tension in my firing hand ? Thanks

[@IkeStarnes40]

Trigger freeze is almost always caused by too much tension in your firing hand. Grip the gun hard with support hand and ease up with your trigger control hand.

[@SpecTrain]

It can absolutely be both unfortunately haha. I do think what most people perceive as trigger freeze is most commonly a result of short stroking the trigger. I.e. letting the trigger out a little bit (but not far enough to reset it), and then trying to press it again without resetting. The more tension you have in your firing hand the less dexterity you have, which can definitely result in this issue. I also see this happening as a result of a training scar from dry fire where folks are either short stroking in dry fire, or trying to let the trigger out just to the reset but no further. This is setting yourself up for failure. I'd way rather you come off the trigger a little extra far but get back on it quickly, vs risk short stroking it. The mental piece can be big as well. I describe it was your brain giving vague instructions to your hands. I see this all the time say with a bill drill. If the thought you have in your head is just "pull the trigger as fast as you can" that's not a specific instruction and can result in trigger freeze. But if you focus on a specific cadence it often clears up. Now on a stage I'm certainly not thinking of a cadence, the cadence has to be subconscious at that point based on training. Hope that helps!

[@HuyLe-rj4du]

@@SpecTrain it helped a lot ! I will practice releasing the trigger a bit extra then and entraining the cadence into my muscle memory.

[@Shadow__133]

Or get a full auto. No issues if you get a trigger freeze 😂

[@hopewilliams6705]

Even at the level you are do you find that you just shoot some platforms way worse than others?

[@SpecTrain]

To a certain extent yes. In the sense that a sig 365 is way more difficult to shoot well vs a glock 34 for instance. In addition, even switching from say a glock to like a cz p10f, those are very similar pistols, but the same level of familiarity and mastery won't be there initially since that's not what I'm familiar with. Now the whole thing where people will say " I can't shoot a glock but I can shoot a sig well", doesn't exist at higher levels. There is nothing like that from good gun to another that makes it not work well for an individual shooter, that's just a misunderstand on how to apply the fundamentals on that gun.

[@hopewilliams6705]

@@SpecTrain indeed