Static vs Dynamic Dry Fire with MantisX

Firearms are a hard craft to master, for most the journey to improvement will never end.  But with some dedication people can improve their skills quickly and build confidence in their shooting, whatever their goal is.  

One of the best ways to get better at shooting live is to practice dry.  Dry fire is the place where skills can be practiced and refined, allows shooters to focus on what needs to be improved without the bang of live fire, and is convenient with saving time and ammo since it can be done at home.  While there are three types of dry fire a shooter should use, the main one this article relates to is structured dry fire practice.  Having structured dry fire practice is like having a gym routine but for your shooting skills.

Static and Dynamic Shooting

Shooting consists of many different skills that all work together to create accurate results on target.  While not every skill is used in every shot, a good shooter is going to need a high level of function in many different skills so they can call upon the right one when needed.

Skills can largely be broken up into two categories, static and dynamic.  Static shooting is what most people are familiar with and typically where shooting skills first start to develop.  The shooter is stationary, focused on an individual stationary target and firing for accuracy.  Shooters refine their fundamental skills with a precise sight picture, well built grip, and good trigger control.  

Dynamic shooting is the next step, once fundamental skills are acquired, a shooter is ready to add the pieces that apply to shooting sports and real-world situations.  Dynamic refers to both the shooter and the gun, meaning the shooter may be physically moving around their environment or changing shooting positions.  The gun is additionally dynamic with rapid fire, transitioning between both target zones and individual targets, and incorporating safety and fundamental skills.  The target array may even include moving targets to provide additional challenges.  Dynamic shooting often incorporates some type of induced stress and decision making as well, which means the shooter can’t be thinking about each fundamental skill, they must be executing automatically as needed.

One of the reasons it is harder to practice dynamic shooting than static shooting is due to range restrictions.  Many people utilize indoor ranges which inherently limit movement, and range rules may prevent a shooter from drawing from holster, rapid firing, or transitioning targets.  

Outdoor ranges, classes, and shooting sports often shine in dynamic shooting, allowing shooters to experience a wider array of skills and in a more real-world practical manner.  It’s good to seek out variation in live fire and have the opportunity to practice both varieties.  However, dry fire is another way to get dynamic work in.  Recoil management is pretty much the only skill that will be missing, but arguably, this is a good thing.  Dry fire allows the body to concentrate on the process without the disruption of live fire.  

To practice static skills in dry fire a shooter typically only needs their empty firearm.  However, to practice dynamic skills there are a few tools that can be helpful, a resetting trigger such as TitanX, a smart laser pistol, or BlackbeardX, a smart auto-resetting trigger system for rifles and their coaching app, a shot timer, practice targets, spare mags, and a holster.

Mixed Practice

Well thought out dry fire practice will incorporate elements from both static and dynamic shooting.  A training regime should reinforce existing strong skills and refine weak ones, bringing them up to par with the strong ones.  Don’t avoid the hard parts, with shooting there has to be some degree of failure to improve, staying in the comfort zone also means not progressing.

Get the most out of dry practice by taking the time to analyze the process and paying attention to the kinesthetic sensation of the skill.  Mentally record this and refine it to find the optimal performance, once the process is right the desired results will show up on paper.  If needed, slow down or break up the steps of weak skills to get the pathway correct and then incorporate speed and the full skill usage case. 

While working through these skills, find ways to incorporate feedback and metrics.  During slow static practice it can be fairly easy to understand what is occurring, however dynamic skills happen quickly and may be done in quick succession.  Using a phone to film and look at reduced speed or frame-by-frame playback may be helpful to see exactly what is happening.  A shot timer helps with obtaining speed by measuring in milliseconds and a laser point of impact can be a good tool to corroborate the sight picture seen with irons or the optic.  Use a notebook to jot it all down and record the shooting conditions.  After all, 1% improvement every session adds up to a lot over a year.

If that sounds a bit overwhelming the MantisX Pistol/Rifle app works with the TitanX and BlackbeardX to measure these metrics.  Each unit is equipped with a laser for instant point of impact feedback, and the app not only captures analytics and gives coaching tips but keeps track of each session in detailed history to monitor improvement.  It even has standard static drills and dynamic drills prebuilt for easy selection, or apply it to other drills with the Open and Dynamic Training drills.

Static MantisX Drills

The Standard Drill section of the MantisX app is great for isolating trigger control and focusing on mastering the fundamentals.  Utilize drills like MantisX Benchmark, Primary Hand Only, and Support Hand Only to keep track of where skills are in ideal, untimed environments.  Experiment and practice with Open Training, Reload, and Cadence drills.  Then put the fundamentals to the test with Compressed Surprise Break, Endurance or Decision drills.  Adding that little bit of urgency and pressure will reveal how durable those fundamentals are.

Once a session is complete, make sure to go through the feedback screens, don’t just stick to one or look at the overall scores and time.  Use the Segment Chart to find deficiency patterns and then read the possible causes to begin correcting them. Pick the most frequently occurring segment and work to minimize that then move on to the next one.  

Rewatch the trace to see exactly what the muzzle is doing and discern if there is a pattern, it will never be perfectly still, but it can be controlled.  

Pay attention to the ratio between the blue hold movement and the yellow trigger press movement, the blue can be large as long as the control can be implemented to minimize that for the trigger press and create a small yellow section.  This is particularly helpful when moving from a ready position to on target, move quickly for 90% then slow and controlled to glide into the last 10% settled and smooth for the trigger press.

Take a moment to think through what the process was and how it felt kinesthetically in the body, then see how the data matches that.  The insights gained from critically thinking about the skill can be massive. 

Dynamic MantisX Drills

Dynamic drills are best done with a resetting trigger, which is part of what makes TitanX and BlackbeardX such great training tools, however they can be done without one though a bit less realistic.  Without a resetting tool, shooters can practice without pressing the trigger, purely watching their sights and keep themselves accountable for their sight picture or have a single trigger press on most guns, usually the first or last shot and pretend to press for the rest of them.

A resetting trigger will be most like live shooting though, and the app gives extra insight into what is happening that humans are not very good at judging let alone at such micro measurements.

The Dynamic section in the pistol/rifle app has an open section to practice anything you want called Dynamic Training.  A few rapid drills like Ready Up, Bill Drill, and for TitanX only a 1 Reload 1 to work on speed.  Plus a dozen transition drills to choose from, including the famous Failure to Stop and El Presidente drills.

All of these drills show the number of shots and split times just like a normal shot timer but the extra data is something that no other systems can measure.  Three dimensions are scored 0-100 and then averaged for total efficiency.  Those are the straightness of the Transition path (blue), any Over Travel (yellow) past the intended target and if there is a Delay (orange) on target before pressing the trigger.  These color-coded data points give insight to where milliseconds can be shaved off to improve.

Turning on the Heat Trace gives insight into the variations in speed the movement had and can help to understand what needs to change to bring up the score in the three scoring dimensions.  Often, the shooter cannot feel these micro pieces changing from one iteration to the next so having a digital view of what is going on can drastically increase understanding and improvement.  

Being A Well Rounded Shooter

It’s not enough to just practice the easy skills, the ones that have already been ingrained.  The tough skills need to be practiced to bring them up to a level of automaticity as well.  While these skills ultimately need to be something that can be done on command at the live range, the best way to improve them is through dry fire.  Pick a skill to practice a few times a week to get it down at home then go to the range and test it.  

Using different tools, like the ones mentioned here, in dry fire will help make the most of that time.   Paying attention to the process and knowing exactly what your body is actually doing is key to getting the results you want on target.  Grab your empty gun, video yourself and use a MantisX-enabled device to tackle the hard skills.  After all, getting better is its own reward.