Training Intentionally: What are Training Scars and How to Avoid Them

Have you ever driven somewhere where you’ve made the drive many times, and you remember leaving, and arriving at your destination, but have no recollection of the drive itself?  Most people can relate!  I think we have all experienced situations like this, where our body just knows what to do and does it without conscious thought.  In the firearm world, doing an action with the firearm that was unintended at the moment, yet the same action has been practiced over and over again in “practice” is called a training scar.

What does “training scar” mean?

Training scars are created when unwanted processes are practiced over and over again unconsciously.  This is not just related to dry fire practice either.  Training scars can also be created during live fire practice as well.  Here’s some examples of training scars.

• Do you always unload the gun before holstering when practicing drills in live practice?  

• Do you lower the firearm to see your shot on the target?  

• Running reloads in dry fire practice and not reholstering before retrieving your magazines off of the floor?  

• Quickly reholstering without care to get ready for the next rep?  Maybe even racking the slide for each dry fire practice shot?  

• Make a mistake and stop to shake your head instead of pushing through the task?  

These are all actions that become training scars if we are not careful.  Not sure if you have a training scar?  A great way to identify training scars is to film yourself during your training session and review to see if you are unconsciously doing things that could be a scar.

How does this happen?  When we practice we begin to form what people commonly know as muscle memory or the technical term myelination.  You can read in detail about myelination in a prior article here.  Unfortunately whether we practice good technique or bad technique, our body just sees the action as repetitions and that will form pathways to begin to accomplish the task unconsciously.  The key to not building training scars is to become more mindful in your practice.

The more that we do something, the less we are consciously involved with the process, our body just knows what to do and does it.  Let’s use driving as an example.  Do you have to think about slamming on the brake when something unexpected crosses your path?  Most of us the answer is no, it just happens!  We have to begin being more consciously aware of what we are doing when we are practicing something over and over again to ensure it’s a skill we want to “just happen”.  

Most people link training scars to dry fire practice, and in this article we will focus on dry fire practice scars, but they can also occur in live fire practice.  In live fire generally we are shooting controlled shots in one direction standing still, at a static single target.  If you are able, you should try to mix up your live fire training to include multiple targets and movement to not create training scars.  If you are able, consider running drills in live fire to keep it interesting and work on different skills.

Dry Fire Training Scars

The best example of not being conscious with dry fire practice is hearing people talking about how easy it is to get dry fire trigger presses while watching TV or listening to a podcast, etc...  Are those trigger presses good dry fire practice?  Probably not.  Practice, whether it is live fire or dry fire, needs to be done on its own, not as part of multi-tasking.  

We recommend that you pick an area in your home for dry fire that is designated for that space.  There should be nothing that distracts you from your dry fire practice so that you can put your full attention to each and every rep.  No radio, music or TV and no live ammo.  Let other members of the household know when you are practicing so that interruptions can be avoided.  

Adding Mindfulness to Dry Fire Practice

Consider having a notebook and record what goal you want to work on in that session, and what steps you will take to accomplish that goal in that session.  Then start to work through the steps, but don’t just do the steps, really think about what you are doing.  Having a mental checklist helps bring your conscious mind to practice.  Be curious and experiment and get in touch with what you are doing.  Make notes about each shot, what you felt and what you saw with your sights.

If it’s simply raising your firearm and pressing the trigger to get a good shot, then be aware of the following things for each and every shot. Is your stance like you would have in live fire, is the grip pressure the same as in live fire, and are you putting the focus on the sights and feeling the trigger as you press?  If not, you are just mindlessly aiming and pressing the trigger, and chances are you are not getting the best practice and may be creating training scars.

Inevitably, the biggest training scar that many people point out with dry fire practice is racking the slide after each shot.  Again, if we bring our conscious mind into the practice session, we should always be getting a 2nd sight picture after the shot, then consider taking a short pause or even a breath and replay the shot in your mind before racking the slide to reset the trigger.  This helps disconnect the process of racking the slide with taking the shot.  Whether you are using Laser Academy or a MantisX unit, the shot time has been recorded, there’s no rush into racking the slide for the next shot.

Add Novelty To Your Training

Consider the dead trigger as an opportunity to work on different skills before racking the slide.  Try executing a tap-rack drill and getting back on target or you could scan and assess for more threats.  Dry fire is a great way to start to add movement into your practice.  Try moving quickly to cover/concealment or choose to retreat from the threat when you no longer have a working trigger.  It’s also a great way to incorporate magazine changes into dry fire practice.  We recommend using snap caps or tap-rack trainers in your magazines during dry fire practice so that after a magazine change you can rack the slide with an empty magazine installed.

Another common dry fire practice training scar is just taking one single shot.  We recommend that you practice other options besides pressing the trigger.  Try just prepping the trigger to the wall with a sight picture, but not taking a shot.  If you work from the holster, work in repetitions to drawing to low ready instead of always presenting to the target and taking a shot.  Consider pressing the trigger a 2nd, a 3rd or more times, even with a dead trigger during dry fire.  Just make sure you have a good sight picture and you are not slacking on the fundamentals for each and every press.  Many high level competitive shooters and trainers utilize this technique and feel that there are significant benefits in doing so, even if they don’t have the same trigger feel for the subsequent shots.  And yes, we know that if you are using a Mantis X unit during a drill, it will not pick up the additional shots, but it’s still a good habit to mix up how many times you press the trigger in practice.

And training scars are not limited to a pistol.  When training with your rifle, the circumstances are the same if you need to run the charging handle to reset your trigger.  The BlackbeardX helps to avoid this training scar by resetting the trigger.  We still highly recommend practicing alternate starting positions and not pressing the trigger every time you present to the target.  Mixing it up also helps keep your mind engaged in the process.

One of the most dangerous training scars that we can develop is how we re-holster a pistol in dry fire practice.  That act can have grave consequences if we practice it in an unsafe manner.  We can get comfortable during dry fire knowing that there is nothing in the chamber of the gun and we rush the gun into the holster or ram the gun hard into the holster.  If you do that unconsciously in live fire or with a round in the chamber, and there’s a piece of clothing in the way or something that catches the trigger, it’s going to be a very, very bad day.  

Re-holstering is administrative and should never be anything you do in a rush.  Make sure to follow your range’s re-holstering rules, and if they don’t have specific rules, adopt your own safe re-holstering routine and practice it in dry fire and transfer it to live fire.  Even in dry fire practice, after the shot, pause, take a deep breath and carefully, slowly, reluctantly return your firearm into the holster, keeping your eyes on the holster to make sure there is nothing that could get into the trigger guard while holstering.  Make it a habit to film yourself from time to time while re-holstering during a session to look for and correct any unsafe actions.

Final Thoughts

Look at your practice and consider what you may have as training scars.  Consider making changes to how you practice to be more aware and mindful of the actions you take while you practice each and every shot.  Engage your entire body in the process, especially your conscious thought.  This goes for all practice, and regardless if it’s a pistol or a rifle or even a shotgun or honestly any process you are learning.  The more you practice consciously, the more you will ingrain the right things and avoid the unexpected happening!