The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gunset Training Group or its affiliates.
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The Casino Drill, the F.A.S.T., the 5/5/5 52 Week Challenge. I’ve shot them all. I’m sure many of you have shot at least one of them. All of them were designed to be an evaluation of skill or on demand performance. Many of us (and I include myself amongst the guilty) have turned them into a game of sorts – who can get the fastest time? Guilty as charged when it comes to the Casino Drill. And by doing so, we’ve ruined the purpose behind the drill or test.
Take the Casino Drill. I LOVE shooting the Casino Drill. After USPSA and 3 gun, shooting the Casino Drill is my favorite shooting activity. I first shot the Casino Drill in 2015 when I took the Rangemaster Instructor Development Course. Since then, I’ve spent hours and thousands of rounds of ammo chasing a consistent sub-10 second run on a Casino Drill. I’m still chasing it. But if you have ever talked with the originator of the drill – Tom Givens – you’ll know that he never intended for it to be shot time and time again in an effort to get your fastest time.
What about the F.A.S.T.? To my everlasting regret, I never trained with Todd L. Green of pistol-training.com before he passed away. But I got to interact with him through email and on pistol-forum.com and I know that he never intended for the F.A.S.T. to be shot over and over chasing a sub 5 second run. SLG has taken over the guardianship and issuance of the F.A.S.T coins from Ernest Langdon and he makes it very clear that it is a TEST, not something to shoot time after time.
And the most recent victim of the drill turned into a game phenomenon is the 5/5/5 52 week challenge. The Gunset crew is responsible for making the 5/5/5 go viral. People from all over the country are posting videos and pictures of their runs. Some of those runs have incredible times. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It encourages people to get out and shoot. But once again, if you talk to Tom Givens about it, he never intended for it to be shot over and over chasing the fastest time.
So what’s the big deal? Well, it isn’t really a problem, per se, but it is something instructors need to factor into our class lesson plan. Huh? Here’s what I mean – as instructors, I think we owe it to our students to make sure they get the maximum benefit from each round they shoot in a class they paid for. It is quite common to have a variety of skill levels in any class you teach, even if you have pre-requisites. So what do we do with the student who is way beyond the skill level of the other students or has obviously shot the drill you are shooting so much that they are not really benefitting from shooting the drill? Do you have flexibility built into your lesson plan?
The easiest way to compensate for a situation like this is to tweak the drill or test just a bit. Maybe for the class as a whole, or maybe just for that particular student. For example, during the Rangemaster Master Instructor class back in June, Tom changed up the Casino Drill when it came time to shoot for the challenge coin. I have no idea if he switched it up because he knew I was a Casino Drill junkie or for some other reason. But for our coin runs, we had to run the Casino Drill backwards. Running the Drill backwards doesn’t change the point of the drill, but does throw off things a little bit for people who have practiced the “normal” Casino Drill. Like me.
Other options for switching things up could be making portions of the drill or test either strong hand only (SHO) or weak hand only (WHO). For example, the FAST is designed with a draw to a first shot on a low probability target. Switching it up too much changes the whole point of the FAST. Changing the second portion of the FAST to SHO makes the FAST more challenging, but does not alter the overall point of the FAST significantly.
I just saw a video from Jim Shanahan (Advanced Performance Shooting) demonstrating another, more cognitive, version of the Casino Drill that switches things up and makes people consider Rules #2 and #4 as they shoot the Drill. In the Master Instructor class in June, I introduced the class to a version of the Casino Drill that I call the “One Armed Bandit”. Same distance, same target, same time, same penalties, still the same number of rounds per target. The difference? It is all shot using SHO or WHO. First seven are SHO, second seven are WHO, last seven are SHO.
The SHO and WHO options are just two of the options available that would not be disruptive to the class as a whole. Smaller targets are another option – I’ve seen a few folks who have started using business cards or horizontal cards instead of vertical cards when shooting the 5/5/5. Shorter time frames are another option. The Gunset Training Group use a pretty cool target that that goes well with this concept. As you can see, it’s got 2 different scoring “rings”. For students doing very well, you could designate that as the primary target area for that particular student. When it comes time to shoot their standards, that inner ring is what is used for their Master standard. Hits outside that are considered misses for the Master standard.
One of the main reasons for taking classes is to get better. We aren’t helping them with that goal if we don’t push them out of their comfort zone. Get creative. We owe it to our students.