I appreciate people like Ben Stoeger. He’s an IPSC and USPSA National Champion and Grand Master shooter. He teaches classes, writes books, and releases so much free training information into the world, like the Distance Change Up Drill.
He also releases full, filmed classes chock-full of excellent information that every serious shooter should watch and take advantage of. Ben’s a bit of a firebrand, too, and his YouTube channel is a great way to stay current with industry news.
Today, we are focusing on the Distance Change Up Drill. This drill is surprisingly challenging and forces you to shoot fast, straight, and far.
The Gear and Guns for the Distance Change Up Drill
You’ll need three targets and three target stands. The drill is designed to be shot with USPSA-style silhouette targets. You can improvise by breaking down the USPSA-style targets and using A-zones and headshot targets.
You’ll need six rounds per run, so this drill isn’t ammo-demanding. With only six rounds needed, you can even shoot it with most revolvers without a reloading penalty. You’re going to need a holster and belt.
As always, you’ll need ears, eyes, and a shot timer to top everything off.
Setting Up for the Drill
Before we start shooting, we need to set up the drill. The three targets are arranged just so. You’ll position the first target at the 15-yard line.
Now, walk up range 10 yards, and position the other two targets 2 yards apart, but the far target should sit in the center of the two close targets. The shooter will stand 5 yards from the target.
Shooting the Drill
You’ll start centered between the two close targets, handgun holstered, hands below the belt. Your shot timer will act as the “Go” signal.
Press that shot timer button and get ready to shoot. You need to engage each target with two rounds. You’re aiming for nothing but Alphas.
Oh, there is a kicker, too. The far target, that’s a headshot-only target. It’s just that little A-zone box at 15 yards.
The drill process involves engaging the targets either right to left or left to right. You will probably shoot this drill more than once. It’s a lot of setup to fire six whole rounds and call it a day.
If you’re firing the drill multiple times, mix up the left-to-right and right-to-left order of engagement.
Let’s walk through it:
- Start holstered, hands at your side.
- Hear the beep and draw.
- Engage the first target in the A-zone.
- Transition to the middle target and fire two A-zone headshots.
- Transition to the third target and fire two A-zone shots.
Focus on good recoil control and maintaining your splits. You need to focus on good transitions. Go fast when you can and go less fast when necessary.
Scoring
There isn’t a formal part-time or score. The goal is to do it as fast as possible and to continually get faster while maintaining perfect accuracy.
According to Ben Stoeger, the drill should be possible in three seconds. Three seconds is doable and shows a good degree of skill.
It’s a drill that encourages you to get a little faster with each run. Speed and accuracy are how you win gunfights and competitions. I constantly ran into transitioning to the third target; I had to think and retrain my mind to maximize efficiency.
The Training Behind the Drill
The Change Up Drill trains a lot of basic, fundamental skills. You’re getting work on your draw, your recoil control, your accuracy, and your transitions.
Those are all critical skills and important to building your overall shooting skills, but that’s not all. You’re just scratching the surface.
It’s important to remember that the goal is to get your sights on target, and don’t pull the trigger until your sights are on target. The general goal is to do that quickly. It sounds easy, but it’s tougher than you’d think.
The benefit here comes from your ability to go fast and slow down. You have to be thinking about what you’re doing.
The first two shots are going to be fast and easy. That transition to the far target forces you to slow down only as much as you need to. It’s super easy to overshoot your target and waste time on the transition.
I tend to be a tense shooter, and tension sucks for accuracy and speed. The Change Up Drill made me drop the tension to succeed—or at least get a better time than last time. I’m not quite at that desired three-second mark.
Change It Up
The Change Up Drill only requires six rounds and a few seconds, and you’ll get a little better every time—at least you should be. Make sure you are using your resources to examine your skills.
This includes your shot timer or even your phone to record your performance. Playing that video while acknowledging your shot times will give you quite the education on where you succeed and where you suck.
Get out there, change it up, and shoot through as many runs as you can stomach.
