DRILLS

Drill logging for practical shooters: a simple system

A drill is only training if you can tell whether it is working. Logging is what makes that possible — but only if the system is light enough that you keep doing it. Here is how to log drills without turning practice into paperwork.

Step 1 — Build a reusable drill library

The first time you log a Bill Drill, a draw, or a standard reload, you define it. Every time after that, you reuse it. This is the single biggest factor in whether drill logging survives: if you have to re-describe the drill each session, you will quit. A library means the session starts in one tap and the data accumulates against a stable definition. Keep it small — the drills you actually run, not every drill you have read about.

Step 2 — Choose a scoring mode per drill

Different drills measure different things. Forcing them all into one format is why logs become useless. There are really four modes:

  • Reps only — volume work where the count is the point: weak-hand reps, dry reloads.
  • Time per rep — anything on the clock: draws, reloads, a Bill Drill.
  • Par time — training against a beep, logging reps in bulk.
  • Hit factor — scored drills where points and time both matter; the HF gets calculated for you.

Set the mode per drill, once, and the log stays meaningful. This is the same scoring model the SplitZero app uses, precisely because one-size-fits-all logging does not work for practical shooting.

Step 3 — Log runs in the moment

Record each run as it happens. Memory rounds and forgets; logged-in-the-moment data is the only kind worth trending. The bar is that logging a run is faster than the run itself — otherwise it interrupts the training it is supposed to support. (More on this in how to track dry fire practice.)

Step 4 — Mark your benchmark drills

Flag the handful of drills you will re-run as fixed references. These are your measuring stick: same drill, same setup, run periodically so you can compare across weeks and months. Everything else can be experimental; the benchmarks stay constant. They are what make progress tracking possible.

Step 5 — Review and adjust

Logged drills are only useful if you read them. Periodically look at the trends: which drills are improving, which have stalled, which you keep avoiding. Then bias the next sessions toward the weak ones. The log stops being a record and becomes a plan.

The whole system, briefly

  1. Define drills once, reuse forever.
  2. One scoring mode per drill.
  3. Log every run in the moment.
  4. Keep fixed benchmark drills.
  5. Review trends, train the weak drills.

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