There’s no point to own a handgun if you’re not confident and comfortable using it, and it’s a smart idea to level up your self-defensive skills with a few drills.

Because these last few years, tactics and techniques traditionally reserved for the military and police forces are now available to civilians. Coming from a military background myself, I’ve taken advantage of the access I had to get pretty damn deadly with my guns, and I’m glad this quality of courses and training are now available to more of you.

But I’ve been lucky, after hundreds of hours on the range, learning from some of the best shooters in the business, I’ve discovered there’s lots of bad information out there. And that’s the whole point of this article today. To share with you what’s common sense to me, and give you a couple of drills you can use to level up your shooting skills.

But don’t forget safety

I mention this first because it’s imperative. Before you start doing any sort of drills with your handgun, you need to know your way around your gun. You need to know the four rules of responsible gun handling, and always practice dry-firing the drills first. Not only will it save you hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on ammunition, it’ll help you get comfortable with all of these before things get unsafe. And that’s important too.

Four rules of responsible gun handling

1. Always handle a gun as if it’s loaded.
2. Never point your gun at anything you don’t want to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.
4. Look not only at your target, but what’s behind it, before you shoot.

Now before we get started I want to remind you the importance of being ready to fire. Whenever you practice, keep your gun up. With your gun up, you shave seconds off your time to engage, which could be the seconds that save your life in a real fire fight.

Falling back safely

When you’re in a gun fight your ultimate goal is survival. This isn’t some kind of action movie where you charge the target, and you are definitely not John Wick able to take on dozens of bad guys without getting seriously injured yourself. Do not go towards the bad guy in a gun fight, even if you’ve got a full clip you’re firing as you do so.

You need to learn how to fall back. That’s how you win. You live to fight another day, and if you’re able to successfully escape whatever danger you’ve found yourself in, that’s a win. Because survival is what’s important, survival for your family, for your friends, for all the people who rely on you. Here’s how it works.

1. Start with your pistol holstered or concealed.
2. With your arms at your side, shake them and get loose.
3. At the count of three, draw your weapon and bring it up to bear.
4. As you move back shout out “GET BACK” or “I’M GOING TO SHOOT”
5. Engage your target and double tap twice in their center mass.
6. When you’ve landed two successful shots, move back again and repeat.
7. Rinse and repeat this drill until you’re comfortable with your retreat.
8. Continue working on it until you’re consistently landing all of your shots.

The key here is to get comfortable with your accuracy as you’re safely falling back, but to also give fair warning to your intended target. Just in case you end up in the wrong side of a courtroom, you need to have your back covered as well.

Rapid position change

When you’re being shot at the last thing you want to do is stay still. This allows your attacker to get a bearing on you, and with a little time, he’ll figure out his aim and you’re going to be getting hit. It’s a smart idea to keep your attacker on their toes, and keep moving. Of course, practicing this live can be difficult, and the goal here isn’t to shoot.

Your ultimate goal is to move, which makes this a great drill to run dry. Here’s how.

1. Start with your pistol holstered or concealed.
2. With your arms at your side, shake them and get loose.
3. At the count of three, draw your weapon and bring it up to bear.
4. But at the last second, change direction.
5. You can move forward to cover, or back.
6. You can move to the left or right.
7. The goal is to get out of your attackers line of sight as fast as possible.
8. Consider adding obstacles and cover to the training area.
9. Time yourself as you move, and repeat until you’re comfortable moving fast.

The key here is speed. If you’re being shot at you want to move as fast as possible, confounding the aim of your attacker so you stand the greatest chances of getting away without a bullet wound. I actually really like practicing this one down at the airsoft range, where you end up with bruises as a harsh reminder you’ve been too slow.

Jam and recover

It’s a fact of life your handgun will jam at some point, and the trick here is to not let it get to you, so you can continue firing defensively at your target. This is a simple drill, and works great if you’re at the range with a partner.

1. Get your partner to load your mags, with a dummy round or snap cap included.
2. Run through your normal firing drills, until you get to the dummy round.
3. When it hits, you’ll be surprised, much like if it happened in a real fire fight.
4. Clear the jam, and continue shooting.
5. Rinse and repeat this drill until you’re comfortable rapidly dealing with a jam.
6. Continue working on it until you’re almost robot-like in your precision reload.

The key here is knowing what to do when things go wrong, so you’re not surprised or caught off-guard in a really dangerous situation. The better you can react, and the faster, the greater your chances of survival.

These three drills seem simple at the surface, but master these and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a defensive shooter, and stand a much better chance to make it out of a shoot-out in one piece. And that’s all that counts.