What one common skill makes a basketball player, a magician, and even a gunfighter a master at their craft?
It’s fingertip control.
Think about it…
From quickly drawing your weapon… to reloading… to clearing a jam mid-fight… your ability to perform these intricate actions as smoothly as possible could mean the difference between life and death.
But with adrenaline surging through your veins, your fine-motor skills fly out the window and most people will fail – bobbling their weapon… dropping magazines… wasting precious split-seconds that are needed to put your weapon into action.
Believe it or not, you can train your critical finger dexterity skills in the comfort of your own home – even without a gun – by taking a lesson from a circus clown.
Grab a few tennis balls and give these 3 “gun-fighting” drills a try..
3 “Clown Drills” That Are Guaranteed To Make You A Better Gun Fighter
Gun Drill #1: Juggling 2 Tennis Balls
Have you ever tried to juggle?
Although it seems deceptively simple, keeping track of 2 objects and alternating their position in the air before your face requires you to to coordinate both your arms and your eyesight while tracking moving targets in different locations in space.
It’s all in the fingertips and timing.
That’s PRECISELY the type of coordination you need to train when it comes to using a weapon under stress (and while dealing with multiple variables).
With 2 tennis balls, juggle them in a simple circular pattern in front of your face until you can do it for 30 seconds without dropping them; then move on to…
Gun Drill #2: Juggling 3 Tennis Balls
Juggling 3 balls in a “figure 8” pattern (like you’ve seen many jugglers do) requires a different type of coordination and uses your fingertips in an entirely different way.
That’s why you need to practice BOTH methods.
The result is a multi-faceted development of better “finger coordination,” which translates directly to weapon manipulation.
Gun Drill #3: Tennis Ball Toss
Armed once again with your trusty tennis balls, this next drill not only works on your fingertip dexterity, but also improves your hand-eye coordination… reaction time… and also your peripheral vision.
Here’s what to do…
Stare at a point on the wall in front of you as your “target”.
Now, with the tennis ball in your right hand, toss it to your left.
Try to catch it with your palm up without watching the ball, so that you’re tracking it only in your peripheral vision.
Practice both sides, and then try snatching the ball at either side of your body overhand rather than underhand.
When you can catch the ball on either side without looking, you’ve mastered it.
This can really improve your ability to identify threats that could be attacking you from a different angle than where you’re focused, giving you that critical split-second response time that can save your life in a real-world altercation.
