We all want to shoot better, but what to practice? How do you go about getting trigger time that is relevant to skill building? There are a few things you can do to improve your shooting, and the best part is, these drills work for any kind of shooting except perhaps Olympic free pistol.

I can hear the tacti-cool crowd grumbling, "These drills don't have any real-world relevance." Yes and no. They are the skill-building basics that you work on. They are the non-sexy aspect of learning, and if you don't have the basic skills beforehand, you will put in a sorry performance in real life.

The following drills don't require a lot of gear or fancy props, but for all these tests you'll need an electronic timer and targets, preferably USPSA/IPSC or IDPA targets.

As for the handguns you use, you aren't going to be doing many of these with a Super Blackhawk in .44 Magnum, loaded with J.D. Jones bear-stomper loads. And don't worry too much about making the par times if your practice handgun is, say, a Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight.

The simplest drills come to us from Brian Enos. They are each the fastest and the slowest drills you'll do. The slowest one is simple: shoot groups. Sit down, use a bench with sandbags, put a target out at 25 or 50 yards, and shoot the smallest group of five shots you can. Smaller is better.

Here, you're teaching your eye/brain what a proper sight picture looks like. You're also teaching your trigger finger and brain what a proper trigger press is. Score doesn't matter, and you can do this with a plain piece of cardboard. Pick a spot and shoot a group.

Your first measure of success is a lack of fliers--no strays outside the group. In time, your groups will get smaller, and you'll need these skills for the other drills.

The other Enos drill seems pointless to the outsider: You shoot for speed. Here you stand close enough to a backstop that you can't miss. You simply shoot five or six shots into the hill (use a target if the club rules require it) as fast as physically possible while watching the sights.

You can shoot accurately only as quickly as you can see the sights, and this drill teaches your brain to see the sights faster, provided you focus on the sight as is moves. Learn to suppress your blink and flinch responses. Teach your eyes to watch and see the sights. Time yourself if you want to, but here the object is to learn what it is like to go fast and actually see things.

Now we step up in the hierarchy to El Presidente. Developed by the late Jeff Cooper, it was intended as a quick test to check the skill level of a group of bodyguards he was training down in Central America. It teaches basic movement skills and draw timing, as well as target transitioning and reloading.

At its simplest, you need three targets at 10 yards spaced about a yard apart. Start with a holstered handgun, back to the targets. On the start signal, turn and draw (the order does matter) and then place two hits on each target.