Adding movement to most of the common drills will help you to get into a good shooting position more quickly.

With the clock ticking, reload and place two more hits on each target again. You want all 12 shots to be A-zone hits. If you throw a shot outside of the center ring, you don't pass.

In the old days, if you could do an El Pres in 10 seconds with all A-zone hits you were a demigod. Today, the top shooters can do it in five seconds.

But we're training for real life, not competition, so what you're really looking for in practice are smooth, fast hits. Many people shoot this drill in series of super-fast pairs--pop-pop…pop-pop…pop-pop--but the best shooters work on as quick a transition as possible, and the cadence is an even pop-pop-pop-pop.

Another good exercise is the Jerry Barnhart Transition Drill. Two targets, seven to 10 yards distant with a yard or two between the targets. You can start from the holster or at low ready. Come up on the left-hand target and fire two shots center of mass. Swing to the right-hand target and shoot once to the head, swing left to the head of the first target and fire one shot, then switch back to the right target and fire two shots center-of-mass.

When you're finished, both targets should have three holes each, all in their respective A zones. As with the El Pres, a shot outside the A zone means you didn't pass the drill.

Track your speed in getting all A hits. Alternate left-right, left-right with right-left, right-left. Here, you're learning to transition at angles and to change gears. You have to "gear down" and "gear up" on the Barnhart drill, as you cannot shoot the two head shots as quickly as you can the four body shots. If you shoot them all at head-shot speed, your time suffers. If you shoot them all at body-shot speed, your head-shot hits suffer.

The classic Bill Drill comes to us from Bill Wilson. One target, seven yards. From the holster, draw and fire six shots in the target. Your goal is six A-zone hits in two seconds. You won't make it at first.

The trick here is again smoothness. A smooth draw is faster than it looks, and spending a tenth of a second getting the sights correctly on the target--instead of simply pointing at cardboard--will get you hits. With a speed holster and gun specifically designed for speed competition, this is very easy. With a carry gun in a concealed holster, it is quite difficult.

The Bill Drill differs from the Enos speed drill in that you are not just watching the sights, but directing them to stay inside the A zone. It also adds a draw to the skills being tested or measured.

A couple of interesting ones with a limited amount of skill-building are the Mozambique and Dozier drills. Mozambique comes from an encounter at the airport in Maputo. The participant fires his Browning Hi Power twice on an approaching combatant, to no avail, so he transitions to the head.

The Dozier Drill is named after the unfortunate General Dozier, kidnapped by the Italian Red Brigade in 1981. The terrorists tricked the general into opening the door, and once they pushed their way inside, one pulled a submachine gun and magazine out of a bag and loaded the gun while another began reading a political decree.