The Accelerator is one of the best “truth serum” drills for competitive shooting because it forces you to change gears on demand. The 7-yard target tempts you to blaze, the 20-yard target punishes impatience, and the 15-yard target lives right in that uncomfortable middle where people throw points away.
The goal isn’t just raw speed—it’s learning how to throttle control: drive hard up close, add confirmation as distance increases, then do it all again after a reload when your brain wants to rush.
If you want a clean run, think: snap to the close target, settle for the far target, and don’t let the reload steal your pace. Clean first… then fast.
The Bill Drill is a classic, low round-count pressure test that pairs draw speed with recoil management and shot-calling. It’s pure fundamentals: grip, sights, trigger, cadence. Like most of our monthly picks, it’s solo-friendly and easily run on a single target with minimal setup required.
The Double Failure to Stop Drill with a reload as written is made to push the shooter to get out of their comfort zone, and break past a cadence of bang-bang-pause-bang. Much like my rifle version of this drill, the primary time gain here is to reflexively make the micro-motion to acquire the head shot, and have all three shots per target have the same split time.
You are capable of participating in your first match right now (well, almost). While I don’t outright recommend you show up with never having touched your gun, it really isn’t something you need to build a skill level prior to enjoy. On the contrary, I think competition shooting is an excellent way for someone to reliably build their practical shooting abilities! This article is going to focus specifically on getting started with USPSA, as it is the most widely available league for entry level shooters to join.
