Equipment Review: Notebook

There us a great deal of training tools that can be useful, but there is one that may Trump all others: the notebook.

Often, when working on a particular skills such as reloads, draw time, or transitions, I will use a timer. The timer give me real feedback on how my performance is going. If I need to work accuracy, I check the target to confirm.

The problem with all this is that we don't have a long time line on which to base the improvement. If you improved over the last 2 months, but are still the same speed as you were 2 years ago, is that improvement?

The only answer is to keep a log. A dry fire log, a live fire log, a training log. The act of writing things down can reinforce our memory, as well as being a reference as to what you have done in the past.

A good kit should include a timer and scorable targets, but don't forget to document the time and accuracy. We don't know where we need to go unless we know where we have been.