I took a red dot-based pistol fighting class early last year with War Hogg Tactical. Rick Hogg, a 29-year special operations veteran, teaches the class primarily to law enforcement, but when a student dropped out, he was happy to fit me in. We shot a ton of drills with the red dot-equipped pistol, and I learned so much in one day that it changed how I shot. With that in mind, Mr. Hogg teaches several drills, including the 1-1-1 Drill.
The 1-1-1 Drill is quite simple and focuses on getting a shooter moving and shooting under a little bit of duress. It doesn’t require a whole ton of logistics to accomplish and can be run multiple times without going through an entire box of ammo. It’s also a drill that works multiple skills in just a few rounds.
Prepping for the Drill
You’ll need a gun, a holster, and three rounds of ammo per run. There is no specific distance or target used. I fired at seven yards and used a USPSA A-zone as my target. This drill doesn’t require a shot timer, and integrating one might be a little difficult due to its nature. As usual, you should try to go as fast as you can and make accurate hits.
You need some way to get your heart rate up. Rick often uses a Brute Force Sandbag. I used a kettlebell, but if you can run sprints, do push-ups, burpees, or whatever, that will work, too. Our goal is to get our heart rate up. I aimed to hit 130 on my heart rate as measured by my smartwatch.
Shooting the 1-1-1 Drill
You’ll start the drill by doing some kind of physical work. Do what you prefer. I did kettlebell swings, overhead presses, and one-arm clean and presses. I went hard and fast to drive the heart rate high. While I’m currently overweight, I’ve been doing lots of cardio, and it takes way too much time to get my heart rate up. Also, working out in pants was a poor idea. Who makes tactical workout shorts?
Once your heart gets to wherever you want it, you align yourself with the target and draw your firearm. The 1-1-1 Drill consists of one shot with two hands: one shot with your dominant hand and one shot with your support hand. It’s not complicated, but amping up your heart rate makes it a lot tougher.
You have to focus on the fundamentals of shooting, especially with one hand. I make sure I have a thumb up when shooting with one hand to prevent cant. I also try to remember to change the orientation of my feet to give me the most recoil control when swapping hands.
Shooting with one hand makes finding the red dot or sights unintuitive. It’s more challenging than you’d think, but that’s the point!
More and More
Shooting the 1-1-1 Drill once is fine, but I think it’s much more fun if you shoot it multiple times. Fun means punishing. Doing one round of heart-racing exercise isn’t that hard. Doing it five times makes the drill even harder. Getting your heart rate up and shooting isn’t easy, but who wants it easy?
Admittedly, I think it’s worth noting that exercise-induced fatigue doesn’t represent or resemble an adrenaline rush. While your heart rate will be high in both situations, the adrenaline dump will have different physiological effects than physical fitness effects.
However, it’s not all that unlikely you might encounter some physical exertion in a fight for your life. Police and military members are more likely to face this challenge, but you never know. You might get into a physical assault that turns into a gunfight. Being inoculated with that type of stress can be invaluable.
Move and Shoot
Mixing in physical exertion while working your one-hand skills creates a very challenging drill. It’s not easy, but it’s fun and challenging. I suck on one hand, and this year, I want to work on my weak points and get well outside of my comfort zone. Stuff like the 1-1-1 Drill makes it easy and light on the ammo budget.
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