#fridayfundamentals
In reply to the Back to Basics WheelgunWednesday post, a pertinent question came up.
“I was ‘hammering’ instead of firing a ‘controlled pair.’
What do you mean by hammering?”
Great question – thanks for asking. Sometimes we trainers take our subject matter knowledge for granted. Several concepts developed by Jeff Cooper have remained constant despite having been formulated nearly half a century ago.
Fundamental Terminology
- Flash Sight Picture
- Controlled Pair
- Hammer
Flash Sight Picture
The concept of accepting that perfect sight alignment is not necessary to achieve an acceptable hit. Shooters often assume that they need to obtain a perfect sight picture for acceptable hits.
That’s not necessarily the case, depending on the distance to target.
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2015/02/06/89081/
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2015/10/02/friday-fundamentals-segment-2/
Controlled Pair
Achieving an acceptable sight picture on a target, firing a shot, bringing the pistol down in recoil, obtaining a second acceptable sight picture, and firing a second shot.
Hammer
Achieving an acceptable sight picture on a target, firing a shot, bringing the pistol down in recoil, and firing a second shot using only a physical index to the target without regard to achieving a second sight picture.
Note that the term ‘double tap’ is obsolete because it could refer to either a controlled pair or a hammer and so is inadequate as a description. Others have written in-depth articles about Cooper’s concepts so I will just link to them.
Flash Sight Picture
Chris Baker
Jim Wilson
https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/sheriff-s-tips-understanding-the-flash-sight-picture
Hammer v. Controlled Pair
Jim Wilson
https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/whatever-happened-to-the-double-tap
Darryl Bolke via Greg Ellifritz
Chgowiz wins a free book of mine for asking a great question.
tacticalprofessor 