How "fast" someone can draw and accurately fire a handgun is often sort of an artificial yardstick. Competition is one thing, but off the range? Other factors are often involved.
One time when I was attending an outside training class, one of the yardsticks used at the beginning and end of the week was drawing from realistic working concealment leather & working concealment clothing (plainclothes/tactics class). No IDPA, fishing or camera vests permitted.
Since it was an outside class occurring in winter months, much of my range work was done wearing layers, and my working leather was an OWB plainclothes holster. It was being worn underneath a pullover sweatshirt, under a zippered sweatshirt, under an insulated/quilted, thigh length coat. I ordinarily wore a suit or sport coat as a working cover garment, and sometimes a raincoat, but I thought the thicker layered clothing would make me work harder and help me learn whatever was being taught (and keep me warm
).
There wasn't a pass/fail time for the drill, but it was recommended that being able to complete it in 1.5 seconds or less was probably desirable.
The drill was drawing on an expected timer beep, firing a single shot at an identified threat target, at 5yds, using a 2-handed grip, while stepping offline to one side. Simple, right? A couple guys objected to the 2-handed requirement, as they believed 1-handed was faster. Well, they're right, it is faster doing 1-handed/hip-shooting ... except that 2-handed better lends itself to controllability, accuracy and using the sights. Tougher test drill.
Only 2 or 3 of us did it under 1.5 seconds on the first time through on the first day, but a lot of the class reached the goal, or came really close, by the end of the week.
Now, is that realistic for trying to gauge performance in the real world? Well, consider that we were
positioned and
expecting to shoot, at an
already identified threat target, shooting a
pre-determined number of rounds,
anticipating the
signal,
not distracted by doing other physical activities or having to see/hear anything else ... and we
knew nobody was going to be shooting at us.
Now, later in the week, that last bit (nobody shooting at us) was changed by including scenario training using Sim/FX marking cartridge guns, and things predictably went a bit to hell for some folks.
In the real world there are all kinds of expectations and distractions going on. Real reaction time has to be taken into account, too. Not just the reaction time while
expecting and knowing you're going to shoot at something clearly anticipated, like on the target/training range, but within the possible context of the unknown imminent threat being mixed in and often hidden within everything that's happening around us in the real world.
The OODA Loop's first couple of steps are the hard ones, meaning to
Observe and
Orient on something happening. Being aware enough to observe it's happening, and cognizant enough to orient on how it may affect you, can take time. That doesn't take into account the "This CAN'T be happening TO ME!?!" reaction, either. That can burn time, too. The
Freeze, Flight or Fight reaction is seemingly hard-wired into us, and it takes some effort to overcome its oft unexpected effects.
Then, there's got to be the
Decide portion of the thought process. More time burnt. Especially if you got side tracked into the
freeze reaction.
Lastly, the
Act part of the process. It helps to not only have a plan about
what to do, but probably some training and experience in
actually doing it, and under some stress and duress. Subconscious competence, so to speak, without having to stop and consciously go through that mental Rolodex for each step of what you need to DO RIGHT NOW.
So, sure, some safe and controlled skills assessment is a fine thing, and it can help you identify where you may need some attention. It's just that being able to be "face" a known practice target, under ideal range conditions, may be better as a training/practice aid than something which may predict performance under surprise, stressful conditions which weren't replicated on a range.
Gotta be aware of what's happening, first, though, in order to hope to get past the "observant" part of things.
You can practice that all the time.
BTW, when I got back from my training class, and was a bit proud of my performance, the head instructor did an impromptu demonstration. He'd been up all night working graveyard and was overtired and drinking coffee. While wearing his duty rig, without a cover garment (since he didn't have one on at the moment), he held his coffee cup in his off hand and told me to start the timer whenever I felt like it.
I waited a bit and did so. Without spilling a drop, he drew on the buzzer and fired a shot (1-handed, since he wasn't dropping his coffee) accurately into the smallest scoring zone of the silhouette. He did it twice, just to show me that sub .6 & .7 second times weren't flukes. No grumbling about what if he'd been better rested, either. Sigh. Back to the training range, right?