The OP chiming in again. .. My question wasn't about marksmanship training. It was about tactical defensive handgun training.
That's how I took the question.
At my next pistol practice session, I'm going start from low ready (holsters are not allowed), bring the gun up while looking at the target (7yds.) and fire 2 quick shots at a 6" target. (Rapid fire is not allowed but double taps are). If my shots miss, I will go back to some marksmanship practice, then back and forth until I can hit 6" targets defensively.
While many people do practice at seven yard targets and have for years, and while that distance is
coincidentally the distance that an average attacker can cover during a nominal one-and-one-half second draw time, I do not think that practicing at seven yards is necessarily a good idea.
Nor do I think that working to hit six inch targets "defensively" is a good general goal.
What we need to strive for is a
balance of speed and precision that will enable us to consistently shoot
as rapidly as possible with
combat accuracy at
plausible distances, in time to
stop the threat.
Most of the time, that means
putting multiple shots quickly into an area about the
size of the upper chest.
While one should be able to handle a target at seven yards, that's on the long end of the likely range--think in terms of 10 or 12 feet. We can go into that in more depth if you like.
I happened to have the opportunity to attend a two day I.C.E. PDN course in Combat Focus Shooting within driving distance a few years ago. The instructor was Rob Pincus.
I had been shooting handguns for quite a number of decades, but that was a real eye-opener. We did
not shoot at a target in front of us at which we had
planned to shoot. We did not shoot at a target upon a signal--rather, we looked for, identified, and turned to immediately address a target
somewhere within the multi-sided berm, immediately after it was described to us. We did not "practice" at different distances--rather, we fired at whatever distance was required for whatever target was specified. Those distinctions are important.
We moved off-line while drawing. We were to "use" the sights only when needed for longer distances.
Basic grip and trigger control was taught for those who needed it.
As I said, a real eye-opener, and an
excellent investment.
Most ranges do not allow that kind of thing, of course.
If you can possibly avail yourself of that training, by all means do so. If not, contact I.C.E. PDN about some of their home training course materials.
You can do your drawing from concealment while moving at home with an empty gun. A
good Airsoft gun may prove useful for some of the other exercises.
Did that make me a defensive shooting expert? No, though it certainly did help. What it did
not do is address shooting at multiple moving targets, and provide for shoot/no-shoot scenarios with innocents on scene. For that, one meeds FoF training with Simunitions, and that is not available until people have been through quite a bit of training. I am no longer physically able to aspire to that.
One other thing--there are some high-tech interactive laser simulation facilities in some places that can be set up for realistic scenarios, including shoot/no-shoot, that will tell you whether you fired and hit timely.
Some time back there was a video in which Rob Pincus demonstrated one, and he said it was so realistic that it got his adrenaline flowing.
Good luck in your endeavors.