Your trigger should be on high on the slide or cylinder throughout the draw, starting with when the gun is in the holster.

If you use a pullover garment such as a sweatshirt, be sure to pull the garment as high up as possible. The exaggerated movement will be useful under the stress of a lethal encounter. Even though it is easer to lift a pullover garment with the support hand while drawing with the gun hand, it is my preference to do both with the gun hand. As I mentioned previously, your support hand may be busy with other vital tasks. The difficulty—and what takes extra practice—is that you have to lift the garment and then grip your gun before the garment falls back down. Whether you use a vest or pullover, grasp the material firmly, as a light touch will most likely get fouled under the high stress of a lethal encounter.

There are a number of precautions you need to keep in mind when working on your draw. The most important one is to make sure that when first gripping the gun, your trigger finger is on the outside of the holster in a position that will be high on the slide or cylinder once the gun is drawn.

Your trigger finger should be positioned on the holster just as though it were on the gun. This goes for reholstering as well. Having a finger on the trigger while putting the gun back in the holster is one of the most common causes of negligent discharges.

When reholstering or drawing, be careful not to let the muzzle pass across your feet, legs or any other parts of your body. And, again, never use your support hand to guide the gun to the holster because it will no doubt get in front of the muzzle.

If your gun has a cocked external hammer, such as on a 1911, place your thumb on the hammer when reholstering to keep it from dropping in case of an accident. If your gun does not have an external safety to prevent the slide from moving, the friction of the holster may push the slide back during reholstering. Place your thumb on the rear of the slide to hold it in place.

These draw techniques work fine when you have the time to assume a proper position. In a real-life gunfight, time is a luxury you probably won’t have. Once you have built your skills with the proper technique, practice unorthodox methods and positions.

When clearing a vest or jacket, swing it far out of the way to give y ourself enough time to grip your gun.

Start off practicing new movement patterns slowly—very slowly. Concentrate on performing all of the motions perfectly before increasing speed. The ultimate goal of practicing any physical movement is “unconscious competence,” also known as “muscle memory,” meaning that you have repeated the motion so often that your body automatically knows what to do without thinking. The 3,000 or so repetitions it takes to achieve unconscious competence are vital because you need your concentration to be focused entirely on the threat and not on trying to get your gun out of the holster.

I can’t stress enough the need to do this all safely. Always start practicing new techniques with unloaded firearms. Move to live fire only when you’ve achieved competence at adequate speed. When you transition to live ammo, start again at very slow speeds. Always practice for accuracy. Speed will come with competence. If you are not hitting the A zone with every shot, you are going too fast.