[TunnelRat]

A lot of great points from John, imo. Strategy and tactics are obviously important, but in what are many cases ambush like defensive scenarios the ability to use those can be limited. Many gun fights are a few seconds long in total. The ability to react quickly and with deliberation is important, and those can be at least quantified to an extent with a timer. Timers don't just matter speed. Your skill level and efficiency factor into your overall time.

John mentioned a number of good uses for a timer. I would say I personally use one to see if I am maintaining the skill level I've had in the past, as well as compare my "cold" performance to that I've achieved at the end of two back to back days of training. For instance, I can draw from concealment and get a good hit to the upper thorax in 1.3 seconds at 3 yds, but that goes to 1.6 seconds when I'm at 10 yds as the distance requires better sight alignment for an equivalent hit (and shooting reflexively comes into play here). I know that doing this cold typically can add 0.1-0.15 seconds to my time. I know that drawing from concealment adds about 0.2-0.3 seconds to my time as opposed to no cover garment. I know that if I really rush it I can save maybe another 0.1 seconds, but my tendency to fumble getting the garment out of the way also goes up.

Some might argue what benefit I get from this info. The benefit to me is trying different techniques or running different drills and seeing the impact on my time. I have found that sometimes a bit more deliberation can feel much slower and really not be much slower at all. If I didn't have the timer to quantify this my normal impressions might well lead me to wrong conclusions, and I find this true once at a certain performance level.

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