"Speed will come..."

I have heard this adage thousands of times.  "Focus on accuracy and the speed will come later." I will admit, I use this phrase in our Practical Performance courses as well, but with one add on: "...if you make it." Speed doesn't just happen. Let's say you wanted to bench press 300 lbs, four times. I don't know a single person that would advocate bench pressing 150 lbs four times, never moving up in weight or reps, and expect you to hit your goal. If you bench 150 lbs four times and thats all you ever do, you're going to get really good at bench pressing 150 lbs 4 times, but you'll never bench 300 lbs. I think this is pretty common sense. Someone super smart said something to the effect of "Doing the same thing the same way every time and expecting a different result is the definition of insane..." So why do we think that focusing on shooting accurately alone will make us fast?

"Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast."

This phrase has become one of my biggest pet peeves over time. I can't remember the first time I heard it, or where, but I know it was pre-2000. Admittedly, I liked and used this phrase in my early shooting and teaching. To me, there was merit in the understanding that before I can go fast, I need to be smooth. What does that mean? To me it was simple: crawl, walk, run. Get the form down and then keep the form while building speed. Around 2011 I was teaching regularly at a school in Colorado. While there, I heard that phrase uttered by other instructors over and over again. Then, one day I heard a fellow instructor, Pete Italiano, respond to a student who uttered the phrase. "Bullshit! Fast is fast!" As always, a single phrase uttered by Pete in some random conversation sent my mind down a road that would ultimately change how I would forever look at and teach something. It was in that moment that I realized both students and teachers using that phrase didn't see it the way I did. They only understood half the picture. I had taken for granted that students and instructors who used the phrase explained that, as Pete elaborated, you have to go fast in order to get fast. This however wasn't the case. From that day on, I have abstained from using that phrase except to tell the story of how Pete unknowingly "shattered the mirror" for me on what others saw in it that day. Slow is not smooth. Slow is slow. Smooth is smooth. Fast is fast. You have to make smooth, fast. It's not going to happen on its own.