I had the opportunity to attend Memphis Beech’s online Dry-Fire Basics webinar recently. This 90 minute online course not only covers the ABCs of practicing handgun dry-fire at home, but also delves into safety, setting routines, pistol training itself and many other relevant topics pertinent to both shooting and self-defense. While the information that Beech shares will probably be useful to most any gun owner, I think those that are either brand new to firearms or brand new to training more seriously with firearms will benefit the most from Dry Fire Basics.
This lecture is like an on-ramp onto the “defensive firearms training superhighway. To be clear, I mean that Dry Fire Basics would have been the presentation to listen to back in the day—the same evening that I decided that I’d “take firearms training more seriously.” I could only imagine what having been exposed to such a lecture and its concepts, examples, external references and relevancies early on would have led to. In the same vein, it stands to benefit new shooters serious about self-defense today.
DRY-FIRE BASICS WEBINAR OVERVIEW
Dry Fire Basics as a presentation is divided into different parts including safety, managing the activity with others who live in the same home, drills and examples and most importantly–the building of a dry-fire routine and habit. Beech goes into detail and gives examples for every part of his presentation. One of the things I particularly appreciated about Dry Fire Basics is that every so often, Beech would make a connection between whatever he was talking about at the moment and connecting it back to a bigger-picture concept of self defense with firearms.
The webinar is full of common sense advice that one would also hear any good instructor bring up at a live-fire pistol class. One that stands out to me particularly is the concept of micro-drilling or the breaking down of a complex movement into smaller nuggets. The case of drawing a handgun from a holster would be a perfect example as this skill has many moving parts and takes some experience to execute properly. In short, this 90-minute webinar is chock full of handgun training material beyond the practical dry-fire aspects of setting up or doing drills. I took notes throughout the entire lecture and ended up with six pages.
Beech also sends his students some helpful documents including an outline of Dry Fire Basics and a recording of the actual webinar which is available for up to two weeks.
THE TAKEAWAY
I first met Memphis Beech at Tac-Con 2022 during the Craig Douglas “experiential learning lab” module, and I think he is someone to keep your eye on as far as newer up-and-coming instructors are concerned. I’ve been following him on social media for a minute now, and it’s clear he is putting in the work by attending competition, other training and fostering discussion. Most of us would agree that dry-firing at home isn’t as fun as busting caps on the range, and yet Beech’s passion shines through during Dry Fire Basics and makes a “mundane” topic feel relevant and more engaging. As previously mentioned, this webinar is ideal for someone who is serious about self-defense training and either took their first handgun home that evening or is deciding to approach their already existing firearms from a different perspective.
Dry-fire practice isn’t the most exciting aspect of firearms training, and it can feel like a chore for many (it certainly does to me most of the time). However, it’s crucial for shooting success regardless of whether one’s goal is proficiency in defensive or competitive applications–or both. If you spend any time in any serious shooter’s circles, the topic comes up often enough and is made into these huge deals. Certainly, dry-firing is important but my single biggest takeaway from Beech is that it doesn’t have to be that huge event as a daily habit; that even at least five minutes of mindful and dedicated focus on the most important aspects of handgun shooting are helpful.
