Like the 1911 itself, El Presidente is a classic exercise that shooters have been flocking to for generations. It is shot from a distance of 10 yards and only takes 12 rounds. To execute it, one must turn, draw, and fire twice at three IPSC paper targets. This first volley is followed by a mandatory reload and then the shooter must fire another six rounds, bringing the total shots fired to 12 shots.
El Presidente continues to serve both the competitive shooting and the defense training universes because high performance and success on this drill entails solid fundamentals: a swift draw to first shot*, a proper two-handed firing grip, and flawless transitions.
It’s worth mentioning that in terms of action pistol competitions like IPSC or USPSA, El Presidente is one of the oldest and most important classifiers and top shooters hold world records. Top-tier runs take place in less than four seconds, while normal shooters would be doing well to shoot El Presidente clean in 10 seconds.
El Presidente Set-Up And Procedure
Setting up El Presidente can be done in nearly any pistol bay or firing line. This drill requires three different IPSC, USPSA, or IDPA* targets spaced 36 inches apart in their corresponding target stands. Beyond that, the shooter simply needs to stand 10 yards up range. In a formal competition setting like a USPSA classifier stage, participants must turn and stand inside a 3-foot by 3-foot box.
*For pure training purposes, there’s no harm in shooting IDPA targets, but El Presidente is traditionally scored IPSC/USPSA style.
Due to the straightforward nature of El Presidente and its basic course of fire, the drill is “low-capacity” friendly and can be shot with nearly any pistol or revolver that can hold at least six rounds. And not unlike the Carbine Bill Drill, El Presidente is also carbine / long-gun /CQB friendly, too. (It’s just that 9mm ammo costs less than 5.56mm rifle cartridges).
One more point: provided one has the space for the set up in their backyard or garage, El Presidente is a great exercise to carry out in dry-fire, too, since working transitions or magazine reloads doesn’t technically require detonating fresh primers and sending lead downrange. For mere mortals, 10 seconds with clean shots is a good standard to strive for.
Procedure
- Shooters start with their handgun loaded and holstered while facing up-range with their back to the three targets. The hands must be held up above the shoulders in what’s called the surrender position.
- On the start signal from the shot timer, shooters will turn, draw, and fire twice at each target. After the third target has been engaged, shooters will perform a mandatory reload and engage all three targets again with a total of 12 rounds. Each target needs to have four bullet holes (preferably all in the A-zone).
Shooting El Presidente
When I trained with Greybeard Actual, he dedicated a good amount of time to El Presidente on the second day of his Pistol Skill Development course since its curriculum placed an important emphasis on target transitions. Shooting transitions, which is the simple act of navigating from one target to the next [smoothly], are a core aspect of pistol-shooting competency that separates novice shooters from experienced ones.
Similarly, we spent time working on Blake Drills, which can be thought of as a “diet El Presidente.”
Besides the fact that El Presidente forces the shooter to draw and grip their pistol cleanly while also being efficient in their transitions, there’s also value in that El Presidente forces a mandatory reload under time pressure. That weekend, I shot El Presidente twice for score from concealment with the S&W Carry Comp.
Even though my transitions, split times, and raw times were respectable (nine point-something seconds), I suffered the most in reloading from concealment because I never work them and ended up burning too much time. What I took away from performing El Presidente at Greybeard’s class was that the single most important thing is to keep driving the transitions with one’s eyes.
Coordinating this movement with the rest of the body, the handgun, and its sighting system requires sweat equity, which is why I consider flawless transitions the hallmark of an advanced shooter.
Anyone can “hear” it, too, with their shots.
Compare shots sounding like this: pop-pop…pop-pop…pop-pop
Versus pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop.
The Takeaway
El Presidente means “the president” in Spanish. Legend has it that Col. Jeff Cooper developed this drill in order to ascertain the shooting skills of a presidential security detail from a South American country during the late 1970s. After that, El Presidente took a life of its own.
As I already mentioned, this drill became one of the quintessential stand-and-deliver IPSC/USPSA classifiers, and that’s how many shooters know about it today.
Along with the Bill Drill, El Presidente is another classic 20th-century pistol-shooting drill that’s still worth keeping in mind today. Even though the pistols found in the hands of both serious and amateur shooters alike today are wildly different from the handguns that were first around when the El Presidente drill came on the scene—with their modern polymer materials, reflex sights, compensators, and upgraded magazine capacities—the technique that drives the El Presidente hasn’t changed and remains relevant.
