How to do the El Preidente Drill

The drill uses three targets. The shooter starts by facing away from the targets. On the signal to start, the shooter turns and shoots each target twice, then performs a reload, and shoots each target twice again. The shooter’s performance is scored by taking account of both the number of hits and the time taken to achieve those hits. This drill is a good opportunity to practice the various types of reloads. You can practice your combat/slide lock reload with your empty mag falling to the ground or you can practice your administrative or tactical reload with retention where you put your partially-spent mag in your pocket and load your gun to its full capacity. Practicing this helps with your dexterity and motor skills.

El Presidente Stages:

Range: 10 yards (variation = 7 yards)
Target: 3 IPSC or IDPA targets spaced 1yard apart from each other shoulder to shoulder
Start position: Back to targets; hands above shoulders (“surrender position”); handgun concealed
Rounds fired: 12

Goal: Complete drill in 10 seconds with all A-Zone hits. Any string with less than 12 A-Zone hits is a fail.

Note: For all timed drills, free shot-timer Apps for smart phones are available, e.g. SureFire Shot Timer for iPhone, IPSC Shot Timer for Android, or you can buy hardware like the Pocket Pro or CED7000 timers.

1. At the start signal, turn, then draw from concealment and fire two rounds at each of the three targets.

2. Perform a reload, then fire two rounds at each target again.

3. There should be four hits on each target for a total of twelve hits.