The El Presidente in 60 seconds (BLUF)

• What it is: Face uprange at 10 yards, turn on the beep, draw, fire two rounds on each of three targets, reload, and fire two more on each — 12 rounds total against the clock.
• Who made it: Jeff Cooper, who built it to gauge pistol proficiency for a South American presidential security detail — hence “El Presidente,” or “El Prez” for short.
• What’s a good time? The classic benchmark is a clean run in 10 seconds (all 12 in the A-zone). Solid club shooters break 8s, and top competitors run it in the 5–6 second range.
• Why it’s the decathlon of drills: One run tests your turn, draw, target transitions, splits, a full reload, and recoil control — no single skill can hide.
• Train it anywhere: The turn, draw, transitions and reload are all pattern skills. Run par-time reps with an airsoft pistol or dry fire on a free Airsoft Shot Timer app between range trips.

Ask a room full of shooters to name one pistol drill and more of them will say “El Presidente” than anything else. It’s been on range programs for fifty years, it shows up in USPSA classifiers, and it’s the first thing a lot of instructors reach for when they want to see whether a new student can actually run a gun rather than just shoot groups off a bench. If the Bill Drill is the honest test of your grip, the El Prez is the honest test of everything else.

The Bill Drill in 60 seconds (BLUF)

• What it is: Draw and fire six rounds into the A-zone of one target at seven yards, as fast as you can keep them all in. That’s the whole drill.
• Why it’s brutal: Six shots leaves nowhere to hide. A bad grip, a slow draw, or flinching all show up instantly in your hits and your times.
• What’s a good time? Roughly 4.5s for a new shooter, sub-3s for a solid club shooter, and sub-2s is the classic “you can really shoot” benchmark. Top competitors run it in the low 1.4s range.
• The two levers: Your draw (first shot) and your splits (time between shots). A shot timer breaks both out for you so you know which one to fix.
• Train it anywhere: You don’t need live fire to build the pattern. An airsoft pistol or a dry-fire rep with a par time on a free Airsoft Shot Timer app trains the exact same draw-and-run mechanics.

If you’ve ever watched someone at the range draw and rip six shots into a single target in about two seconds, you’ve probably seen a Bill Drill without knowing its name. To a bystander it looks like a John Wick impression. To anyone who trains seriously, it’s one of the most revealing tests in shooting — because there is absolutely nothing to it, and that’s exactly why it’s so hard to fake.

The IDPA classifier in 60 seconds (BLUF)

• What it is: A standardized skills test that sorts you into a class. Most clubs now use the 5x5 classifier — 25 rounds, four strings, one target at 10 yards, no concealment required.
• How it’s scored: Your final number is raw time + points down (1 second each) + penalties. Lower is better. Unlike USPSA’s hit factor, in IDPA your time is your score.
• The classes: Master (MA), Expert (EX), Sharpshooter (SS), Marksman (MM), Novice (NV) — set by hard time brackets that differ by division (SSP, ESP, CDP, CO and the rest).
• You’re classified per division: you must shoot the classifier in a division to hold a class in it.
• The fastest way to move up: drill the draw, the strong-hand string and the slide-lock reload with a free Airsoft Shot Timer app between matches — every tenth you save is a tenth off your classifier.

There’s a particular kind of quiet that falls over a bay when the safety officer says “this is the classifier.” Everybody who was joking around two minutes ago suddenly gets serious, because this is the one stage of the day that follows you home. Your fun-stage hits stay at the club; your classifier time goes into the IDPA database and decides whether you’re a Sharpshooter or an Expert for the next year. This guide walks through exactly what that test is, how a stopwatch number turns into a class, what the current standards are, and — the part most people skip — how to actually train for it without burning a case of ammo.

USPSA classifiers in 60 seconds (BLUF)

• What it is: A classifier is a short, standardized course of fire you shoot at a local match. Your raw score becomes a hit factor (points ÷ time), and that hit factor is compared against USPSA’s benchmark for that stage to produce a percentage.
• How you get classified: You need four valid scores from four different classifiers in a division. After that, your class is set by the best 6 of your most recent 8 unique classifier percentages.
• The classes: Grand Master (95%+), Master, A, B, C, D — each division is scored separately, so you can be A-class in Production and C-class in Open.
• What changed in 2025: USPSA removed the old B/C/D flags, started averaging same-day attempts, and released the new 25-Series classifier stages. More on that below.
• The fastest way to move up: practice the exact mechanics a classifier measures — draw, splits, reloads — with a free Airsoft Shot Timer app between matches.

If you’ve shot a couple of USPSA matches, you’ve already run into classifiers — those short, oddly specific stages where everyone suddenly gets quiet and serious. And if you’ve ever logged into uspsa.org and stared at a wall of percentages, division codes and three-digit stage numbers, you’ve probably also wondered what any of it actually means for you. This guide unpacks the whole system in plain language: what a classifier is, how a stopwatch number becomes a letter grade, what the 2025 overhaul changed, and how to nudge your percentage upward without gaming it.

Short answer: Yes, airsoft helps with real gun training — for specific skills. Grip, draw stroke, magazine reloads, target transitions, and tactical movement transfer almost perfectly from a GBB pistol to a real firearm. Recoil management, trigger feel, and ballistics don’t transfer at all. U.S. military units and law enforcement agencies have used airsoft (and the closely related Simunition) for decades because force-on-force training is nearly impossible to replicate safely with live ammunition. The rest of this guide breaks down exactly which skills cross over, which don’t, and how to structure a training ladder that bridges the gap.

Why You Need a Laser Training System

If you’ve ever been serious about improving your shooting, you’ve run into the same problem everyone does: you want to practice, but you can’t hit the range every day. Between range fees, ammunition costs, and travel time, putting in a daily 30-minute practice session becomes a luxury.

When Dry Fire Meets Laser Technology

If you already have a dry fire habit, you know the frustration of wondering “where did that shot actually go?” You press the trigger against the wall, the sight picture looks fine, but was it really accurate? Did the muzzle shift at the moment of the trigger break? These questions are nearly impossible to answer by eye alone. That’s exactly why laser training systems exist — they fire a laser beam the instant you pull the trigger, precisely marking your point of impact and giving you instant feedback on every single dry fire rep.

What Is USPSA?

If you’re in North America and interested in competitive shooting, USPSA (United States Practical Shooting Association) is almost impossible to avoid. As the U.S. affiliate of IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation), USPSA is the largest and most active practical shooting platform in North America, with hundreds of local matches held across the country every week.

Why Do You Need a Training Plan?

“I go to the range every week, but I don’t seem to be improving.” — This is a common frustration among shooters. The problem often isn’t about not practicing enough, but rather the lack of a systematic training plan.

Why Malfunction Clearance is an Essential Skill

You pull the trigger and hear only a “click”—this is something every shooter will eventually experience. No matter how reliable your gun is or how good your ammunition quality, malfunctions will happen at the most unexpected moments.

Quick Start: Dry Fire Training at Home Tonight

Short on time? Here’s everything you need to start dry fire training at home today, then the full guide below.