Mike Ox

Mike Ox is an avid defensive and competitive shooter who has co-created several firearms training products, including Dry Fire Training Cards. His team is made up of current and former law enforcement and military special operations instructors with an emphasis on accelerated learning techniques for shooting as well as controlling brain state and brain chemistry for optimal performance in extreme stress situations. Learn more about dynamic dry fire training for defense and competition at DryFireTrainingCards.com.

Articles by Mike Ox

• 4 myths of front sight focus

  There are a ton of myths floating around about using a front sight focus on a self-defense pistol. One…

  Thursday, May 20, 2021

• Making the switch to a pistol red dot instantly and effortlessly

  Red dot sights on pistols, also called micro red dots or micro red dot sights (MDRS), are all the rage…

  Tuesday, March 16, 2021

• Self-defense shooting with corrective lenses

  A lot of times, the techniques that we use for plinking and having fun with guns don’t necessarily…

  Tuesday, February 23, 2021

• What is the best way to simulate ‘stress shooting?’

  I got a great question recently: What is the best way to simulate "stress shooting?" It’s an important…

  Thursday, February 11, 2021

• Is your gun training perturbing enough?

  "I’m very perturbed about that" was a relatively common saying when I was growing up. Today, when you…

  Wednesday, January 20, 2021

• Are you training too much at one time?

  There’s a natural assumption that if you want to get better at a skill, you should spend hours every…

  Thursday, December 17, 2020

• Busting the myth of the iron grip for shooting

  For some reason, I've been getting questions and finding myself in conversations about grip quite a bit…

  Wednesday, June 17, 2020

• Video: Perfect stance vs. odd angles…which is faster?

  There's a lot of talk on what the best "combat" shooting stance is. In my mind, that’s the wrong question.…

  Wednesday, May 13, 2020

• Are combat-accurate groups good enough? Probably not

  There's a continual debate among shooters about whether it's important to be able to shoot precisely…

  Wednesday, April 08, 2020

• How Twister and a 99-cent app can help you ‘overtrain’ beyond common pistol standards

  Most training today is what is known as "training to a standard." It may be passing a test, shooting…

  Thursday, March 26, 2020

• Combat accuracy vs. precision

  One of the arguments against practicing to shoot one-hole groups is that you won't have time to do this…

  Wednesday, February 26, 2020

• Why you need to keep your finger off the trigger

  I'm part of a few instructor groups online and a question was recently posed about an agency whose policy…

  Wednesday, February 12, 2020

• Why ‘point shooting’ doesn’t work on its own

  I get into frequent discussions with shooters and instructors on the merits of sighted shooting vs. point…

  Wednesday, January 22, 2020

• Top 3 ‘getting off the X’ myths about shooting on the move

  One of the most important rules in a gunfight is to avoid being in the path of incoming rounds, and one…

  Tuesday, January 07, 2020

• What’s the best distance to practice at for self-defense? It’s not what you think

  I see the debate of how far out to put the target almost every time I go to a range during public hours.…

  Wednesday, December 11, 2019

• Avoid this dummy drill and turn it into a ‘smart’ drill

  One of the most popular range drills is the "ball and dummy" drill. The way it typically works is that…

  Friday, November 22, 2019

• Busting 3 myths of the ‘21-foot rule’

  Almost everyone who shoots has heard about the "21-foot rule" and how important it is to practice at…

  Wednesday, November 13, 2019

• Video: Comparing the top laser training pistols

  I'm asked all the time about various laser training platforms, including the SIRT Dry Fire Pistol, the…

  Tuesday, August 27, 2019

• Video: How to manage .45 recoil with only 2 fingers

  Sometimes, the firearms training industry gets in a rut…and people get very emotional about techniques…

  Wednesday, August 14, 2019

• Shooting on the move: The 4 corners drill

  Shooting on the move is more of a controversial topic than you may think. For some people, shooting on…

  Wednesday, January 16, 2019

• If you still use your sights to aim, you should do this instead

  There are stages that shooters go through as they go from picking up a pistol for the first time to being…

  Thursday, December 06, 2018

• The best live fire drills to do at the range

  There’s no one specific set of drills that’s best for every shooter. But there is an easy way to…

  Thursday, November 15, 2018

• Front sight focus or point shooting: Which is better?

  This is a can of worms that divides the shooting world almost as much as the 9 mm vs. .45 debate. No…

  Thursday, October 04, 2018

• Speed vs. accuracy in training and self-defense

  There’s a continual debate in the gun training world between whether you should train accuracy or speed.…

  Thursday, September 27, 2018

• Why the quickest thing you can do to shoot better is something you shouldn’t do

  I’m going to let you in on a little firearms training secret. It’s a trick used by instructors to…

  Thursday, July 19, 2018

• Top 10 reasons you should shoot competitively

  There are thousands of opportunities across the country to compete in local, regional, and national shooting…

  Thursday, July 05, 2018

• AR-15 ‘overpenetration’ only exists if you do this wrong

  Today, we’re going to talk about one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about the AR-15.…

  Tuesday, June 19, 2018

• Sighted vs. point shooting: Myths and realities

  A common argument in the shooting world for the last half-decade has been whether it’s better to focus…

  Wednesday, June 06, 2018

• 5 quick and easy spec-ops trigger control tips for defensive pistol precision

  One of the most important things you can learn as a shooter — especially a defensive pistol shooter…

  Wednesday, May 23, 2018

• Push your shooting skills beyond what you think you’ll need

  Shortly after the invasion of Iraq began, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously said, "You go…

  Friday, July 28, 2017

• Want to shoot better? Try to impress your friends

  When you think about training to use a firearm to stop a lethal threat, it's healthy to think of it as…

  Thursday, June 29, 2017

• Visual perception delay and its effect on shooting

  In April 2015, there was a horrible story about an officer shooting a man eight times in the back while…

  Tuesday, May 23, 2017

• Combat shooting tips from Larry Bird

  Whether you're a basketball fan or not, there are great lessons we can learn from the greatest players…

  Friday, April 28, 2017

• How to combine live and dry fire at the range

  As shooters begin dry firing more and more, it's common to get in a habit of doing dry fire at home and…

  Friday, March 03, 2017

• 8 ways competitive shooting improves defensive performance

  ​My primary focus for shooting is helping people learn the skills they need to survive lethal force…

  Wednesday, February 22, 2017

• Winter indoor self-defense training tips

  I don't know about you, but we're having an epic winter. I spent more than eight hours last week taking…

  Monday, January 23, 2017

• 4 firearm myths that bad guys believe but you shouldn’t

  Here are four big myths about firearm accuracy that bad guys believe but you shouldn't.

  Tuesday, November 01, 2016

• The danger of retention and contact shooting

  One of the "sexiest" topics in shooting in the last few years is retention shooting. There are a few…

  Tuesday, October 18, 2016

• Slow in practice means fast in combat

  Sometimes the most effective way to shoot faster and more accurately is to is to take one step back,…

  Thursday, October 06, 2016

• The myths and realities of sighted vs. point shooting

  A common argument in the shooting world for the last half decade has been whether it's better to focus…

  Tuesday, September 20, 2016

• Maximizing your performance under stress

  ​If you have a desire to be more prepared or to shoot better, there's a good chance you would love…

  Thursday, September 01, 2016

• 5 concealed carry pistol laser-sight myths

  I want to start by saying that I love laser sights. I own several of them and use them on high-powered…

  Tuesday, August 09, 2016

• Recoil management for fast double taps

  I was catching up with Larry Yatch (retired Team 3 SEAL) recently, and we went down the rabbit hole on…

  Wednesday, July 20, 2016