I know, I know. I should probably change the name of this post series from “Drill of the Month” to something else since they aren’t being published monthly. I’d promise to do better, but y’all know I get distracted from time to time. Anyway, let’s get to this post’s drills: The Wizard and its easier variant, The Wizard Junior.

The Wizard, a drill developed by Ken Hackathorn, is a simple test of fundamental marksmanship skills required to survive a realistic self-defense encounter with a concealed pistol. For all intents and purposes, it’s a competency test. Competent practitioners will find it a walk in the park, while those who struggle to shoot it clean will ideally realize they need additional practice and training.

Course of Fire

Target: IDPA target or equivalent with 4″ head and 8″ body “A” or “0 Down” zones

Start Condition: Loaded, holstered, and concealed

Par Time: 2.5 seconds (or 4 seconds for the Junior version) per string

Scoring: Time plus IDPA scoring (-0, -1, -3 per zone, -5 for misses, line breaks count), with each string scored independently. Failure to meet a par time results in failing the test.

String	Distance	Procedure
1	3 yards	Fire one shot to the head, strong hand only
2	5 yards	Fire one shot to the head, two handed
3	7 yards	Fire one shot to the head, two handed
4	10 yards	Fire two shots to the body

Want a visual? Check out this quick YouTube Short of me running the Wizard Junior drill.

My Thoughts on the Test

I was first exposed to Ken Hackathorn’s Wizard drill at KR Training during their Advanced Handgun class in 2022. The Junior version is also part of their Top 10 Drills class, a favorite of mine that I retake every chance I get. In many ways, I see The Wizard as a quick, low-round-count alternative to KR’s Three Seconds or Less. Neither is particularly difficult to shoot clean when your skills are sharp and you’re firing on all cylinders, but The Wizard shines as a quick litmus test for skill degradation that’s easy to self-administer. Of course, this assumes access to a range where you can work from concealment and draw from a holster. When range restrictions exist, you can work around them by replacing the draw with a table start or low-ready start while adjusting the par time as needed.

Meeting the par time requirements in a competency test like this largely depends on draw speed—specifically, the time it takes to get the gun to the eye-target line. The sooner the gun gets there with a well-formed grip, the more time you have to refine your visual confirmation and execute a good trigger press. Consistency is king. Even the first string, at an easy three yards, can be botched by flubbing the draw and rushing the one-handed shot.

The Junior version, when used correctly, can build confidence in newer shooters, showing them that developing competent marksmanship is attainable. While achieving that skill level is relatively straightforward, it does require a modest amount of work and dedication. That’s easy to say with the hindsight of having achieved it, but for a new shooter, competent marksmanship may seem far off. A little confidence boost can spark the motivation needed to make that journey. Care should be taken to avoid creating a false sense of confidence with this version, which could backfire by making new shooters think they’re already competent enough.

I also agree with John Daub’s take on scoring from his e-book, Drills, Qualifications, Standards, and Tests: skip the scoring. Those barely meeting the par times will likely exceed them after time penalties are applied anyway. And those skilled enough to find this test a cakewalk shouldn’t be racking up time penalties with marginally acceptable hits. This test is designed to assess the competence needed to survive a realistic self-defense encounter, so treating it as a pass-or-fail test makes sense. You either do it, or you don’t.

Relative Difficulty

Using Karl Rehn and John Daub’s methodology from Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training, we can gauge the relative difficulty of The Wizard and The Wizard Junior drills compared to USPSA Grand Master (GM) performance levels. I’ll extrapolate and interpolate data from the book, making a few assumptions to account for differences in target sizes and skills not explicitly covered. Here are my assumptions:

• The head box can be treated as a body A-zone at twice the distance.
• A concealed/retention holster draw to a strong-hand shot is estimated as draw time minus two-handed split plus one-handed split.

Now, let’s do the math:

String	GM Speed	Relative Difficulty	Junior Relative Difficulty
1	1.44s	58% (1.44 ÷ 2.5)	36% (1.44 ÷ 4)
2	1.38s	55%	35%
3	1.48s	59%	37%
4	1.6s (1.38 + 0.22)	64%	40%
Total	5.9s	59% (5.9 ÷ 2.5)	37%

Combining the par time for each string and comparing it to the combined GM speed, we get a 59% relative difficulty for The Wizard. That feels about right and suggests the original version should be manageable for a B-class shooter. Interestingly, B-class skill is currently considered the sweet spot for practical marksmanship among firearms instructors for armed defenders and professionals. This level of proficiency is sufficient to solve most problems requiring a shooting solution while leaving enough cognitive bandwidth to learn and apply personal and team tactics effectively.

In contrast, the Junior version lowers the relative difficulty to 37%, suggesting a novice shooter (D-class approaching C-class) should be able to pass it. This skill level indicates an understanding of marksmanship fundamentals and the beginnings of automaticity. In other words, a newer shooter who has taken a class from a qualified instructor and is starting to handle their firearm regularly has a good chance of passing the Junior version, while those who haven’t worked on their skills are unlikely to get lucky.

The tight variance in difficulty across strings does two things, since failing a single string results in test failure. First, it demands consistency—one might get lucky on one or two strings, but nailing all four is unlikely. Second, it offers no freebies or warm-ups, which are common in the initial strings of other tests and qualifications. This reinforces the pass-or-fail mentality: you either do it, or you don’t.

Closing Thoughts

I mentioned earlier that I see The Wizard as a quick, low-round-count alternative to KR Training’s Three Seconds or Less competency test. I hold that view because The Wizard requires fewer rounds and strings, making it less resource-intensive. However, The Wizard is the more demanding test in terms of skill level and is less forgiving of errors. One missed shot on The Wizard is likely to result in failure, which isn’t necessarily the case with Three Seconds or Less.

Another great thing about The Wizard and its Junior variant is that they lend themselves well to dry-fire practice. I wouldn’t recommend practicing it repeatedly in a dry-fire session, but it works excellently as a pre-session baseline assessment. It serves as that litmus test for skill degradation I mentioned, helping identify focus areas for the practice session.

If nothing else, this test is a solid goal for anyone who carries a concealed pistol.