Combat pistol shooting is a modern martial art that focuses on the use of the handgun as a defensive weapon for self defense, or for military and police use. Like most martial arts, combat pistol shooting is practiced both for defense and for sport. Many of the action shooting disciplines are based on combat pistol techniques, and take the form of simulations of defensive or combat situations. History Combat pistol shooting, as separate from target shooting, began to evolve in the early 1900s. Modern tactics of pistol combat were developed in the 1920s by two British members of the Shanghai Municipal Police. (Shanghai was then governed by an international government). At the time the Shanghai streets were rife with criminal activity, and policing in the city was becoming a very dangerous line of work. Captain William E. Fairbairn and Sergeant Eric A. Sykes developed innovative pistol shooting techniques and handgun specifications for the police force. During the Second World War, they were recalled to Britain, and trained the British Commandos in their combat tactics, including their system of combat pistol shooting. Their methodology was later disseminated through their book Shooting To Live With The One-Hand Gun, published in 1942. These techniques were also adopted for the training of American Office of Strategic Services troops by Rex Applegate. This system lives on today in modern point shooting techniques. In the 1950s, American instructor Jeff Cooper was instrumental in establishing both a combat pistol based sport, International Practical Shooting Confederation, and a combat pistol training school, Gunsite. Cooper's methodology has become known as the modern technique. The methods promoted by Fairbairn and Cooper differ in many respects, and to this day there are arguments between supporters of the different methodologies. Combat pistol drills El Presidente One combat pistol drill is the El Presidente drill, developed by Jeff Cooper in the 1970s and published in the January/February 1979 issue of American Handgunner magazine. This is used as a benchmark to gauge a shooter's skills, as it tests the draw and reload, and requires good transitions and follow-through. The El Presidente drill is set up as follows: Three silhouette targets are placed 1 meter apart in a line 10 meters from the shooter. The shooter starts with six rounds in a holstered handgun, and a spare magazine or speedloader with another six rounds. The shooter begins facing directly away from the targets, often with