Good afternoon all!
I keep pushing my rounds down and to the left and the instructor says my trigger is too fast. Any advice on ways to correct this? Originally thought it was the red dot sight being off, but he did thought it was more operator error than the red dot. Any advice is much appreciated
Hope this helps
Having been misdiagnosed by instructors in the past, I’d probably start by pressing the trigger in super slow mo first and verify if that brings your shots back on target. Especially if he believed it was speed that was causing the issue, slow things way down to see if that corrects the problem.
Then you can move onto things like where your finger is on the trigger (e.g. tip, center of the pad, first joint). Or how does the size of the frame/grips impact your trigger finger movement? I had pretty fat grips on one of my pistols before, which felt great in the palm of the hand, but left my trigger finger stretching a bit to press the trigger with the center pad of my finger. I changed to some slimmer grips and it made a world of difference.
There’s a lot of info you’ll find on what might be pushing/pulling your shots and how to address them. But I’ve found that slowing things down really helps if you’re paying attention to the small details. When dry firing, I sometimes even close my eyes and slow things down to really focus on body movement and placement of my hands and fingers on the frame & trigger. Closing my eyes heightens the sense of touch and I pick up on things that I might not otherwise feel.
Have a friend put your pistole on a rest and make sure your red dot isn’t off.
Eliminate that first. Otherwise, everything else is moot. 
Edit- Come back and let us know what you find. 
There are a lot of good suggestions out there on how to remedy this problem. There are also a couple of factors generally overlooked. The first is “contracture.” To illustrate, hold your dominant hand in front of your face with all fingers side by side and pointing up. Next, flex your index as though you were pressing a trigger and watch in surprise as the other fingers bend also. This is basic human physiology. However, if you flex your trigger finger only at the middle joint you will see that most of the contracture is gone. When you flexed the first time the tip of your finger was moving in an arc. The second time the tip came straight back. Granted it is a little thing, but it is still a thing. Second is the often overlooked weak side thump. There are theories galore over where it should reside, but not much mention of how it can be used. The thump should be resisting the sideways force of the dominate hand by applying equal force against the side of the firearm. Sometimes adding a “gas pedal” to your takedown lever help correct the problem of down and left.
Thumb?
That makes more sense. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what would be thumping in my grip. Does the thumping only happen during recoil? 
Maybe I should go to a gunsmith to find out where the thumping is coming from?
Have the instructor load your magazines with a couple snap caps (dummy rounds) so you won’t know when the gun is going to malfunction.
If you’re jerking or flinching during the firing cycle it will be obvious when you hit that dummy round!!!
If that is the problem, you can work on your training from there.
Was looking for that chart but couldn’t remember the name. 
Yep. Thumb.
Look up the “Schrodinger’s Cat” drill for the complete details.
There are a lot of different schools and methods, but eventually you must find one that works for you. Speed is not an issue here.
Few things to be remembered, regardless of the way how you shoot:
Once you learn and understand these 3 principals, you can accurately shoot 4 - 5 rounds per second.
How can a shooter be flawless and flinch-less in dry practice, yet have a woeful performance in live fire? A short lesson in quantum mechanics from Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrödinger may provide some insight. The practice drill, based on the “Schrödinger’s Cat” experiment, balances the body and the brain through a two-part exercise where anticipation and flinch are explored and eliminated.
In 1934, Schrödinger penned his most famous thought experiment: the Schrödinger’s Cat Paradox. A brutally oversimplified explanation of the experiment: In a room, there is an opaque box, and inside it is a cat. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we do not know if the cat is alive or dead. Because both options are equally possible, the box is in a state of what is known as “quantum superposition.” When the observer touches the lid to open it, the probability of the cat being alive or dead is 50/50. Only after the lid is off is the actual state of the cat known.
How does this translate to shooting? If not practiced correctly, dry fire can cultivate a no-consequence, or “dead-cat,” mindset. The brain allows the body to relax as there is no recoil or performance judgment on target. Live fire, “live-cat” mindset, comes with physicality, the auditory report and the stress of being graded downrange. Because the shooter knows that the gun is loaded, they fundamentally alter their performance at a subconscious level and discover they missed their mark. To correct this behavior, we need to train with a mindset of quantum superposition—the probability of the gun being both inert and live is equal—to ensure our technique is not altered based on what they predict to be chambered.
In this drill, the shooter learns to consistently function the gun such that at the trigger break (lifting the lid), there is either a dead cat (snap-cap) or a live cat (live round) in the box (chamber). Three possibilities can occur in range practice: the shooter knows there is a snap-cap in the chamber, they know a live round is in the chamber or they have a Schrödinger’s Cat Paradox—they don’t get to know until they take the shot. You’ll need a semi-automatic handgun, two magazines, 10 snap-caps, 50 rounds of ammo and two B-8 targets placed side-by-side at 10 yards.
Here’s the Drill:
Part 1—Dead Cats
Load one magazine with eight snap-caps and two live rounds loaded at random. Live rounds may not be the first, last or one atop the other in the mag. The drill is fired at the left target, one shot per presentation until the magazine is empty. Treat snap-caps as failure-to-fire malfunctions and perform a safe tap-rack to clear and cycle the next round. The goal is to place the two live shots within the black of the B-8 and to witness the sights hover without movement over the B-8 center for the eight snap-cap “shots.”
What is happening? The shooter acclimates to the expectation that the gun is predominantly inert and will not move the gun at the trigger break. While mentally relaxed, they become meticulous in their trigger press as they cannot predict when the live round will manifest. This heightened state of awareness increases tactile discrimination and sight focus. Any flinch is visible. This first magazine is an opportunity to study the shooter’s consistency or inconsistency with just enough stress. The two live rounds keep the shooter honest and engaged.
Part 2—Live Cats
Load one magazine with eight live rounds and two snap-caps loaded at random. Snap-caps may not be the first, last or consecutive in the mag. The drill is fired at the right target, one shot per presentation, until the magazine is emptied. The goal is to place all eight live shots within the black of the B-8 and to witness the sights hover without movement over the B-8 center for the two snap-cap “shots.”
What is happening? The shooter loads the gun with the knowledge that it is filled with predominantly live ammo and recoil is imminent. After shooting the Dead Cats phase, they should be dialed in to be aware of each shot’s nuance. If they can treat the gun the same with the knowledge that there is either a snap cap or live round, there should be no gun movement at the trigger break, no flinch and all hits on target.
Repeat four more times.
Someone always comes along and complicates (shooting) a simple pleasure. And not you Will.
Shooting is super simple… just press the trigger… and …
I mean, I’d never heard of that drill beyond what I had previously posted….
@Larry130 gave me the idea to look it up….
And honestly, as decent of a shot I believe I am, doing that might just help me shoot that little bit better!
Certainly, when I was shooting airguns exclusively, learning how to hold my spring power air rifles properly made a huge improvement in my accuracy.
That improvement, though it definitely took a little thought, made my shooting experience soooo much more enjoyable!
I only have 4 snap caps,… so I can’t load a magazine with majority inert rounds, per that drill.
But unless they’re brass colored, I’d likely notice the live round while clearing the inert round!
Edit;
I’ve always trained to check and clear the breach in the event of a malfunction, as such, as I clear the gun of the red snap cap, I could see a ready to load live brass round.
Low and left is a sign of recoil anticipation and not pressing the trigger to produce a surprise break.
