The most important thing that you can do once you have your pistol and your concealed carry permit is to practice your pistol draw and presentation. Without practice, it's a dead certainty that you will fumble when you are confronted and need to use your weapon. I emphasis the word dead.
You can start your practice training at home quite easily. First priority is making sure that your weapon is unloaded and there is no ammunition in the room where you are practicing. You should make your practice as realistic as possible by wearing the outfit that you would be wearing with your concealed carry. You may have to practice with more than one outfit in order to be efficient with your result. Standing in front of a mirror is helpful to observe your movements.
Only spend a few minutes at a time practicing to make sure that you keep your focus while training. 10 or 15 minutes a couple times a week will do just fine. If you get interrupted during a training session just stop training for that day. You need to be able to keep your train of thought focused on the training to complete one session at a time.
Your training should be done in phases. In the first phase, you should draw your weapon very slowly, taking into account each action you perform. Do this several times to make sure that you perform the same actions each time, making corrections as needed. In the second phase of your training, you should slowly speed up the actions that you have defined in phase one. Remember to only take a few minutes in a session. And have at least two sessions per week. The goal of this process is to have your draw come from muscle memory so that you do it as a second nature reaction. You should become faster and faster with the draw as you do more and more sessions.
You may want someone to watch you during the process so that they can give you suggestions. This may help you to adjust incorrect actions that you are not aware of. Do not make the mistake of putting your weapon back into the holster very quickly. Slide your weapon back into the holster very slowly. A quick return may not be a problem when you are practicing, but if you have your finger on the trigger when the weapon is loaded you may cause an accidental discharge. There's no need to be quick about this. What you want to be quick about is your draw.
If you carry your pistol in a purse you need to practice being able to access the pistol before you actually draw it. So as part of your training, position your purse in the way you would carry it. Practice opening the concealed carry compartment. There may be some variation in the speed with which you open the compartment. In some situations, you would want to open the compartment very quickly. In others you may open it more slowly. You need to be able to use either one of these opening methods depending on the situation that you're in.
If you have more than one type of concealed carry method you will need to practice each method independently. If you carry your weapon in a concealed carry holster, you will need to practice that using the phases indicated above. But if you also sometimes carry your weapon in a concealed carry purse you will need to practice that as well. Go through the phases from slow to fast so that you can develop muscle memory for each type of carry that you use.
