It does not matter what someone else (whoever they are) can do, it only matters what you can do.

I stole the title for this post (and made it grammatically better) from Jeff Gonzales's post Skill development and then some.  Lots of good stuff in that post, let's look at some of the highlights.

First, let's talk about this "gunfighter" business.  I'm not one.  Neither are you.  About the only people that can, and should, be using that term are those with current or previous employment like Jeff's.  That's it. Not cops (and I'm including SWAT... perhaps ESPECIALLY SWAT), not 7-11 cashiers, not accountants, attorneys, or doctors...  So I'm ignoring it.  And the thing is, shooting is shooting either way, so who really cares?  "Gunfighter" is getting to be like "sheepdog".

Isolation vs. Compound Skills
Friggin' awesome.  Something that escapes most people, and also applies to virtually every single task you physically perform.  One might even argue that there is a third level, which is Fundamentals.    I don't know if the below is how Jeff would break them down (probably not), but this is my take.

Fundamentals
Fundamentals are the basics.  Sight alignment, trigger control, and stance.  "Fine motor skills" could also fall into this category.  Things like pressing the magazine release button, manipulating the mechanical safety, etc.  Think of them as the most basic skills or manipulations that you can perform individually.  You can, and maybe should sometimes, practice ONLY your trigger press.  Or dropping magazines.

Stance
Some will argue stance doesn't matter because in a gunfight/match you won't get to use your perfect static range stance.  That's silly.  If you understand stance and what aspects are important, you can make intelligent choices about what to sacrifice, when, and why when you are confronted with less than ideal circumstances.  To equate this to hunting, if you are presented with a shot on a deer at 100 yards that will require you to shoot offhand standing on a hill, and you understand stance, you may choose to move four feet to the right and rest the gun on that fencepost.  Or wait for the deer to get closer.  Or get off the hill.  Or not take the shot.  If we don't teach people stance and the concepts behind it, then they won't be able to make those decisions.  Or at least not intelligently.  Not teaching a good stance right out of the gate is doing students a massive disservice.  and "because tactical" is a bullshit reason that only exposes your own lack of depth.

Trigger Control
Trigger control.  Press the trigger straight to the rear.  It matters not whether you do that after an "ease to reset", or "slapping".  Whether you're shooting a revolver or a 1911.  In order to disturb the sights as little as possible, press the trigger straight to the rear.  Seems pretty easy, right?  After nearly 20 years of shooting, this is still the one I have a problem with.  Go figure.  Teaching it correctly, and why it matters, and forcing the students to work on it (even if it's to the exclusion of teaching disarms and ninja rolls) is critical to producing good shooters.

Sight Alignment
Sight alignment.  Provided the gun is mechanically adjusted correctly, and you understand the method of alignment with the target that the adjuster made, the projectile's path is determined by the alignment of the sights at the moment said projectile leaves the barrel.  If you understand this, you start to understand trigger control and why it's important (not to mention that stance thing) a whole lot better.

Isolation Skills
To me, these are one step up from the fundamentals.  Put Sight Alignment, Trigger Control, and Stance together and you have the "isolation" skill of marksmanship.  Put together the fundamentals of breaking your support hand grip, pressing the magazine release button, retrieving a fresh magazine, and inserting said magazine into the gun, and you have the "isolation" skill of the reload.  Walking is probably an isolation skill, or it could be if you include doing to in a way that least disturbs the sights on the gun.  Think of it as the first level of combining fundamentals.

Compound Skills
Shooting on the move.  Engaging multiple targets.  Shooting around objects/people/obstructions.  Shooting on the move then reloading while engaging multiple targets around objects/people/obstructions.  See where this is headed?  There are compound skills, and then you can string together the compound skills to have compound-compound skills!  But just like everything to this point you should probably break down and learn to shoot on the move before you work on adding a reload to the mix.  Work on shooting around barricades with your other weak hand before you try to do it with your weak hand.

Evaluation of Skills
If you're not doing something to evaluate your skills and track your progress, you're doing it wrong.  You might as well just go back to the public range with the dirt-shooters and... well... shoot dirt.  Seriously.  If you took up golf you would be forced into this because they do things like keep score.  Even if you just went to the driving range and worked on the isolation skill of the drive, you would still be forced into an evaluation of distance and accuracy.  I guess if you went to the beach and hit balls into the surf you could avoid it.  And for most people, if it were legal, they might as well shoot guns that way too.  and if you're not going to add a timer at some point, you might as well stop using targets too.  Unless, that is, shooting the tightest groups possible with all the time in the world is all you're after.  Shoot one round per day for a year at that point, for all I care.

Gunfighting/Tactical/Sheepdog/Self-Defense/RAHOWA....
"But Rob, I could get in a gunfight on my way home from class tonight!"

Yeah, and pigs could fly out of your ass, eat the monkeys that flew out yesterday, and then win the lottery.  So shut up with that shit already.  Have you ever done the math of just how statistically insignificant the likelihood that a suburban adult man will get himself into a "gunfight" is?  Not to mention the completely inequitable amount of time you sink into "preparing" for this statistically insignificant eventuality?  "But Rob, I don't live in a good neighborhood like the suburbs!"  Then fucking move.  And take the monkey-eating, lottery-winning, flying pigs with you.

"It does not matter what someone else (whoever they are) can do, it only matters what you can do. "
This is something that has been a concept of great interest for me for a long time, especially when one factors in the likelihood-of-a-violent-encounter : time-spent-training-for-same ratio.  Everyone's heard me harp on the physical fitness and general wellness thing enough, but to sum up that track, if you're spending more time at the range than you are getting exercise, eating reasonably well, and limiting your intake of toxins, you're fucked up and you aren't prepared for shit.  But beyond that, you have to do what works for you in your situation.  Real people have real responsibilities.  Real jobs, real families, real day-to-day issues of life.  Just because some instructor or pro shooter can drill the center out doesn't mean you can, or even need to.  In fact, if he can't, I'd be shocked.  Every time someone tells me "oh, ninja-x can do this and this" the first thought I have is "no shit, he's supposed to!  It's his JOB!" (reminds me of this scene)  Do what you need to do, with the time and resources you have available, and be happy with it.  But at the same time, be honest with yourself about your situation, both why you're really training and the reality of the likelihood that you'll need that training, and if you're missing out on hours per week with the family to prepare for something that is NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN, or spending your retirement money on learning ninja rolls, you're probably fucked up.