I can't shoot a 9MM!

[divingin]

My pistol coach had me dry fire my pistol with a fired case sitting on the barrel. When I could do that I shot better.

Sort of depends on the barrel/slide. Lots easier to do on, say, a Glock than an old issue 1911 (flattop vs round.)

The hardest thing about being accurate with a pistol is convincing your brain that sight alignment is more important than where on the target the sight picture is. You can map it out mathematically:

a line from muzzle to target center. A line from F sight to R sight (with the sight radius roughly correct), extending to target. And a given that says, with the sights aligned but offset on the target, the shot will miss by the offset amount. Now induce an error in the front/rear sight picture and see how much impact moves. This is why focusing on the sights is critical (though to be fair, this also goes out the window with a dot or scope.)

I find that the feel of recoil will usually tell me whether I was moving prior to the shot. A good clean break will feel like a single sharp impulse - almost like someone smacked the muzzle with a hammer. A shot that I got scared of will generally feel a little muddy - longer, softer impulse. Won't do anything about the shot that left the barrel, but is an indication of what you did.