Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Some thoughts on training

Sorry but I am going to ramble, I hear to many conversations about a set skill level, some magic number on a timer or what defines someone as "good". What we need to do is find our own limitations based on the skill and equipment we choose or are required to use. If you carry an HSLD carbine strapped to your chest or have to shove a LCR in your pocket for maximum concealment you need to know what you can or cannot do with it.

It is not enough to remember the one time at band camp when you did pull off a 25 yard head shot in 1 second from deep cover. You need to know what you can do when you are at your worst and realize your "one second draw" might become 5+ seconds because the fight starts when the bad guy sucker punches you, knocks you to the ground and now you have to get off your ample belly to even get your hand into that pocket. Even better let the fight start with a beer bottle to the head that creates enough blood you cannot see and you realize drawing your gun will be a greater liability than keeping it secured in the holster. I mentioned it in a recent post about picking a .40, I know on a square range when I feel good and the birds are chirping, I don't loose a lot of time between a 9mm and a .40. But when reality hits and I am digging it out from concealment and get a less than perfect grip a 9mm is going to be a lot more forgiving. Last time I worked hard with a .40 I murdered a draw, my web hit the add on glock backstrap and folded it down, getting a proper grip was impossible to shoot a string with a .40 and maybe with a 9mm I could have done it, but I had to basically stop, fold it back up and finish the drill. I had probably made 1000 draws with that backstrap and the reason I had the failure is I was working at maximum speed trying to achieve a goal. I would have never known the potential problem if I had not tried to push my limits. Needless to say it went in the garbage and a lot of people that were using them did the same.

Travis Haley (and I am sure others) said it well when they say "amateurs train until they get it right, professionals train until they get it wrong". As with almost any discipline we need to get outside our comfort zone and be willing to fail in order to succeed. When I practice hard it is not pretty. I have fumbled and dropped magazines, missed a full target at 7 yards and brain farted on many things. All issues that would never show up on a department qualification where times are generous, the skill set is simple and a known course of fire.

How often do you really push yourself in any training or in front of others where failure is nothing more than a mild slap to the ego? When we push ourselves to failure is when we really learn how to improve. If you can consistently complete a skill in x seconds and always train in that comfort zone how do you ever expect to do it more efficiently? Failure and the subsequent analysis needs to be a regular part of our training if we want to excel. To many times we settle for "good enough" as a destination when it needs to be a building block for excellence.