Tam returns from carbine class. Makes comments about gear, the best of which is:

For what it’s worth, my tactical pants in the class were by Wrangler, and they come with two single 30-rd mag pouches, one right over each butt cheek. I can about guarantee that, should the balloon ever go up for real, those will be the pants in which I’ll be fighting, so I reckoned I might as well practice fighting in them…

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, be it gun training, empty hand training, or taking the training seminar on how to use the company’s new phone system. Your training should be as close as you can get to the realm of application for what you’re training for. So UFC guys train for their sport and train as close as they can get to that. If you’re taking a training class on how to write iPhone apps, it’ll probably help to have an iPhone and a Mac. And if you’re training for self-defense shooting, you should be as close to your normal situational dress and carry as you can be.

I’ll grant, to help make classes run smoothly for everyone you make some compromise. For instance, wearing a Camelback (especially in the Texas summer heat) is good, because dehydration will make class miserable for you and slow things down for everyone else while the instructor has to stop class to tend to you. I may normally only carry one spare magazine, but if the constraints of the class allow me to wear my Comp-Tac Beltfeed (4 mags), I will because that will make life flow smoother for everyone on the line. We have to realize, class is class — it’s artificial by it’s very nature. What’s important is to ensure you can learn and that you put yourself in the best position to be able to learn without distraction (gear problems are distraction). Then after class when you practice, you should try to go further. So for instance, if during class I carried the gun OWB and used the Beltfeed because that allowed class to run smoother, outside of class when I practice the class skills I should go back to my normal carry setup of IWB and a single mag pouch. Allow class to be an environment for learning, then reinforce those afterwards in practice.

The main thing is to not continue carrying on in an artificial way. If your goal is private citizen self-defense, getting all tacti-cooled out for class may be one thing, just don’t always do that in practice. Same with empty hand martial arts… we don’t wear our dobok/gi out on the street, so practice in your normal street clothing once in a while to see just how constraining those jeans really are.