We seek security, constantly demanding that there shall be no disturbance; and it is this desire not to be disturbed that makes us avoid what is and fear what might be. Fear is the ignorance of what is, and our life is spent in a constant state of fear.
-Krishnamurti, via Maku mozo!
Month: March 2012
10-year-old sets world record (again)
A 10-year-old girl in New Jersey is now the world-record holder for the raw squat event. According to Off the Bench and a handful of other sources, young Naomi Kutin set a world record for the 97-pound division in the raw squat event by lifting an astounding 215 pounds at the RAW Unity weightlifting championships in Texas.
Full story and video here, tho the video seems to be of another meet. Still, amazing accomplishment. Here’s another story with pictures from the record-breaking event. And if you Google her name, you’ll find other videos like a 193# deadlift (another record).
What I love is her ambition:
“When I was younger, my friends would be doing a lot of things that I couldn’t do, and I wanted to do something extraordinary,” an excited Kutin said. “I wanted to break a record of some sort and I just really wanted to get this record.”
What were YOU doing at 10 years old?
You can’t just walk into a gym and squat 215#. That takes a lot of time, hard work, dedication, sacrifice. That’s a HELL of a lot to ask of and expect from a 10-year-old, tho they certainly have the ability to do it.
And of course, some are probably going to freak out about a “still developing child” lifting such heavy weight, risking health problems, stunting her growth, etc.. To them I say, shut up. Everyone’s bitching about kids not getting enough exercise, and you’re going to bitch when a kid does some extraordinary exercising? and all that it takes to get there? Instead of bitching, why don’t you just shut up and get in the gym yourself, or do something extraordinary with your own life. Leave her alone. I think she’s doing just fine.
Way to go, Naomi!
Key factors in fight survival
Finally got to read the March 2012 Rangemaster Newsletter.
There is an excellent article in there, “Survival in the Line of Duty”, written by Lt. Marlan J. Ingram of the Memphis Law Enforcement Unit . Lt. Ingram examines FBI data about officers killed or assaulted in the line of duty and examines common themes that run through successful cases (i.e. where the officer lives).
Here are the conclusions from the article:
- Take your training seriously.
- Don’t give up, don’t surrender – survive no matter what.
- If you are shot, keep fighting.
- Learn to shoot accurately under all conditions – even if your sight is compromised.
- Learn to shoot, reload and clear malfunctions with either hand, long-guns included.
- Carry your weapons and spare ammunition on your person, both on duty and off.
- Carry as much ammunition as you can.
- Once you make up your mind to fight, do so quickly and effectively.
- Never underestimate your opponent – always expect the unexpected.
Here’s my responses to each point.
1. Take your training seriously.
This cannot be stated strong enough. Why are you training? To fight? To win? To survive? To live? If so, why aren’t you training with that goal in mind?
I cut some slack to beginners, because at their stage they’re still feeling things out and trying to find their place. In KR Training curriculum terms, once you start coming to classes like Defensive Pistol Skills 1, you need to start taking things seriously. I don’t necessarily expect people to be that serious about it at the start of DPS1 class, but by the end I hope some realities have settled in and when the student comes back for DPS2 and DPS3, they’re of that more serious mindset. That these are skills towards keeping you alive… else why did you get that CHL and why are you carrying a gun?
It takes us all some time to find our “seriousness”. We don’t start out with it because we don’t know it and it’s not innate. But hopefully sooner or later something will kick in and help you not just take classes, but engage in serious training.
2. Don’t give up, don’t surrender – survive no matter what.
3. If you are shot, keep fighting.
I’m grouping #2 and #3 together because they are related. If the fight is on, keep fighting until the fight is over or you’re dead. You should never decide to die; sounds funny, but read the article and you’ll see that too much Hollywood has influenced people to think if I’m shot I’m dead and they truly give up and fall over and die. Don’t be That Guy. When you are dead, you’ll be dead — that’s a decision that will be made for you. So until that time, keep fighting.
One recent event? In this past Saturday’s AT-2 Force On Force Scenarios class, TXGunGeek and I were running the indoor segments. One of those segments discusses realities of building clearing. During the “fast clearing” practice I like to hide in a particular room in a particular location and play “bad guy ambush”. The goal of the scenario? You’re on this end of the house, your child is in the far room and screaming for you: get to the child, fast clearing along the way. And so then I shoot them… and they stop. Why? Why did they stop? Well, because we get so conditioned to being shot being the “end game”, whether from video games, movies, or just playing with our friends and learning that “tag, you’re it”. We have to break that mindset and continue to our goal.
Keep fighting.
4. Learn to shoot accurately under all conditions – even if your sight is compromised.
This is where you need to break out of static range training. That is, shooting at tin cans on the fence rail, or being a good range citizen and only shooting cardboard targets from 3 to 7 yards down your lane, slow fire, and so on. This is why you need to seek out further training and ranges that can allow safe practice of drawing from a holster, movement, and other such things. Consider trying IDPA or IPSC competition, not that those are “tactical training” but they sure do let you shoot in non-standard ways.
But what really struck me about #4 was “even if your sight is compromised”.
I wear glasses and without them my vision isn’t that great. I need to try shooting without my glasses on and see how it goes. See what can I do. Find my skills, find my limits, find what I can work on.
It’s not just thinking about the middle of the night home break-in situation, which is real. But a more likely situation is that I just lose my glasses in the heat of the fight. I need to try this out.
5. Learn to shoot, reload and clear malfunctions with either hand, long-guns included.
Not much to elaborate on here. Speaks for itself.
But I will say to look into having a rear sight for your pistol that can hook on to something (belt, shoe, edge of table, etc.). Something like Dawson Precision’s Charger rear sight.
6. Carry your weapons and spare ammunition on your person, both on duty and off.
7. Carry as much ammunition as you can.
You’d think this would be one that doesn’t need elaboration, but alas it does.
You cannot know when the flag is going to fly. If you are fortunate to have the ability to see in the future, I’d like to talk to you about some stock picks. But since most of us don’t have superpowers, you just have to carry your gun — always.
I hear of too many people who only want to carry if they know they’re going into a bad place. Uh… if you know it’s a questionable or bad place, why are you going there in the first place? And as well, what makes you think that “good places” are immune to bad things happening?
And yes, spare ammo. Sure, the statistics might say “3 shots”, but you know how Murphy’s Law works… you’ll be the anomaly. So do you want that 5 shot snub? or would you rather have a M&P9 wth 17+1? and a reload? I think the only time you can have too much ammo is when you’re swimming or on fire, but otherwise, who sits there and wishes to have less ammo on them? If that’s the case, just carry 1 .45 ACP bullet, because that’s all you need to put down a charging rhino, right?
Carry your gun. Carry a reload. Always.
8. Once you make up your mind to fight, do so quickly and effectively.
This means you have to learn how to fight. You have to discard useless techniques. You have to work on your skills, you have to work on your tactics. This means taking more training than just marksmanship stuff. Try Force-on-Force. I know it sounds scary and intimidating, but really it’s not. If anything, it’s sobering and helps you really get your head in the right place.
9. Never underestimate your opponent – always expect the unexpected.
Skip ahead to 1:58
I know I’m a big guy. I know I’m a strong guy. I know I’m fair-to-midland with a gun. I can get along in a fistfight.
But there’s always someone that’ll be bigger, stronger, faster, better. More clever, willing to fight more dirty, willing to care less about the law, willing to have lower standards of conduct and do things I’d be unwilling to do.. or may never think of doing.
And so this goes back to #8, that you have to be quick and effective, to get it over with as fast as possible.
==========
Go read the whole article. It’s well worth your time.
I detect a theme…
Maybe cosmic forces are at work here, telling me (and you) to pay attention to something.
It was a topic in classes this past weekend. I blogged about it prior to the classes and honestly the motivation for that was the car incident a few days prior to writing, not at all thinking about the forthcoming classes.
And now, Michael Bane in the Down Range Radio podcast #257 talks about it.
It’s about violent encounters, and ensuring you have a plan — or an index card, as Michael puts it — for a situation.
As it was said in all three instances: it’s about getting you home alive.
Michael’s discussions starts around 34:47 into the podcast. At 49:26 Karl Rehn gets a mention, because Karl is a pioneer and leader in Force-on-Force training.
And Michael, if in fact you do want to have Seeklander and Janich do a segment on this next season? You should have Karl on the show as well. You’ve acknowledged him numerous times in your podcast in this context — including this very one — so I think it would only make sense to have him on there to help discuss this topic. I’m not speaking for Karl at all, just speaking my own opinion on it.
2012-03-21 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 7, squat 2
Another day of not feeling it, but working out well in the end.
“Week 2” – BBB 3 Month Challenge
- 3 reps – Squat (working max: 270#)
- 2x5x45 (warmup)
- 1x5x110
- 1x5x135
- 1x3x165
- 1x3x190 (work)
- 1x3x225 (supposed to have been 220 but I didn’t feel like doing the plate math
- 1x3x245
- Asst. #1 – Deadlift
- 5 x 10 x 165
- Asst. #2 – Hanging Hip-Leg Raise
- 5 x 8/7/7/7/6 x BW
- Foam Rolling
Today was another morning of waking up and not feeling it, tho today’s was slightly different. I woke up early and got into a groove programming an update to kwikkEmail, lost track of time, and thought about skipping the workout because I was on such a roll. But no, that’s not the way to proceed in life. Headed to the gym, but also wasn’t totally feeling it because I know my right knee and some other parts of my lower body (ankle, etc.) weren’t too happy in prior days. I had no idea how it would affect me. But I did my best to put it out of my head and forge ahead. If I can’t squat, I can’t squat… I want to not squat because I truly can’t, not because I erected some mental barrier.
And gee… 245 for a triple felt fine. I think my new found eye positioning is helping. And again, I recalled how I struggled so long at 230 and now 245 for a triple didn’t phase me much. Progress!
Felt good by the end of the workout.
Looking forward to the workouts ahead now… 5/3/1 week. PR time. Woot!
Brainwashing
Any time the word “brainwashing” gets used, it’s never good.
It’s usually associated with cults and other people trying to assert evil influence. Consider this description/explanation:
…a process in which a group or individual “systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator(s), often to the detriment of the person being manipulated”. The term has been applied to any tactic, psychological or otherwise, which can be seen as subverting an individual’s sense of control over their own thinking, behavior, emotions or decision making. In Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes, Jacques Ellul maintains that the “principal aims of these psychological methods is to destroy a man’s habitual patterns, space, hours, milieu, and so on.”
Theories of brainwashing and of mind control were originally developed to explain how totalitarian regimes appeared to succeed in systematically indoctrinating prisoners of war through propaganda and torture techniques. These theories were later expanded and modified to explain a wider range of phenomena, especially conversions to new religious movements (NRMs).
Unethically manipulative.
To the detriment.
Subverting an individual’s sense of control over their own thinking.
Aims to destroy a man.
Totalitarian indoctrination.
So… I’d like to hope we can agree that those engaged in brainwashing aren’t up to any good.
Thus, it becomes really bothersome when the Attorney General, Eric Holder, casually throws about the term.
“We just have to be repetitive about this. It’s not enough to have a catchy ad on a Monday and then only do it every Monday. We have to do this every day of the week and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”
Folks, you don’t have to like guns. You can be the biggest gun-banner out there if you want to.
But when people are put into positions of power and authority, and they wish to use that power and authority to brainwash? That’s not just scary, that’s really damn scary. Our own government? Brainwashing? If they’re willing to do it for one topic, it’s not too far a stretch for them to do it to another… whatever your favorite may be.
This is not right. This is not freedom. This is not how a free country is supposed to operate.
Quote for the day
One last piece of advice — if in doubt and you don’t know what to do, train your balls off and take the last week off. If you’re strong, you’re strong. Weak people find excuses — strong people lift big weights. And to be honest, this last paragraph of advice is all you really need.
– Jim Wendler, from a Blood & Chalk talk.
Jim might be talking about powerlifting, but the concept applies to life period. Weak people find excuses. Strong people lift big weights. Those weights may not be pulling a bunch of 45# plates off the floor. It might be working 4 jobs because you need to feed your family. It might be writing the next big app that will change the world. It might be caring for a sick and disabled loved one, because they cannot care for themselves. Weights aren’t always made of iron, but strong people move those weights every day without excuse.
2012-03-19 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 7, bench press 2
Some days you just don’t want to go to the gym, but you go anyways because to not go means you’re losing. And you always feel better when you leave and are glad you went. Today was one of those days.
“Week 2” – BBB 3 Month Challenge
- 3 reps – Bench Press (working max: 225#)
- 2x5x45 (warmup)
- 1x5x95
- 1x5x115
- 1x3x135
- 1x3x160 (work)
- 1x3x180
- 1x3x205
- Asst. #1A – Press
- 5 x 10 x 80
- Asst. #1B – 1-Arm Dumbbell Rows (supersetted with the Press)
- 5 x 10 x 65
- Asst. #2 – Rope Triceps Pushdowns
- 3 x 10 x 40
- Foam Rolling
I had a long weekend, very exhausting, getting as much sleep as I could… and I just didn’t want to get out of bed this morning… I wanted more sleep. But the Sun doesn’t stop rising, the Earth doesn’t stop spinning, business and commerce chug along with or without me, so I best be with it. I trudge in, and didn’t expect the workout to be all that good, but it was better than expected.
When I was benching, I actually wanted to crank out a couple more reps of the last set, but no… that’s not allowed and I said I’d only permit myself to do extras on the “5/3/1” week. But that was a good signal to me that the day was going to go alright.
I’m a little worried about Wednesday tho. My right knee has been acting funny the past couple days and continues to. We’ll see how squatting goes. I’d rather give up on the squat on Wednesday to rest up and allow myself to hit the 315# deadlift PR next week. 🙂
A long but fruitful day
This past Saturday was one of our long days at KR Training. 3 classes: Defensive Pistol Skills 2, AT-2 Force-on-Force Scenarios (only), and AT-1A Low Light Shooting. Originally these classes were to be the prior Saturday, but we got rained out. One complicating factor in scheduling is AT-1A of course requires low light, so it tends to only be offered in the Fall and Spring when it’s dark enough in the evening…. but throw in daylight saving time after last weekend and we had to run a little longer in order to time the class against sunset. Waking at 4 AM and going to bed at midnight… long day.
But a good day.
What was really cool was seeing a fair number of people staying for all 3 classes. Many classes tend to dovetail pretty well with skills learned earlier in the day being able to be used later in the day. There’s so much information and new skills that I don’t hold it against folks if they don’t remember to do everything, but it is always cool to watch people having those “oh yeah!” moments when they find themselves using the new skill or seeing how to really apply it and the practical utility of what they just learned. A satisfying moment as a teacher.
Whenever I’m in classes I always think about these “post class blog posts” and what I’d like to stress or talk about.
DPS2 worked on more advanced gunfighting skills, such as dealing with cover and concealment, reloads, malfunction clearing, 360° scanning, one-handed shooting. AT-2 is like a “intro” to force-on-force and coming to understand the tactics and other realities of self-defense, and AT-1A is about low-light shooting realities, which means a lot (more) one-handed shooting. All of these are really cool and important things. But even amongst all this cool stuff, one thing remains as more important than any of this stuff:
Fundamentals.
Or more precisely… well, yes, just that: precision, or more accurately, accuracy.
All of these “high speed low drag” uber-tacti-cool skills don’t mean jack if you can’t hit what you need to hit. During DPS2 I ran students through a small shoot scenario course against various sorts of targets: some steel reactives, some photorealistic targets, various other props. But the key was if you couldn’t hit things properly, you couldn’t progress and props wouldn’t work. The target window was made intentionally small so you had to slow down and get acceptable hits, and on those they did. But when the target window was large or visually difficult to perceive, such as on photorealistic targets, there was a larger tendency to “spray and pray” or “smoke and hope”. Unfortunately students would then go down and see where their holes were, and realize how they just made some lawyer very happy. 😦 And this was a factor throughout all 3 classes: the end of DPS2 includes a test, and while speed matters, ultimately your ability to pass rests upon you getting hits within the A-zone of the target. Stopping the bad guy in a FoF scenario? shooting him in the leg won’t stop him. All that one-handed shooting because a flashlight is in your other hand? the fact you use a flashlight technique that illuminates your sights so you can enable accurate shooting? All things come down and work towards being able to get acceptable hits.
You must slow down to get acceptable hits. You can’t go too slow, but if you need that extra 0.5″ seconds to ensure proper sights and a smooth trigger press, then take it because that will be less costly. Don’t shoot faster than you can shoot acceptable hits. But once you CAN shoot acceptably at some speed, bump up your speed 10%. Yes your accuracy will go down, but then you step back, analyze what the problem is, fix that bit, and that’s how you progress.
We don’t expect you to be able to do all this stuff when you come to class — it’s class! you’re coming here to learn! We expect you to try, we expect you to work hard, and we expect you to then take this information and skills and go home and practice. When you come back for the next class, we do hope to see progression and improvement. But if you’re having trouble, drop us a line and we’ll see how we can help. As well, do NOT be afraid to take a class again or even go backwards in curriculum. If perhaps you need work on fundamentals (grip, stance, sights, trigger), step back and take Basic Pistol 2. There is NOTHING wrong with this, and it could do you a lot of good. Remember that we don’t build houses on sand. If you determine your foundation is shaky, swallowing your pride and ego and going back to strengthen your foundation is a good thing to do. If taking one step back enables you to take two steps forward, ultimately that’s progress.
What really made Saturday work well? The weather. It was gorgeous. A little humid, but fine. In the 70’s all day, gentle breeze. Then a great group of students, open to learning, working hard… it was a good ay.
Sunday Metal – Child’s Play
Growing up in the Washington DC area, how could you not know about Child’s Play?
Back in my radio days I got to do an interview with the band. John Allen (more recently of SR-71 and Charm City Devils) was a super-nice guy. I recall they all weren’t very happy with singer Brian Jack at the time. I also remember their manager talking to me about how they wanted to release the song “My Bottle” as a single but the record company was against it because it was a drinking song. He said that George Thorogood’s made a career out of drinking songs. I didn’t argue with the guy at the time, just listened, but I always remember thinking “well, his songs are about partying and good times… “My Bottle” sounds more like a problem alcoholic”.
/csb
Still, I always dug Child’s Play. They put on a good show, high energy, lots of fun. Just bad timing, what with Nirvana coming along….
Stuff From Hsoi 