It was a short day for me today: just helping with a Basic Pistol 1 class this morning at KR Training.

We had an almost-full house: the class was sold out, but a few people no-showed for unknown reasons. Weather was great, despite the week-long rains that left the ground a bit soggy and marshy. A wonderful day to be outside.

Not much to report here as the nature of BP1 is introductory so there’s not much to tell the attending students other than contact us with any questions. We’re happy to help out.

I will point out a few things from the KR Training website that I mentioned:

• Class progression/curriculum guide
• Gun Buying Guide (remember: it’s primarily about “fit”)

In related news, a student came with a gun and wanted to try it out. So after class he and I went back to the range and ran through a few things. The gun was a Ruger 9E. First time I’ve gotten to handle one, and I must say I’m not terribly impressed.

It’s not a horrible gun: it certainly seemed functional and serviceable. It would be interesting to see how well it could handle a high-stress class. But what got me about it was the manual thumb safety. It was damn near impossible to actuate with your thumb. Oh sure I could get it eventually, and there’d be much struggling and failing. But geez, why? That’s the LAST thing you need in a piece of life-safety equipment. Just about an hour prior I had this student shooting a 1911, so he was able to have a reference point of how a good manual thumb safety works.

I just can’t jive with such a design. I won’t call it a flaw, because they obviously designed it this way as a feature. But it’s not a feature I would want. The manual thumb safety doesn’t operate easily, you fail to operate it numerous times, and gee if that’s not something you need to have go wrong when your life depends on it.

Oh, and apparently it has a magazine disconnect too. That will complicate dry fire practice.

It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but in my experience and opinion, there’s better stuff out there. So yeah… I figure he’s going to go shopping soon. 🙂  Looking forward to seeing what he settles on.

Anyways, a good day to be outside. Thank you all for coming and spending your time with us today.

It’s an old adage: train like you’ll fight.

It makes sense. If you’re going to have to fight in X manner, then you should train in X manner and in manner than directly support X. Because to do otherwise is a waste of time, energy, and will not serve you in your end goal.

Another way of looking at it is the S.A.I.D. principle: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. You want to get good at something? You have to do that something. You can do things very close to that something to help make it better, but when you get too far away from that something, it’s probably not going to help. SAID is a rather deep topic and you should Google it to learn more about it. But think of it this way: if you want to get better at boxing, you need to get in the ring and box. You can do some other things to support it, such as bag work, because while they aren’t  the specific thing you’re trying to get better at, it’s fairly close and has good carryover. Some things are further away, such as road work, but there’s still some carryover because you need aerobic capacity to go 15 rounds. But learning to shoot basketballs has nothing to do with boxing and will not help you become a better boxer. Or consider playing the piano. Playing the organ will have some carryover, but learning the oboe won’t help you become a better pianist. Yeah there’s some overlap because music, scales, etc., but the mechanics and what your body and brain must adapt to are too different.

And so it goes with anything.

In this context, I’m talking about guns and shooting, and something that I’ve seen numerous times before, but two things recently happened that spurred me to write.

First, during a recent class at KR Training I spoke with at student that was all gunned up   with a rig for class. He told me he wasn’t too familiar with the rig, as it’s not what he actually carries. A big, full-sized, all-steel gun, in a holster that he rarely uses. No magazine pouches, and he thought he’d keep them in his front pocket; I suggested he borrow some mag pouches from our loaner gear and give that a try. He said his normal mode of carry tho is a small pocket gun in his front pant pocket. I’m not out to pick on this student, just that this was a recent event – but he’s not the first student (nor will he be the last) that comes to class with a different rig than what he/she normally carries.

Second, in the March 2016 Rangemaster Newsletter, Tiffany Johnson wrote the following:

To those who train seriously and often: when you prepare for a firearms class, do you swap out your everyday apparel for that favorite training holster or preferred pair of pants with the belt loops in exactly the right spot? If so, you might be gaming yourself out of the whole point of taking classes. Do whatever you can to enable yourself to practice using the gear you actually carry — disadvantages and all. If your number ever gets called, I doubt the bad guy will wait for you to dip into the phone booth and re-emerge in the superman costume that always made you two-tenths of a second faster than the guy next to you on the range.

I agree.

Now, to that one student I did make a suggestion. Take the class with that rig, but later this year we should be offering our Defensive Pistol Skills: BUG class and to come back then and take that class with that small pocket gun. That is, come train like you fight.

So that got me thinking about the whole “train like you fight” thing, in terms of firearms training.

Some people treat it like a hard mantra, that if you aren’t going to train precisely as you’re going to fight, that you’re a fool and aren’t to be taken seriously. On the same token, some people think it doesn’t matter one way or the other and that if I take classes with my class-rig then run around town with my little pocket gun, everything will be just fine. Well, I just don’t think it’s that black-and-white.

The issue is: what are you trying to gain? What is your goal? If you are coming to a fundamentals class, wouldn’t it be good to work with gear that enables you to focus on the class material and work on those fundamentals? We say it all the time that people shouldn’t have to fight their gear, and that people should have gear that facilitates class. For example, having guns with 15+ round capacity do make things run faster and smoother than if your gun only holds 5 and you’re constantly reloading. Maybe in this rifle class you’d never wear a chest rig, but having that rig for the class makes things run smoother. Is that a horrible thing? Is it so horrible to keep class running smoothly? To have gear that enables you to focus on and practice what the instructor is teaching and you paid all that time and money for?

And so, why I felt it was acceptable for this student to take the class with his “class rig”. If it enables him to focus on the class and get the concepts and skills down, then that’s a good thing.

However, if the student doesn’t take it the next step and work to (re)apply those learnings to the other context, it will do them no good. If he never tries all the same stuff from class but with that pocket gun, how will it serve him? He needs to actually carry-over those skills to the other context, especially to find out if there is any carry-over or not! This can be had through one’s own practice, or come back and take the same class a second time but now with the other gun. That way now you can focus on the concepts and the gun, not just the concepts (and the gun being an obstacle).

Another way to look at it is when you make choices about gear and skills, try to make ones that have good carryover. For example, I might take class with my full-sized M&P9 because that enables class to run smoother. But when I carry, I might carry the compact M&P9c, because it conceals better. These two guns are quite similar, outfitted the same (e.g. both have Apex Tactical DCAEK, both have improved aftermarket sights with red fiber-optic front sights and all-black rear sights), and even fit into the same holster. So there’s very little that changes. Thus working with one, the carry-over to the other is high.

This is as opposed to always training and practicing with the M&P9 on my hip, then carrying that little NAA Guardian .32 ACP pocket pistol. Sure, there’s some bit of carryover as they’re both handguns and the fundamentals of operation are the same. But they are two very different platforms, and carry-over is minimal. If I want to carry that Guardian, I have to specifically practice with it. It’s one reason I stopped carrying a S&W 442 snub revolver as my BUG: too different, too little carryover from my primary. The M&P Shield provided better carryover.

Of course yes, if I’m going to carry the M&P9c I should be sure to practice directly with it. The key takeaway here is S.A.I.D. and carryover.

In the end, yes I agree: you should train as you fight. That if you train in some other way, as Tiffany said, you might be gaming yourself out of the whole point of the class and training. However, I just don’t think it’s so black-and-white. Keep S.A.I.D. in mind: some things can have carryover, other things not so much. Consider your end goal and make choices that serve achieving that goal, because even learning that something sucks and is the wrong choice is still learning and still progress towards your goal.

Saturday March 5, 2016. KR Training. One of our flagship days of Basic Pistol 2 (Defensive Pistol Skills Essentials) and Defensive Pistol Skills 1. A very important set of classes to help establish the necessary foundations for the carry and use of a pistol in a defensive context.

The weather was gorgeous. The classes I believe were sold out but some people bailed at the last minute due to various reasons. But we still had a great set of students, many of whom came for both classes. A diverse group as well: old and young, men and women, and from what I could tell all over the map in terms of economic status, education level, race/ethnicity, you name it. May be a little awkward to point that out, but I do so to continue to demonstrate that ignorant stereotypes of gun owners are just that – ignorant.

The day started a little rough, but we instructors spoke afterwards and think the day wound up going pretty smooth and that folks left better than they came.

In many respects it was typical BP2/DPS1 stuff. People being exposed to new concepts,  old habits creeping up and needing to be broken, and just coping with the overload of new information. But when you see people self-correcting, when you see people catching themselves, and when you see them improving, you know it’s all good. No one will come out of a 4-hour class (or 2, 4-hour classes) having mastered the skills, but seeing seeds sown and knowing what now needs to be practiced? All good.

As per these classes, focus on practicing what you learned. That 4-count drawstroke, the press-out, getting on the trigger and working with simultaneous action (getting that coordinated and smooth will help you go quicker without having to go faster). Practicing the “3 Seconds or Less” drill, just about all of which you can do in dry fire from your home.

A few specifics from class:

• Gear matters. So many people think their gear is great, but they never use it under pressure. Often when gear is subject to more pressure, that’s when you start to see it fail. We had one gun that was having failures to extract. I tried the gun myself, and when I did the trigger press felt odd, didn’t always fire, but then double-fired. Yikes! That one’s going back to the manufacturer for warranty work (supposedly bought about 1-2 months ago, about 600 rounds through it). But better it was discovered here.
• Gear doesn’t matter. Once you get your gear working, focus on skills. So the above student swapped out that gun for another, an M&P Shield, and while it took a little bit to change mental gears, she shot with that gun the rest of the day and did quite well. We saw much improvement in her shooting, and while of course there’s work ahead, in many regards I feel she’ll do great to just keep working with that Shield (and perhaps pick up some of those 10-round Pro-Mag magazines).
• Run your gear. I’ll talk more about this in another post in a couple of days.
• Have enough gear. You don’t have enough magazines. Buy more. Buy an UpLULA (seriously, nothing helps loading magazines better). The more mags you can have, the more you can keep them loaded, the more you can run well in class.
• We don’t have a problem with Appendix carry. Those who wish to, you would be well-served to read this article from Todd Louis Green. I’d also look at dedicated AIWB holsters like CCC’s Shaggy, or one from Keepers Concealment.
• Don’t worry if you don’t remember it all – especially those who were there all day. It was a lot of information. A few things I’m sure stood out to you, everyone seemed to have a “yeah, this is what I need to work on”, and so focus on those. And don’t be afraid to come take the classes again. When you do, you’ll now be able to focus on other things, as well as see your progression because there’s a measurable standard you can work against.
• If you felt humbled, maybe a little ego bruised, good. Not that we’re out to destroy you and make you feel like shit; far from it. It’s that self-defense is not a place for ego, a place for false bravado, or a place to overestimate your skills and abilities. You need to be brutally honest with yourself so you can properly assess then properly learn and grow. As Tom likes to say, “we want to knock the Wyatt Earp right out of you”, because we’re interested in your growth, your maturity, your capability/proficiency, and ultimately your safety and ability to keep yourself and your loved-ones safe. 🙂

Thank you for coming out and spending your day with us. We appreciate your trust in us, and providing us with the privilege of teaching you. Hope to see you back out on the range soon.

 

KR Training’s March 2016 newsletter is up.

Classes are chock-full, including a lot of great guest instructors. I’m most excited about Kathy Jackson coming to teach her instructor course, and that Greg Hamilton is coming back for Street & Vehicle Tactics in the Fall. I took S&VT many years ago, and look forward to taking it again.

As well, we’re determining our class schedule for the rest of the year. If there’s a particular class you’d like to take, speak up and let us know!

See you on the range.