Author: hsoi

Challenging human predators

/ hsoi

Reading this, I think about KR Training’s Defensive Pistol Skills 1 class. That class teaches both presentations Claude mentions: challenge, and shoot. In light of the most recent DPS-1 class (the rains forcing us to do more dry fire and discuss dry fire), I think it’s important for people to realize that one’s dry fire practice shouldn’t just be about pistol fundamentals or other such hard-skills. But one’s dry fire practice, if you are practicing for the purpose of self-defense, should practice all such relevant skills, which includes things like yelling those challenges (e.g. “STOP! DON’T! MOVE!”).

tacticalprofessor's avatartacticalprofessor

Pointing guns at people you have no intention of shooting to force compliance with your demands is poor business.

–Ed Head in his article Pistol Provocation

I agree with this statement and feel it can be even further amplified from the perspective of training people how to Control a Confrontation. The statement can be, and has been, misconstrued by the inexperienced into “I believe that the first time any bad guy should know you are armed is when he sees the muzzle flash.” As a philosophy, reluctance to display a firearm without firing is a mistake. The majority of criminals are looking for a victimization not a fight. The display of a firearm by the intended victim, along with the obvious intent to use it if necessary, is an indicator that the victimization has the potential to turn into a fight. That’s not what economic predators are looking for.

Let’s…

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Wasp Spray for self-defense

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Once again the suggestion to use wasp spray for self-defense has reared up.

No. No. No.

This is a terrible idea.

You could find yourself in a lot of legal trouble. City, County, State and Federal laws vary, but in general to use wasp spray in this manner is illegal. You’re a law-abiding citizen (right?) – why would you choose to do something illegal, especially when there are legal products – pepper spray – specifically designed to be used as chemical deterrents? Yeah I know, you’re being attacked, all bets are off. But after the attack is over, there will be an aftermath and it will be filled with lawyers and legal issues. Why should you risk complicating matters for yourself? There are acceptable and more effective alternatives (pepper spray), so why would you choose otherwise?

Pyrethrin’s are not designed for this purpose. It’s questionable if they will be effective at stopping an attacker, and they could cause great harm. You might think “great harm to my attacker? that’s what I want!” Well, there’s always risk of failure to properly identify your target, splash and spray back (into you…), and other ways that innocents could be affected. But ignore the “harm” factor because we aren’t out to harm people — the goal is to stop the attacker. If pythreins are of questionable effectiveness, why would you use them?

Can you really carry a can of wasp spray around? You can carry pepper spray. OK sure the small keychain cans can’t spray 25 feet, but you can buy cans that can, such as this model from Fox Labs or this one from SABRE RED. Keychain model on your person, larger spray cans at home.

If one of the touted reasons for using wasp spray in self-defense is because you can hit targets at great distance, have you ever tried to hit a wasp nest that was 25 feet away from you? I don’t know about you, but I never hit them on the first shot because there’s no way to aim, the nozzle isn’t really designed to be highly accuracy, that stream is very thin and small, and let’s not forget about the wind. How effective do you think you will be in deploying this under grave pressure at someone attacking you? Consider then purpose-built, purpose-designed pepper sprays tend to present a “fog” or “cloud” pattern out to such distance, effectively making a wall of pepper spray.

Watch the difference in spray patterns (1:55 into this video)

Bottom line: there is no reason to use wasp spray for anything other than ridding the exterior of your home of wasps and hornets. There are legal, effective, products on the market — pepper spray — that serve the same touted purpose, but do so in a more effective and legal manner.

Please, please, please, stop recommending wasp spray. That means you, Today Show.

2014-09-17 training log

/ hsoi

Man, you go up 10 lbs and everything feels different.

So I felt that I made good progress at the prior weight in model 1, so time to bump up the weight. I bumped up the “working max” by 10 lbs. and then recalculated everything. Interesting that all the calculated weights only went up 5 lbs except for the 1 rep weight. But even just going up that small amount added a larger workload. So the 5×5 went slower. That’s how it goes.

Or it could be today was that plus just being off. I felt sluggish getting out of bed. Work’s been stressful, maybe that’s in play. Who knows. I wouldn’t chalk today up as a -10% day tho; still a good 80% day… but just not all mentally there this morning.

In related news, I keep feeling stiff in my legs. Sitting all day in front a computer, I reckon. I’m making an effort that every day I do some bodyweight squats, at least 10 reps. I do some simple stretching, like just standing up straight and reaching up to the sky, holding that for a while and just relaxing into it. It feels more yoga-like than “athletic stretching” (for lack of a better way to describe it), but it feels good and my body is feeling better doing it. Just take the dog out back in the afternoon, and while she runs about, just stand on the back patio and do these stretches and squats. Feels good.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

  • Squats (model 1)
    • bar x 5
    • bar x 5
    • 150 x 5
    • 175 x 4
    • 205 x 3
    • 225 x 2
    • 260 x 1
    • 180 x 5
    • 180 x 5
    • 180 x 5
    • 180 x 5
    • 180 x 5
  • Deficit Deadlift (model 1)
    • 275 x 3
    • 275 x 3
    • 275 x 3
    • 275 x 3
    • 275 x 3
  • Leg Press
    • 165 x 20
    • 165 x 20

KR Training 2014-09-13 – BP2/DPS1 Quick Hits

/ hsoi

Sometimes, it’s “just another day” at KR Training. But this past Saturday was an exception to the rule.

It was a Basic Pistol 2 (Defensive Pistol Essentials) and Defensive Pistol Skills 1. Many students stayed for both classes, which is typical, but what was atypical was…

Weather

…the weather.

The first major cold front came through, and it seems summer is officially over. We dropped around 30º in a day, from being in the mid-90’s going to the mid-60’s. It was wonderful! However, with that drop in temperature also brought a lot of rain. I don’t know how much rain fell at the A-Zone Range, but at my home in Austin we got about 2.5″. It certainly felt that way at the range, with much rain coming on Friday and making for soggy, muddy range conditions. Then despite the weather reports, the rain kept going throughout most of Saturday. Sometimes a light drizzle, sometimes a break, and sometimes it went so hard for so long we just had to go or stay inside.

The weather made things challenging, and I want to give credit to all the students for their positive attitudes and willingness to keep working regardless of the conditions. You don’t get to choose the conditions when the flag flies for you, so it’s good to get used to less than ideal circumstances.

One thing this changed up was exactly what we did in class. We just couldn’t run the same drills. But major props to Karl Rehn for his ability to improv — it’s probably because he’s also a jazz musician. 😉  Seriously, if I can brag on my boss-man for a moment, this is something I’ve long admired in Karl: his ability to adapt. It could be because the weather isn’t cooperating, it could be because he sees the class as a whole is struggling and needs more focus on some element, or maybe he sees everyone is exceeding expectation so he can push further. But he’s always able to call an audible and do what’s right and best for the class, even if it’s not specifically what’s on the lesson plan, it’s still within scope for addressing what the students need within the scope of the class goals. It’s a rare trait, and I’m not sure students can appreciate it because they only see a small slice. But I’ve been around Karl in a teaching capacity for 7 years now and have seen a lot of how he operates. He’s got talent.

Back to students….

One take home? Preparedness. Not just things like carrying your gun or loading all your magazines before coming to class and such. But simple things like if it’s going to be sunny, wear sunscreen. If there’s a chance of rain, wear boots and a raincoat. Windy or chilly? a jacket or windbreaker would be wise. Don’t just think about your gun and ammo for class.

Speaking of equipment.

Equipment Matters

Another way the classes were atypical were the guns we saw. Some years ago you’d see wide variety in classes, but the past couple years it seems that everyone’s pretty much settled on Glock and M&P, with some XDm and the occasional other thing (Sig, H&K). But then suddenly this class was loaded with all sorts of different guns. Not a bad thing, just interesting.

Still, I think a lot of people were able to see how much equipment matters.

Gun fit? Very important. We had a few people with small hands and short fingers, and it was challenging to find a gun that fit them. But now that you know about gun fit (here’s a guide if you need a reminder and reference), now it’s time to go back to the store and just go through everything in the case until you find something that fits you. Yes, that might mean less than ideal calibers like .380 Auto or even .22 LR. But those are better than nothing, provided it means you can find a gun you can shoot, shoot well, and are happy to shoot (meaning you’ll practice). Also, don’t neglect potential for custom gunsmithing to help as well. You may need to get a grip reduction to reduce the mass in your hand, or a different trigger that doesn’t change the weight or safety of the trigger but does change the position so your finger can properly operate the trigger.

Accessories matter too. Lots of people with plain old belts, and they got to experience how they just don’t work well. They cannot support the weight, they twist, they sag, they give, the are too thin and narrow and holsters flex and move. Good belts are important.  I’ve used belts from TheBeltMan, and these days I wear a Wilderness Tactical Original Instructor Belt. The Wilderness belt is NOT fashionable at all, but no one ever sees my belts and I like the “infinite adjustability” because of all my weight fluctuations. There are many good makers of gun belts; use them.

Same goes for holsters and magazine pouches. You will NOT find anything good or useful in the stores in town. Hooray for the Internet tho, because there are people like Comp-Tac, Blade Tech, Raven Concealment, Custom Carry Concepts, Dale Fricke, and many others making quality holsters. A key factor is you want a holster whose mouth stays open so you can reholster without problem. Kydex is good for this.

But while equipment is good, once you have it settled, that’s enough. It’s time to move up the ladder to more important things.

Dry Fire

One side-effect of the weather was we got to do a lot more dry fire work in class than we normally do. I know it’s not as exciting, but I hope the students were able to see the value. I mean, they learned how to draw from a holster and draw from concealment all inside and dry — didn’t have to fire anything, ammo was not necessary.

Many of the skills learned cannot be practiced at local ranges. But about the only thing you can’t work on dry is recoil management. That’s one skill out of the many involved in pistol shooting, so focus on what you can. It’s easy, it costs you nothing but a few minutes of time every other day.

Check out Ben Stoeger’s books and other material on dry fire.

I’ve also got a bunch of stuff right here on my website about dry fire.

Extraneous Movement

We saw numerous people making extraneous movement.

This is simply movement that doesn’t need to be made, and probably shouldn’t. The most common thing was on drawing the gun, squatting down.

I totally understand. I did this for a long time myself.

The thing is, it’s unnecessary movement and can work counter to what you’re trying to do. The biggest problem? When you move your body like that, you now affect where your eye-target line is. So not only are you trying to bring the gun up to the eye-target line, you are also making a moving target because the eye-target line is moving! All this movement makes it harder for you to quickly acquire a sight picture.

The only way to overcome it is to be aware of it, and work on it in dry fire.

Video yourself. Or watch yourself in a mirror. It will tell the truth.

So much of what we do is about economy of motion. For example, how instead of serializing the movements of pressing the gun out and pressing the trigger in we do them simultaneously? We don’t have to move faster, but the simultaneous motion allows us to achieve the end result much sooner. Economy of motion.

Good Day

Despite the rain, it was a good day. The temperature remained cool and it was wonderful to have a day on the range where we weren’t soaked in sweat afterwards. Still soaked, but I’ll take the much-needed rain.

We had full classes, and each class was majority female. We had students aging from college to retirees. People of various backgrounds too. Again, I like to point out the wide diversity of students in classes because it shows that you cannot pigeonhole nor stereotype gun owners and people that take responsiblity for themselves.

And while I bragged on my boss-man, I also want to brag on my fellow assistants, Tom and Tracy. It’s great when you can have a well-oiled machine.

Thank you all for coming out and giving us the privilege of teaching you. I hope you had a good day, learned something, and we hope to see you out on the range again soon. 🙂

Delica clip replacement

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

I carry 2 Spyderco Delica folders. Great knives for all sorts of purposes.

Alas, the way the clip is fashioned they snag every now and again on things. Usually they just bend and I can bend things back into place, but I guess the clip bent one too many times and it broke on one of them.

Looking around for replacements, I found it odd that I couldn’t find any for sale on Spyderco’s own website. But a bunch of third-party discussions came up, and I was pointed to these Titanium pocket clips on USAKnifeMaker.com. I liked the fact they were low-rider (the Delica’s stick out a lot from your pocket), and the slim clip does end up looking like a pen clip. All good things.

Alas, they didn’t work for me. The hole spacing does NOT fit the Delica. I saw others with this issue and they drilled things out and got it to work. Well, that only sorta worked. There’s just too much spacing and not enough room to drill before the holes get too big and the screw heads won’t hold. The screws also go in at a slight angle, which means they don’t hold fast – and on one it did pop out. As well, I’m not sure if it’s the bend or the clip itself, but when I first put them into a pocket, I heard ripping — they slightly torn my pant pocket.. .not a deep tear, just some ripping of threads. Ugh. So that was $18 down the drain, because there’s no way I can return them now that I modified them. Nothing against these clips or USAKnifeMaker.com, they just don’t work for me.

I searched around Spyderco’s website again. They really need a better website. But I did find on their support/contact page they actually have an option for “need a replacement clip”, so this probably comes up enough. I sent them a note and we’ll see what comes of it. I also noticed they have a “deep pocket clip”. If I could get those on my Delica, I’ll take it; I asked.

So… we’ll see.

Meantime, if any of you have suggestions on Delica clip replacements that actually work, I’m all ears.

2014-09-15 training log

/ hsoi

Well, maybe today was better… I don’t know. I don’t quite feel like I’m treading water, but today’s progress wasn’t much over last week. Still, a bit of progress is still progress, so I’ll give it a little more time to see how things go, else I’ll switch up to “model 2”.

I did opt to make one change. I swapped close-grip bench presses in and behind-the-neck presses out. I don’t have problems getting the bar off my chest nor through the mid-way point, but it’s after that point, which is perhaps a triceps weakness. So hey… how about some close-grips instead. If a little extra triceps work can help me there, I’ll take it.

Oh, I am going to make an effort to pause all my warm-ups. I was reading John Phung’s “A Very Important Letter to my 14-Year-Old Self”, which reads like a letter I’d write to my own 14-year-old self, and one thing he wrote:

Pause your warm ups at the bottom position. It’s an easy way to sneak in paused work into a training session.

Geez… duh! Yeah.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

  • Bench Press (model 1)
    • bar x 5
    • bar x 5
    • 115 x 5
    • 130 x 4
    • 155 x 3
    • 170 x 2
    • 190 x 1
    • 170 x 8
    • 170 x 8
    • 170 x 8
    • 170 x 8
    • 170 x 6
  • Machine Flies
    • 85 x 10
    • 85 x 10
    • 85 x 10
    • 85 x 10
    • 85 x 10
  • Close-Grip Bench Press
    • 95 x 12
    • 95 x 12
    • 95 x 12
    • 95 x 12
  • Hammer Curls
    • 30e x 10
    • 30e x 10
    • 30e x 10
    • 30e x 8

Sunday Metal – My Favorite Exodus

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

“Fabulous Disaster” holds a strong place in my teenage metal years. I  wore that tape out and had to buy it again.

I know it wasn’t the “hit” song, but the lyrics are just too awesome in “Verbal Razors” that it’s one of my all-time favorite Exodus songs.

I mean… “you’re a plastic motherfucker, all you do is pose” is an awesome lyric. 🙂

 

Police response slows, as Austin grows

/ hsoi

Austin is one of the fastest growing cities in the US. As more people move here, it puts greater strain on the limited resources of the city, and the city infrastructure just cannot keep up with the population growth. Consequently, police response times are increasing.

My friend Ed sent me this article:

On Friday evening, four of the 10 officers working in Northwest Austin responded to a top-priority call, meaning 40 percent of all that area’s officers were busy at the time. In that sector, Adam, records show it takes an average of nearly 7.5 minutes from the time someone calls 911 to the time police arrive for a top priority call.

Think about that. Not only is it taking 7.5 minutes to respond…

“If they’re calling up and there’s a burglary in their residence, seven minutes is an eternity,” said Commander Donald Baker.

…but almost half of the officers on duty are focused on a single incident.

In the Adam and Edward sectors, officers responded to nearly 93,000 calls in 2013. Each shift should have about 12 officers on patrol, but Baker said he’s not fully staffed and many times officers are off for vacation, sick time, military leave or training.

93,000 calls in 1 year. For the sake of discussion, let’s over-simplify some math. Let’s assume then there was 46,500 calls per sector. That then breaks down to just under 4000 calls per month, about 120 calls per day, about 5 calls per hour, 1 call every 12 minutes. And 60% of those 12 minutes are taken up in merely responding. But of course, when police arrive on the scene, they aren’t going to be there for a mere 5 minutes. And when nearly half of the officers on duty are responding to a single event, and when they can’t even be fully staffed during a shift, when a response may require calling officers from other sectors and now those other sectors are even more understaffed… can you see why police response time is deteriorating?

Note, this is also average response time. That means some response times will be faster, and some slower.

“I found that to be a little bit long to wait for an attack, basically,” said Austin resident Devin Richardson describing the last time she called police.

Richardson said she’s called police at least twice in the last nine months. The first time it took 20 minutes for them to respond to a domestic disturbance at a neighbor’s house. The second time, she said, it took nearly an hour an a half after a neighbor’s dog attacked her daughter.

“As a mother of three who are very young, it definitely concerns me that it takes so long to get here for something,” Richardson said.

As well, consider this is response time. There’s more time involved. You experience the event, you have to register that police need to be called. You have to get to a phone. You have to dial 911. You have to wait for 911 to pick up and actually connect you to an operator. You have to relay all the information, which then the operator must process and then relay to a dispatcher. Then the dispatcher must relay the information out to the police. All those things? They take time too… precious seconds, precious minutes. The total response time has increased.

I’m not trying to be hard on the police. They have a tough job, and this is just an unfortunate numbers game where they are getting the short end of things. Does this mean Austin needs more police on the street? Certainly. But even if they get the additional 59 officers proposed in next year’s budget, that doesn’t amount to much. Consider some officers will retire or leave APD. Divide the new hires over multiple sectors, multiple shifts, and the net gain per sector per shift is perhaps 1 officer. It’s something, but barely.

Baker and and those who live in the area agree that as Austin continues to develop and grow, something needs to change sooner rather than later.

“If something happens and it takes them over an hour and a half to get here, what am I supposed to do?” asked Richardson.

Emphasis added.

I’ll tell you what you need to do.

You need to stop relying on the police to be your savior. It’s sorely evident they cannot be there when you need them. Will they try? Yes. Most police will work to protect and serve, and will do all they can to help you. But the painful reality is in the numbers, and the police simply cannot be there and respond in the seconds needed to intervene in a life-threatening situation.

This isn’t just a call to “get a gun, learn how to use it effectively, get a carry license, and carry everywhere”. Yes, I think that’s part of it. But it also is a call to do things like get first aid training, and training beyond putting band-aids on boo-boos (learn how to use a tourniquet; how to treat burns; etc.). It’s taking steps to make your home a less-inviting home for burglars (illuminate your exterior, get and use an alarm system, etc.). It’s a commitment to make changes in your life that invite less trouble (e.g. “don’t go to stupid places, don’t hang out with stupid people, don’t do stupid things” — i.e. stay away from 6th Street).

 

But it really starts with an acknowledgement that your personal safety is your own responsiblity — you cannot and should not put it in solely the hands of others because, despite their best desires, they just may not be able to be there when you need them.

2014-09-12 training log

/ hsoi

I just don’t look forward to back day. It just feels like a bunch of assistance exercises. I dunno… maybe all the time spent doing 5/3/1 and how every day involved a major movement then assistance work. Who knows… maybe I’ll try to get back to that somehow, but if I do, I suspect I may need to also get back to a more 5/3/1-style split so there’s a bit more recovery time in there. Or could be as simple as putting squats on Monday, bench Wednesday, and deadlift Friday, but I dunno…. I’ll think about it.

And today, I also changed it up a bit. I realized that hyperextensions aren’t really doing anything more than following what Paul wrote in the eBook. I figured what I could actually use more of would be some shoulder work. Not like delt work, but things say for the rotator cuff and other shoulder health things. So today for lack of a better thing, I did face pulls, but I’ll be looking into what I need most. Should be more useful for me and my shoulders.

Other big thing was trying to think more about pulling from my back. That is, from the elbows to my hands? They don’t exist. All pulling comes from the back muscles working to pull at the shoulder, to pull the elbow. The elbow only moves because the back muscles moved it — no biceps, no forearms. At least, that’s the way I visualized and tried to move.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

  • BB Rows
    • 145 x 8
    • 145 x 8
    • 145 x 8
    • 145 x 8
  • Wide, Neutral-grip Lat Pulldowns
    • 130 x 8
    • 130 x 8
    • 130 x 8
    • 130 x 8
  • Barbell Shrugs
    • 155 x 20
    • 155 x 20
    • 155 x 20
    • 155 x 18
    • 155 x 18
  • Face Pulls
    • 40 x 15
    • 40 x 15
    • 40 x 15