Pushing To Failure
So, if you were listening to last night’s radio broadcast on Ballistic Radio you heard John and I discuss pressure testing. What is pressure testing?
The Suck Fest
It’s a phrase we use to describe pushing you, your gear and your TTP’s to the failure point. Learning their left and right limits in training so you are better prepared and confident in combat. Most folks don’t do their own pressure testing, they rely on myself and others, which I believe is a huge mistake. You have to do it yourself, it is not as valuable unless you have the chance to experience the suck itself. That’s right, if it’s not a suck fest, then you are probably really not testing.
The Standards Life
So, in our classes we have a high level of standards we enforce. We enforce them universally and consistently, which has lead to our success. Developing and implementing standards is so critical to long term sustainability that I will have to cover that in another blog article down the road. Suffice it to say that if you do not have standards or do not enforce standards or have lowest common denominator type standards you are living a lie. Standards should be observable, repeatable and here is the big one measurable. Anything of value must be measurable.
Move With a Purpose
We can sometimes get some bad press because our philosophy is once we have the standards nailed down then it is all about repetitions. Not just repetitions for the sake of sending rounds downrange, but instead repetitions that support your standards. If every round fired was fired in an attempt to meet a valid standard then every round is fired with a purpose, every round was willed to the target because it was a conscious choice. I will cover more on repetitions and what we call “repp’ing them out” in another blog, but one thing we notice is fatigue.
The Mental Drain
Fatigue or lack of physical readiness is a huge deterrent for the majority of folks we come into contact with during training. It is not the physical act of being accurate that drains them, it’s the mental drain to maintain such a high level of focus to achieve success on each and every round. That is the real culprit, the act of shooting is taxing, but staying focused for an extended period of time is exhausting.
Define Fitness for You
Every person has their own goals in life, to include their fitness. It certainly is a personal choice and I am not suggesting everyone needs to stop what they are doing and focus on that, what I am saying is we could ALL probably stand to be a bit fitter. Whatever that means to you is your choice, for me it means maintaining a high level of physical readiness. At the end of the radio segment you heard John and I talk about our friendly competition to support some noteworthy charities.
Mental fatigue is real and about the only thing you can do to bolster your mental toughness is subject yourself to the labor. Do the work and with time it will become easier.
