A little while ago I penned a blog dealing with the importance of Logical Sequence. The role it plays in developing well rounded marksman.
False realities
Some complained they want to learn the super secret techniques, the one’s the Pro’s use. And why wouldn’t they, but is that realistic or more appropriate wise. In my opinion it hovers over the “feelings” of wanting the final results without putting in the hard work. As if, they are entitled to be good, to be the pro without the effort. False realities. The reality is most students are not professional gunmen nor do they put the effort in for professional development and sustainment. How can you be expected to preform at peak levels if you hardly practice to begin with then what you practice is sub-optimal. My good friend Tony Blauer says it best, “be careful what you practice. You might get good at the wrong thing.” How does one traverse the myriad of instructors and techniques out there now a days? It’s not an easy path to walk and I find myself correcting bad habits approximately 70% of the time and educating 30% at the intermediate level. It is frustrating for sure, but the frustration is alleviated partially by the success of forging well rounded and durable students. It might be alluring to learn how to do something that only a handful of individuals can do, but how realistically will you be able to replicate it under normal conditions much less combat conditions. It’s not important what fill in the blank big name shooter does, it’s only important what you can do.
Contact with the enemy
There is something to be said about a skill set that will survive contact with the enemy. It is the ultimate goal, one we each should strive to achieve. If you’ve got an unlimited number of training rounds and never ending range time then it might be more realistic, if not you’ll need to consider how valuable your time is spent on something you may never attain or survives the stress of combat. I firmly believe in keeping things simple, maximizing your training resources and time with techniques more durable and akin to your skill level. One thing I can promise is once you arrive at the Uber level you really won’t need me telling you what you need, you’ll already have attained it through your own effort.
The professional student
In my experience it is far easy to train the average student with a set of skills more durable and versatile. The majority might attend a training class from a top tier instructor once a year with several lower tier classes to fill in the gaps and practice time amounting to maybe 20-25 hours of live fire practice. To me that represents the bare minimum to sustain intermediate skills. Think about that, the bare minimum and only at the intermediate level. As a professional student we should be interested in perfecting our art as well as pushing our limits. Someone who puts in hard work and challenges their skills on a regular basis. That is how and who we’ve designed our curriculum for in the hopes of forging an army of competent gunmen. We are never satisfied, nor do we want our students to be satisfied. We want an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and advancing their skills, to be pushing the limits as the new norm.
Maybe you could’ve, maybe you should’ve been a competitive shooter, but ask yourself are you and if you’re not focus on curriculum that is more versatile and durable for your situation. Besides, we all have to start somewhere.
'On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow." Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher
