A Couple for the Gunfighters

First: The "training versus practice competition" war of words continues over at American Gunfighters. John Van Swearingen writes:

Back in 2008, the weirdest thing happened: firearms training became… sexy. Magpul posted the trailer for “Magpul Dynamics: Art of the Tactical Carbine” to YouTube that fall, and they released the DVD set shortly thereafter. It seemed like you couldn’t enter a barracks, attend a read-off, or go to the range without hearing two trigger-pullers talking about those videos.

Since then, there has been a renaissance of veteran soldiers, officers, and defense contractors starting training-based YouTube channels, releasing DVDs, buying billboards outside military bases, and utilizing social media, all with one objective in mind: selling you a spot in their training course. Production values and editing in these videos are top notch, and they look really cool.

These classes can teach you great lessons, but they may not be making you better as a shooter. Training is not only there to develop a shooter’s mindset, but the American shooter should not forget the most important part of training: getting better at shooting.

This is where the tactical shooting community as a whole could use a kick in the pants. Putting on your kit (and showing off your new plate carrier) and diving into “supine-urban-modular-dynamic-ninja-prone” can give you quality trigger-time and help introduce you to useful techniques, but the purpose of this article is to offer a different viewpoint about training and training classes: if you are not training like (or with) a high-level competitive shooter, you’re doing it wrong.

Read the whole thing. (H/t The Firearms Blog). This is not to downplay the role of training, which is to help show you what you are doing wrong; and even show you things you don't know, and don't know you don't know. Many people fall into the training/no-practice trap, whether it is shooting or the hand-to-hand martial arts. Go to class, the sensei teaches something new or reviews something old, practice a few times, and move on. Then ... nothing until the next class. Of course, it is hard to practice martial arts if you don't have the facilities or someone with whom to practice. It is one of the reasons why I think boxing is often more successful in real life is because it generally isn't taught in a studio, with limited hours and use, but a gym that is more open to coming and going to practice as time allows. (Boxing also includes actual fighting or sparring at full speed--see this article on training from Death Valley Magazine).

Gunfighting presents many of the same issues: formal training is intermittent at best (most people have probably not had formal firearms training for anything other than basic safety and operation), ranges are hard to get to, and serious gunfighting skills cannot even be practiced at a traditional range. But like time spent with a punching bag or practicing kata, dry fire, drawing, reloading (with an empty magazine or using snap-caps) at home can help with practicing basic skills. And, in many ways, it is easier to practice the basic skills with a firearm at home because you don't need a partner, a floor mat, or lots of space.

Second: Imminent Threat Solutions suggests learning to fight using both a gun and a knife at the same time.

As you mix it up at close quarters with both a pistol and knife, it completely changes the game. Understand that we’re not talking about grappling, we’re talking about inflicting maximum damage with both tools in a compressed time frame in order to break contact or prepare for additional threats.