10Aug04

On serious shooting vs "play" shooting, from one of my instr uctors:

"I exposed a new student to the Rotator and the our method of moveme nt, precision shooting, and situational awareness last week. Mike is no novice . He is a competitive marksmen of many years and is able routinely to shoot ragged, one-hole groups with his Glock 30 during PPC and other competitions . But, he doesn't habitually carry a pistol for self-protection, and, up until now , has regarded pistols solely as instruments or recreation.

I ran him through the verbal challenge, draw, movement, immediate action drill, and then turned him lose on the Rotator. His hit ratio was less then

sixty percent, and he would often miss the first two or three shots after m oving. Like many beginners in our Art, he had trouble with multitasking. After several more cheerless attempts, I pulled him off the line for a chat. He w as clearly frustrated and embarrassed. "Wow, this is a lot to think ab out," he said. "When you demonstrated, it looked so easy."

In order to make it manageable, I broke the routine (kata) up into several,

more easily digested segments. We started with the draw in motion and then added a piece at a time. It took far longer than Mike thought is would or

should, but he gradually put it together and started moving smoothly. Inde cisive dithering and twitching incrementally gave way to seamless flowing.

Mike's conversion from marksman to gunmen has started, and he is an enthusiastic convert. You'll see him in a class soon"

Comment: Many competitive shooters naively believe that the transition to " gunman" is effortless. As we see, the road is considerably more bum py that most think. But the main point is this: the process starts with repentance . One must repent of his old ways and see that he needs to take a new directi on before any progress will be made. Without repentance, no true learning wil l happen. Without repentance, we are merely rearranging deck chairs on a sinking Titanic. Repentance involves jumping into the cold water and swimm ing to a new ship. It is frightening, but it is the only way. Those so gripped b y fear that they cannot make the jump will stay with the Titanic.

/John

10Aug04

Serious vs competition shooting, view from another of my instructors:

"I concur with your assessment of competition shooters and the painf ul frustration of trying to train them to become competent gunmen. It is a matter/antimatter mixture. They are mostly incompatible.

There are many principles in direct conflict. Here are the most noteworthy :

We don't put empty guns in holsters. On cold ranges they do, as a matter course. In running a cold range, the instructor is saying to his students, 'I don't trust you with guns and never will.' If people are ever to l earn how to carry loaded guns regularly, they need to do it in training.

You are not going to be shooting someone every time you draw your gun. We thus keep the trigger finger in register during the draw until sights are o n target and we have made the decision to shoot, and we draw from concealment . Trigger fingers prematurely placed on triggers, in order to get a =80 fast shot,' are an invitation to an ND and a constitute bad habit, yet competitive shooters do it all the time, because they carry pistols in plain view and s hoot every time they draw. Pistols used are typically temperamental monstrositi es with no practical use outside competition. 'Prepping of the trigger,' as taught in some venues, is a virtual guarantee of an ND. It is one of the m ost difficult habits we have to break.

Any time that you place an automatic 'faster is better' impe rative into ' tactical' exercises, you customarily defeat the premise the exercise is designed to point out to you.

Anyone employing sound tactics and gun handling skills is thus assured of not 'winning' any of the vast majority of shooting competiti ons as the are currently practiced."

Comment: I have no issue with competitive shooting and competitive shooters , any more than I have an issue with "dojo dancers" who flit around dojos while wearing shiny pajamas. If that does it for you, you'll hear no thing but silence from this quarter.

However, it is amazing to me that anyone would want to learn serious skills

from a person who doesn't carry a gun and doesn't even own a gun suitable fo r carrying. When it comes to serious training for serious shooting. I would rather learn from someone who has mud on his shoes, someone who is less concerned with looking pretty and more concerned with objective problem solv ing, someone who inspires his students rather than impress them.

/John