Hello my friends, and fellow Guardians.
Last week, we wrapped up a two-part segment on Combat Dynamics – that was the framework for a talk I need to give, and it was nice to hammer it out here.
This week, I want to change gears. You see, 2019 is about to become the Year of TACTICS here at the Concealed Carry University. It’ll be the year of GETTING GOOD. We want to get good enough. We want to jam into first gear, throw that clutch and start making tracks – building REAL skill that is reliable and reproducible in every situation we can find ourselves in.
I like to think of old Land Rovers or Toyota Land Cruisers, though you could say the same thing about a tough-as-nails Jeep – even new Jeeps are great off-road vehicles. These vehicles had one thing going for them: durability. You could beat the heck out of them, and they kept going. They were made of higher quality materials and had redundant systems. They were effective on pavement as transportation, and when you threw them into mud or onto rocks, they were still effective.
Now I never take engineering for granted, and obviously even the crappiest, cheapest car is still a technical marvel. But it’s one thing to make a car that can survive 100,000 miles on paved, smooth roads without needing an overhaul. It’s an entirely different thing, to make a vehicle that can survive 100,000 miles on both pavement and mixed terrain and mud and rocks.
Well, that’s how you and I need to be. Driving on paved roads is like being a good shot in an indoor range shooting stall. But we need to develop ourselves into people who can put rounds on target in the middle of a violent, reactive attack.
We need to be able to get our guns out and into play fast and reliably. We need to be able to perform skilled shots out of the holster from low retention. We need to be able to score hits while we are running laterally. We need to be able to hurt an attacker with our hands and feet and gain distance so that we can draw.
These are skills, and they need to be worked. But, because we are savvy professionals, we want to be able to ‘hack’ these skills. We want to be able to develop them efficiently and effectively.
Here’s one of the biggest pieces of advice I can give with regards to skill:
Hands on, kinetic skill with our guns in hand is at once the most important and least important things we need to possess as people who carry concealed. I say that because:
It’s CRITICAL, skill is how we interact with the world. Without skill, nothing happens. It doesn’t matter if you understand things theoretically if you can’t do them. Survival doesn’t happen without skill. And remember, even delivering a high-energy, explosive response to a reactionary attack (intensity) is a skill.
However, I also say that skill is one of the least important elements of concealed carry because: technically, skill should be a given. Skill shouldn’t be the goal. Skill should be the starting point.
Why?
Because ONLY once you have a fluid, auto-pilot grasp on actual, rubber-meet-road fighting SKILL can you then go bigger picture and develop the kind of AWARENESS that separates the entry-level boot from the Green Beret. What do I mean by that.
Well, it’s like this:
When you look at the kinds of military men who are the absolute tip of the spear of our armed forces, what you DON’T find are bulky guys ripped to shreds with bulging biceps who carry six guns and spend all day practicing their shooting skills.
Instead, you find wiry-tough guys who all completely trust their shooting abilities so much that they are able to move on, and move into training their MINDS. They don’t need to spend all their time training skills because they did that. They checked that box, and now they simply keep them sharp thro