In part one of this article, I talked initially about looking at the pistol draw stroke more combatively and less about aiming for the fastest time on the clock. The following information will revolve around the continuation of the draw stroke as the pistol breaks from the vertical line of presentation and moves into the horizontal line of presentation from my perspective, as well as with heavy influence from my mentor Craig Douglas of Shivworks.

Throughout my career as a Law Enforcement Officer, I’ve often been asked questions such as, “Why did you become a police officer?", “What does it take to join a law enforcement agency?” and “How do you perform the job in today’s age?” All great questions, to which I have done my best to provide the “best answer” for those seeking guidance or simply looking to satisfy their general curiosity. I hope to shed some light on these questions as well as provide general guidance and encouragement for those seeking to become a LEO or for those already associated with the profession.

I recently attended a great competition style shooting class instructed by Ben Stoeger, a world champion production class shooter. This class was a fundamentals class for practical pistol shooting in USPSA and geared toward improving your performance in competition. Although certain things are emphasized differently in competition style training than in more defensive and tactics oriented training, all the fundamentals of marksmanship still apply. As I hope to continue pushing forward in my competitive shooting, I thought this would be an awesome chance to learn from one of the best competition pistol shooters in the world.

Standards: 1. a level of quality or attainment. synonyms: quality, level, grade, caliber, merit, excellence.What standards do we place upon ourselves when working in an environment with others who do similar tasks (e.g. shooting)? What level of accountability should we have for our lack of proficiency when it comes to training? 

One thing that military and Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) share, as well as civilians who carry for personal defense, is the need for target discrimination. Considering the civilian perception of LEOs recently, it has never been more critical that an officer properly identifies his or her target. In the military, we train hard to ensure that non-threats are not engaged. Our operating environment is very different regarding threat assessment and rules of engagement. What constitutes a threat on deployment may not constitute a threat here in the states for our LEO brothers and sisters. Generally speaking, we are probably better trained in this regard, depending on the military specialty and due to the time we have to devote to it, but your actions are held to a much higher level of scrutiny by the public. Even when it is a good choice, which is 99% of the time. In the military we don’t have to worry about our actions being blasted all over the American media with every possible aspect analyzed by some arm chair expert sitting behind a desk with a microphone in their ear. I am no expert in how police forces train either. I have seen some of the training on the flat range by a few LEOs and it is only setting up the officer for failure. Hopefully some of the experience and insight I can provide will help explain how military Special Operations Forces (SOF) conduct training and allow us the time to assess a threat while still allowing us the ability to take the life of a bad guy before they can take ours. Before I moved into a more specialized assault role the majority of target ID was explained by saying, “if they are a threat, shoot them, if not, don’t.” Once I was fortunate enough to attend high level CQB training, it was explained much more in depth and broken down so that the mental process of identification could allow me to be successful. One of the things that our unit does well is incorporate a sports psychologist into our training section who shows us and our instructors how to do this effectively. A lot of our training cues incorporate three words that get us from threat to decision to action very well. The method that they came up with was the hands, aim, shoot (HAS) phrase. It’s very effective and literally as simple as it sounds. When you have a potential target one of the common mistakes is looking at “them” by means of the face or center mass. We do this because that’s how we normally train at the flat range. We step up to the line knowing that we are going to take a chest shot or a head shot ahead of time, and effectively cut out any decision making process that we could be using to train for the real world more effectively. There is a place for this in marksmanship training, but we have to remember that it is only training marksmanship and not target ID. In a job like ours, where this is a critical, no-fail component, it has to be incorporated into training once the marksmanship component has been established. When we conduct training on the flat range it should be to prepare us for the tasks we will be faced with when we leave it. A Team Sergeant of mine, who I look up to very much, told me one time, “the mission drives task org.” He was right, and it made me think. Mission does drive our task organization, but it also drives a lot more. It drives physical training, job training, range training, and anything else we do to prepare for our jobs and mission at hand. Our flat range training should incorporate some aspect that prepares us for what we will face when we are on mission or working our shift. To accomplish this, we use a lot of different types of cartoon/realistic targets on the range. When we start to remember which target is a threat and not one, we cover up the guns or paste something on them which make them a non-threat, which emphasizes our need to identify threats, not just recognize targets. In addition to using them in shoothouses, we use them in drills that incorporate target presentation. Pie-ing off windows, barriers, movement in width where they present around the corner of a barrier, or turning drills like the el-Prez.

We’ve all heard the saying, “You can sleep when you’re dead;” many of us are even guilty of using it as a personal motto.  The reality is: Without sleep, you can’t perform.  High personal and professional demands often push sleep to the wayside. However, sleep is a vital part of optimal physical, mental, technical, and tactical performance.

Two primary things we need to get better at anything: practice and feedback. Practice we can do on our own, but feedback we must receive from someone else. Mentally tough people don’t “just show up,” they use each practice session to intentionally build mental and physical skillsets.

This article is going to focus specifically on the tactics, techniques and procedures surrounding the use of a defensive blade while unentangled. This is a rabbit hole that can go extremely deep, but the goal of this piece is to understand robust and simple movements that will allow the practitioner to survive. In 2017, knife dueling is few and far between in developed first world countries. The majority of knife assaults occur within two arms reach and the victim initially not even knowing they’ve been stabbed. This is where the “fight” usually starts, from some type of entanglement. The goal for any type of knife problem is to hopefully work the opponent off of you and then at distance keep him off of you. The last thing you want to do is go through all the work of getting unentangled and have them crash back into you to get re-entangled all over again.

What does it take to make it into SOF?Become comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s the first thing I tell people who ask me what they need to do if they want to get into Special Operations. Be prepared to spend a lot of your time cold, wet, tired, hungry, thirsty, and hurting. Discomfort and uncertainty will become the new normal in your life.You’ll miss meals and often not have a choice of what you eat. There will be times when you lose a lot of weight. Your uniform will smell like ammonia, because your body is using your muscles for fuel. Sometimes, you’ll be so exhausted you’ll fall asleep on a ruck march and face plant into the trail; other times you’ll be so keyed up that you won’t be able to sleep, even though you have time and you need it. Your schedule will be erratic and you’ll have a hard time getting into a routine. Most days you’ll wake up sore or in pain and wonder if you’re injured or just hurting. To be successful you’ll need to learn the difference between the two. Sometimes, you’ll have to work through an injury; you’ll always have to work through pain and discomfort. Travel will include trips to the worst places on earth to work with people who smell terrible, that you don’t like, and can’t understand. The terrain there will be too rocky or too sandy; it’ll be unbearably hot or freezing to the bone cold; the air will be too thin and you’ll be gasping to catch your breath or so dirty and dusty that you won’t want to breathe. The places you live on deployment will try to poison you. Cuts will become infected. You’ll go months without a solid shit and learn to never trust a fart in certain parts of the world. You’ll become intimately familiar with Cipro, Motrin, and Z-Paks. You’ll lose touch with old friends and won’t be able to follow your favorite sports teams as closely as you once did. Priorities will become apparent and take precedence for your time; choose wisely.Some people won’t believe in you. They won’t think you’re capable. I’ve come to realize that’s okay. It’s not their job to believe in you. You’ll need to be intrinsically motivated and completely committed. You will do bad things for good reasons, good things for bad reasons, and sometimes have no clue as to why you are doing something. Friends of yours will pay the ultimate price—you may even have to yourself.

There are several different approaches to training which should be considered when designing training programs and shooting is no different. Whether you’re training for combat, self-defense, competition, or hobby, if you’re looking for improvement here are a few different approaches you can use to maximize your training and make the most of your range days. Practice makes perfect, wait – no, perfect practice makes perfect, or is it just practice makes permanent? We know that practice works and if you’ve looked into the shooting world at all it doesn’t take long to see there’s no such thing as a perfect anything. That leaves the old “muscle memory” saying that we never rise to the occasion – only fall to the level of our training, which seems to make the practice and permanent connection. That leaves us with little hope of learning how to get better. However, with a little insight from the motor learning research and some application of their theories we can consider three different practice approaches which can guide us in pursuit of our training goals. I’ll break down what scientists call blocked, random, and varied practice and discuss how you can use them in your training.

Maybe you just bought a gun for the first time. Maybe you've never been taught how to shoot or the extent of your training has been, "point it at the target and pull the trigger." This article is a primer for new shooters, inexperienced shooters, untrained shooters, or anyone that wants to improve their shooting. It's just 6 simple things that you can improve that will noticeably increase your skill level. 1. They don't have a plan. If you fail to plan, plan to fail. Too often new shooters go to the range, squeeze off a box or two of ammo praying to hit the bullseye and leave. There is no rhyme or reason, and they'll do the exact same thing next time they get to the range. Here's a simple solution. Start with 10 rounds and practice slow aimed fire. Pay attention to the fundamentals (stance, breath, sight alignment, sight picture, trigger squeeze, grip, and follow through) and shoot just one round at a time, trying to hit the target exactly where you want to. For the next 10 rounds, do the same thing, but start with the gun in the #3 position (for further reference on the #3 position, see this article: https://greyhive.com/articles/combative_pistol_use_part_2). Practice pushing the gun out, acquiring the sights and placing them onto the exact spot you want to hit with minimal movement after the gun settles on the target. For the next 20 rounds, practice controlled pairs. These don't need to be fast. The key word is controlled. Watch how your sights move when re-acquiring the target for the second shot. The muzzle should rise slightly when you fire and fall naturally back to your initial point of aim. If it doesn't, this means you're not following the fundamentals. For the last 10 rounds, practice from the draw or with your rifle hanging loose. If you have more than 50 rounds, practice on your weak points or an even better idea is to download a Baer Solutions target (https://baersolutionsllc.com/freetargets/), follow the directions given, and watch yourself improve because of your focused approach.

With all of the training I have been doing this year I decided the next step in my progression as a shooter was to try out the competition stuff. I decided to start with a local USPSA match. Walking away from the match, I learned how competition is a great test of your overall shooting ability, the mental or "thinking" aspect of shooting plays a major role in your performance, and can provide you with a clear picture of what you need to work on. 

People often fail to reach their goals until they learn how to use goal setting to work for them. Writing down a list of things you’d like to be able to do is a lot like throwing a penny in a well. Nothing will happen and pretty soon, you’re out of cash. However, with just a basic understanding of how goal setting works, you can get where you want to go and still buy a round after training. There are only a few things you need to know to make your training more effective. I’ll start with the three types of goals to set. Then we’ll consider three levels of difficulty, then finally we’ll tie it all together with a plan you can put into your training.

What value do you place on the qualities mentioned above. What order of importance do they fall in your daily, weekly or monthly instruction, or do they at all? These are hard and fast questions one should ask themselves when they take up arms in defense of others. I've trained with all types of individuals, some who's ability in the training environment far exceeded that of their ability in the live environment. Some whose mindset in the live environment far exceeded that of their mindset in the training environment. So the question one should ask them self is, "How balanced am I as a practitioner of gunfighting, tactics or defensive action?" Some of the glaring issues with a lot of today's Law Enforcement professionals, as well as the 2a community of weapons handlers is the balance, the balance between Training, Mindset and the actual Ability.

Shooting in rapid succession places a great demand on your grip. In all of our training you will be practicing your grip at some level but here I want to focus specifically on the grip only and nothing else. I'm going to hit some general guidelines that are a good starting point for most people. As you develop your skill experiment with hand placement. Make minor adjustments to one or both hands and see what works best for you. Here are the high points to start you off on the right foot.

Target acquisition and identification is a huge part of high-performance shooting. Obviously.  If you can’t see, you can’t shoot.  There’s more to it than simply “seeing” your target though.  The eyes are just the first link in a complex chain of information processing that occurs in the brain which allows you to quickly and accurately assess, decide, and act upon targets.  More on the complex information processing stuff in a later write-up; for now, let’s just focus on the eyes (no pun intended).

In part one of this article, I talked initially about looking at the pistol draw stroke more combatively and less about aiming for the fastest time on the clock. The following information will revolve around the continuation of the draw stroke as the pistol breaks from the vertical line of presentation and moves into the horizontal line of presentation from my perspective, as well as with heavy influence from my mentor Craig Douglas of Shivworks.

Throughout my career as a Law Enforcement Officer, I’ve often been asked questions such as, “Why did you become a police officer?", “What does it take to join a law enforcement agency?” and “How do you perform the job in today’s age?” All great questions, to which I have done my best to provide the “best answer” for those seeking guidance or simply looking to satisfy their general curiosity. I hope to shed some light on these questions as well as provide general guidance and encouragement for those seeking to become a LEO or for those already associated with the profession.

I recently attended a great competition style shooting class instructed by Ben Stoeger, a world champion production class shooter. This class was a fundamentals class for practical pistol shooting in USPSA and geared toward improving your performance in competition. Although certain things are emphasized differently in competition style training than in more defensive and tactics oriented training, all the fundamentals of marksmanship still apply. As I hope to continue pushing forward in my competitive shooting, I thought this would be an awesome chance to learn from one of the best competition pistol shooters in the world.

Standards: 1. a level of quality or attainment. synonyms: quality, level, grade, caliber, merit, excellence.What standards do we place upon ourselves when working in an environment with others who do similar tasks (e.g. shooting)? What level of accountability should we have for our lack of proficiency when it comes to training? 

One thing that military and Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) share, as well as civilians who carry for personal defense, is the need for target discrimination. Considering the civilian perception of LEOs recently, it has never been more critical that an officer properly identifies his or her target. In the military, we train hard to ensure that non-threats are not engaged. Our operating environment is very different regarding threat assessment and rules of engagement. What constitutes a threat on deployment may not constitute a threat here in the states for our LEO brothers and sisters. Generally speaking, we are probably better trained in this regard, depending on the military specialty and due to the time we have to devote to it, but your actions are held to a much higher level of scrutiny by the public. Even when it is a good choice, which is 99% of the time. In the military we don’t have to worry about our actions being blasted all over the American media with every possible aspect analyzed by some arm chair expert sitting behind a desk with a microphone in their ear. I am no expert in how police forces train either. I have seen some of the training on the flat range by a few LEOs and it is only setting up the officer for failure. Hopefully some of the experience and insight I can provide will help explain how military Special Operations Forces (SOF) conduct training and allow us the time to assess a threat while still allowing us the ability to take the life of a bad guy before they can take ours. Before I moved into a more specialized assault role the majority of target ID was explained by saying, “if they are a threat, shoot them, if not, don’t.” Once I was fortunate enough to attend high level CQB training, it was explained much more in depth and broken down so that the mental process of identification could allow me to be successful. One of the things that our unit does well is incorporate a sports psychologist into our training section who shows us and our instructors how to do this effectively. A lot of our training cues incorporate three words that get us from threat to decision to action very well. The method that they came up with was the hands, aim, shoot (HAS) phrase. It’s very effective and literally as simple as it sounds. When you have a potential target one of the common mistakes is looking at “them” by means of the face or center mass. We do this because that’s how we normally train at the flat range. We step up to the line knowing that we are going to take a chest shot or a head shot ahead of time, and effectively cut out any decision making process that we could be using to train for the real world more effectively. There is a place for this in marksmanship training, but we have to remember that it is only training marksmanship and not target ID. In a job like ours, where this is a critical, no-fail component, it has to be incorporated into training once the marksmanship component has been established. When we conduct training on the flat range it should be to prepare us for the tasks we will be faced with when we leave it. A Team Sergeant of mine, who I look up to very much, told me one time, “the mission drives task org.” He was right, and it made me think. Mission does drive our task organization, but it also drives a lot more. It drives physical training, job training, range training, and anything else we do to prepare for our jobs and mission at hand. Our flat range training should incorporate some aspect that prepares us for what we will face when we are on mission or working our shift. To accomplish this, we use a lot of different types of cartoon/realistic targets on the range. When we start to remember which target is a threat and not one, we cover up the guns or paste something on them which make them a non-threat, which emphasizes our need to identify threats, not just recognize targets. In addition to using them in shoothouses, we use them in drills that incorporate target presentation. Pie-ing off windows, barriers, movement in width where they present around the corner of a barrier, or turning drills like the el-Prez.

We’ve all heard the saying, “You can sleep when you’re dead;” many of us are even guilty of using it as a personal motto.  The reality is: Without sleep, you can’t perform.  High personal and professional demands often push sleep to the wayside. However, sleep is a vital part of optimal physical, mental, technical, and tactical performance.

Two primary things we need to get better at anything: practice and feedback. Practice we can do on our own, but feedback we must receive from someone else. Mentally tough people don’t “just show up,” they use each practice session to intentionally build mental and physical skillsets.

This article is going to focus specifically on the tactics, techniques and procedures surrounding the use of a defensive blade while unentangled. This is a rabbit hole that can go extremely deep, but the goal of this piece is to understand robust and simple movements that will allow the practitioner to survive. In 2017, knife dueling is few and far between in developed first world countries. The majority of knife assaults occur within two arms reach and the victim initially not even knowing they’ve been stabbed. This is where the “fight” usually starts, from some type of entanglement. The goal for any type of knife problem is to hopefully work the opponent off of you and then at distance keep him off of you. The last thing you want to do is go through all the work of getting unentangled and have them crash back into you to get re-entangled all over again.

What does it take to make it into SOF?Become comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s the first thing I tell people who ask me what they need to do if they want to get into Special Operations. Be prepared to spend a lot of your time cold, wet, tired, hungry, thirsty, and hurting. Discomfort and uncertainty will become the new normal in your life.You’ll miss meals and often not have a choice of what you eat. There will be times when you lose a lot of weight. Your uniform will smell like ammonia, because your body is using your muscles for fuel. Sometimes, you’ll be so exhausted you’ll fall asleep on a ruck march and face plant into the trail; other times you’ll be so keyed up that you won’t be able to sleep, even though you have time and you need it. Your schedule will be erratic and you’ll have a hard time getting into a routine. Most days you’ll wake up sore or in pain and wonder if you’re injured or just hurting. To be successful you’ll need to learn the difference between the two. Sometimes, you’ll have to work through an injury; you’ll always have to work through pain and discomfort. Travel will include trips to the worst places on earth to work with people who smell terrible, that you don’t like, and can’t understand. The terrain there will be too rocky or too sandy; it’ll be unbearably hot or freezing to the bone cold; the air will be too thin and you’ll be gasping to catch your breath or so dirty and dusty that you won’t want to breathe. The places you live on deployment will try to poison you. Cuts will become infected. You’ll go months without a solid shit and learn to never trust a fart in certain parts of the world. You’ll become intimately familiar with Cipro, Motrin, and Z-Paks. You’ll lose touch with old friends and won’t be able to follow your favorite sports teams as closely as you once did. Priorities will become apparent and take precedence for your time; choose wisely.Some people won’t believe in you. They won’t think you’re capable. I’ve come to realize that’s okay. It’s not their job to believe in you. You’ll need to be intrinsically motivated and completely committed. You will do bad things for good reasons, good things for bad reasons, and sometimes have no clue as to why you are doing something. Friends of yours will pay the ultimate price—you may even have to yourself.

There are several different approaches to training which should be considered when designing training programs and shooting is no different. Whether you’re training for combat, self-defense, competition, or hobby, if you’re looking for improvement here are a few different approaches you can use to maximize your training and make the most of your range days. Practice makes perfect, wait – no, perfect practice makes perfect, or is it just practice makes permanent? We know that practice works and if you’ve looked into the shooting world at all it doesn’t take long to see there’s no such thing as a perfect anything. That leaves the old “muscle memory” saying that we never rise to the occasion – only fall to the level of our training, which seems to make the practice and permanent connection. That leaves us with little hope of learning how to get better. However, with a little insight from the motor learning research and some application of their theories we can consider three different practice approaches which can guide us in pursuit of our training goals. I’ll break down what scientists call blocked, random, and varied practice and discuss how you can use them in your training.

Maybe you just bought a gun for the first time. Maybe you've never been taught how to shoot or the extent of your training has been, "point it at the target and pull the trigger." This article is a primer for new shooters, inexperienced shooters, untrained shooters, or anyone that wants to improve their shooting. It's just 6 simple things that you can improve that will noticeably increase your skill level. 1. They don't have a plan. If you fail to plan, plan to fail. Too often new shooters go to the range, squeeze off a box or two of ammo praying to hit the bullseye and leave. There is no rhyme or reason, and they'll do the exact same thing next time they get to the range. Here's a simple solution. Start with 10 rounds and practice slow aimed fire. Pay attention to the fundamentals (stance, breath, sight alignment, sight picture, trigger squeeze, grip, and follow through) and shoot just one round at a time, trying to hit the target exactly where you want to. For the next 10 rounds, do the same thing, but start with the gun in the #3 position (for further reference on the #3 position, see this article: https://greyhive.com/articles/combative_pistol_use_part_2). Practice pushing the gun out, acquiring the sights and placing them onto the exact spot you want to hit with minimal movement after the gun settles on the target. For the next 20 rounds, practice controlled pairs. These don't need to be fast. The key word is controlled. Watch how your sights move when re-acquiring the target for the second shot. The muzzle should rise slightly when you fire and fall naturally back to your initial point of aim. If it doesn't, this means you're not following the fundamentals. For the last 10 rounds, practice from the draw or with your rifle hanging loose. If you have more than 50 rounds, practice on your weak points or an even better idea is to download a Baer Solutions target (https://baersolutionsllc.com/freetargets/), follow the directions given, and watch yourself improve because of your focused approach.

With all of the training I have been doing this year I decided the next step in my progression as a shooter was to try out the competition stuff. I decided to start with a local USPSA match. Walking away from the match, I learned how competition is a great test of your overall shooting ability, the mental or "thinking" aspect of shooting plays a major role in your performance, and can provide you with a clear picture of what you need to work on. 

People often fail to reach their goals until they learn how to use goal setting to work for them. Writing down a list of things you’d like to be able to do is a lot like throwing a penny in a well. Nothing will happen and pretty soon, you’re out of cash. However, with just a basic understanding of how goal setting works, you can get where you want to go and still buy a round after training. There are only a few things you need to know to make your training more effective. I’ll start with the three types of goals to set. Then we’ll consider three levels of difficulty, then finally we’ll tie it all together with a plan you can put into your training.

What value do you place on the qualities mentioned above. What order of importance do they fall in your daily, weekly or monthly instruction, or do they at all? These are hard and fast questions one should ask themselves when they take up arms in defense of others. I've trained with all types of individuals, some who's ability in the training environment far exceeded that of their ability in the live environment. Some whose mindset in the live environment far exceeded that of their mindset in the training environment. So the question one should ask them self is, "How balanced am I as a practitioner of gunfighting, tactics or defensive action?" Some of the glaring issues with a lot of today's Law Enforcement professionals, as well as the 2a community of weapons handlers is the balance, the balance between Training, Mindset and the actual Ability.

Shooting in rapid succession places a great demand on your grip. In all of our training you will be practicing your grip at some level but here I want to focus specifically on the grip only and nothing else. I'm going to hit some general guidelines that are a good starting point for most people. As you develop your skill experiment with hand placement. Make minor adjustments to one or both hands and see what works best for you. Here are the high points to start you off on the right foot.

The blade is one of the oldest tools man has created. Ranging from the ancient Samurai, medieval knights, to indigenous Amazonian tribes the blade has always been there in some form or fashion. In modern times where the idea of self-preservation is taboo and viewed highly uncivilized, how does one integrate the blade into an invaluable tool? The concept is fairly simple, utilize it with a point driven strategy. This will therefore allow you to look at anything in your environment with a point as a legitimate and lethal option. In the previous article I talked about stance and where/how to index the blade if at distance from your adversary. In this final piece, I will talk about effective targeting, movement and how/when to utilize an the actual edge of the blade to your advantage.

Target acquisition and identification is a huge part of high-performance shooting. Obviously.  If you can’t see, you can’t shoot.  There’s more to it than simply “seeing” your target though.  The eyes are just the first link in a complex chain of information processing that occurs in the brain which allows you to quickly and accurately assess, decide, and act upon targets.  More on the complex information processing stuff in a later write-up; for now, let’s just focus on the eyes (no pun intended).

In part one of this article, I talked initially about looking at the pistol draw stroke more combatively and less about aiming for the fastest time on the clock. The following information will revolve around the continuation of the draw stroke as the pistol breaks from the vertical line of presentation and moves into the horizontal line of presentation from my perspective, as well as with heavy influence from my mentor Craig Douglas of Shivworks.

Throughout my career as a Law Enforcement Officer, I’ve often been asked questions such as, “Why did you become a police officer?", “What does it take to join a law enforcement agency?” and “How do you perform the job in today’s age?” All great questions, to which I have done my best to provide the “best answer” for those seeking guidance or simply looking to satisfy their general curiosity. I hope to shed some light on these questions as well as provide general guidance and encouragement for those seeking to become a LEO or for those already associated with the profession.

I recently attended a great competition style shooting class instructed by Ben Stoeger, a world champion production class shooter. This class was a fundamentals class for practical pistol shooting in USPSA and geared toward improving your performance in competition. Although certain things are emphasized differently in competition style training than in more defensive and tactics oriented training, all the fundamentals of marksmanship still apply. As I hope to continue pushing forward in my competitive shooting, I thought this would be an awesome chance to learn from one of the best competition pistol shooters in the world.

Standards: 1. a level of quality or attainment. synonyms: quality, level, grade, caliber, merit, excellence.What standards do we place upon ourselves when working in an environment with others who do similar tasks (e.g. shooting)? What level of accountability should we have for our lack of proficiency when it comes to training? 

One thing that military and Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) share, as well as civilians who carry for personal defense, is the need for target discrimination. Considering the civilian perception of LEOs recently, it has never been more critical that an officer properly identifies his or her target. In the military, we train hard to ensure that non-threats are not engaged. Our operating environment is very different regarding threat assessment and rules of engagement. What constitutes a threat on deployment may not constitute a threat here in the states for our LEO brothers and sisters. Generally speaking, we are probably better trained in this regard, depending on the military specialty and due to the time we have to devote to it, but your actions are held to a much higher level of scrutiny by the public. Even when it is a good choice, which is 99% of the time. In the military we don’t have to worry about our actions being blasted all over the American media with every possible aspect analyzed by some arm chair expert sitting behind a desk with a microphone in their ear. I am no expert in how police forces train either. I have seen some of the training on the flat range by a few LEOs and it is only setting up the officer for failure. Hopefully some of the experience and insight I can provide will help explain how military Special Operations Forces (SOF) conduct training and allow us the time to assess a threat while still allowing us the ability to take the life of a bad guy before they can take ours. Before I moved into a more specialized assault role the majority of target ID was explained by saying, “if they are a threat, shoot them, if not, don’t.” Once I was fortunate enough to attend high level CQB training, it was explained much more in depth and broken down so that the mental process of identification could allow me to be successful. One of the things that our unit does well is incorporate a sports psychologist into our training section who shows us and our instructors how to do this effectively. A lot of our training cues incorporate three words that get us from threat to decision to action very well. The method that they came up with was the hands, aim, shoot (HAS) phrase. It’s very effective and literally as simple as it sounds. When you have a potential target one of the common mistakes is looking at “them” by means of the face or center mass. We do this because that’s how we normally train at the flat range. We step up to the line knowing that we are going to take a chest shot or a head shot ahead of time, and effectively cut out any decision making process that we could be using to train for the real world more effectively. There is a place for this in marksmanship training, but we have to remember that it is only training marksmanship and not target ID. In a job like ours, where this is a critical, no-fail component, it has to be incorporated into training once the marksmanship component has been established. When we conduct training on the flat range it should be to prepare us for the tasks we will be faced with when we leave it. A Team Sergeant of mine, who I look up to very much, told me one time, “the mission drives task org.” He was right, and it made me think. Mission does drive our task organization, but it also drives a lot more. It drives physical training, job training, range training, and anything else we do to prepare for our jobs and mission at hand. Our flat range training should incorporate some aspect that prepares us for what we will face when we are on mission or working our shift. To accomplish this, we use a lot of different types of cartoon/realistic targets on the range. When we start to remember which target is a threat and not one, we cover up the guns or paste something on them which make them a non-threat, which emphasizes our need to identify threats, not just recognize targets. In addition to using them in shoothouses, we use them in drills that incorporate target presentation. Pie-ing off windows, barriers, movement in width where they present around the corner of a barrier, or turning drills like the el-Prez.

We’ve all heard the saying, “You can sleep when you’re dead;” many of us are even guilty of using it as a personal motto.  The reality is: Without sleep, you can’t perform.  High personal and professional demands often push sleep to the wayside. However, sleep is a vital part of optimal physical, mental, technical, and tactical performance.

Two primary things we need to get better at anything: practice and feedback. Practice we can do on our own, but feedback we must receive from someone else. Mentally tough people don’t “just show up,” they use each practice session to intentionally build mental and physical skillsets.

This article is going to focus specifically on the tactics, techniques and procedures surrounding the use of a defensive blade while unentangled. This is a rabbit hole that can go extremely deep, but the goal of this piece is to understand robust and simple movements that will allow the practitioner to survive. In 2017, knife dueling is few and far between in developed first world countries. The majority of knife assaults occur within two arms reach and the victim initially not even knowing they’ve been stabbed. This is where the “fight” usually starts, from some type of entanglement. The goal for any type of knife problem is to hopefully work the opponent off of you and then at distance keep him off of you. The last thing you want to do is go through all the work of getting unentangled and have them crash back into you to get re-entangled all over again.

What does it take to make it into SOF?Become comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s the first thing I tell people who ask me what they need to do if they want to get into Special Operations. Be prepared to spend a lot of your time cold, wet, tired, hungry, thirsty, and hurting. Discomfort and uncertainty will become the new normal in your life.You’ll miss meals and often not have a choice of what you eat. There will be times when you lose a lot of weight. Your uniform will smell like ammonia, because your body is using your muscles for fuel. Sometimes, you’ll be so exhausted you’ll fall asleep on a ruck march and face plant into the trail; other times you’ll be so keyed up that you won’t be able to sleep, even though you have time and you need it. Your schedule will be erratic and you’ll have a hard time getting into a routine. Most days you’ll wake up sore or in pain and wonder if you’re injured or just hurting. To be successful you’ll need to learn the difference between the two. Sometimes, you’ll have to work through an injury; you’ll always have to work through pain and discomfort. Travel will include trips to the worst places on earth to work with people who smell terrible, that you don’t like, and can’t understand. The terrain there will be too rocky or too sandy; it’ll be unbearably hot or freezing to the bone cold; the air will be too thin and you’ll be gasping to catch your breath or so dirty and dusty that you won’t want to breathe. The places you live on deployment will try to poison you. Cuts will become infected. You’ll go months without a solid shit and learn to never trust a fart in certain parts of the world. You’ll become intimately familiar with Cipro, Motrin, and Z-Paks. You’ll lose touch with old friends and won’t be able to follow your favorite sports teams as closely as you once did. Priorities will become apparent and take precedence for your time; choose wisely.Some people won’t believe in you. They won’t think you’re capable. I’ve come to realize that’s okay. It’s not their job to believe in you. You’ll need to be intrinsically motivated and completely committed. You will do bad things for good reasons, good things for bad reasons, and sometimes have no clue as to why you are doing something. Friends of yours will pay the ultimate price—you may even have to yourself.

There are several different approaches to training which should be considered when designing training programs and shooting is no different. Whether you’re training for combat, self-defense, competition, or hobby, if you’re looking for improvement here are a few different approaches you can use to maximize your training and make the most of your range days. Practice makes perfect, wait – no, perfect practice makes perfect, or is it just practice makes permanent? We know that practice works and if you’ve looked into the shooting world at all it doesn’t take long to see there’s no such thing as a perfect anything. That leaves the old “muscle memory” saying that we never rise to the occasion – only fall to the level of our training, which seems to make the practice and permanent connection. That leaves us with little hope of learning how to get better. However, with a little insight from the motor learning research and some application of their theories we can consider three different practice approaches which can guide us in pursuit of our training goals. I’ll break down what scientists call blocked, random, and varied practice and discuss how you can use them in your training.

Maybe you just bought a gun for the first time. Maybe you've never been taught how to shoot or the extent of your training has been, "point it at the target and pull the trigger." This article is a primer for new shooters, inexperienced shooters, untrained shooters, or anyone that wants to improve their shooting. It's just 6 simple things that you can improve that will noticeably increase your skill level. 1. They don't have a plan. If you fail to plan, plan to fail. Too often new shooters go to the range, squeeze off a box or two of ammo praying to hit the bullseye and leave. There is no rhyme or reason, and they'll do the exact same thing next time they get to the range. Here's a simple solution. Start with 10 rounds and practice slow aimed fire. Pay attention to the fundamentals (stance, breath, sight alignment, sight picture, trigger squeeze, grip, and follow through) and shoot just one round at a time, trying to hit the target exactly where you want to. For the next 10 rounds, do the same thing, but start with the gun in the #3 position (for further reference on the #3 position, see this article: https://greyhive.com/articles/combative_pistol_use_part_2). Practice pushing the gun out, acquiring the sights and placing them onto the exact spot you want to hit with minimal movement after the gun settles on the target. For the next 20 rounds, practice controlled pairs. These don't need to be fast. The key word is controlled. Watch how your sights move when re-acquiring the target for the second shot. The muzzle should rise slightly when you fire and fall naturally back to your initial point of aim. If it doesn't, this means you're not following the fundamentals. For the last 10 rounds, practice from the draw or with your rifle hanging loose. If you have more than 50 rounds, practice on your weak points or an even better idea is to download a Baer Solutions target (https://baersolutionsllc.com/freetargets/), follow the directions given, and watch yourself improve because of your focused approach.

With all of the training I have been doing this year I decided the next step in my progression as a shooter was to try out the competition stuff. I decided to start with a local USPSA match. Walking away from the match, I learned how competition is a great test of your overall shooting ability, the mental or "thinking" aspect of shooting plays a major role in your performance, and can provide you with a clear picture of what you need to work on. 

People often fail to reach their goals until they learn how to use goal setting to work for them. Writing down a list of things you’d like to be able to do is a lot like throwing a penny in a well. Nothing will happen and pretty soon, you’re out of cash. However, with just a basic understanding of how goal setting works, you can get where you want to go and still buy a round after training. There are only a few things you need to know to make your training more effective. I’ll start with the three types of goals to set. Then we’ll consider three levels of difficulty, then finally we’ll tie it all together with a plan you can put into your training.

What value do you place on the qualities mentioned above. What order of importance do they fall in your daily, weekly or monthly instruction, or do they at all? These are hard and fast questions one should ask themselves when they take up arms in defense of others. I've trained with all types of individuals, some who's ability in the training environment far exceeded that of their ability in the live environment. Some whose mindset in the live environment far exceeded that of their mindset in the training environment. So the question one should ask them self is, "How balanced am I as a practitioner of gunfighting, tactics or defensive action?" Some of the glaring issues with a lot of today's Law Enforcement professionals, as well as the 2a community of weapons handlers is the balance, the balance between Training, Mindset and the actual Ability.

Shooting in rapid succession places a great demand on your grip. In all of our training you will be practicing your grip at some level but here I want to focus specifically on the grip only and nothing else. I'm going to hit some general guidelines that are a good starting point for most people. As you develop your skill experiment with hand placement. Make minor adjustments to one or both hands and see what works best for you. Here are the high points to start you off on the right foot.