Training Scars: Will Competition Habits Get You Kilt in Da Streetz? (ad-free)

Charles Sears

Like almost everything in life, excess rote training can be detrimental to your health. Better, is to do mental exercises (thinking ahead) toward what you will do if a certain situation happens. Did this before sailing the Pacific Ocean. Tried to imagine what I would do if X happens. Realized I needed to position spares and tools near the site of need. This meant buying duplicate tools and extra spares. Many people laughed, but in one situation I was able to prevail when the other "Yatchies" suffered damage or loss. I would rather fly with a Pilot that knows his aircraft and only has to refer to Check List as a secondary tool, then with a Pilot that has to refer to a check list for everything he does because he does not have the assistance of a good Flight Engineer. By Flight Engineer I mean the mechanic that knows the aircraft, not the later check list following guy that has no clue.

Retired No Bad Days

In light of what you said, if the shooter is under the clock to retain their mags, why not let the shooter determine how and when he retains the mags? For example drop the mags at each shooting station and pick them all up at the end under the clock.

Along those lines, the local 2-gun matches I take part in have penalties for "Cover" and "Exposure." - If more than two of four body points (nose, armpits, and belt buckle) are presented to a not-yet-neutralized target, "Cover" is applied per shot (+6 seconds each). - If a competitor crosses a doorway or similar to expose all four points, "exposure" is applied (+30 seconds). - If no cover is available, shots must be taken while the shooter is in motion. Since these are time-minus-score with par times of 120-240 seconds, the penalties add up very quickly and are difficult to shoot fast enough to 'game' past those penalties.

Martin Morehouse

Good points! Specialization can be excessive.

Albini family

I love watching the scenarios designers come up with for 2 gun matches but the one thing that bugs me about them is that there is no acknowledgement that real world targets shoot back. The first task in a combat situation is to take cover. Maybe a way to add a dose of realism would be something like a basketball shot clock: spend too many consecutive seconds exposed to "enemy fire" and you get a penalty or par out.

Could it be that there is a reason why you see so many soldiers (in Ukraine, for example) with dump pouches on their belts? They don’t always use them to stow empty magazines, but sometimes they do. It depends on the situation, as you said. If not all ammunition is issued in loaded magazines, retaining a few magazines is a good idea if circumstances allow it.

John Arpin

Excellent video! Training for different scenarios / situations is key to developing talent. My military time is a while ago (retired 2005), but we trained, as best we could, for different levels. Key difference in military training is that is it is team training.

Michael Ford

Although my experience was “different training” not “combat.” I’m a brown belt in BJJ. When I took ECQC, I immediately reverted to my training and shot a triangle on a guy with a fake knife - who then fake stabbed me in the ass. My sport training did not prepare me for different considerations in a more realistic scenario. That said — I still did night and day better than the guys who hadn’t trained at all! It’s a great thing to remember when considering blind spots in your training, but a horrible excuse to train less.

Rick Notkin

IIRC, the CHP officer at Newhall did not have the brass in his pocket after the gunfight. I do remember that Bill Jordan related a similar event with a Border Patrol officer involved in a cross-river shootout, but that officer was not killed.