Most tactical firearms training I see is built on sports and competition shooting. People like to play. People like to have fun. Good entertainment. It boosts egos. On the street it means little.
The military taught me the basics. Good fundamentals. It also taught from a standardized book. In the real world, there is little standardization. What I teach and the protocols I run came out of diverse experience, much of it in countries with very little in the way of resources or logistics. Fundamentals travel. A book written for one set of rules does not. I keep what the military built and rebuild around it for the job, the client and the law in front of me.
Legal standards change from state to state and country to country. I work inside them first. A drill that is sound in one jurisdiction can land you in court in the next. Learn the standard where you work before you learn the technique. Then the training has to be reality based. You train to end hostile situations quickly and effectively. Simple tactics. Simple techniques. No tacticool range fairy dramatics that look cool in a social media post.
WHAT THE RANGE HIDES
The gap starts with mindset. The aim of carrying a defensive weapon is to kill the bad guy before they kill or seriously injure you. Any other goal is irrelevant.
A competitor and a protector can share the same fundamentals and still carry different questions onto the line. One asks how fast. The other asks what happens to the client in the next few seconds. Physical skills without the right mindset and focus mean little. People need to get away from the guns and fun mentally.
Under stress, a shooter trained for points can reach for whatever earned the points. The clean line. The tidy stance. He stands square in the open, proud of his form, and the client behind him has nowhere to go.
Physical skills without the right mindset and focus mean little.
WORKING WITH WHAT YOU HAVE
Some of my best lessons came from working in various countries with very little in the way of resources and logistics. You work and train with what you have to achieve the goal. I have no time for instructors who say rifle slings are not comfortable, or that pistols are old fashioned. Prima donna hot air. I have heard it from supposed experts. Instructors who are afraid to run drills outside their comfort zone are the same. They look like spoiled children, and if they work with you, you look bad too.
I build a program around budget and logistics first, then time. Students come up from the basics. When they are safe and fluid with their firearms tactics for the street, or working in pairs, teams can be brought in and the work moves into different environments. What gets done depends on what the client can afford and how long I have them. Do not add complexity to a shooter who is not safe and fluid at the level below. Skip that step and you get a negligent discharge, or a client exposed while a team learns on the job.
Protection work is not static, and the hard part is finding a range that lets you train that way. Many restrict movement, even when you hold the required certification and insurance. Once students are up to standard, the scenarios follow situations they will likely meet. Exiting a car. Exiting a building. Then something harder. Force on force builds reactions and strategy for most people.
The measure is simple. Can the shooter stay safe and fluid when the environment changes? One who runs a clean drill on a flat range and fumbles stepping out of a car has shown you where the training stops. Write it down. Train that gap next session, then test it again. Take them outside their comfort zone. Then repetition, repetition, repetition. Most people want a quick fix. That is not reality. You train, make mistakes, reevaluate and get back to training.
Guidance and education build confidence, and scenario based work delivers both. A technically competent operator often has no idea how heavy the psychological load of protection work is until a scenario puts it on him. If he is scared or apprehensive, I will not deal with him. It is a big enough problem looking out for clients, let alone babysitting team members.
So you select your people carefully. Someone might have the skills, but if they have ego issues they are useless and cause friction. Quality people accept guidance. It shows early, in how someone takes a correction. One nods and adjusts. Another argues his technique while the clock runs.
You train, make mistakes, reevaluate and get back to training.
Too many people in this business think they are trained. They think they are prepared. Reality says you will never be trained or prepared enough. You can train your whole life for an incident that can take a few seconds to develop and end. Luck has a lot to do with whether you survive. Good skills help you walk away. This is a serious business. A life and death business.
Bad things always happen to other people. Until they happen to you.
Defensive training is not about the latest gun range or dojo fashions. It is not about right ways or wrong ways. It is about being effective.
Most people just want certificates and branded T-shirts. Something to give them an identity. Fine. Understand the difference between the street and telling range stories in a comfy coffee shop.
Bad things always happen to other people. Until they happen to you.