OldMarksman
Staff
First, those fractions of a second may well matter a great deal.Right and my argument is, should the defensive position be so grave that those mili-seconds matter and the individual loses enough thought process that he or she must depend on muscle memory, it is unlikely the difference is going to matter.
An attacker moving at five meters per second will move about a meter in two tenths of a second. That's arm's length, striking distance with a bladed weapon. Combine that with the time required to recognize the threat, draw, and fire, and you still have to figure in the time it takes for your hits to stop the attacker.
That's precious little time.
Second, we are not talking about "muscle memory" vs "thought process". We are discussing total time.
That means the time needed to observe, recognize, make rapid cognitive decisions, react, and respond--plus the time it takes for the force used to take effect.
Have you ever observed people using firearms in a classic Tueller exercise? It's scary.
In the Combat Focus Training class, a number of basic skills are developed, and the combined, layered skills are used to demonstrate what I have described above.
One of the things one does in that routine is to start moving laterally and to draw while doing so. That's because of the importance of every fraction of a second.