Ignoring the fear jitters

[9miller]

Thank you guys for your experience and suggestions.
And blue train, I follow exactly what you are getting at, I have strange way of wording things too
I have had an interest in IDPA, and hope to be able to participate this coming year. I absolutely agree with reverting to your training in a crisis. So far the only real classes have been a cwp and an advanced cwp course. I recently got permission to shoot on a buddy's land where we can put up multiple target, move, draws, etc. So I've been going through the scenarios that we can do, both solo and tandem. However, I'm not sure how to grasp mental training.

 

[g.willikers]

I generally agree with your assessment. However I believe the real danger in competition is in using it for your "only" training.

Well said and MarkCo explains it in the proverbial nutshell.
The games are very good ways to practice the shooting.
Training for the serious stuff must be found elsewhere, whether as an individual or as part of a team.
Fortunately, there's now plenty of places to get that training.

 

[BlueTrain]

Well, here's another point to confound the issue.

In theory, formal target shooting would not be something that would contribute to combat shooting. After all, no two forms of shooting are more different. Yet many well-known and very experienced law enforcement personalities in the past were also well-known and successful competitive target shooters. I don't know that any of them ever wrote much about it or the connection. There must be a connection. Clearly the object is the same in both instances, which is simply to hit the target.

Some were also enthusiastic hunters and some were trick shots. They all took an intense interest in the tools of their trade, too, sometimes even contributing to or influencing firearms design. Some who were never in a gunfight (like most of us, I presume) nevertheless made careful studies of gunfighters, sometimes on a first-hand basis, as well as gunfights, always with the idea of learning something useful and passing it on to others. Some were rather more dogmatic than others, or so it seems today. I often wonder what some of the old-timers would have thought of some things available today, although frankly, nothing we have is so radically different from a user perspective. Most of the recent advances in handguns have been in materials and finishes, I think.

Sometimes, when you look back 50 or 60 years, some things seem a little funny. Fast draw or quick draw, Western-style, was all the craze when I first became interested in guns. It actually had an influence on combat handguns to some extent and you may recall, that's where Jeff Cooper came into the picture. If you're old enough, you may even recall that when S&W introduced the short-action revolver, the older so-called long action revolvers suddenly became the ones to have, the choice of the experts.

I also recall Skeeter Skelton mentioning how when air-conditioning for cars came out, he sold most of his guns to get one.

 

[Skans]

My question to you guys, is there any training you folks perform to try to eliminate the fear jitters in an altercation? Any former military members out there who had this type of training?

I practice memorizing license tag numbers and identifying people while I'm driving. The one thing I notice more than anything is that when a confrontational situation arises, the mind forgets to look and memorize certain bits of essential information, unless trained otherwise. Perhaps this is ridiculous, but it keeps me focused and helps me stay aware of my surroundings.