Training Corner Cases

[threegun]

I did say that I don't think you need worry about shooting weak handed. That would be a low priority skill for me.

Why would it be a low priority skill for you? Arms are commonly hit in shootouts.

I think your training time would be better spend on the skills that are more likely to be needed, and more likely to work.

Nobody is advocating giving exclusive training time to weak hand/eye skills. One thing is for sure, if you strong arm is incapacitated, weak hand will be needed and if you devoted appropriate time to the skill set, it will work just fine.

I think that the vast majority of people will require a great deal of real and intensive training (not just handgun training, but PT) to overcome the natural reaction to be taken out of action by a serious or ultimately leathal wound

How do you train your mind to accept the pain and shock of having a bullet pass through it?

For me its just accepting that I might be injured. Prepare the skill set needed to fight through the injury. Turn the pain and fear into anger and a desire to not allow my opponent victory without a price.

Nobody will truly know until a bullet passes through them. Prudent folks will put all the advantages in their corner in advance.

 

[jephthai]

How do you train your mind to accept the pain and shock of having a bullet pass through it?

For me its just accepting that I might be injured. Prepare the skill set needed to fight through the injury. Turn the pain and fear into anger and a desire to not allow my opponent victory without a price.

I have never been shot. I had two thoughts when I read this:

(1) Every major pain I've felt so far has not incapacitated me immediately. Trauma and shock (yes, I've been in shock) increased over time until I was incapacitated. I don't know if bullet wounds are magically different, and that's why I read every "this is what it felt like to get shot" story I can find. My hope is that there are seconds or minutes of usable reaction time.

(2) If I can't know how I'll respond until it happens, I don't want to be caught with my mental pants down, not knowing what to do with those potential several seconds of usefulness. If those few seconds can be used to save my wife and child(ren) from unspeakable things... I'm willing to devote 20% of my training time to it.

-Jephthai-

 

[DougO83]

getting shot

I do remember the 2 times I have been shot. The first came as an absolute surprise (gross negligence on other party's part) so shock hit pretty quickly. The second time, I knew it was coming so I had time to 'prepare' mentally. I would say I was affected a lot less severly by the second shooting than the first. I already knew what a gunshot felt like and, though there was still that holy sh*t, they shot me feeling, I managed to control myself well enough to survive and protect myself and those who were with me. Also, I have been told that some forms of martial arts like Tai Chi are effective for pain management and help in teaching control...Just something to keep in mind...

 

[Dwight55]

Jephthai wrote: "So I've been dutifully working on dry-firing exercises at home. I'm also looking at building a "training plan". Seems when I get to the range, I forget all the things I was planning on working on. So I'm trying to take notes when I think of something I need to train."

Just a few quick notes for you, Jephthai, . . .

1) regardless of how deep or shallow, how much or how little you train, . . . when the stuff is dripping off the fan, . . . you will react exactly as you have trained. Everyone does, . . . period.

Therefore:

2) practice those things that have the higher percentage of need: and in the natural order of things, that would be, . . .

Unholstering: I saw a guy once spend 3 full minutes trying vainly to dislodge his S&W .45 from an Uncle Mike's IWB holster. You won't live long enough in a fire fight like that. Practice getting that thing from safe and tucked away out of sight, . . . to up, safety off and taking up the slack in the trigger.

Acquiring the target: practice in normal daylight if you are "out and about" mostly in the day, . . . put your sunglasses on at the indoor range to simulate some degree of night time or twilight. Remember: hitting the target with one .22 rimfire beats even 6 close misses from a .454 Casull.

Stance: where are you most likely to need it??? If you say Wally World parking lot, . . . practice getting behind a car, . . . Mr. Weaver won't care that you used the Ford stance to better protect yourself.

Hand: most of your practice should be your strong hand, . . . but the muscle memory built into the weak hand won't cross breed with the muscle memory in the strong hand. They'll remain indigent to their respective locations.

Clearing malfunctions: know what to do, . . . and practice doing it. Put a dummy round into your pocket with some loose rounds, . . . load a mag without noticing where it is, . . . practice clearing that "misfire". Load up several mags, . . . but make a couple of them "short" by 4 or 5 rounds, . . . and dont look at em as you shoot em, . . . train your hands to clear and reload that weapon with your eyes still on the bg, . . . target, . . . whatever your shot focus is.

The idea is to practice what MAY HAPPEN so that when it does, . . . you won't have to appoint some committee of hands, arms, fingers and ears to sit down and figure out, . . . duhhhhh, what'll we do now coach???????

Again, . . . you will react exactly under duress, . . . as you have trained for duress.

May God bless,
Dwight

 

[threegun]

A+

 

[Justme]

At the CCW class they had us shoot with our off hand and also in the dark. Surprisingly, at least to me, I could shoot fairly well in the dark but not at all well with my left hand. That's pretty bad, so I have since spent a little time shooting with the left hand. I'm not great at it, but even a little bit of practice made a huge difference. That's the nice thing about something you never practiced before, the tiniest bit of practice seems to pay huge dividends.

 

[pax]

Some folks seem to think firearms require little training and no practice whatsoever in order to use them effectively in a life-or-death situation. This is a lie. An attractive lie, but a lie nonetheless.

Another attractive lie -- actually a half-truth -- is that you can teach yourself how to shoot. The complete truth is that if you want to learn to shoot safely, efficiently, and well, an experienced person can easily show you how to do things that will take you many years to learn on your own, and without the sidetrips into dangerously incompetent territory which teaching yourself often brings. Shooting is a physical skill, and thus really requires hands-on instruction for best results.

There's no sense in practicing doing something wrong. That just engrains bad habits that will need to be unlearned later.

Learn what you need to know from a competent and responsible instructor. Practice what you have learned until it becomes second nature. Lather, rinse, repeat.

pax

 

[Jeff22]

training for non-typical confrontations

You should train in all the primary skill sets FIRST until your skill levels are at a pretty good level, AND THEN train for other possibilities.

Practice strong-hand only and weak-hand only is worthwhile for a couple of reasons -- (1.) It prepares you for unusual circumstances, where you may be dealing with an injury or other situation which precludes the use of one hand, and (2.) Such practice can force you to focus on the basics all over again, which is good for your general skill development.

 

[Justme]

Good point about concentrating on skills you have come to take for granted Jeff. In some ways anything you do with a gun(even cleaning for instance) increases your familiarity and therefore your overall comfort level. and therefore, hopefully, you skill.

 

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Weak hand shooting:

Several years I had a fall and broke my wrist, my ribs and badly sprained my ankle. The wrist was my dominant hand.

Luckily or unluckily, I was signed up to take one of Karl Rehn's Advanced Tactical classes which focused on injured shooting, one handed reloading, etc. drills. See how well I planned for the class. I took it with my arm in cast and a harness on my ankle. I certainly profited from that class. I was also signed up for LFI-1 - Stress Fire and did that with the 'wrong hand' and cast on the other. I shot as well as some of the regular folks.

I also took a class from Steve Moses that had some of these procedures.

It did me a world of good. I carried on the other side till I could use my arm again with a degree of confidence. If I have to switch hands because you could fall down in a fight - no biggie. If I have to reload one handed I know how.

When I did fall, I drove myself to the hospital - stick shift (interesting drive) and then found out what I had broken. Wife came for me and then I happily went to bed with a dopey Rx. The ER sucked, BTW. Sat there for hours watching the Drs and nurses just chat.