"How often do you train?'
That question often belies a basic misunderstanding to the word. Training is very important for those who carry and use firearms, but it is not sufficient. For our purposed here, we will limit the discussion to the subject of lawful self defense by civilians who are not swear to enforce the law.
Let's look into the meaning of some important terms.
Training refers to inculcating or instilling into a person specific skills, through instruction and through the actual doing of things. We distinguish here between that context and that of athletic training, which would involve diet, exercise, and repeated performance.
Training for self defense may involve learning how to draw and fire, to move, to use one's hands in various ways, to use of less-than deadly force, to clear of malfunctions and to reload, tp use cover and concealment, to recognize and react to potential threats, and other things.
The best training involves one or more qualified instructors who know the subjects and how to teach them.
How important is it to avail oneself of such training? Here's a good way to think about it: a violent criminal attack is not a good situation in which to try to learn new skills.
Obviously, simply going to the range and shooting at a stationary target in front of us does. not fit our definition very well.
But it does take us into the discussion of practice.
Practice involves the repetitive implementation of the skills learned in training, with the objectives of continuous improvement and of maintaining perishable skills.
Live fire shooting would qualify, but there's more. Drawing from concealment, moving off line, disarming an attacker, moving to ensure a safe shot and back-stop can be done at home, without firing a real firearm.
So, is seeking training and doing some practice all that we need? NO!
There is the little matter of education.
Education involves gaining knowledge about relevant facts, principles , rules, and concepts. Without it, we cannot know much about why our training instructors try to teach us what they do, and we therefor will not understand it very well.
Probably the first thing that comes to mind when we think of education for self defense is the subject of use of force law, such as Massad Ayoob's excellent classroom courses, or Andrew Branca's books and podcasts, and numerous other books on the subject.
Remember that the objective is not to learn when we would be permitted to shoot someone.
We must now that it is a very broad subject area.
But there is a lot more to self defense education than the law.
Let's take wounding mechanics, for example. What we see in screen fiction, with slow, deliberate scripted movement and one-shot stops can lead us astray. Those who have no idea about how handgun projectiles can effect timely stops in a violent attack, and how they may fail to do so, are likely to not understand what the instructor means when he or she speaks of speed and precision, and of the need to quickly fire several shot very quickly.
It is also important to understand the psychological and physiological effect of stress on one who is involved in a violent encounter. Rob Pincus covers that subject well in his courses.
Education, training, practice--a triad, if you will, what can help you preserve your life and your clean record..
That question often belies a basic misunderstanding to the word. Training is very important for those who carry and use firearms, but it is not sufficient. For our purposed here, we will limit the discussion to the subject of lawful self defense by civilians who are not swear to enforce the law.
Let's look into the meaning of some important terms.
Training refers to inculcating or instilling into a person specific skills, through instruction and through the actual doing of things. We distinguish here between that context and that of athletic training, which would involve diet, exercise, and repeated performance.
Training for self defense may involve learning how to draw and fire, to move, to use one's hands in various ways, to use of less-than deadly force, to clear of malfunctions and to reload, tp use cover and concealment, to recognize and react to potential threats, and other things.
The best training involves one or more qualified instructors who know the subjects and how to teach them.
How important is it to avail oneself of such training? Here's a good way to think about it: a violent criminal attack is not a good situation in which to try to learn new skills.
Obviously, simply going to the range and shooting at a stationary target in front of us does. not fit our definition very well.
But it does take us into the discussion of practice.
Practice involves the repetitive implementation of the skills learned in training, with the objectives of continuous improvement and of maintaining perishable skills.
Live fire shooting would qualify, but there's more. Drawing from concealment, moving off line, disarming an attacker, moving to ensure a safe shot and back-stop can be done at home, without firing a real firearm.
So, is seeking training and doing some practice all that we need? NO!
There is the little matter of education.
Education involves gaining knowledge about relevant facts, principles , rules, and concepts. Without it, we cannot know much about why our training instructors try to teach us what they do, and we therefor will not understand it very well.
Probably the first thing that comes to mind when we think of education for self defense is the subject of use of force law, such as Massad Ayoob's excellent classroom courses, or Andrew Branca's books and podcasts, and numerous other books on the subject.
Remember that the objective is not to learn when we would be permitted to shoot someone.
We must now that it is a very broad subject area.
But there is a lot more to self defense education than the law.
Let's take wounding mechanics, for example. What we see in screen fiction, with slow, deliberate scripted movement and one-shot stops can lead us astray. Those who have no idea about how handgun projectiles can effect timely stops in a violent attack, and how they may fail to do so, are likely to not understand what the instructor means when he or she speaks of speed and precision, and of the need to quickly fire several shot very quickly.
It is also important to understand the psychological and physiological effect of stress on one who is involved in a violent encounter. Rob Pincus covers that subject well in his courses.
Education, training, practice--a triad, if you will, what can help you preserve your life and your clean record..