Frontsight's "Five Levels of COmpetence"
This is an excerpt from an e-mail sent to me when signing up for FrontSight's newsletter. It doesn't answer directly to the original post, but is IMHO exceptionally relevant.
Since there was no copyright/confidentiality notice on the e-mail, and anyone with an e-mail account can get this at no cost, I don't think there would be any issue with posting it. Frontsight gives a fuller lecture on the subject that explains the concept much more thoroughly, but I think I'd be overstepping were I to copy and post from the lecture handout. This excerpt should give the general idea, though...thought-provoking stuff, IMHO, for any shooter whether or not they have training on whatever level.
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This is a direct transcript from the live introduction
given by Ignatius Piazza, Front Sight's Founder and
Director.
Front Sight's Purpose and the Five Levels of Competence.
(stuff deleted)
With that said, what is our purpose? Well it is a large
one. And the easiest way to explain this is to review
something that we call the Five Levels of Competence.
The lowest level of competence is what we refer to as
the II. That stands for Intentionally Incompetent. These
are the people that know they need training but they lack
the courage and the motivation to get it. They actually
avoid training because in exposing themselves to training,
they expose their inadequacies to their peers and they
fear that greater than death itself. Fortunately we don't
see the II at Front Sight very often. I can count on one
hand the number of times we have in the last 5 years. In
each case they were sent to us by their department or by
someone who was concerned that this person needed training
and they just weren't getting it.
The II does not want to be here. They waste our time, they
waste your time. I tell you about them simply because they
are out there and you should avoid them like the plague.
Because if you count on the II when the chips are down,
they will take you right to the grave with them.
Then for no fault of their own there is the UI. This stands
for Unconsciously Incompetent. These are the people that
do not know that they do not know. And unfortunately it
makes up about 95% of the gun owning population. Now I
realize that's a shockingly high figure for many of you to
comprehend. When we provide our one day courses, we tell
our students that a one day course will not bring them to
a full understanding of the Five Levels of Competence. The
reason it does not is because in a one day course we do
not put those students into a live fire tactical training
simulator. A simulator that's as close to a real gun fight
as we can make it without anybody getting physically hurt.
And it's in those simulators that students begin to
understand that in a real gun fight, you're only going to
be about half as good as you are in the best day on the
training range simply from the stress of someone trying
to take your life. Unfortunately, 95% of the gun owning
population does not know this.
Let me give you some examples of the UI:
The police officer who only fires his weapon for
mandatory range qualification two or three times a year is
Unconsciously Incompetent.
Military personnel, especially the Reserve Units and
National Guard who have not trained with their weapons or
live ammunition for 6 months or a year and then are
quickly called up and sent off to some foreign part of the
world to fight a police action, they too are Unconsciously
Incompetent.
Then there is the hunter who buys the brand new high
powered rifle, books the African safari and when the guide
places him within 75 yards of a trophy animal, he misses
the shot, or worse wounds the animal and now you spend the
rest of the day tracking large, dangerous, wounded game.
He too, is Unconsciously Incompetent.
Then there's the gun owner, who thinks that without having
any type of training like we offer here at Front Sight,
simply having a pistol and a box of ammunition is all he
needs for protection should he hear breaking glass in the
middle of the night. He too, is Unconsciously Incompetent.
This even extends to all those people out there who have a
Concealed Weapon Permit. Who've only taken that mandatory
8 hours course that the county required. Six of those hours
spent talking about where and when they can legally carry
a gun, a couple hours with some very minimal training in a
very minimal skills test and now they're out there on the
street carrying a gun thinking that should someone step up
to try to take their life, they have all the tools they
need to protect it. They, too, do not know what they do
not know.
Now why is it that I know so much about this UI? Well it's
because I was the biggest UI. I was the gun shop owner's
best friend. When a new gun came out on the cover of Guns
and Ammo, I would immediately run down to my local gun shop
and buy two; complete with all the accessories they could
sell me. And I viewed these guns are collectables and art
objects, not as tools or weapons. Then one day a
relatively minor incident made me aware of my incompetence
and I immediately graduated to the next level. I was now
Consciously Incompetent. I knew I did not know and I knew
I needed training. Well not everyone is as lucky as I was.
Sometimes that sudden realization that you do not know is
quickly followed by your opponents attack. And if that
attack involved lethal force, the only reason you'll
survive is because on that day, at that time, your
opponent was a bigger UI than you were. Who wants to
bet their life on those odds? I certainly did not.
(stuff deleted)
Now, once students arrive at Front Sight our next purpose
is to validate their awareness that they need and want
training and provide them with a curriculum that will
quickly bring them up to the level of Consciously
Competent because at this level they are now better than
95% of the gun owning population but must consciously
think about everything that they do with their weapon.
Further practice and training will elevate their skills
to the next level, the highest level, and those of you in
the room here who are the ultimate achievers; Front
Sight's purpose extends to assist you in reaching your
highest level of competence. That would be Unconsciously
Competent. And at this level your weapon craft
skills, your tactics, your mindset all become reflexive.
Now please realize that even at the Unconsciously
Competent level, in a real gunfight you're still only
going to be about half as good as you are in your best
day on the training range simply from the stress of someone
trying to take your life. But half as good at the
Unconsciously Competent level is miles above that UI
that you're likely to meet on the street. And that not
only ensures you'll survive; it ensures that you'll win
and that's why we're here. To make sure that our students,
should they ever need to use a weapon to defend their
lives or the lives of their loves ones, will in fact win!
Now if any of you are sitting there wondering or worrying
that we're speaking of you when we describe this UI, don't
worry. Whatever level you are presently at, I have been
there. In fact I tell the story of my first course
(at another school) to illustrate this point.
I showed up for this course as a complete novice. It
was a handgun course. I was wearing my newly purchased
and pressed desert camouflage fatigues. I had a Miami
Vice shoulder holster on, just like the one Don Johnson
wore in the television show- because up to that point
"Sonny Crockett" was my firearms training mentor. And
I had a high capacity 9mm pistol up under my arm and I
had enough magazines on my belt to last the entire first
two days of the class without even thinking about
reloading. So I was quite a sight. Then the founder
of that school walked into the classroom. There
were about 20 students in the class and he looked
at me and he said, "You, man, stand up." And I
thought, "Wow! This is going to be a great day. Here
I am, just fifteen minutes into the class and the
founder is recognizing me." The founder looked to
one of his instructors who was seated in the back of the
classroom and then he looked at me again and said,
"Take that man outside! Get him squared away." So there
I was, standing up feeling rather foolish and exited
the classroom to spend part of the morning- justifiably
so, I might add- getting squared away.
(more stuff deleted)
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I have thoughts on the subject (borne of watching a guy in my CCW class hit the freakin' ceiling twice on his 7-yard test and still pass), but this isn't the thread for 'em. ;-)