Average Guy
Member
This is an article I was inspired to write, although I don't know what I'll do with it once it's finished (I think it still needs some fleshing-out). Although it's directed toward a less-knowledgeable audience than on this forum, I thought I might share it here. If I'm off base, I need to know. I welcome any and all constructive criticism, so fire away.
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What Are You Learning?
By Curtis Gropp
Where’s your head at?
A recent trip to the gym bore remarkable similarities to a recent trip to the range—and an “after-action†analysis of both served as a sort of philosophical search/exercise. At the gym, watching some girl stare off into space and listlessly move the parts of a machine in the prescribed motions, I wondered: "What are you doing? Where's your intensity? Why are you here?" At the range, I watched guys throwing rounds downrange, putting their targets all the way back and then barely hitting paper, and wondered, "What are you learning? What are you teaching yourself right now?"
Even worse than the big-gun shooters was the guy making holes all over a target with a .22. Forgive me for sounding elitist, but how can you shoot a .22 poorly? Even a 2-inch revolver has some modicum of accuracy; it's all in the technique. (The armorer for the county sheriff once visited a college firearms class—imagine that—I was taking. When another student, who seemed to have a different handgun for each day of the class, complained that his revolver du jour was somehow “inaccurate,†the armorer took the weapon and, with no familiarization whatsoever, proceeded to put a half-dollar-sized group in the center of the target. The armorer’s comment: “There’s nothing wrong with this gun.â€)
Back to the present: The guy next to me had a big chrome single-action cowboy pistol and just put rounds downrange seemingly as fast as he could. All over the paper. Then he pulled out his Glock with laser aimer and I watched the red dot describe crazy patterns on the target, vividly illustrating his poor trigger technique. From 21 feet, he ended up with a group that I could have shot blindfolded; if he had some technique, he could have put every round in the space of a silver dollar. I thought, I oughtta ask if I can shoot a few rounds, just to prove a point. (Wisely, I did not.) Granted, they're his guns; he can do what he wants. If he wants to just throw money downrange, that's his prerogative. But what was that guy learning?
Before I left the house that day, I told a friend I was going to the range. He replied—fatefully, perhaps—“Have fun.†My response was only half-joking: "I'm not going to have fun; I'm going to refine my skills."
All too often, we think—whether consciously or not—that by just going through the motions, we’ll “groove†the technique (if you play golf at all, you know what I’m talking about). We make our bodies go through what we believe are the proper motions; meanwhile, our heads are somewhere else entirely. Muscle memory, despite the name, is not solely a function of muscle at all—indeed, part of the “grooving†takes place within the actual, physical folds of our brains. In order to maximize your training effort, you need to build and maintain a strong mind-body connection. Paying attention to your motions will train you to be aware of where your body is at all times, at whatever stage of the movement (kinesthetic awareness). Like it or not, everything you do is teaching your body something. So what are you learning? And how can you learn to do it better?
Focus, Intensity, Tempo
Think FIT: As important as it is to keep your body in a fine state of tune (or a personally acceptable level of fitness, as the case may be), it is important to keep your mind tuned, on point, focused on the mission. We fight the way we train: If you train haphazardly, how do you think you’ll perform under duress? If in a gunfight you’re only half as good as on your best day at the range, and on your best day you’re just marginal…well, you’d better stay indoors. So let’s get FIT.
The first part of the equation is focus. Concentration on the task at hand. On the one hand, it’s nice to have a quiet area in which to dry practice. But in a real gunfight—whether on a busy street, a crowded mall, or a dark, deserted alleyway—there will be plenty of distractions, from traffic to flashing lights and sirens to your own pulse pounding in your ears. I know of one trainer who screams at shooters to put them under stress while they shoot. Your task is to filter out all the static and focus on your task: stopping the threat. How you simulate real-world stress is up to you, but it behooves you to add some stress to your training (even just by using a shot timer for some time pressure) to build your ability to focus. You can worry about balancing the checkbook after you dispense with the threat.
The next ingredient is intensity. Have you ever watched a pro or semi-pro bodybuilder in the gym? The very definition of intensity. Every rep counts. When you present your weapon, even for administrative handling, do you just slop it out in a leisurely fashion, or do you present it like you mean it? Either way, you’re grooving it. Which will make a bigger impression on the bad guy (and perhaps witnesses)—a fast, focused presentation or a slow, casual one? I, for one, want the bad guy to think, “Hey, this guy is serious.†A professional presentation will demonstrate your command of the situation and your skills much more reliably than, say, your Royal Robbins tactical pants-and-vest ensemble (not that there’s anything wrong with them). In short: Do it like you mean it. War face optional.
Finally, tempo. In physical training, tempo is key. Taking 20 minutes to do one set of a particular exercise may be relaxing (and I see guys in the gym do it all the time), but it hardly gets results. In a gunfight, time is money. You have, say, a dollar’s worth of time. If you spend 90 cents on your presentation, you have only 10 cents left to spend on target/sight acquisition and trigger press. Get your weapon out and on target quickly, and you have more time to spend where it counts. But don’t sacrifice precision for speed; work on being smooth and fast will come.
Intense focus tends to wear one out quickly, so keep your sessions short and your tempo regular. Small bits of regular exercise are much more beneficial than a lot of exercise all at once irregularly. Spend 15 minutes a day focusing on your manipulations and presentation (following all safety rules, of course), then move on. Do this daily—faithfully—and you’ll see results, whether at the range or the gym.
Final thoughts
You don’t have to be 100 percent “on†all the time—such an ideal is impossible, even if worthy. If you feel like aimlessly plinking away, you have every right to do so. Sometimes it’s nice just to turn your brain off and go through the motions. But if you want to make the most of your training, it will take a conscious (and constant) effort. Keep your sessions short to prevent the inevitable loss of attention. And the next time you find your mind wandering while you’re supposed to be training, stop and ask yourself: What am I learning?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What Are You Learning?
By Curtis Gropp
Where’s your head at?
A recent trip to the gym bore remarkable similarities to a recent trip to the range—and an “after-action†analysis of both served as a sort of philosophical search/exercise. At the gym, watching some girl stare off into space and listlessly move the parts of a machine in the prescribed motions, I wondered: "What are you doing? Where's your intensity? Why are you here?" At the range, I watched guys throwing rounds downrange, putting their targets all the way back and then barely hitting paper, and wondered, "What are you learning? What are you teaching yourself right now?"
Even worse than the big-gun shooters was the guy making holes all over a target with a .22. Forgive me for sounding elitist, but how can you shoot a .22 poorly? Even a 2-inch revolver has some modicum of accuracy; it's all in the technique. (The armorer for the county sheriff once visited a college firearms class—imagine that—I was taking. When another student, who seemed to have a different handgun for each day of the class, complained that his revolver du jour was somehow “inaccurate,†the armorer took the weapon and, with no familiarization whatsoever, proceeded to put a half-dollar-sized group in the center of the target. The armorer’s comment: “There’s nothing wrong with this gun.â€)
Back to the present: The guy next to me had a big chrome single-action cowboy pistol and just put rounds downrange seemingly as fast as he could. All over the paper. Then he pulled out his Glock with laser aimer and I watched the red dot describe crazy patterns on the target, vividly illustrating his poor trigger technique. From 21 feet, he ended up with a group that I could have shot blindfolded; if he had some technique, he could have put every round in the space of a silver dollar. I thought, I oughtta ask if I can shoot a few rounds, just to prove a point. (Wisely, I did not.) Granted, they're his guns; he can do what he wants. If he wants to just throw money downrange, that's his prerogative. But what was that guy learning?
Before I left the house that day, I told a friend I was going to the range. He replied—fatefully, perhaps—“Have fun.†My response was only half-joking: "I'm not going to have fun; I'm going to refine my skills."
All too often, we think—whether consciously or not—that by just going through the motions, we’ll “groove†the technique (if you play golf at all, you know what I’m talking about). We make our bodies go through what we believe are the proper motions; meanwhile, our heads are somewhere else entirely. Muscle memory, despite the name, is not solely a function of muscle at all—indeed, part of the “grooving†takes place within the actual, physical folds of our brains. In order to maximize your training effort, you need to build and maintain a strong mind-body connection. Paying attention to your motions will train you to be aware of where your body is at all times, at whatever stage of the movement (kinesthetic awareness). Like it or not, everything you do is teaching your body something. So what are you learning? And how can you learn to do it better?
Focus, Intensity, Tempo
Think FIT: As important as it is to keep your body in a fine state of tune (or a personally acceptable level of fitness, as the case may be), it is important to keep your mind tuned, on point, focused on the mission. We fight the way we train: If you train haphazardly, how do you think you’ll perform under duress? If in a gunfight you’re only half as good as on your best day at the range, and on your best day you’re just marginal…well, you’d better stay indoors. So let’s get FIT.
The first part of the equation is focus. Concentration on the task at hand. On the one hand, it’s nice to have a quiet area in which to dry practice. But in a real gunfight—whether on a busy street, a crowded mall, or a dark, deserted alleyway—there will be plenty of distractions, from traffic to flashing lights and sirens to your own pulse pounding in your ears. I know of one trainer who screams at shooters to put them under stress while they shoot. Your task is to filter out all the static and focus on your task: stopping the threat. How you simulate real-world stress is up to you, but it behooves you to add some stress to your training (even just by using a shot timer for some time pressure) to build your ability to focus. You can worry about balancing the checkbook after you dispense with the threat.
The next ingredient is intensity. Have you ever watched a pro or semi-pro bodybuilder in the gym? The very definition of intensity. Every rep counts. When you present your weapon, even for administrative handling, do you just slop it out in a leisurely fashion, or do you present it like you mean it? Either way, you’re grooving it. Which will make a bigger impression on the bad guy (and perhaps witnesses)—a fast, focused presentation or a slow, casual one? I, for one, want the bad guy to think, “Hey, this guy is serious.†A professional presentation will demonstrate your command of the situation and your skills much more reliably than, say, your Royal Robbins tactical pants-and-vest ensemble (not that there’s anything wrong with them). In short: Do it like you mean it. War face optional.
Finally, tempo. In physical training, tempo is key. Taking 20 minutes to do one set of a particular exercise may be relaxing (and I see guys in the gym do it all the time), but it hardly gets results. In a gunfight, time is money. You have, say, a dollar’s worth of time. If you spend 90 cents on your presentation, you have only 10 cents left to spend on target/sight acquisition and trigger press. Get your weapon out and on target quickly, and you have more time to spend where it counts. But don’t sacrifice precision for speed; work on being smooth and fast will come.
Intense focus tends to wear one out quickly, so keep your sessions short and your tempo regular. Small bits of regular exercise are much more beneficial than a lot of exercise all at once irregularly. Spend 15 minutes a day focusing on your manipulations and presentation (following all safety rules, of course), then move on. Do this daily—faithfully—and you’ll see results, whether at the range or the gym.
Final thoughts
You don’t have to be 100 percent “on†all the time—such an ideal is impossible, even if worthy. If you feel like aimlessly plinking away, you have every right to do so. Sometimes it’s nice just to turn your brain off and go through the motions. But if you want to make the most of your training, it will take a conscious (and constant) effort. Keep your sessions short to prevent the inevitable loss of attention. And the next time you find your mind wandering while you’re supposed to be training, stop and ask yourself: What am I learning?
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