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You will never be as good as you want to be if you have to defend yourself. But is there a good enough? How much work does that take?
Today:
How much do you practice your self defense skills? All of them? Your handgun, rifle, knife, hand-to-hand, physical fitness, and avoidance all need practice, training, and work.
Where do you start? How can you be good enough? How much time should you make to practice your skills? How much training should you get?
From my experience in 11-gun fights, you will never be as good as you want to be. You will always wish you worked on something more. You will never wish you worked on your skills less.
In this podcast I created five categories of handgun self defense skill sets. Which one do you fall into? Are you working to get to the next category?
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OUTLINE:
- My Experience in 11 Gun Fights
- Set standard for what you want to accomplish
- How good do you want to be at: Shooting, knife fighting, hand-to-hand, physical fitness, and avoidance?
- Not easy. I wish I could work on my self-defense as a full-time job
- Handgun Self-Defense Shooting
- Novice:
- No formal training
- Can load and fire a gun
- Can hit a target out to 5 or 7 yards with their self-defense firearm
- Knows the law from TV and talking to friends
- Goes to the range once a year or less
- Handles the gun away from the range once a year or less
- New Learner
- Taken at least one formal course, could be military or law enforcement
- Can draw and fire a gun from self-defense carry in the same manner consistently
- Can clear a malfunction, but it’s very slow and has to think about it
- Can reload the gun without having to think about it and can do it consistently
- Can hit a man-sized target out to 10 yards
- Has some formal learning about the law, either a CHL class or military/law enforcement class, or self-defense firearms course
- Goes to the range a couple times a year
- Understands dry fire practice and does it a couple times a year
- Fighter
- Taken more than one formal class and tries to take one every other year or more
- Can hit a target out to 25 yards
- Draw and hit a target from self-defense carry in under 2.0 seconds at 5-7 yards
- Can reload the gun under time pressure consistently around 3 seconds
- Can clear malfunctions without a lot of thought
- Can hit a man-sized target out past 25 yards and is learning his/her limits in distance
- Can do head shots out to five yards consistently
- Learning that fighting with a handgun is more than just shooting and is learning tactics
- Continues to read and learn about the law. Knows that it is always changing. Understands how the courts also make self-defense law
- Tries to go to the range more than a couple times a year
- Dry Fires once or twice a month
- Advanced Fighter
- Going to multiple courses a year and has been doing it for years
- Probably shoots competition
- Goes to the range to practice with a plan
- Try’s to learn tactics for fighting as much as shooting
- Can draw and hit in 1.5 seconds at 5-7 yards
- Reloads are below 2.5 seconds
- Clears malfunctions without thinking and can have discussions about types and why he/she clears it in that manner
- Can hit targets out to around 50 yards and know his/her distances
- Can make head shots every time at 7 yards
- Is practicing movement and shooting
- Seeks training and knowledge in the law
- Dry Fires more than 2 times per month
- Tries to go to the range once a month and take 2 classes a year, ends up with a class and 10 range session a year
- Competitor
- Drive to do everything better
- 1.25 draw looking for 1.00 or better
- Reloads in under 2.0 looking for 1.5 or less
- Can shoot and move in multiple ways
- Is measuring split times and trying to be faster
- Shoots competitions
- Uses techniques in shooting from multiple people/instructors and disciplines
- Does training range sessions
- Dry fires almost daily
- Knows the law and can teach a lot of it… still studying and reading
- Reads books about shooting and the law
- Understands the difference between shooting a competition and self-defense, works on both and has gear for both
- Takes classes from people that have different techniques and thoughts on self defense
- Novice:
- Break down of other categories
- Knife Fighting
- More than one formal class
- Weekly practice
- Weekly training
- Hand-to-Hand
- Formal classes
- Weekly practice
- Weekly training, always learning more techniques
- Physical Fitness
- Looking fit
- Can run away from a fight
- Have more than normal strength for your size by doing weights
- Can move on foot with equipment for a couple miles without getting tired or winded
- Avoidance
- Actively looking to stay away
- Practicing de-escalation and understanding that “calm down” doesn’t always work
- Always looking for trouble to learn who and where to avoid
- Plays the “what if” game and asks the questions, “why is that person here?”
- Knife Fighting
Thanks for listening, don’t forget to check out the Shooter’s Club, and if you need ammo check out Lucky Gunner.
Stay Safe,
Ben
P.S. I just set up a self-defense handgun course for Sep 2020 in San Antonio, check it out
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