When you are being instructed in the 101 basics in a subject and then suddenly get thrown into a situation where you need to perform at a much higher level than you are prepared for, you might not be very successful. Especially when it comes to firearms training, you need someone who can spot your errors immediately and offer remedies.
I've been working with quite a few cadets who are struggling with the new combat course that we suddenly find ourselves in.
We started off only shooting from the holster, with no time limit, from the 3, 5, 7, and 15 yard line. Then we added some times elements, then eventually added some kneeling. During this there was no real pushing of time limits, or true urgency. It was all very basic, very core.
Now we have been introduced to a combat course.
The course is completed by the following:
1. You sit in a police cruiser, and upon a command you exit the vehicle and kneel behind a barricade (barrel), and fire 6 shots from 25 yards at a b-27 target (full size).
Anything in the black is considered a hit.
2. You move on to the first barricade at 20 yards from the 2 targets.
You fire 4 shots reload and fire another 2 on the target on the right side. You switch to the support side and fire another 6 shots on the target on the left side.
Anything inside the 7 ring is considered a hit.
3. You move on to the second barricade still at the 20 yard line, and go into the kneeling position and lean out as far as needed to engage the 3 targets, one by one.
You fire two shots in the first target on the right, reload, fire another 2 shots on the second target, and fire another 2 shots on the third target.
Anything inside the 7 ring is considered a hit.
4. You move to the final stage at the 7 yard line and there are 2 targets with 1 friendly in the middle of the two. You perform a mozambique, or two in the body one in the head on both targets.
That is all.
Anything inside the 7 ring, and any area in the headbox is considered a hit.
You can miss a maximum of 6 shots, and you have a maximum of 2 minutes to complete the course.
For every missed shots you are penalized by adding an additional 3 seconds to your RAW time.
Over 20 people failed what you just read above you. They couldn't do it. Remember before you get all, "WHAT!? What a buncha noobs! I can't believe these are the people that are going to come and save my life, or are supposed to save my life blah blah blah." Remember the quality of instruction we've been given has been fairly poor and incoherent. We also have a lot of conflicting ideologies being thrown at us by the many instructors that come to the range. There is very little cohesion and evolution going on here and thus we're stuck in the 80's when it comes to shooting.
I have to nag and nag and nag to get the instructors to find something wrong with my shooting, or just to pay attention to my shooting.
They've seen what I can do and find it acceptable so they move on and hardly bother. They usually mention something procedurally-(i know it's not a word)-based, "you kind of slipped when you ran to the 2nd barricade..." and that's that.
Cookie cutters are not acceptable in my opinion. It supposedly separates the men from the boys, but what about the boys who are already men? What I mean is, how do you improve those who are already doing well rather than just accepting that they meet the sub-par standards of our administration and that's that.
There are many glaring errors in the practices of the instruction, and a strong lack of willingness to diagnosis what is wrong with the shooter.
I like standing off to the right behind the shooter when they are engaging so I can see what their hands are doing then after they are done I like to see their targets so I can confirm my what I saw with the results down range.
I don't get to do this when at the range, all I get to do is stand about 25 yards back and try to see what they are doing. Basically all I get to do is assume...sadly.
During the last year and a half I have had an assortment of equipment changes and fundamental changes in my shooting. I have many opportunities to spend time focusing on why I suck, and why others are better than me. During this journey I made MANY mistakes and made an effort to do what I could to understand them and FIX them. Why am I pulling left? How come when I use my glock the slide doesn't lock back? How come I used to shoot better on the move and now I'm terrible? Why is my accuracy awesome at 10 yards and in but suddenly when we just move another 5 to 10 yards back it all goes out the window?
How come when I shoot with my support side hand do I lose a massive amount of recoil management but still have great trigger control? How come, after all this training, do I still get my ass handed to me when I go to local competitions?
It has been a work in progress to say the least and I am highly grateful for the opportunities that I have had. If I had not had the chance to find all these failure points and instead just went through some academy shot to their "Standards" and was happy with that, I never would have EVER gotten any better.
By having all this history behind me it allows me to have a lot of empathy for fellow shooters. When they start to experience "errors" I have my own journey to fall back on and let them know, "Hey when I experienced something like this, or exactly this I felt the same, but when I did a and b, I got these results and I find that this is better." Experiencing failing points is how a well experienced Army Ranger would say, "you break your plateau." It is simply a pot hole in our journey. Sometimes the wheel falls off and we need a break, time to mend and then we get going again. Sometimes we hit it and go what was that and move on (this can be a good thing and a bad thing). Every now and then we have our hiccups, its fine. No pity parties!
By the way, if you take instruction from someone and they are not demonstrating what they expect you to do themselves be wary, something is amiss to say the least. I don't like instructors who stand there on the shooting line, shooting with you the entire time just showing off, but instructors should always be willing to demonstrate the tasks being requested of the student at a moments notice. You have to show students what they are working towards and how you do it. Telling someone to run a shooting course and then grading them and kicking them out of the academy because they did poorly when we have no idea whether or not you could do it yourself is bad form, and arguably unethical. Training students for over 120 hours and not firing a single shot yourself is ludicrous and I have yet to meet one single worth-their-salt instructor who has done different or told me different. I'm not asking for every instructor to be better than every shooter they are training but at least set a respectable bar.
