Posted: 1/16/2007 11:01:08 PM EDT
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A supposedly well known instructor who charges $600 for a couple of days training made this comment in another forum: That's why we train to refine both our techniques, and to enhance our ability to deal with stress. I don't tell many stories, but I will say that anyone who thinks combat is necessarily more stressful for a given shooter than, say, shooting off for the money against Rob Leatham might be fooling themselves. I think it's obvious on the face of it that it is one ridiculous statement. And people pay this guy to learn how to shoot a handgun?  Am I out of line or is this typical for paid instruction by "big names"? |
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I don't know the person involved here, as far as I know, but let me play devil's advocate. In Cooper on Handguns, Jeff Cooper wrote that a man will work harder for a tin cup than he will to save his life. I think we can all assume that was an astute observation, not "big man talk." There is combat, and there is combat. Much of what we train for in pistolcraft is the type of combat characterized by sudden, unexpected violence. It is common for people who have been in those situations to say something along the lines of "I didn't have time to feel scared. I was too busy trying to save my life. It all happened so fast." The key difference, perhaps, is the opportunity to anticipate. When you have all night to think about the shootoff the following day, and now you're standing on the line wating for that stupid beeper, and there are hundreds of people watching you, most of them with cameras or videorecorders, it would be easy to worry about throwing up, wetting your pants, making a fool of yourself, and to lose focus on the task at hand. It's like making a 4-foot putt on the practice green, and making a 4-foot putt to win the Masters. Four feet is four feet, the technical problem is the same, but the mental pressure is much greater when everybody's watching, isn't it? The mental pressure is much greater when you have a lot of time to think about it. There is also a type of combat preceded by long periods of anticipation, waiting for an attack, waiting for the order to charge over the top of the trench, etc. That, I would imagine, is horribly stressful. If "time to worry and freak out in advance" is the operative factor, then that commentator may have had a good point. Just a thought. |
What is ridiculous is charging $300 a day! That is pretty darned high, even for top-level instructors. But the statement is not as ridiculous as one might think. Note that he does offer some qualifiers (necessarily more, might be) that allow lots of room for individual issues and needs. As for paying him, does he teach you to shoot well? if that is what he is trying to do, his tactical philosophy doesn't matter much. |
One thing I can tell from his statement, he has never ducked for cover from shots being fired or faced an opponent with equal or greater firepower. There are lots of "instructors" that talk as experts about things they have never seen or ever done and lots of gullible people that take their "instruction" as gospel. Where using firearms against adversaries is concerned, I find that extremely offensive and down right wrong. Where firearms are involved, bull shit will get you killed. Lots of "experts" out there taking money under what I believe are false pretenses. $300 a day for handgun instruction is theft anyway you look at it. |
He does not use cover? That reminds me of the scean in The Terminator where the terminator is walking through the police station and 50 cops are shooting him up. Sounds like this guy must be built like the Terminator if he does not use cover. I don't know enough about this guy or what he is talking about but so far he sounds like he is full of shit and is acting like he is an indestructable person.
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????? Whoa! Where did that come from? Nobody said any such thing. |
You're right on the money. He has a cult following on another website from what my friend has told me. I don't spend time on that forum so I don't have a link. His cult followers have been known to flame anyone questioning him. My friend is the one that sent me that quote. He is just incredulous at the number of people claiming this guy is the greatest!!!! I just can't believe people will pay $500-600 for a day and a half to two days of shooting lessons! They either have got more money than sense, want to claim they are "well trained", or are just a bunch of cattle playing follow the leader. 
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There are many reasons why people take classes. Some do so in the attempt to make themselves better shooters. Others take a class with aparticular person becuase they have heard a person is the best at what they want to be good at. And finally you have the people that take a class with a certain person because they just want to "expereince" that person. I take part in a fair number of classes and have yet to pay $600 for a 1.5 - 2 day class. Most courses I attend average around the $400 mark. |
I could be wrong but I think he meant that this guy has probably never been in a situation where he had to duck for cover. In other words he's probably never been in battle. Like stated, I could be wrong but that's the way I read it. |
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Milquetoast described the difference between battles and individual combat. When I spoke of "ducking for cover" I was addressing the fact that shooting at targets is NOT LIKE being shot at and returning fire - be it in battle or in a short individual violent incident. Paying someone that kind of money for saturation training - shooting and repeating a few drills one right after another with a little instruction and expending several hundred to a thousand rounds in one or two days is unreal. This same guy promotes dry firing until the cows come home. Hundreds of dry fires to every shot fired is plain ridiculous. Once you've learned the trigger of your handgun and can hit the target well, dry firing has rapidly diminishing returns. Increasing your arm strength has a much better return for the time invested when shooting a handgun. And it doesn't wear out or break your firearm sooner than it should. To improve your shooting, a few quality rounds shot every day will help you reach your accuracy goals much easier than paying someone $600 to watch you and others shoot hundreds of rounds in a short time. 
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Everyone handles stress differently whether it is a first time situation or something we encounter routinely. Each situation has it's own stress induced levels we need to take into consideration and then act accordingly to. FOR me....bullets flying at me- PUCKER FACTOR HIGH (higher probability of me might not going home) FOR me....a shoot off competition with someone ( there's always another day) |
The statement could be taken out of context.... |
And obviously was!hinking.gif |