The other day I had to work with a student on the range – he had every piece of high-dollar equipment, down to the Krye pants.
I’m pretty sure his battle belt cost more than my Glock (and that’s saying something), all of his rifles and pistols combined cost more than my 98 Land Cruiser.
There I was in hiking pants, my rifle I have built myself, my trusty and mud colored Glock 19, hiking boots.
But, I was still 90+ on my scores regardless of the COF.
With all of his equipment, he couldn’t shoot for shit – on a basic 50 round test he threw 12 rounds outside of the target area.
He had a lot of excuses, so I decided to use some neurology.
I first corrected his static stance and used EPL to make sure it stuck. He looked like he had a gangsta lean, his entire right side was like a straight pole. I knew the reason but rolled with it, like I know why people put their thumbs and fingers in certain places…I see their teachers in them (wait til you read CLM 4!). But with EPL I had him shooting properly, on target.
With enough correction I had him on target, but he had the excuses – ‘I always shoot like this, I’m just nervous on the line with everyone else,’ ‘I’ve done this before, it’s how I shoot.’
I said it was ok and told him, ‘Now that we have you on target – we will do a basic side walk while you fire on the target.’ I knew what was coming – he would revert.
He started where I had him, I gave the COF, gave the command – within two steps – back to his old stance.
Neurology doesn’t lie. Repetition doesn’t lie.
Neurology doesn’t lie. Repetition doesn’t lie.
I know a lot of you probably look at CLM and some of our products on teaching and think, ‘Matt is over-complicating it all.’ But, what you do repeatedly, you become.
He wasn’t nervous – he was neurologically wired to shoot a pistol like a rifle. His rifle work was good (it’s cooler, you know) but in the end – and I have a video coming on this – your stance should be interchangeable from any weapon. It doesn’t matter, rifle to knife to empty hand. I started talking about this years ago while teaching with Sage Dynamics…everything must be interchangeable. You can make micro adjustments around the weapon, but you can’t make macro adjustments without a loss of effectiveness.
Lastly – all that gear – as Aaron Cowan and I always learned from an SF Colonel we were working with, ‘hardware is nice, but software wins fights.’
…’hardware is nice, but software wins fights.’
You can have the greatest gear in the world, but if you can’t use it effectively, it’s worthless. Sure, hardware makes a difference – if your gun breaks down or jams a lot, if your mag carriers fall apart, if your knife breaks like glass…you’re gonna be out of fight quick. But, if you have the right equipment – and most of the stuff I run with I have tried to destroy on the range and I buy 3 of what doesn’t break – what’s the point of having it? What you do repeatedly you become, and what you are scared of, you will fight before anything else. You have to learn the right way, and do it the right way. Not the BS out there from the fads – nope. Use what puts people under the dirt 90% of the time, 90% of the people.
Train it, do it, ask where it came from, research it. There is a reason in Pramek we do what we do – the 90/90 rule.
Learn how victorious fighters win – do that.
As I told this student, ‘All that expensive stuff you own, sell it to people, use that money to buy ammo and pay for training classes to learn to shoot right. You can always buy that stuff back, but you can’t buy your life back when you don’t have it and you only have your pistol and one mag at the mall.’ As one of my teachers in Russia once told me, ‘You Americans have the best equipment, but the reality is, when you need to kill someone, you’ll be grabbing the shotgun above your father in law’s fireplace and loading old shot in it. You won’t have the equipment, you’ll have your skill.’
I keep that lesson with me – and yes, I can use a break action shotgun quickly. Quick enough atleast.
But, back to the student. Turns out he had no course work under his belt – he was self taught, and, as I like to say, when someone’s equipment is better than their shooting, ‘self-bought’.
If you buy a pistol, a rifle, a shtogun – invest in good training, like at Sage Dynamics. Or, come to NM, we’ll hit some BLM land – you buy the 9mm and 5.56, and beer after, I’ll do the teaching.
Now, back to my tequila and some old Jimmy Buffett, he lost me after Banana Wind, btw.
– Matt
