A person should be training and preparing if they are going armed to defend themselves or others. In order to win a fight that you didn’t ask for you must be good at fighting. We get good at fighting the experience and training. Most people are not experienced fighters. Most have never even been hit in the nose. Even more have never faced a weapon or a person meaning to do them serious bodily harm. Yet, They will lay claims to be and play at being a “Bad Ass”. Few who make those claims have ever really trained in preparation for the violence that will be part of that fight. Bad Ass are training and readying for the fight. Being a good fighter is not something you will do naturally. Fighting is trained and learned. If you believe you may be called upon for a life or death fight you have to train for it. Don’t take my word for it. Look at the statistics from the studies that show the more you train the higher your probability of survival. Study after study shows that Law Enforcement Officers involved in deadly fights that have trained beyond standard departmental training were more likely to survive and win the fight. The accuracy and fighting skills made those trained officers were more effective.
I don’t care if you only carry a .22, or if you carry a .38spl, or if you carry a .45acp 1911, or if you carry a 9mm Glock 19, or if you carry some sort of edged weapon you have to train with it to be good at fighting with it. This shall mean starting at the basics and then moving on to more and more advanced and technical training. Learn to fight with you weapon of choice. Learn to fight with your hands and body. Your hands and body may be your only weapon available to you when the fight starts. You will have to use tools in order to get to the fighting tool you have chosen.
I have heard it said, “I am going to knock my attacker out in a fight”. This seldom happens. You are most likely going to throw a few punches and then end up at grappling in close quarters contact fighting. Can you grapple? Can you deploy a weapon while grappling?
Train with your weapon until you can use it in training to a point that you do not have to think about the steps of it’s use. Responses and use of the weapon are now and must be automatic and flow as the response is needed. If you are thinking about the steps and how it should flow in the depths of the fight you can not win. If you are thinking about the steps when the “Crap is in the fan, Fear is in you, Adrenaline is pumping into your body, you will not be performing the life saving survival fighting skills required to win. If you are thinking about the steps you are not thinking about the fight, how to respond to your attacker’s movement and method of attack, and what you need to do to survive the fight and beyond.
If you are really interested in survival and willing to fight with everything you have to survive learn to fight with what is at hand if you are caught without your fighting tool of choice. Look at the things around you and ask yourself, “How can I use it in a fight?”
In order to win a fight and survive you must be able to think and not just about the fight but everything going on around you. See all that is going on around you, be fighting and still be using your cognitive thinking skills. Fighting isn’t just about deploying a blade or shooting a gun. It is much more. There is a bigger picture that you are now part of in the dynamics of a fight. You must be able to fight off fear and panic and the affects of adrenaline and immense stress of the fight.
It is never to late to learn. It is never to late to improve. Preparation must be done before you find yourself in the fight. Training builds skills, builds confidence, increases survival, and done in context will build efficiency and bring about effectiveness in a fight. Learning never really ends.
T-M Firearms Training 