and fight like you train (except for Sean S. No one wants to see that).
I used to hear that a lot from the Chiefs, and they are right. What you learn to do in training is what you will do under pressure, and if what you learned is wrong (or if you never learned the right way at all) you will do it wrong when it counts. Training is all about practicing how to do it right.
The bad news is I have trained myself how to do a lot of things wrong. The good news is now I know what I have to do to fix it.
Among the things I learned:
Serpa holsters, to borrow a phrase, are miserable balls of suck and fail when it comes time to rapidly draw. No I didn't shoot myself in the leg (never even came close) but having to activate the release certainly delayed my presentation. It is now in the box of rejected holsters.
My Grok does not like to go through more than about 100 to 150 rounds of white box Winchester before it wants to be cleaned. I got a lot of practice clearing malfunctions. Good for the training I suppose, but not so good for the shooting.
Doing it the right way includes a lot of things you have to think about in the proper order, and by the time we had worked up to number three or four my brain was frazzled.
Doing it the right way hurts in places I didn't know I had.
Practice, practice, practice.
I need to shoot more.
If you ever get a chance to attend the basic pistol class at Tigerswan, leap at the opportunity. It's money well spent. Just be warned, if you don't shoot a lot, or if you have never taken a formal class, be prepared to be humbled. These guys are good, and they will show you how to be good, too.
All in all it was great getting to put faces to names, the camaraderie was good, and the training was, too. There were six bloggers including your humble scribe and four non-bloggers, including a father/daughter team in which Daughter out-shot Father and Father is all kinds of proud over it.
Bloggers in attendance were Sean Sorrentino of
An NC Gun Blog who was also the instigator of all this madness, John R. of
No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money, fellow former Tomcat airdale squid Rich from
Knitebane Manor, fellow vintage military bolt action rifle aficionado Paul from
Arms are the Mark of a Free Man, and George from
Newbie Shooter. Those worthy gentlemen who were not previously on the blogroll (John, Rich and George) are now there.
Also in attendance were husband/wife Sean and Lynell (who don't have a blog, they make them) and retired Army Special Forces medic George and his daughter Erika who, as I mentioned above, had a very good day.
And now, if you don't mind, I'm off to get a bit of the shut-eye. I really shouldn't, I have to work tomorrow night and I really should stay up all night tonight so I can sleep tomorrow, but I've been up since 4 AM and I'm about to fall over.
I hope your day was equally productive.
