Tactical Firearms Training - It's Supposed to be Hard.
TACTICS - now there's a subject that could cause a fight in an empty room.
Tactics are subjective...
Tactics are dependent upon blah de blah blah...
I've kind heard it all, and I'm sure you guys have to.
But....
As much as I agree with the statement that "Tactics are dependent upon blah de blah"...there are some basic fundamentals of Tactics, that should never be fucked with, in any way, shape or form.
And yet, these are probably the two most disregarded or poorly applied aspects of tactical firearms training, and which, ironically, are probably the two things that will help you survive a contact/gunfight/armed criminal encounter.
And yet, within the firearms training industry, speed and accuracy are what seems to get everyone moist and get the most "likes" on Tik-Tok.
Now, before there is a collective explosion of heads, let me clarify that I don't disagree that speed and accuracy are important - it's just that I don't think they are the two MOST important, skills to have, in a contact or gunfight, and neither should cancel out the simple fact that getting out the line of fire and taking cover behind something is, ultimately, gonna save you quicker than standing-the-fuck-still and giving your potential killer, more of a percentage of success.
I do, however, absolutely acknowledge that in a confined space/zero distance engagement, that standing your ground and engaging from where you are, might be the best option - particularly with multiple threats, as to try and move/create distance, might cause you more problems than it solves.
In addition, if you're a competition shooter, where the application of tactics, play no part in the competition, then yeah, speed and accuracy are all that matter - but competition shooting styles, applied in a tactical environment, where people shoot back, don't work.
Applying tactics is HARD...but they're supposed to be hard - they are hard for a reason.
The chances are that everyone who has gone through Basic training in the military, will have had tactics constantly drummed into them - particularly in the use of cover.
From personal experience, using cover correctly is a ball-breaker...it is an ass-kicker - it is not a place to sit back and rest, neither is it a place from which to rest your weapon system on. Using cover "correctly" (regardless of what that cover is), requires constant movement, from behind that cover = the ball-breaker.
Bullets generally go in straight lines yes? So why do so many people stand still? Why do so many people walk forward, in a straight line? Or worse still, walk backwards, in a straight line? Either option keeps you in that line of fire.
Myself personally, I do very little, if any, static training or static shooting, because I don't feel that it helps me to achieve what I wanna achieve, which is to stay alive.
Don't get me wrong...I still group, I still practice my draw...but I do it from a platform that more realistically reflects (a) the situations I've been in and (b) the situations I'm likely to find myself in, in the future.
The application of tactics in firearms training, seems to have been stuffed in the under-stairs closet and I wonder if the reason for that, is because it's just easier to "train" without adherence to any tactical procedures, in order to create a false positive of achievement?
Sound harsh? yeah, I know it does...but...when you start applying realisms into firearms training then the tactics required to survive whatever it is you're training for, start to become pretty fucking clear.
Injecting tactics into firearms training is a leveler - it humbles the person and acts as a magnifying glass into the soul of what you're actually training for and, more depressingly, it highlights the flaws in our firearms training, which results in the horrendous realization, that we're not as good as we thought we were.
I cannot think of anything worse than finding out that we're not quite as "trained" as we thought we were, when called upon to use that training.
Applying a tactical framework into your training, forces you out of your comfort zone - it forces you to confront that shitty realization, that what, and how you're training, might not work, when faced with the reason you're training for in the first place.
Too many folks claim to understand the importance of tactics, whilst not applying them.
Contacts/gunfights/armed criminal encounters, are messy as fuck and, at some point, your training has to reflect that messiness - applying tactics, that reflect the WHAT your'e training for, help identify the WHY you're doing what you're doing.
Response options have GOT to work for you - applying tactics will show if it does or doesn't. Training without any adherence to tactics, is simply setting yourself up for failure and we should never train to achieve failure.