Real Question...What's the goal of training?

[booker_t]

In one sentence?

To develop and maintain readily available skills.


This applies for hunters, self-defense, warriors, target shooters, competition shooters, law enforcement, and any other situation you can think of. Develop the physical skills and prepare your brain to be able to employ those skills when needed, in any context, with any set of adverse conditions. That includes when your gun fails, or when the gun isn't the right solution.

Part of training is finding non-violent ways to end conflict. To avoid confrontation. To diffuse situations or gain compliance from a subject (in a law enforcement context) without the use of force.

[Skadoosh]

threegun wrote:

To be able to perform under the pressure of a life and death struggle.

Plain and simple...and exactly the goal of my training.

[graysmoke]

Mind set, and knowing how to use your handgun.

[kx592]

Even for the average citizen, as long as there a gun owner, the only answer I can give you is to read "On Combat" by Grossman..

[Shotgun693]

IMO, you need to break down your question into two parts. Why do you train? What are you training for?
I 'guess' that most train to become better at their skill.
I also believe that most train for a scenario that they will never face.
Even Jeff Cooper began to change some of his drills in the last years, they just didn't fit the real world.

[timothy75]

For me its mostly for fun as i doubt i'll ever be in a gunfite. A lot of people think if they train hard enough they can remove all variables from a gunfight and remain in total control the whole time. I quit believeing this a few years ago. Now days instead of pouring lead downrange i spend a lot of time considering combative concepts which i guess you say is training. You hear about 70 year old men who defend themselves with a firearms and never had a day of training in their life. Also that anything you do in a gunfight that keeps you from getting shot is a good thing. Things like this are interesting for me to think about. So for me anyway training is becoming more of a mental game than your typical run jump spin shoot drills so many civilians are enamored with.

[sigxder]

The goal of training has several aspects. One is to train your body to have the proper conditioned reflex when faced with a threat. One of the reasons people freeze in a bad situation is that the old computer in the head has no instructions in what to do when attacked. It's hard to learn when the situation actually happens. And since it will probably be reactive for most of it if it's not reflex your probably dead.
Next once you have worked on using your weapon it is to help you eliminate things that don't work. And to keep your skill level up. The more realistic your training the better. This is a can of worms but it's the truth. Most civilian shootings happen within a few feet. The chances of getting into a two handed stance and using sights are slim to none.
F.B.I. stats say 74% of the time it's within 5 feet and one handed. Part of the reason hit rates are so low is that most instructors teach two handed shooting from 10-15 yards. Possible for police and military. Almost never for civilians. You should of course be able to shoot from all ranges. You should work point shooting for up close and as much sight as you can use as the distance allows. Being able to shoot well at 25 yards does not mean you can shoot well at 3 feet. All the old master shooters like Sykes/Fairbane, Bill Jordan and so on taught point shooting abd long range shooting.
You need both skills. In the old Shooting to Live and newer Kill Or Be Killed you see versions of the two handed method of shooting we think were just discovered.
I went to one class once and the instuctor said you should always shoot with two hands. How in he hell does he think you will be able to choose the circumstances of the fight? So another important element of training is to be sure you are getting good training. Lots of folks I've worked with (including some Combat Shooting Instuctors) have never even practiced a draw stroke and shoot type of practice. I was working next to a former Military instuctor teaching a civilian "Combat Shooting". I went up and drew my gun from 3 feet, got off the "x" and shoot the bad guy target.
The instuctor said "that's some pretty good instinctive shooting. You know I should be practicing more from a concealed draw". I asked if he was still in the military. He said no I'm retired. Asked him if he carried concealed now that he was a civilian. Again he replied yes. I kindly suggested that learning to draw from concealed carry being the situation is most likely to be faced with now he really should learn to draw and shoot. Most of us will never do a hostage shot, carry in a tactical holster, have defined lines of the enemy's position and ours and so on.
My point is that most civilians don't learn much useful in a Combat Handgun Course. Because they are not going into combat. They are at worst going to be in a self defense situation. Very different from military combat. So we need to define what is the right type of trainig for our situation.

[Skans]

When I train, my goals are:

1. Situational awareness and proper reaction to threat
2. quick deployment of firearm from concealment
3. hitting target center of mass consistently

Sometimes I simply practice shooting (range shooting) to become more comfortable with shooting my weapon of choice.

[Scott Evans]

To live well and to be without fear.

[C0untZer0]

Meet chicks?

[Deaf Smith]

Real Question...What's the goal of training?

What are you trying to accomplish?

At first the goal was survival. It was to defeat any would-be assailant.

But as time went by and skills improved it became more as a study. Add the fact I was teaching CHL classes and the study got more serious.

I do train to keep up my skills, but I also train to simply learn more for the sake of learning more on the complex study of self defense.

Deaf

[TylerD45ACP]

Make it reflexive. When the SHTF you dont want to be thinking ok now I gotta do this, most likely if you are, youre dead. When it happens you have to just react and slap that piece right out of the holster, saftey, take up the trigger, and front sight. End it. Thinking about doing that should not even have to come into your mind in my opinion. Really you need to train to the point of an automated response like an answering service. "Blah Blah, how may I help you" think of that phrase as training. You say it so much that as soon as the other end of the phone connects it just pops out of your mouth. In our case, our gun. That was my best of the top of my head analogy.

[Griffin Armament]

The purpose of training is to make someone better.

It is a worthy pursuit.

Great hand gunners are like Samurai warriors. Every move is so choreographed, so well trained to the mind, that they have reached a state of almost total efficiency. It's awesome to watch the truly great handgunners work.

The 10th Mountain Division motto is "Climb to Glory". And really that encapsulates the concept of training.

[pax]

Deaf Smith ~ good post. One of the things that continues to surprise me about this field of study is how big it is. It encompasses huge areas of human knowledge and experience: psychology, criminology, physiology, kinesthesiology, physics, ethics, technology ... the list goes on and on. The more you learn, the more you discover there is to learn. It's an endlessly fascinating field!

pax

[Deaf Smith]

Pax,

As a good friend who was going for his 2nd Dan said during a test where they posed a question about what the black belt signified. He said, "What does black signify? For me it signifies emptiness. For the more you know, the more you know you don't know.

Yes the subject of self defense is a very complex subject and the more you know about it, the more you know you don't know everything about it, for truly no one has 'seen it all'.

Deaf

[bds32]

For me the overall goal of weapons training is survival. I want to win by staying alive. To do this, I must stop the threat before it stops me.

Proper training will program the mind to perform adequately in life threatening situations. When the time comes to perform in such a situation, there will be no thought process, only reaction based on skills that have been programmed. If there has been a lack of training, there is very likely to be a lack of adequate performance. In this situation, luck plays a larger role in survival. Good training increases your odds and luck is less of a deciding factor.

[GM2]

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.

[m.p.driver]

Muscle memory.