...that all being said, after reading the entirety of the article, I disagree strongly with the majority of his contentions in the article.
Various quotes that I think don't apply to the majority of self-defense situations:
- Are you able to plant your thumb in his eye and feel the fluids and jelly-like consistency of viscous fluids as you gouge it out of his skull?
- Are you ABLE to eat a punch, delivered with skill, precision, and force, by someone who’s delivered hundreds, if not thousands of them, in real fights, and may be completely convicted in his belief that his punch will crush your facial bones?
- Are you ABLE to keep fighting, even as you feel your eyeball get popped out of your skull, despite the pain and terror?
- Are you ABLE to shut out the pain and fear of feeling and hearing your bones break in your arm or leg?
- Can you suffer all of that, and still be ABLE to punch, kick, grapple, or even just bite your way to victory?
- You need to be able to move, left, right, or forward, aggressively and fast, while creating the opportunity to create havoc and despair on the enemy, even as he’s trying to kill you.
- I would argue that 80-90% of your training for defensive shooting with the sidearm should take place inside of three feet, shooting from retention. Adding the ability to work up a solid, exhausted sweat, through a series of combatives drills immediately prior to each shot will do even better for you. It sucks, and its work, but it’s far more effective than gnat’s eye shooting at 50 feet.:"
I could pick more---but much of this article seems to be from the perspective of "every self-defense situation is one in which the guy is a 250 pound monster on meth
AND PCP who immediately (and with surprise) is in your face trying to rip your head off, who doesn't feel pain, knows you have a gun and is trying to steal it and shoot you with it, has national-level boxing and fighting skills, and blah blah blah you must learn to be an amazing tough guy otherwise you have no chance blah blah blah."
It doesn't happen that way, most of the time. I'm not saying that situation can't occur---but mostly, it doesn't. And most people don't have the TIME (or the inclination, or the need, or the physical ability) to spend learning multiple combatives, how to take a punch, how to grapple, how to....all of it.
He keeps using the word "need." As in, "you NEED to do this" and "you NEED to do that".
No, you don't.
I'll all for people getting empty-hand defense training. (Heck, I've been teaching martial arts in Nebraska since 1997.) I'll all for people learning the retention position, shooting on the move, one-handed shooting, CQT----matter of fact, I've got classes that include all of those things.
And yet---I'd much rather that most people
start by being able to draw and hit a 6" circle at 7 yards in 1.5 seconds, with four shots total in 2.5 seconds. You know why? Because the vast majority of defensive gun uses can be successfully completed if you can do just that. (Can YOU do that? Under stress?)
Most of the time, it DOESN'T take "combatives" (whatever most people mean by that), it doesn't take shooting from retention, and you don't need know whether or not you can "take a punch." Yes, sometimes it does, and I strongly suggest you get additional training in those things.
But saying that you aren't learning self-defense unless you can "plant your thumb in his eye and feel the fluids and jelly-like consistency of viscous fluids as you gouge it out of his skull" --- all that is going to do is cause FEWER people to train for self-defense, because they'll look at his list of "you NEED to do this" requirements, and they'll decide that they just can't do it all, so they won't do
any of it. (Yay human nature.)
He says: "I would argue that 80-90% of your training for defensive shooting with the sidearm should take place inside of three feet, shooting from retention." I strongly disagree with this. For many reasons (among them, that people suck enough at shooting without deliberately training to never use the sights) but mostly because in the defensive gun uses that occur,
this isn't where most happen.
It DOES happen, yes. But if we are going set our training to prioritize skills that apply to the majority of situations, then learn retention, but it shouldn't be the majority of your training.
Start by being able to
shoot at a 6" target at 7 yards. Then be able to
draw and shoot a 6" target at 7 yards. Then learn to draw and shoot a 6" target at 7 yards
fast. Then be able to draw and shoot a 6" target at 7 yards fast
under stress.
After that, if you want to do more, then do more.
Make your decisions based on what the research says
actually happens.
