Are you REALLY ever ready?

[RetiredUSNChief]

Are we ever really ready?

This is a good question. Speaking as a retired sailor, not as LEO, how one trains is just as important as how much one trains...perhaps even more so. "Train like you fight, fight like you train" are words to live by.

I can tell you for sure that training DOES make a difference...most especially if you train like you fight because you really WILL fight like you train. If your training is cr*ppy and unrealistic, then so will your responses be when the time comes to fight.

That said, I've not put in nearly the training in self-defense with my firearms that I did training for submarine combat and casualty control. Which means I cannot expect my response with a firearm to be anywhere near the level of proficiency I would expect, say, law enforcement to be at.

This is a weakness of mine which I am aware of and I try to utilize other methods to help mitigate this deficiency.

Are you ever REALLY ready? The answer CAN be "yes", if one's training is proper.

That said, there is an old military adage which says "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy."

So learn to be flexible, too.

 

[Buzznrose]

Unless you are the one who initiates the hostility, and you do it at a place and time of your choosing, you can never really be ready, can you? You can be armed, aware, and alert, but unless you see your adversary coming and you know what's going on, then I say you cannot be completely ready for conflict.

The aggressor who studies and understand his victim is ready...the defender who is unaware of the conditions, is not.

About the only situation I can think of where both parties are ready and on a level footing would be a timed dual...as it "Take ten paces, turn, and fire".

 

[gamestalker]

Buzznrose, you are so right in my opinion. The perp is nearly always the first one to know what the plan is. The really deadly one's will study their victim, stalk them, and then initiate the attack on their terms, and almost always without the slightest warning, but rather some well planned approach to put the victim as ease, or lessen any suspicions.

I strongly support training and practice drills to try and maintain a proficient response to a threat. As I said, most of it happens in the first few seconds, and therefore my response has been more instinct, than training. If I could identify any one aspect of training that I might have utilized, I would have to say keeping my head, which is far from an easy task when your facing near certain death.

As far mistakes I've made during a deadly encounter, I've made many. But probably the most deadly one is hesitating to shoot, which has nearly cost me my life on more than one occasion. But in my own defense, I love my God and fear his wrath, so making the split second decision to pull the trigger is no doubt, the most difficult decision I've ever had to make. I've thrown up afterward, and I've thought I was having a heart attack, and a host of other reactions have followed. So I think one of the most important aspects of being prepared and ready, is accepting that you may have to use lethal force. This aspect should be seriously confronted, understood, and accepted, long before ever deciding to carry a firearm for self defense.

So am I ever really ready? No, not as yet anyway.

"When seconds count, the police are minutes away"

GS

 

[doc2rn]

I have seen combat in central america, africa, and europe, but what I remember most is the muscle memory of snap action. As a combat corpsman you clean your gun often, every week when in barracks, every other day when in the field. You get so used to where it rides on your 782 gear/ drop leg holster that pulling it almost becomes second nature and you can be very quick about it when the time comes. It sucks when you have to use it, but developing muscle memory with the same piece of gear every day does help when and if the time comes.

 

[Al Thompson]

I'm going to call this one as asked and answered...

 

[Fred Fuller]

Catching up on some stuff from Rory Miller, I ran across this blog entry. Seems to me it fits in really well here - give it a read.

http://chirontraining.blogspot.com/2013/06/confidence-levels.html
SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013
Confidence Levels

Paraphrase - we tend to trust what has worked for us in the past. Problem is, very very few people really have a lot of experience in a wide variety of physical violence. AKA 'small sample size.' Take a person who has had multiple gunfights. How much cumulative time does this person have involved in actual gunfighting? Seconds, total? Maybe a minute?