That's 100 percent true what you say about losing the advantage if you aren't able to deploy your gun prior to going hands on, however grappling may be the only option you have if deploying a firearm isn't justifiable yet. Someone can charge towards me and grab me and I'm not justified on drawing on them unless they have a weapon or you can reasonably articulate why you thought this was a deadly attack.
Absolutely.
I think in many cases in this thread, we're all in agreement on some level.
But...words have meaning. Unfortunately, on a text-only medium (even if it does have provisions to post pics and vids), the ONLY way we have to communicate our full meaning is through the written word.
At issue here is the phrasing of "The most important physical skill for CCW is... grappling?"
The video does a better job of communicating the intended meaning. But the reality is that "grappling" is really "the most important physical skill" at the moment it's actually needed. (Like
@Kleanbore pointed out in response to my last post.)
Take any given self-defense scenario (and every one is unique in its own way), slow it down, and observe. Each will have moments (plural) in which one skill or another will be "the most important".
My viewpoint is holistic...in other words, broaden your horizon to encompass the totality of the various skills, abilities, and conditions and work to improve yourself in meaningful ways.
For example...if you lack physical strength and endurance, then perhaps engaging in exercises which will improve these. If you lack the capability to improve these for some reason (such as handicaps, debilitating disease, etc.), then work on alternatives suitable to your particular weaknesses to compensate.
If you are overweight to the point that it limits your ability to reasonably defend yourself by various means, then work on that.
If you suck at drawing and putting rounds on target, then work on that.
If you have poor observational skills and awareness of your surroundings, then work on improving that.
If you have never honestly studied the jurisdictional laws on self-defense and deadly force with respect to firearms, knives, etc., then this is a sadly deficient area that needs to be worked on.
Perhaps take some classes on various aspects.
Certainly we don't all have to have the capabilities of Batman, Doc Savage, Jack Reacher, etc., obviously. But we can always improve.
Take a look at your current skills and ask yourself where you need to improve, and then prioritize them. This list, and the prioritization associated with it, will be different from person to person.
For a newbie to carrying, such a list might have things like learning jurisdictional laws, how to carry effectively, how to properly care for his firearm, and how to best present, control, and put rounds on target as a higher priority than most other things.
For someone like me who has no problems putting rounds on target and who has had at least some modest martial arts training, I would place a higher priority on attending defensive training classes (which I've never done and I KNOW would help develop my skills and point out my weaknesses). I have a brother who has trained in martial arts for over 50 years who showed me something I'd never seen before, a martial arts instructor who gives martial arts training involving the use of firearms...not the traditional use of martial arts most people think of against an armed attacker (empty handed or with various traditional martial arts weapons like the bo or whatnot), but a martial artist armed with a firearm trained to engage with that weapon in an attack. (It's fascinating, by the way.)
"The most important" (whatever thing) to work on is what each of us is deficient in.
We don't all have to train to the extremes to be a Batman, Doc Savage, or Jack Reacher, obviously. But we do all have to recognize the need to train and do something about it.