Hyper trained and nowhere to go.

[zfk55]

My Dad wrote this quite a while ago for my Sister. Please don't take this as being anything other than it is. Fiction, but possibly a bit more close to home than is comfortable on the net these days.
Interesting angle anyway.

Latigo


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Hyper Trained and Nowhere to Go.

Lost Prairie Chronicles: Side trip 09

He was old enough and had a decent job. No real close friends and no real prospects of a girlfriend, so he watched a lot of TV, videos and began hanging out on the net. He was intrigued by the subject matter he found on various gun forums, so he joined a couple but didn't post. He did read and was fascinated by all of the different subject posts pertaining to the long awaited SHTF. The bravado, false but potentially believable posts of armed self defense and confrontations conjured up images of his own. It was exciting.
He avidly read posts about "which were the best SHTF firearms and began buying and reading gun magazines touting the "ultimate tactical" gear and firearms. By now his bank account would support buying every whistle and bell available. He complied a bug-out bag and by now was posting more often in the SHTF threads.

There came a point when it became apparent to him that somehow he had to gain some practical application. He couldn't afford the real life training offered by places like Gunsite, but there were books available. Not the Cooper kinds, but supposed training manuals written by SHTF hopefuls, rife with concocted scenarios of self defense, neighborhood defense, defense of total strangers in parking lots ad nauseum. But it was exciting and allowed his own images of bravado to strenghthen in his mind. Then he discovered an organization in his own back yard. A commercial paintball facility not three miles from his apartment. Finding that the facility had open team contests, he joined. Now he had a place to begin serious training.
Over time he became adept at dodging, shooting, diving for cover and game tactics. This was his true training ground and confidence builder. After all, they were shooting back, weren't they? And he mentally commuted this training to potential real life encounters.

He began in earnest to seek and buy the best of the best in an ultra-extreme-tactical pistol, AR, Tanto knife, MRE kit and all of the small but pertinent accessories for his firearms and bug-out bag.
His forum posts became bolder and more knowledgeable. He enjoyed in particular reading the confrontation posts. He began incorporating confrontation stances in his weekend paintball games. His opponents and paintball cohorts found his change in playing methodology a bit amazing, and he was gaining a reputation for paintball bravado. Within six months he felt he had reached a point of personal exellence and self satisfaction.
One of the members asked why he didn't join one of the local Pistol Clubs. He thought about it and determined to look into it. Within a week he had joined an indoor shooting facility. He found the membership in general did not understand his querys on SHTF subject matter. In fact the stated absurdity of his forums gained knowledge left his club associates in dis-belief. He had abviously joined the wrong club, so he quit after the second week and returned to the paintball club.

He began again to read, and he read anything he could find on self-training and close quarter tactics. He actually became somewhat book knowledgeable on the subject. His internet forum associates were impressed, but his personal training stayed within the realm of book training, not practical training. Ayoob? Reading the review of the book left him thinking it dry and unexciting. Jordan? Never heard of him.
He continued to upgrade his tactical gear and firearms whistles and bells. He was rapidly approaching his imagined goal of total preparedness. And that day did come.

He now considered himself complete in his ability to defend himself and any civilians who were in possible need of defense. He began carrying. It was exciting to feel that weight just behind his right hip, and he became more alert on the street and in stores, ever conscious of his pistol. As time went by he found himself watching others more closely for any sign of aggression in his presence. He never sat in a public place with his back to the door. He had read that somewhere and it made perfect sense. He now considered himself hyper-trained. Hyper-trained and waiting. Waiting for SHTF or any situation in which he could employ his considerable skills and training. Waiting and posting. Posting and waiting. Hyper trained and nowhere to go.

This one is fiction, Pooh, but pay attention because it's also common.


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By the way..... I never sit in a restaurant with my back to the door either. It does make perfect sense.

Latigo

[308 at my gate]

That is a very good story. I enjoyed reading it very much. All though I am a member of several forums this is the only shooting forum I belong to. I too am getting older, 58 but Like Clint always said ( a man has to know his limitations.)

[kutaho]

Excellent post, we sometimes forget the lunatic fringe that surrounds use,
or those who know no better.
I myself am guilty of sounding off with out regards to the sensitivity
of those who do not have the experience or back ground to draw upon to temper there passion.

[1 CAV]

Man I joined one of those survivalist forums one time. Wow, some seriously out of touch individuals on those. It's not that it's a bad idea either, I have some supplies on hand in case I need to hold out for awhile without being able to go get food or what have you. But zfk's post pretty accurately reflects some of the posters on those forums. I recall that there was one guy who actually put forth the idea of using a first person shooter video game as viable training for real life combat situations.

[TranterUK]

Originally Posted by 1 CAV

I recall that there was one guy who actually put forth the idea of using a first person shooter video game as viable training for real life combat situations.

Sounds as realistic as a correspondence course in surgery!

As I tell my children, there are good people in the world and bad people in the world and always will be. Just stay away from the bad. It's the same with crazies, they will always be out there.

By the way, I liked the reference in the story to Ayoob and Jordan. To the best of my knowledge its about right.

[Pistolenschutze]

Originally Posted by TranterUK

Sounds as realistic as a correspondence course in surgery!

Book knowledge has its place, but it cannot take the place of practice and experience as some would be Davy Crocketts would like to think. I've had an interest in firearms since I was old enough to realize what they were and what they did. As a kid, and still to this day, I read everything I can get my hands on about firearms, hunting, field craft, and the like. That knowledge has come in handy many times. But pure knowledge, of itself, but without hands-on experience applying that knowledge, is only a fair weather friend. One might be able to write a 50 page dissertation on the functioning of an internal combustion engine, but that doesn't mean he can repair one!

[1 CAV]

Originally Posted by Pistolenschutze

Book knowledge has its place, but it cannot take the place of practice and experience as some would be Davy Crocketts would like to think. I've had an interest in firearms since I was old enough to realize what they were and what they did. As a kid, and still to this day, I read everything I can get my hands on about firearms, hunting, field craft, and the like. That knowledge has come in handy many times. But pure knowledge, of itself, but without hands-on experience applying that knowledge, is only a fair weather friend. One might be able to write a 50 page dissertation on the functioning of an internal combustion engine, but that doesn't mean he can repair one!

Agreed, there is no substitute for experience. I enjoy a good issue of G&A magazine too. But get some range time.

[Trouble 45-70]

Book knowledge? I liked the Poslean SF series by John Ringo. A Hymn Before Battle and Gust Front.

[Maximilian II]

Book knowledge is fine and dandy, I read a lot and love it. It is no substitute for actually shooting though, in a fight it isn't what you know that saves you, it's what you DO.

Paintball tactics will get you KILLED in a real fight I have no doubt. I'll do things playing paintball I'd never consider in a gun fight. Like, using heavy brush for cover because paintballs won't get through, even from close range where both players (not "combatants" mind you) can see each other clearly. Or, using a piece of standing plywood, or even an inflatable piece of rubber.

Glad this is fiction!

I know the local SWAT team uses paintball guns for training, we once invited them out to play. The every-weekend paintball players pretty much slaughtered them. I have exactly zero doubt that if it were a real tactical situation using firearms the result would have been exactly opposite.

[1 CAV]

Yes I've seen that happen before. A bunch of kids that play paintball manage to win a paintball match against guys who are actually trained in the use of real firearms and they mistakenly think that means they would survive a real gunfight. But as you pointed out Max, you can do things in a paintball match that would otherwise get you killed in a real gunfight. I think for a lot of those young men that play paintball the problem becomes you play like you practice if you know what I mean. Bad habits picked while playing paintball can and will become second nature in a real firefight. We've all heard that expression "the training just kicked in". Well it's true, we will revert to doing what comes naturally to us in a given situation. Here is good example. A friend of mine who is a Police Officer here got into a gunfight several years back in the confines of a house. The offender took a shot and then took cover on the other side of an interior wall next to a door opening. I suspect he did that because he's seen it done a thousand times on TV and in movies. After all, drywall stops bullets on TV right? So the officer put three rounds through the wall and hit the man twice. Gunfight over. Now that was the result of an Officer who understood the nature of a gunfight, what bullets will do and how to use his weapon and an offender who had picked up too many bad habits from watching too many episodes of the A-Team when he was a kid.

Okay, that's a long winded way to emphasize Max's point but none the less, there it is, I guess.

[Maximilian II]

Movie shootout "skills" are even worse than paintball, simply because we as a population are inundated with it on a daily basis. How often have we seen TV "bullets" spark as they bounce off automobile sheetmetal and even windows? While some deflection is likely, neither sheetmetal or windshields actually stop bullets usually. I've shot old cars, I bet many here have too. Even .22's rip right through car doors unless they happen to hit sturdier parts of the window roll-up armature.
Always have the "fiction filter" on!

[delta13soultaker]

The key to effective training with paintball equipment is every element having an observer/controller (O/C) to adjudicate kills.

An O/C will "kill" those people being engaged behind insufficient cover, or penalize anything else that isn't sound tactics, techniques, or procedures, just like it goes in a real fight...stupid hurts.

When I O/C, I adjudicate lots of litter-type wounds, that way the teams have to suffer carrying their wounded and equipment. Sweat and exhaustion is a great teacher.

The big limit for paintball (once you fix the human-game factors) is that no paintball guns really come close to functioning/fitting/firing like real weapons. The solution to that is to adapt dedicated weapons exactly like those you fight with to fire FX Simunition ammo. (You can use your duty weapons for this, but it's a good idea to forbid live service ammo or personal magazines anywhere on the range, and have a dedicated entry point and safety officer to control every weapon and magazine that passes the admin area to firing area. Make no exceptions.)

Where I work we use miles-2000, paintball, and FX, depending what our goals are. It is greatly more effective training than just shooting paper or steel.

You cannot replace shooting live rounds at paper and steel. However, only doing that would be like training race car drivers one-by-one in a big parking lot. The real training is out on the track with everybody where anything can happen.

"Your best day in training should suck twice as bad as your worst day in the fight." That was my old boss's saying.

I'll attach some pics of my hide (lower body) after high-velocity paintball interface last summer where we went to murder-board a unit's urban training program prior to their validation. I was "no evac-KIA" in the upper story of the 5th building on the objective my team needed to clear; #1 man in the hall versus 3 bad guys and I caught the brunt of their fire before they went down. Heat index was around 110 degrees and their program was about 9 hours long in full kit/body armor/breach tools etc. It was fine training and had worthy suck.

The major lesson reinforced for me was the one I always preach: don't rush to failure. I heard them; I knew where they were; I "died" rushing to apply firepower vs firepower (5-3) when there was other options to maneuver first, deny them movement, in order to divide and overwhelm them before the shooting began. Those are the type of lessons well ran paintball/fx courses teach.

Shooting with sweat in your eyes, covering your 6, marksmanship with your heart rate at 120 bpm, use of realistic cover/keyhole firing positions/avoiding windows, focusing under close fire, communication under stress, developing a situation that will make the opponent surrender, critical thinking while close to an aggressive enemy.......there are an awful lot of skills that can be practiced until reflexive with paintball/fx that can't be done as well with live ammo on paper or steel.

Like I said, the key is O/C's and a good program.

[KellyTTE]

I like the general 'bent' of the OP. There's a similar version that Gabe Suarez wrote a while back, and although I don't agree with Mr. Suarez on much, I'll say that this particular piece was very appropro.

Imagine for a moment if you will, a class of students attentively studying the art of swimming. The instructor, ostensibly an expert swimmer with vast and honorable credentials, certified by the international swimming associations and such, calmly walks up to the class wearing an impeccable gray business suit and begins lecturing on swimming. The environment is totally business-like, clinical, comfortable and dry. the students are clothed in similar business attire to the instructor, doing their very best to emulate him, and notes are being taken as they sip water or coffee.

The renowned lecturer goes on to describe the need to float, and to move the arms and legs in unison, this way and that. He discusses in passing how to breathe and what water temperature may do to the technique. He discusses warm water and cold water swimming methods, and he shows films of swimmers, and analyzes their techniques.

Finally, after discussion groups and several written tests, the class understands the concept of swimming.

Then they retire to their respective swim couches and practice their strokes carefully and incessantly. After a while they very good at this and can whip out a back stroke or breast stroke or even a dog paddle like the expert in class. They are given Swimmer Diplomas and sent out ready to swim, or teach others how to swim....should the need arise.

Eventually these would-be swimmers begin discussing the merits of pumping the arms more than the feet, or of holding the breath or the theoretical need to get the head up out of the place the water would be, if in fact they were actually swimming in water, in order to breathe. Minutia upon minutia are analyzed and discussed to perfect "the couch swim".

But the problem is that nobody ever gets into the water. You see, the water is a fearful place. One actually gets wet. "There be dragons" seems to be the attitude. "The water is not safe", some say. Others say that the mere suggestion that one would have to test the Master Swimmer's Theory Of Swimming, by actually swimming, to be a disloyal and unfaithful act.

“Analytical swimmers do not need to get into the water”, others murmur as they grind through their swim kata every day.

The discussions on minutia and the unanswered questions persist. Yet if one of them dared to wander into the murky wetness, all the questions that they have spent hours and hours bemusing would be answered in one instant flash of sudden understanding.

I'll let you in on a secret. It is a dark and ugly secret that has been kept hidden like a national security issue for decades.

The master swimmer does not, in fact, know how to swim.

He can teach you the technique for making swimming motions on a safe couch, but he knows nothing of the water. The couch swim doesn't work in a pool, much less in the ocean. His students would drown.

That is a fact he would kill to keep hidden, because he has invested so much in his teaching methods and technical presentation.
Quite an illustration isn't it? Much the same can be said for many other things in life from driving, to mating, to actually having to make a living in the “cold cruel world”. One of them is Gun Fighting.

I get students from range-based schools, and their proponents all the time. These guys and gals have been drilled into the indoctrination of how to stand perfectly, how to draw correctly, and of course, how to carefully use the sights to precisely fire a surgically placed pair into a piece of paper.

They have spent their training time perfecting their stance, or focusing more on their front sight, or reacting to the first tone of the whistle or tone. Slight changes in holsters, or triggers, or grips, or other incomprehensible irrelevancies filled their study time.

These things do not last more than the first few minutes of one of our classes.

Yet, some of our heresy and blasphemies have spread through the cracks into other other’s curricula. Formerly square-range based, they hesitatingly want to put a toe into the water without getting their carefully pressed Royal Robbins tuxedo wet. You see, it is impossible to hide the truth in the age of the internet.

I have seen them come and draw and fire, then and only then taking a quick single side step so as to give passing lip service to getting off the line of fire, getting off the “X”, without altering their precise sight picture and carefully developed stable platform.

The open mouth and furrowed brow that results from their failure in force on force is almost uniform.

If only people would simply get into the water...into the Force on Force crucible, all things would be known immediately like the dripping swimmer who has just completed his first pool workout.

In a handful of chaotic and often intense seconds, the force on force student knows more about gunfighting than the untested range instructor who has been shooting groups all his life. And in that sudden fearful realization of what combat is really all about, and in how easy it is to still get killed in spite of all your marksmanship skills, your view on things and your focus in training will change. Things will never be the same again.

Stop being the theoretical dry couch swimmer and jump into the freaking pool. Heck, just think of all the time and money that will be saved once you have the "secret" knowledge that so many are trying to keep from you. Put down your range bag, grab an Airsoft pistol and a training partner and step into the light.
__________________
Gabe Suarez

I'm not sure that I consider paintball to be proper FoF training as the gear rarely matches what you'd carry day to day. But something for stress inoculation is better than nothing I suppose.