I got a well meaning question on FB that I wanted to share with you.
It’s important to understand that people say things on social media in ways that they’d never say in person:
Edward made the common mistake of thinking that being able to hit things when you’re plinking with friends with no stress and no time limit is the same as being able to stop a threat that’s trying to kill you.
So here was my answer…
“LOL, Edward…as a pilot, you just dug yourself a hole. There’s a difference between learning to fly a plane so you can putt around the FBO on Sundays and learning to fly a plane so you can engage in combat.
(A FBO is a “Fixed Base Operator.” It’s kind of the private pilot version of a commercial airport where you get gas, snacks, weather reports, park your plane, etc.)
If you’re going to putt around in a SuperCub, Champion (what I have the most time in from several years ago), or even a 152 or 172, you need to know how to fly, but you can get by with Kentucky windage and Tennessee elevation techniques.
If you’re training for combat, the details matter a little more. Your technique needs to be crisper, more automatic, and more practiced. punchlists, checklists, and kneeboards become standard. Continual practice, simulator time, and immediate action drills are part of the game. It’s still flying either way, and you’re a pilot either way, but training for combat is *different*.
If you’re a combat pilot, you can still go to the FBO, hop in a 172 and fly a couple hundred miles for lunch with your wife and kids on a Sunday, but if you need to flip the switch, you’re practiced, precise, and READY.
Just like a combat pilot needs more precise skill than a recreational one, a shooter who may need to use their pistol to stop a lethal force threat needs more precise skill than a recreational shooter.
Training for combat as a civilian is different for training for combat in a warzone too. If you look into the stats from the first couple of years of the war in Afghanistan, we were averaging 200,000 small arms shots fired per enemy combatant incapacitated. Not killed. Incapacitated.
National law enforcement stats are in the 20% range. Some departments are around 50%. But our legal system demands 100%. 100% is not realistic, but that’s the standard we need to work for.
So it’s great that you’re a combat veteran. I thank you. I appreciate that. You’ve got a leg up on managing life-&-death stress. But the shooting side is very different now as a civilian than when you were in combat. Threat profiles are different. Rules of engagement are different. The legal magnifying glass is different.
What we do with our dry fire training is combine mechanically solid technique with more than a dozen accelerated learning techniques to help you create conditioned responses faster than what’s possible by only doing live fire…in a fraction of the time at a fraction of the cost.
Here are some examples of how that pans out…
Drill 1: react, draw, and 10 rounds on a 6″ target at 21 feet in under 3 seconds with a Glock 26 subcompact
Drill 2: 17 rounds in a 1” group with .68 splits.
Drill 3: react, draw, and 3 headshots at 15 feet in under 2 seconds with a Glock 26 subcompact
Drill 4: react, draw, and a headshot in about 1.1 seconds at 21 feet with a Glock 26 subcompact
Drill 5: concealed react, draw, and 5 shots stitched up the midline in under 2 seconds with a Glock 26 subcompact.
In each of these videos, I hadn’t done live fire practice in a month or more and all of my practice was using our dry fire training. With the 17-shots-in-1-hole video, I took the previous 6 (SIX) months off of live fire practice before shooting the video.
One of the things that I say is that fighters spar, fighter pilots use simulators, and serious shooters use Dry Fire Training Cards.
Our training is dirt cheap for what you get. In fact, it costs less than a single trip to the range.
Make more sense? If your credit card isn’t out already and you aren’t COMPELLED to sign up, let me know. ? Talk soon. -Ox (the guy behind the training)”
If you want to smooth out and speed up your defensive shooting technique, starting today, using some of the very same learning methods that fighter pilots use to train for high stress flying situations, you can get started now by clicking >HERE<
by Mike Ox
Mike Ox is an avid defensive and competitive shooter who has co-created several firearms training products, including Dry Fire Training Cards, Dry Fire Fit, 21 Day Alpha Shooter, and See Faster, Shoot Faster. His brain based training focuses on accelerated learning techniques for shooting as well as controlling brain state and brain chemistry for optimal performance in extreme stress situations. Learn more about dynamic dry fire training for defense and competition at www.DryFireTrainingCards.com/blog
