Who are you training to fight?

[l8apex]

The point is, train to fight an enemy that may have equal to more skills than you possess. Train in a way that will make you incrementally better at every session. Train for your environment, for the enemy you would normally face.

Most of all be able to recognize the threat early, OODA, where most fights are won even with rudimentary skills. Being ahead of the curve increases your chances exponentially. You could have all the ninja fantastic skills in the world, but if you are easily ambushed or have a non-existent awareness level where you can't see things/situations that are developing/escalating, your skills aren't worth shit.

[JHC]

The point is, train to fight an enemy that may have equal to more skills than you possess. Train in a way that will make you incrementally better at every session. Train for your environment, for the enemy you would normally face.

Most of all be able to recognize the threat early, OODA, where most fights are won even with rudimentary skills. Being ahead of the curve increases your chances exponentially. You could have all the ninja fantastic skills in the world, but if you are easily ambushed or have a non-existent awareness level where you can't see things/situations that are developing/escalating, your skills aren't worth shit.

Word.

Sometimes I think I may sound like an assh$%# but train to standards until you feel confident. No of course don't be over confident. Don't think your superman. But fer crissakes if I didn't feel pretty confident in my total skill set after working on them for several decades, something went way wrong. IMO this is part of mindset as is the mental awareness. It has come in very handy managing some tight situations.

I don't think Jeff Cooper was so far off when he pondered the question long ago: "When do you know you are proficient?" IIRC his only answer distilled like a Modern Technique Aristotle was "When your attacker is in more danger from you than you are from him." Not possible without avoiding getting totally blindsided.

[rob_s]

Most of all be able to recognize the threat early, OODA, where most fights are won even with rudimentary skills. Being ahead of the curve increases your chances exponentially. You could have all the ninja fantastic skills in the world, but if you are easily ambushed or have a non-existent awareness level where you can't see things/situations that are developing/escalating, your skills aren't worth shit.

Starts way before that.

Don't live in a crap-hole neighborhood. Can't afford not to? Move to another part of the country. If your income level is that low you don't have ties that bind anyway. Go find the same low-paying job in an area that's not full of problem people. Don't go to the ATM at 3 AM. Don't do drugs. Don't associate with people who do. Even family. Generally speaking, don't be an idiot. There was a kid that posted on M4C that he got his hat rack cracked because he was out drinking at a dirtbag bar and made friends with a drifter. Yeah, stupid hurts. A lot.

Outside of burglary gone wrong (like someone home when they don't expect it) it is very rare to just find some random act of street violence, and even rarer in the middle to upper-middle class.

None of this means you can't go out, have to go to the beach with an NAA .22 mag shoved in the crack of your ass, etc. It's a balance. But outside of a professional like a cop or a very rare, very bad, situation if you've gotten to some OODA problem you done f-ed up several times just to get to that point.

Being ahead of the curve is right. Stay in school Get a good job. Ditch your idiot childhood friends. THAT'S being ahead of the curve.

Be fit enough to carry your unconscious wife to the car. Make her be fit enough that it's not harder than it has to be. Be fit enough yourself that she at least has some fighting chance of dragging you. Be able to tote your kids. and don't make them heavier than necessary, thus making them harder to carry, either. They are all much more likely of falling and hitting their head on the floor than they are of falling victim to a home invasion murder. If that's not true, move.

Priorities.
Compromises.
Reality.

[ghettomedic]

Being ahead of the curve is right. Stay in school. Get a good job. Ditch your idiot childhood friends. THAT'S being ahead of the curve.

Be fit enough to carry your unconscious wife to the car. Make her be fit enough that it's not harder than it has to be. Be fit enough yourself that she at least has some fighting chance of dragging you. Be able to tote your kids. and don't make them heavier than necessary, thus making them harder to carry, either. They are all much more likely of falling and hitting their head on the floor than they are of falling victim to a home invasion murder. If that's not true, move.

Priorities.
Compromises.
Reality.

Amen, brother.

As an epidemiologist-in-training, I can tell you that having a college degree, household income over $75,000/yr, BMI of less than 25, eating 5 or more servings of vegetables a day, not developing hypertension or insulin resistance and exercising for 30 min/day 5x/wk will do more to ensure your long-term ability to protect, provide for and live to enjoy your family than any instrument of mayhem you can tuck IWB.

We train with firearms, edged weapons, empty hand, etc for the end goal of imposing our will onto another person to protect our lives, the lives of our loved ones or the lives of innocents. Perhaps if we scaled back 10-20% on the firearms/ammo/training/gear budget and used the money and time saved to impose our will inwards we could drop some pounds, gain some cardiorespiratory endurance, lower our cholesterol, unf**k our financial situations, take that local First Responder/CPR course, eat healthier and get that physical we've been putting off.

Same end goal, right? Save the lives of our loved ones or protect our own life so we can continue to provide for those we care about?

[GOP]

Priorities.
Compromises.
Reality.
Defeat.

[TGS]

Priorities.
Compromises.
Reality.
Defeat.

DILLIGAF

[GOP]

DILLIGAF

No.

I can't help but laugh at this thread. It really is a train wreck.

I guess my goals are different than most here, I'm young enough and skilled enough to pursue a career in the shooting sports and eventually become an instructor, so I devote a larger amount of time to training than most. My life is also very happy, joyous, and balanced in other areas. I guess not having kids yet is a benefit?

[Jay Cunningham]

Since this thread has turned into "you just don't understand, it's an ultimate warrior thing" I'm going to say it's run its course.