Originally Posted by
nyeti
I'll drop another turd...it's my nature.
I found the biggest factor in performance was the ability to actually pull the skills you have out in a fight. One of the biggest things I took away from Ken that is very consistent with my observations and experience is the need to be on auto-pilot during the shooting part, because everything else will be highly chaotic and distorted. You can be the the best Grandeist Mega Super advanced FASTest coin carrying dude out there, and if you can't bring it in a fight and just stand there, you will get cleaned by the the 8 second FAST guy who is a Velociraptor in a fight. This also leads into the ability to remain calm in chaos. Again, not really taught but learned.
Two examples: One of the best performances I ever saw in an officer involved shooting was by one of my worst performing "test takers" on the range. Turns out he was an "A+" performer who had an exceptionally good "auto-pilot program" loaded into his "computer", and had both a mean switch and was calm under pressure.
One of my better shooters, and a total bad ass of a cop, failed badly in a shooting, with his first words to me afterwards was "I didn't do a single thing I knew I should....no sights, and no trigger". His program was in the computer, he just lacked the ability at the time to "turn the auto pilot on". A month later he was in an exceptionally good shooting, and his first words to me afterwards were "I fixed it.....had both sights and trigger".
This all goes back to my emphasis on balance. At this point in life, I am probably shooting at a solid "Good" as my world revolves around my kid's Volleyball and not high round count training. With that said, I already know that I will not have to sort out things like moral issues, fear of investigation, fear, or dealing with high level adrenaline dump and reaction to altered time that many far better "shooters" will have to deal with, so I can pick up some "time" there.
So, I think (as usual) our in house genius John Hearne is on to something with this, I just think we need to take a look at "incompetent, competent, good, and great" in regards to both gun handling/tactics and mindset along with the marksmanship that we have several testing standards for.