Originally Posted by
TCinVA
Then let's make it more concrete.
Take the FAST.
I know exactly why the FAST exists. I probably have had more discussions with the originator of that drill than anyone on the planet not named SLG or Ernest Langdon. It was created for a very specific purpose tailored to a specific set of coursework. At its original purpose...which is assessing fundamentals and speed of the students who showed up to an AFHF class so the instructor knows what he's dealing with...it is superb. Watching someone perform that assessment gives a pretty darn good read on where their skillsets are at and what they need to work on. The FAST was never the focus of AFHF, it was an assessment used to give students a way to test themselves and compare their progress post-instruction to pre-instruction.
Are there guys out there shooting the thing a dozen times in a row with the targets not quite at 7 yards and posting their best time out of those dozen runs on Instagram like they are a hero? Sure. But intsaflexing wasn't the point of that assessment any more than it was the original intention of any number of drills we could bring up.
The defensive shotgun has not received the same attention to performance that pistol shooting has largely because there are such a small number of people out there who are teaching it sensibly. Most shotgun programs are little changed from what they were before I was born despite the fact that there has been significant innovation in equipment and technique since then.
Guys like Tom Givens and Rob Haught have largely been voices in the wilderness found by the relative few who were intelligent enough to pursue the path less travelled.
Now we have better guns and we have Vang Comp and we have Flight Control and we also have presidential candidates promising to confiscate modern defensive rifles. People are noticing all this weapon of war talk and they're starting to wonder if perhaps using that AR15 they thought was their home defense weapon might not be the right thing after all. Especially when they internalize the concept of dose on a threat.
So now as what's old becomes new again, only this time with better equipment than has ever existed in the history of the defensive shotgun, those voices in the wilderness are starting to get bigger crowds. And then there are guys like Ashton and myself who have been nudged into bringing a bit of a different perspective by guys like Todd,Tom and Rob and maybe if we're lucky we will further the art a little bit.
One of the great things Todd did for the training industry in general is bringing a renewed emphasis on measured performance and a high level of technical proficiency. People showed up to AFHF, learned what was possible, and then pursued a higher level of skill with the roadmap they got in the class. That resulted in some grumbling by some people in the industry who hated his guts because he was, frankly, a better instructor than they were and could coach his students to a higher level of performance than they could. That's why those few personalities spent so much time baselessly trash talking him and his training.
Others recognized the value in it and embraced it because they'd been trying to get people to see the need to be better on demand for years. A lot of them even made accounts on his forum and participated with one of the most training and proficiency focused group of users you can find anywhere.
That the timer has a place in serious defensive training should be beyond dispute at this point. That people need to be able to hit the small vital structures buried deep within the anatomy of a threat to reliably stop them from carrying out a lethal attack should be beyond dispute at this point. There is a wide spectrum of useful skillsets in the pursuit of self defense and the shooting part of it is relatively small if we do a pie chart of how the typical problem goes.
But it is the part that, to quote Jack Leuba, you absolutely cannot fuck up.
Beyond that, we have learned that people who have cultivated subconscious competence in the use of whatever weapon they are holding are much better able to manage an ambiguous, developing situation without their rational mind leaving them. When they are accustomed to performing useful actions at the speed a fight takes place it delays or completely defers the amygdala takeover that contributes significantly to bad outcomes.
Drills exist to teach and assess skills. They should exist to support points of instruction in the class and together the drills, exercises, and lecture should support a specific terminal learning objective.
Drills are not the same thing as tactics.
A good defensive class is going to combine instruction on performance with a grounding in the realities of lawfully using the weapon in defense.
I'm not trying to get someone with a pump gun to be able to deliver 3 shots on target in less than 1.5 seconds in the first half of Shotgun Skills because it looks good on the grams. The purpose of the drill...which is explained in detail in the class...is to push the client toward mounting the gun quickly and efficiently, firing the gun with accuracy, effectively mitigating the recoil, and being prepared to deliver a followup shot quickly. To fire the weapon at that pace they have to have developed significant skill in the use of the weapon.
And the purpose of developing that skill is that when I put them on a photorealistic target later in the day and demand anatomically useful hits with accountability for every pellet fired in a tight time frame while they are task loaded with trying to convince a threat to go away...they can actually deliver on all that. Some report that it even seems easy after they've pushed harder than that earlier in the day. They may not be ready to fast rope out of a helicopter and do hero shit by that point, but they have a much better understanding of the weapon and how to use it effectively and responsibly at that point...which is kind of the goal.
If students don't get to experience the requirement to use the weapon quickly, accurately, and with accountability in class...all things they will need to do in real life should they need the weapon...then where exactly do they go to get it?
What separates a good drill from a goofy one usually isn't the drill itself, but how it is being used.