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Thread: Being honest about my training budget

  1. #1

    Being honest about my training budget

    Over the years I’ve been on this forum, I’ve read many passionate discussions about various topics. Some of these generated a great deal of information flow. Others seemed to generate more heat than light. At times this friction was largely due to the egos of some posters. The ones that bothered me the most though, were the ones where good members seemed to simply be on nearly the same page, but their frames of reference were different. This set me to thinking, and I came to my own conclusion. Simply put, a lot of these technique discussions over the years came because different people have different training budgets.

    I think of a training budget as three parts. The first part, and probably the least important, is actual money available to spend. The second part, of middle importance, is available time. The third part, and most important, is your own motivation. This is not a three legged stool with each leg being equal, in my opinion.

    Motivation is, in my mind, the most important part. You can overcome a lack of ammo funds with dry fire. This has been proven. But if you aren’t motivated to get up and actually do that dry fire, you will stagnate. Similarly, if you have a ten million dollar a year ammo budget, but not much desire to get to the range, you will not progress much.

    Available time comes in second. You simply have to have enough free time, or be willing to make the time, to accomplish your goals. I think most of us can agree that 15 minutes a day of dry fire can provide a ton of improvement for most shooters. That’s not a huge time commitment. However, someone who wants to earn a USPSA GM card will likely need more than 15 minutes a day to achieve that. If someone wants to be a Super Squad Grandmaster, I am all but certain that 15 minutes a day won’t do the job.

    Lastly, we have the least important part and that is money. Money can shorten the process. Money means class fees, ammunition stocks, travel to classes, etc. If you have the money to invest in your shooting skill set, it will make the journey shorter. I think we all mostly agree that quality instruction can solve a myriad of issues with our shooting.

    Now, here’s where I think folks end up talking past one another from time to time. I’ve seen technique discussions come up from time to time where people come at it from two different angles. One angle is our members who are highly skilled competition shooters. These folks have a large training budget (particularly the motivation part) and it shows in what they can do. Those folks are incredibly good at what they do. They can execute techniques that others cannot because they have the motivation and time to hone those skills to a higher level.

    The flip side of that is those that enjoy shooting but have other demands or interests. They have enough motivation to develop enough skill to defend themselves, but balk at the training schedule of a USPSA GM. Simply put, they have spouses, kids, other hobbies, whatever. Maybe they even used to train like mad but simply burned out (I know I did). Another valid part of this would be the law enforcement trainer that may have students that don’t even want to shoot at all, but they have to in order to keep their badge.

    So when technique discussions come up now, I usually try to filter them this way: Does this idea work for me and my training budget. I know what mine is, and everyone else’s is probably different. That’s perfectly fine with me. I’ve got mad respect for the folks that have more motivation and time than me and can make those techniques work. For me, I know I need a technique, even if it is a few tenths slower on scored drills, that I can maintain with the amount of time and energy I’m willing to expend. Simply put, I’m a family man. If I have 60 minutes to do whatever I want, then I’m probably gonna give at least 40 of those minutes to playing with my daughter or talking with my wife. I’ll take the remaining 15 or 20 and use them on my shooting skills.

  2. #2
    Man I think that's such a great way to look at it. Something that impacts my "motivation budget" is the liklihood of need. If I'm thinking of defense, what level of skill is sufficient to deal with the most likely scenerio? Obviously I want to be able to handle the absolute worst case, but I don't spend time worrying about my liklihood of success. As a result that spare time goes to dancing in the living room with my wife and son, or whatever other maddness life has on the day's agenda.

  3. #3
    I Demand Pie Lex Luthier's Avatar
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    This is a well-thought-out set of points, Jared. It would be hard to fully refute any of them. Thanks!
    "If I ever needed to hunt in a tuxedo, then this would be the rifle I'd take." - okie john

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  4. #4
    Hammertime
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    Great post Jared. In fact you have been knocking them out of the park lately.

    I am an investigator and a tinkerer and honestly a serial hobbiest who dives fairly deep to the 85th percentile in most things but at that point tend to lose motivation and settle for good enough, this will do. Life does not allow mastery of most things. But a B grade is good enough I hope.

    I’ve had to learn to be okay with that level of performance.

  5. #5
    I don't disagree but I find it extremely frustrating when people who are lacking in motivation to train want to spend a lot of time arguing with the people who have a great deal of motivation to train. I saw a quote recently along the these lines: "High opinions and low commitments have no place for those who carry a gun".

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Doc_Glock View Post
    Great post Jared. In fact you have been knocking them out of the park lately.

    I am an investigator and a tinkerer and honestly a serial hobbiest who dives fairly deep to the 85th percentile in most things but at that point tend to lose motivation and settle for good enough, this will do. Life does not allow mastery of most things. But a B grade is good enough I hope.

    I’ve had to learn to be okay with that level of performance.
    I truly appreciate your first sentence, although I’m honestly nowhere near the league of most folks here and honestly am kinda muddling my way through.

    I’ve found, in my hobbies, I tend to maybe charge too hard in the beginning. Then I burn out. Absolutely happened with USPSA for me. I’ve got such a long connection with shooting, going back to being a kid shooting with dad that I didn’t stop shooting, I just changed my focus a bit
    Last edited by Jared; 09-30-2020 at 06:36 AM.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Eyesquared View Post
    I don't disagree but I find it extremely frustrating when people who are lacking in motivation to train want to spend a lot of time arguing with the people who have a great deal of motivation to train. I saw a quote recently along the these lines: "High opinions and low commitments have no place for those who carry a gun".
    I understand your point, but I think we may be talking about two different groups of people.

    One group of less motivated people may be those that can barely be bothered to gain enough proficiency to pass the Illinois CCW Qual (it’s very very easy). Now that guy probably shouldn’t be giving advice.

    What I’m mostly referring to would be a discussion about target focusing with iron sights for example. Now, from threads here on PF, I know that Ben Stoeger recommends target focusing with irons all the time in his classes. I think we all know Ben is an elite competition shooter. I’ve bought the mans books and DVDs and have a ton of respect for his opinion. But I also know that in order to really make that technique work well for me, I’m going to have to spend a lot more time in dry fire and live fire than I’m willing to do.

    I also know, from my own personal experience, that if I focus on the front sight and make a good trigger press, good things will happen for me. I will make improvements and grow. It may well take longer because I spend less time at it than Ben. I likely will not achieve Ben’s level of USPSA skill. But if I can shoot 90% on the HiTS Super Test and the LAPD D Platoon Qual (one of the current DOTW) then I am happy with what I can do.

    My post is less about allowing the truly unskilled have the floor and more about evaluation of technique threads based on my commitment levels and desired outcomes.

  8. #8
    Another factor that has reared it's ugly head recently is $ and supply. My wife and I have been cutting back on practice lately. We used to blow through about 350 rnds per range trip. Now the price has doubled, and more, but the worst part is there isn't any. I shoot 2-3 idpa matches per month at about 110 rnds per match so out last practice session I let her shoot her normal amount and I shot just a few mags worth. So, like it or not, our proficiency can only rise to a certain level. We have a stock level that I won't let our supply drop below and in the last 4 years have had no problem keeping well above our minimum. But I haven't bought any ammo in 4 months so I sure hope this changes soon as we are getting closer to that min #.

  9. #9
    Member Sal Picante's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cory View Post
    Man I think that's such a great way to look at it. Something that impacts my "motivation budget" is the liklihood of need. If I'm thinking of defense, what level of skill is sufficient to deal with the most likely scenerio? Obviously I want to be able to handle the absolute worst case, but I don't spend time worrying about my liklihood of success. As a result that spare time goes to dancing in the living room with my wife and son, or whatever other maddness life has on the day's agenda.
    I think back to one of the best pieces of advice Paul Sharp ever gave me, which was something from Chris Haueter...

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    That mentality of think street, train sport, live the art is huge.

    Honestly, Just keep showing up, just keep chipping away at it. "It" being shooting, work, BJJ, whatever. Just showing up goes a long long way. I never thought I'd be a GM - but that wasn't the focus - it isn't the end of the road, it was just a step along the way...

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