"Don't Outrun Your Headlights"

[blues]

A timely reminder...from Steve Moses.

https://ccwsafe.com/news/dont-outrun-your-headlights/

Master instructor Tom Givens urges his students to not teach their own students to “outrun their headlights” by shooting faster in a lethal force encounter than they can perceive and respond to a change of circumstances which may call for complete cessation of shooting or shooting at a more deliberate speed. I was aware of this concept and had experienced it during a Louis Awerbuck defensive shotgun course when he caused a 3-D target to move only a few inches a nano-second before I fully pressed the trigger on my Benelli shotgun, resulting in a complete miss at five yards.

Much emphasis is put on speed-shooting in defensive shooting classes, and most of us nod in appreciation of the skill shown when a shooter can draw from the holster and put six rounds in an eight-inch circle at seven yards in less than three seconds. One of my favorite drills is the Larry Vickers Half-Test, which we shoot from concealment. The goal is to shoot ten rounds into a five and one-half inch circle at five yards clean in five seconds or less. In order to meet this standard and shoot it clean I personally must shoot one round after the first round about every 1/3rd of a second or so. This may be faster than I can perceive and respond to a sudden change of circumstances (most especially in low light) where I am responsible for the backstop of each single round...continued

[RoyGBiv]

I'm reminded of the first IPSC match I shot many years ago.
I finished next-to-last, but didn't miss a single target. Felt pretty good about it afterward. Especially the not finishing last part.

[Le Français]

A lot of “defensive” shooting classes do present this issue in a confused way. If a student has a tight group, they’re urged to “find the limit” and push the speed until they miss. That is of course an important path to shooting faster, accurately, but in training it should be clearly segregated from drills that are meant to mimic a deadly force encounter. That’s not the time to find the limit. Knowing your limit does you little good if you never practice staying within it.

[feudist]

Clearly an issue that needs to be trained for.

Exactly...how?
In combat, time is a zero sum resource, the opponents act simultaneously and every split second not used in finishing the fight is available to your opponent to be used to kill or cripple you...or another innocent in his downrange hazard fan.
We know now that bullets have to transect particular anatomical structures(timers and switches) to have any timely effect on forcing an opponent's behavior to change, and that multiple rounds may be required to hit those structures.
We also know from videos that a big percentage of predatory opponents flee or stop being a threat as soon as rounds come their way(Fuck! I'm being shot at!) or as soon as they're hit anywhere(Fuck! I've been shot!)

Setting an arbitrary speed limit seems optimistic at best. I remember Ayoob observing years ago that most people go cyclic in shootings and that the rate of fire was 4-5 shots per second. I reasoned that training should therefore be aimed at controlling that rate of fire accurately and precisely. That's not an insurmountable goal at close range.

When Bolke and Dobbs began posting about "assessment speed" a light turned on. Watching videos where the shooter essentially uses his pistol as a shotgun, pointing the first shot at the offender and then triggering the rest of them as a cyclic burst of Hopers at moving twisting targets turned on another.

But again, exactly how do you train for an unpredictably moving 3D target that might need to be hit in a very specific spot covered with flapping clothing, with bullets that may or may not have any timely effect unless you smash the spine or the brain, that can collapse, surrender or turn to run inside your perceptual reaction time, when your allowing him another quarter second's time to shoot may kill or cripple you or another innocent behind you, and your misses may kill another innocent behind him....while being filmed so that lawyers can take months to go frame by frame to see if you were justified by the millisecond, and the Nation's politicians eye the mob to see if there's an momentary advantage to destroying your life.

Be specific, and show your work, please.

[Totem Polar]

When Bolke and Dobbs began posting about "assessment speed" a light turned on…

Those guys definitely gave me some things to think about with regards to the topic, from post-to-post and podcast-to-podcast.

[feudist]

At the moment you present your pistol with intent to stop an immediate threat you enter the Quantum realm of multiple World lines.
Each tick of Planck time results in a non-zero chance of your opponent successfully committing an atrocity.
Each shot you fire too soon that misses, too late after he fires or that has no effect on him cascades into ever more disastrous scenarios where innocents are hit by either of you, where the next necessary shot malfunctions, where the wasted shot leaves you short of ammo at the last chance you have to prevail.

Literally the only thing you can control is the sight picture/alignment/trigger control summa at the moment you decide to fire.

[Guerrero]

John Murphy's class also uses assessment exercises, using his "secret sauce".

[BWT]

Clearly an issue that needs to be trained for.

Exactly...how?
In combat, time is a zero sum resource, the opponents act simultaneously and every split second not used in finishing the fight is available to your opponent to be used to kill or cripple you...or another innocent in his downrange hazard fan.
We know now that bullets have to transect particular anatomical structures(timers and switches) to have any timely effect on forcing an opponent's behavior to change, and that multiple rounds may be required to hit those structures.
We also know from videos that a big percentage of predatory opponents flee or stop being a threat as soon as rounds come their way(Fuck! I'm being shot at!) or as soon as they're hit anywhere(Fuck! I've been shot!)

Setting an arbitrary speed limit seems optimistic at best. I remember Ayoob observing years ago that most people go cyclic in shootings and that the rate of fire was 4-5 shots per second. I reasoned that training should therefore be aimed at controlling that rate of fire accurately and precisely. That's not an insurmountable goal at close range.

When Bolke and Dobbs began posting about "assessment speed" a light turned on. Watching videos where the shooter essentially uses his pistol as a shotgun, pointing the first shot at the offender and then triggering the rest of them as a cyclic burst of Hopers at moving twisting targets turned on another.

But again, exactly how do you train for an unpredictably moving 3D target that might need to be hit in a very specific spot covered with flapping clothing, with bullets that may or may not have any timely effect unless you smash the spine or the brain, that can collapse, surrender or turn to run inside your perceptual reaction time, when your allowing him another quarter second's time to shoot may kill or cripple you or another innocent behind you, and your misses may kill another innocent behind him....while being filmed so that lawyers can take months to go frame by frame to see if you were justified by the millisecond, and the Nation's politicians eye the mob to see if there's an momentary advantage to destroying your life.

Be specific, and show your work, please.

I’m on a lunch break for work and reading this and mulling it over.

My training goals have been honestly a theory of pushing myself physically (speed and precision in shooting and practically getting in the gym and losing weight) to lower the amount of mental bandwidth shooting requires and get my body in better shape to live a healthy life but also be effective.

I honestly had the thought should I try to hunting with my carry gun reading this (if able) or start shooting USPSA from concealment, etc.

I think that and finding quality training are about as close as I can get to preparing myself.

I know this - the legal ramifications and political ramifications. I can analyze a lot, but I can’t do much to prevent or change. So in my opinion just try to address the difficulties I’m able to somewhat maintain. Wear good shoes when out in public (I do love sandals in the summer though man), get rest, exercise, carry a capable weapon and be able to use it, get off the cell phone in stores despite the urge with air pods to catch up with friends (side benefit is I’ll be more present as I’m usually bringing around kids) in one ear, and other little nuances.

What do you guys do to prepare? I mean I’m just trying to break this down into steps of “what parts can I do something about?” and “what are pieces I can’t do a thing about”.

ETA:

What I didn’t say but intended was I think the best goal is to learn to shoot in live at a cadence the target responds to. I really do think a bill drill would probably be best and it’s part of the reason I train it for most situations. But, what’re the thoughts there?

What does processing speed mean and what is processing I guess is the real question. Because that’s going to be a variability that’s vastly different for various folks.

[GJM]

Seems like you want to be faster and more accurate than your opponent, while also having luck on your side. The easy part is saying it.

[JCN]

What I didn’t say but intended was I think the best goal is to learn to shoot in live at a cadence the target responds to. I really do think a bill drill would probably be best and it’s part of the reason I train it for most situations. But, what’re the thoughts there?

What does processing speed mean and what is processing I guess is the real question. Because that’s going to be a variability that’s vastly different for various folks.

I’m just coming at this from a gaming and shooting standpoint, not tactics or LEO/military so take it FWIW.

I don’t like the Instagram static range tactical drills / standards. There’s no motion, very little transition and it encourages patterns rather than vision and assessment.

I like USPSA for training and I love swingers and stars as a test of mechanics and judgement at speed.

These are just drills and gaming examples but:

When I played around with the Dickens, the target I was shooting had multiple inches of movement with the shots and settled in a position significantly different than from the beginning by about 4-6 inches.



I could have just blazed shots at a static target, but I was happy to get the hits tracking a moving one at 40 yards.

And then again with the moving Dickens:



The target actually fell on its face before I finished the drill but I didn’t keep shooting, I was able to gauge the movement and only shoot when the target was available.

Then again when playing mock stages at my range, I missed one of the plates and had to change the engagement sequence on the fly.



I feel that to answer your question, doing a lot of movement shooting really helps with judgement in a way that just square range stuff does not.

While critics often decry the speed of action pistol and the “acceptable misses,” at the higher levels you have to be fast AND accurate. That’s the ultimate goal for shooting IMO.

That’s of course in addition to situational awareness and avoiding conflict when possible.