Comp or Tactical Training

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Regarding Paul Howe's article, I think it's important to keep in mind that his decisions support his needs. At the same time each of us needs to make an assessment of what would be optimal for us and our needs. Do shooting techniques that support the use of a gas mask need to be prioritized for somebody who will never wear a gas mask? The same thing goes for other support equipment like body armor, or your operating environment, which for most of us is "where I live."

Indeed, that's mostly what I took out of it. The fact that Mr. Howe learned 10%-20% from competition shooters is, IMO, supportive of the idea that competition shooting type course are, in fact, a good thing. After all, despite the large disconnect in terms of gear usage and operating environments, Mr. Howe was still able to learn stuff. Considering that most of us here don't have to shoot under NODs while wearing body armor and gloves in the jungle, clearly the amount that we would be able to take away would be much, much larger, and thus definitely generate a useful body of knowledge.

Of course, as Tamara stated, many people are sure to misconstrue Mr. Howe's words as a slam against competition shooters, since they like to think of themselves as tactical cool cats and think most of their shooting will be done jocked up in plates, fighting against a squad of Vympel or AQ sleeper agents, which is unfortunate of course, but I figured most of the peeps here on PF would be smart enough to realize that the very reasoning behind Mr. Howe's preference for tactical courses would lead many of us there to actually embrace competition shooting as a viable source of education.

[ToddG]

Would it be fair to say that had you taken the Porsche class first, you might have gotten more out of the BSR course?

Absolutely. But by taking the BSR course first, I got more out of the Porsche class. In either case, it's a matter of going in with some knowledge and experience to the second class.

What I will say is that if I'd taken the Porsche class first, I think I would have appreciated it more right off the bat and its application to the BSR stuff might have been more obvious. But at the end of the year, I had taken class-A and class-B and, as with anything, it was my job to figure out how best to integrate and practice.

And to piggy back of the previous question Todd, which class do you think had more of an immediate impact on your day to day driving abilities?

Definitely the Porsche class because I can do "that stuff" all the time -- finding lines, late braking, etc. It's just a matter of how much I want to abuse the car, the tires, and my wife. But there were things I learned in the BSR class that, while highly unlikely, are going to be make-or-break if crazy circumstance forces me to crash through a barricade or perform some high speed reverse maneuver.

And of all the driving classes I took, the 1-day Accident Avoidance class at BSR, which is aimed much more at young drivers or people with no real interest in driving fast, was by far the most useful day to day. It was specifically focused on how to operate the car when something goes wrong. My parents, my wife, my brother, and I all took the class together and I believe every single one of us could tell you at least one story about how it probably saved our lives.

In shooting terms, Porsche was the performance class (I'd like to think of AFHF and AFHS in that light). The BSR Evasive Driving class was much more a "fighting with a gun" type class focused less on operating the gun and more on when, where, how, why to operate the gun. And the Accident Avoidance class was like a good 1-day CCW primer that made sure I could do the common, important stuff well enough not to hurt myself.

There are people who survive or even prevail in gun fights who don't use (or need, or have) much technical skill There are people who survive or even prevail in gun fights who don't use (or need, or have) much tactical skill. But there are also people who wound up dead for lack of those skills.

Regarding Paul Howe's article, I think it's important to keep in mind that his decisions support his needs. At the same time each of us needs to make an assessment of what would be optimal for us and our needs. Do shooting techniques that support the use of a gas mask need to be prioritized for somebody who will never wear a gas mask? The same thing goes for other support equipment like body armor, or your operating environment, which for most of us is "where I live."

I agree. You could just as easily swap out the high speed team assault gear with things like deep cover holsters, and the HALO-jumping into a day at the mall with your two young kids.