“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless.”
-Bruce Lee
Adaptability, Flexibility, and the ability to react with an appropriate set of actions to address the problem at hand is what leads to success. Defensive shooting is about more than the ability to accurately place the shot …although it is one of the many necessary components. The problem is many shooters never progress beyond standing at the line slow firing at a target 15 feet away trying simply to hit a bullseye. Will this help in a confrontation? It may under the right circumstances, but there is no way we can guarantee those circumstances.
What life teaches is is that there is very little predictability. If we think we know what will happen, it probably wont. Events don’t often play out like our minds model them.
So how do we become like water?…how do we approach a situation without preconceived actions, get taken by surprise, and yet still dominate the confrontation?
It comes down to disecting scenarios and identifying the elements that are necessary to deal with each. Think about the things that could happen in the gas station parking lot, in the supermarket, at home at night, etc. and think about the common elements of each. How are they the same?….how are they different? What is the same about the actions you would have needed to take? ….what’s different?
Now develop those actions, work them hard, and get very good at each…then…combine them in differing ways with differing drills. Find drills, or create them, that will make you perform the various actions in different combinations. Mix & Match everything you developed so that you have a set of tools in your toolbox that will enable you to fix anything by combining them in whatever way the situation dictates.
Lets look at a couple of very basic skills for example…shooting one handed, and also changing magazines. Now lets think about a few possible combinations: one handed strong hand, without a magazine change, now with a magazine change..now, with a magazine change without using your weak hand (think about why you were shooting one hand in the first place). Now lets start with strong hand and switch to weak mid magazine, then a one handed magazine change from the weak hand only. Thats 5 possible combinations (and there are many more possible ones).
Will you ever have to do some of these…while under pressure…while being attacked…and lets throw in while trying to run away, and maybe at night? (There are so many possibilities). Hopefully not, but when an attack comes, you wont get to pick the combination that you will need, the situation will dictate it….so you need to practice all of it in as many possible combinations as you can come up with. Don’t let the first time you execute these combinations be in the face of a violent attack! Work out the bumps ahead of time so your reactions are triggered by the situation, and not as a result of active thinking when the adrenaline is pumping and your mind has locked up.
You can’t develop this standing still slow firing into a bullseye, you need to evolve and train so that you are the weapon, and the gun is simply a tool your body manipulates to apply the solution to your problem.
Femme Fatale ARMS & Training is a woman-owned business that provides education and support to an over victimized and underserved segment of our population. We have programs to build confidence and skill without the intimidating aspects that tend to exist elsewhere in this industry. Our goal is customer satisfaction and loyalty. We’d appreciate an opportunity to show you how we are different, yet still, help you to accomplish your education and safety goals.
Anyone can shoot a gun, we train you to defend yourself!
Femme Fatale Arms & Training is located at 160 Malabar Road, Palm Bay, Fl. We are open Mon-Wed 10 to 5, Thurs and Fri10 to 6, and Saturday 12 to 4
