Amid the mire of COVID-19 (the Corona Virus), I have been soul-searching for what matters most in life. Judging by the pilfering of the bread aisle and toilet paper from grocery stores, it would seem that many think bathroom visits and toast are essential to human prosperity. The world is watching, waiting to see what … Continue reading Persevering with Patience (Perspective for a Pandemic)
At The Public Medievalist, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne dives deep into the diverse roots of the English language, which “has always been enriched by contact with other languages.” via The English Language Is, and Was, Profoundly Multicultural — Discover
Continuing with a previous post about failure and how it can lead to successes, I want to discuss a book I am reading. For Christmas, I received Ryan Holiday’s “The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Are of Turning Trials into Triumph.” I have been a follower of Holiday’s blog, The Daily Stoic, and I’ve … Continue reading Readings #2: The Obstacle is the Way – The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
A dose of reality from one of the best in the defensive shooting industry. The Tactical Professor always has relevant knowledge from which to learn.
As long as a person can consistently (95% of one shot presentations) hit a target the size of two sheets of paper, stacked in landscape orientation, at four yards, they have the requisite level of marksmanship skill to dominate 99% of personal protection shooting incidents by non-sworn personnel.
That’s not a popular opinion but after studying over 5,000 Armed Citizen incidents, it’s the conclusion I’ve come to. Here is the Male torso hit zone target sheet.
There are other skills that are more important than marksmanship.
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I recently heard Yoda say this on Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery, hmm… but weakness, folly, failure also. Yes: failure, most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Aside from being a martial arts instructor, I run a tutoring center at a college and I also … Continue reading Re-framing Failure: Learning from your losses.
This is a great article about the fallacy of guns (or any weapon) being a magical tool of safety. Training and no weapon is better (and safer) than a weapon and no training.
How many of you just got real pissed at that title? Hahahahahaha I love the internet.
Seriously though…they don’t.
At some point in time we decided that getting a gun created safety. The problem is that there was a HUGE piece of information missing from this thought.
The simple fact that the tool itself doesn’t make you safe, it’s in fact the ability of the user to apply that tool that creates potential for safety. Unfortunately, in most cases, that is not a realization that is widely taken on in the general population.
Can an untrained person defend themselves with a firearm? Certainly. It has happened before and will happen again.
Does that mean, it’s ok to own a firearm with the intent of defending yourself and not train? In my opinion, absolutely not.
Just like cases of people defending themselves with no previous training, there are many cases of…
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“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experience alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.” – Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis
Self-defense trainer and man of letters Greg Ellifritz (Active Response Training) recently wrote an instructive blog post on “Institutional Memory.” It was occasioned by an essay by Chris Cerino (of “Top Shot” fame) titled A Short History Of Pistol Shooting Techniques.
Gratuitous photo of me drinking beer with Chris Cerino at the Wild Beaver Saloon, Indianapolis, IN. Photo by Sandy Yamane
Cerino’s article recalled for Ellifritz a conversation he was having with fellow trainer Tom Givens about how few contemporary gun trainers are “fully aware of the history and evolution of the art.” The “institutional memory” — the collective knowledge and experiences — of the gun training community has been or is being lost.
To wit: Karl Rehn of KR Training has been working hard on a book on the history of handgun training and technique, as well as an historical handguns class, but what he…
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“Pressure is persuasion,” I yelled to one of my students as he tried to pass his opponent’s guard. The tournament official next to me looked at me funny and smiled. “I like that,” he said. Afterward, the official and I had a conversation about persuasion and martial arts. Part of my professional background is in … Continue reading Passing Guard: Pressure is Persuasion
I know it's been a few months since my last post, so I wanted to touch base. I haven't given up opining—quite the contrary. I have had numerous things on my mind lately, much of which I am eager to share with you in the coming months. In my last post, I mentioned that I … Continue reading What I’ve been up to lately.
If you ever wonder what I do when I am not training or waxing philosophical on a mat, here is one thing I do in what little spare time I have: write. If you read this blog, you already knew that. I write for local newspapers and magazines as well as research papers for graduate … Continue reading A Lesson Learned
