Concealed Carry Corner: Training Like You Fight

Welcome back to another edition of Concealed Carry Corner. Last week, I talked about my updated carry guns and why I carry them. If you happened to miss that article, be sure to click on the link here to check it out. This week, it’s all about training like you fight. Understanding the importance of being prepared for any situation that may arise is critical. No matter how well-trained you are, encountering an unexpected scenario can cause hesitation. In such cases, your ability to defend yourself depends on how well you can adapt your skills to the situation at hand. “Skill adaptability” and “automaticity” come into play when you have limited time to act, and the stakes are high. In this article, we will explore the concepts of skill adaptability and automaticity so let’s take a closer look at training like you fight.

Concealed Carry Corner @ TFB:

• Concealed Carry Corner: My Updated Personal Carry
• Concealed Carry Corner: Carry Gun Cleaning and Maintenance
• Concealed Carry Corner: What To Do Around Police
• Concealed Carry Corner: Top Options for Summer Carry

What do I mean when I say “Skill Adaptability”? I’m talking about being able to apply a skill in an unexpected situation. When you’re under stress, your body’s natural response is to revert to learned behaviors. Hence, the more you train and prepare for different scenarios, the more “adaptable” you become. For instance, imagine you go to the range consistently but train to defend yourself against only a single attacker. However, an unfortunate instance occurs to you and you find yourself encountering multiple attackers.

Your ability to adjust your tactics, on the spot, to the new situation, is what sets you up for a higher chance of survivability during an encounter. To develop skill adaptability, it’s important to expose yourself to many different situations in your training and simulate real-life scenarios. This will help you develop a toolbox of skills, so you can adapt to the situation at hand. What are the chances you will run into multiple attackers? Very slim but it’s always good to push your boundaries in a controlled setting rather than facing threats for the first time in a real-world situation.

Now let’s talk about “Automaticity”. Automaticity is a term that I am using to describe the ability to perform a skill without conscious thought. When you’ve trained a skill to a point that it becomes muscle memory, you can perform it automatically without having to think about it. This is especially important in high-stress situations where your brain’s ability to process information is pretty limited. When you’re under such high stress, you may not have time to think about what you need to do. Every second counts. Your body needs to react automatically. This is where automaticity comes into play. By practicing skills repeatedly, you can develop automaticity and increase your ability to react without thinking on the fly.

Training is so crucial to developing skill adaptability and automaticity. It’s not just about mastering a technique, but rather it’s about being able to apply that technique when the situation demands it. Training should be as realistic as you can make it within the realm of safety. When thinking about training, it’s also extremely important to make your training as challenging as possible. These training sessions should simulate real-life scenarios and be based on reality. Doing an IDPA-style drill where you engage 35 targets in a single run isn’t useful in real-world applications. Take the time to think about your routines, and where you spend most of your time. Are you at work surrounded by your coworkers in their cubicles? Do you typically spend your time driving or having to travel a lot? Have you practiced scenarios in your household?

Do you and your loved ones have a plan in place given multiple scenarios in the event of a house intruder? Have you trained for unexpected encounters in these particular areas? You should be. As someone who carries on a daily basis, it’s not enough to just practice standing and shooting at a target, at the range. You need to train for different situations, such as shooting while moving, shooting from a seated position, shooting with your non-dominant hand, and so on. It’s only through relentless training that you can become truly adaptable and automatic in your defense tactics.