THE VALUE OF PRACTICE
Just got back from six days in Tallahassee, five of them at the Pat Thomas law enforcement training center both studying and teaching at the High Liability Instructors Conference, and one day prior shooting the pistol match that was ancillary to the event. Practice was a constant thread that ran through the entire experience.
The two events that kill more cops than anything else are shootouts and car crashes. There was heavy emphasis on preparing for both. When your vehicle is slewing out of control is a lousy time to START getting experience in steering out of a skid. That’s why the $45,000 Skid Car device we mentioned in the last post is absolutely worth its price for training purposes. Training costs are cheaper than death benefits and lifelong Workman’s Comp, and those two things are exactly the stakes on the table. As cops have long said, it’s better to sweat in the training environment than to bleed in the street.
The pistol match kinda brought that home for me, and for the significant other. She’s the current state and regional women’s champion in International Defensive Pistol Association shooting, and being five feet tall, was chosen to teach the bloc for instructors on how to adapt small-handed female officers to full-size issue service pistols. Primarily an auto pistol shooter, she grudgingly practiced with her “old fashioned” Smith & Wesson Model 67 revolver. The practice paid off at the match: she won High Woman in the service revolver category.
I had practiced with her, something I don’t usually have time to do before a match anymore. The practice paid off for me, too. Another truism in law enforcement is that “in a fight, you won’t rise to your greatest possible ability, but will probably default to your training.” This course involved the police B27 silhouette target fired in competition mode, which means that the target is a 2” X 3” oval tie-breaker X-ring, fired at under time constraints from as far as 25 yards. The practice scores were consistently 100% in “qualification mode,” but in the much tougher “competition mode” scoring they ranged from 97.5% to 99.2%. Did I skyrocket with a flash of brilliance and shoot 100% on match day? Hell, no…but I did default to the 97.5% bottom line of performance “on demand,” and that was enough to win the revolver match (S&W Model 64 .38 Special, 4” barrel) and the pistol match (Beretta Model 92 9mm), and take the overall win. For me, practice beforehand hadn’t delivered stellar performance, but it HAD helped to guarantee a safety net where “fallback” wouldn’t fall TOO low.
The lesson is, I guess, that the more you drill with the relevant skill, the more you retain that skill for “on demand” performance. The deposits practice makes in your bank account of what some call “long term muscle memory” give you a balance against which to draw a check when you need to pay out some skill for something important. That’s a check you can’t afford to bounce.
There’s a reason cops practice. It’s the same reason we all should.
Practice target: Gun is S&W Model 64 .38 Special with Craig Spegel “Boot Grips” designed for concealment.
Match day. With Stage 2 of revolver event complete, score is 180-16X out of 180-18X possible, so far. Model 64 is in Ayoob Rear Guard holster by Mitch Rosen, on right hip.
Gail is happy that she has practiced with that old “20th Century gun,” S&W Model 67 tuned by Bill Pfeil with Hogue grips and riding in Milt Sparks #1AT holster.
Practice pays off. Match director Mark Rominger, left, hands Mas a gift certificate for a new S&W pistol, prize for top overall shooter. Score was delivered with Beretta 92 9mm pistol that’s concealed under Mas’ EOTAC lightweight vest.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Congratulations on the wins, and thanks again for the reminder. I can never get enough reminders to go to the range and practice.
October 28th, 2009 at 4:34 am
Congrats on the win. Since shooting’s so much fun why’s it so hard to get to the range? oh yah – work. Damn scourge, this making a living.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:03 am
Congradulations Mas! Both to you and Gail.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
So maybe Gail (or you) can answer this one: which works best for typical woman’s hand for J-frame for CCW: factory grip plus grip filler or the Pachmayr Compac Pro?
October 28th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Thank you Mr Ayoob for being a voice of reason in these anti American and Unpatriotic ban everything times we live in !
Your articals in BHM are informative and eye opening !
Keep up the good work !
Thank you
Tony V
Tilton N.H.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Matt, for my part I leave it up to the individual student, male or female, to determine what best fits their hand and their shooting style.
Gail uses Pachmayr Pro series grips most of the time on her full size Model 67 S&W, but had similar style Hogues on it the day she won the match with it. On her snub, she prefers the Hogues which cover the backstrap and cushion the recoil.
best,
Mas
October 28th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Thanks, Mas.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Thank you for all of the great articles, your excellent books, and your leadership with regard to firearms training.
I recently came across a thread on a gun forum (I don’t believe much of what I read on the Internet, hence my post here asking for your thoughts) that claimed that in general, most police officers don’t practice their shooting much, and offered references to some statistics about apparently low percentage of hits vs. misses for LEOs in real shooting situations. Part of the conversation seemed to imply that many enthusiast civilian gun owners get more range time and practice, and are better shooters than many LEOs.
Not knowing anything about the training regimens at police departments, I was surprised by that, as I would think that shooting practice and related exercises would be a standard training exercise required of all LEOs, and the training given to an officer would generally exceed basic lessons or range time that a civilian would get.
Is there any merit to these comments? Are police budgets being cut to the point where firearms training is insufficient? (or perhaps budgets have always been insufficient for police to get the ideal level of training?) Or is there some other factor that would seem to substantiate those claims?
I don’t have the link to the forum post handy, but can try and find it if you want to read it before offering your thoughts.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Steve, I’m familiar with the argument.
It’s a matter of perspectives. Police executives, and the governmental entities that assign their budgets, know that shootings are relatively uncommon in the scope of everything else that police do day to day . Ammunition, training time, and ranges are all expensive. Thus, firearms training is one of the first things to suffer when money is tight and budgets get cut.
Cop versus armed citizen in skill? I would have to say that the average cop will be a better shot than the average “gun owner,” simply because he is given at least some solid training base and mandated to demonstrate his skill at least sometimes. However, the serious gun enthusiast will outshoot the average cop.
By the same token, the average cop is a better driver than the average motorist: more training, more experience in emergency driving, and in the patrol division, more time behind the wheel. However, your professional or amateur race driver will out-drive the average cop. More dedication, more training, more intense practice time. Same difference.
We also have some superb shooters among the cops. World-class champions like Bob Vogel in IDPA, John Pride and Bruce Piatt in NRA Action Pistol, and Ron Avery in IPSC/USPSA shooting have all given the lie to the old canard that “cops can’t shoot.”
There are some studies that show armed citizens to exhibit a higher hit potential than cops. Part of that is different patterns of encounter. The police officer often has to respond to a crime in progress where the bad guys know he’s coming and are ready to ambush him when he shows up. His targets tend to be dodging, weaving, and often ensconced in motor vehicles. A review of the Armed Citizen column in American Rifleman magazine shows that when the armed citizen fights back, he’s usually very close to a target that has no hard cover, and has the advantage of surprise.
I take the easy answer: find more training and practice time for cops and armed citizens alike!
best,
Mas
November 1st, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Well said,mas.
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Just got & installed Pachmayr Compac Pro on that J-frame and it’s GREAT!