1% Better
One of the ways I encourage shooters to think about practice is this… Get 1% better today.
This is the opposite of what many people do, wanting to obtain massive leaps in their skills and performance in a short span of time.
We see these kinds of massive leaps in classes all the time, but this is in a dedicated space, with hours of work, and an instruction team that helps guide students not only through the process of working, but also coaching students along the way. It can be mentally, emotionally, and physically difficult to replicate this on your own in your safe dry fire space. So, when you’re on your own, work to get just 1% better today, every day you can.
Here’s an example:
If your current draw time is 1.5 seconds from concealment, try to get 10 in a row at 1.4. I know the math doesn’t work on that one, but it’s all about setting realistic, repeatable, and rejuvenating goals.
Realistic - if you’ve got a consistent 1.5 DTFS, you can, with a little shift in thinking and strategy in your motion, 1.4 is entirely doable.
Repeatable - it’s not such a huge leap that you cannot do it 10 times consecutively once you’ve reached that goal.
Rejuvenating - it’s a huge leap in confidence to set a goal and meet it, and know that you accomplished it!
Don’t try to conquer the world today, just get one percent better. Imagine where you might be if you can string 10 days of this in a row, or 20, or 30! Make your goal today to have a realistic, repeatable, and rejuvenating goal, and then watch what happens in your head, heart, and body as you achieve it!
Questions I Wish You’d Ask: How Good Do I Need To Be?
The answer sounds simple, but it’s not. The answer is that I can never be good enough at fighting to save my life and the lives of those I love enough to protect.
The answer sounds simple, but it’s not. The answer is that I can never be good enough at fighting to save my life and the lives of those I love enough to protect.
A principle that gets talked about often in the defensive community is that I won’t know the place or the time of my defensive encounter until it begins to unfold, and in the same way, I will not be able to predict or assess the skill level of the attacker until the attack has initiated.
Let’s make this personal.
How fast do YOU want to be able to respond to a deadly threat on your life or the life of someone you love enough to protect? Would you rather respond in the beginning, middle, or end of the attack? What kind of subconscious competencies do you need to possess in order to be able to respond in the timeframe that you just thought about?
If you can identify the skills subconscious competencies that you feel the need to possess, there’s another hard question I need to ask. When was the last time you trained, tested, and timed that skillset? Do you have it on video so that you can analyze your skills for your own improvement? Is there a subjective measurement to it in terms of speed, accuracy, strength, or skill?
A phrase that I picked up somewhere that I appreciate and use often is that “we are always training, but we are never trained.” I tell my students to train to be better than yesterday, and not as good as tomorrow. If that’s a principle that gets understood and lived in your life, then you are setting yourself on a path that will lead you in the direction that you want to be.
Lastly, I believe that the greatest motivator in all of this is love. Who do I love enough to protect? My first thoughts go to my wife and children. There’s plenty of other people I would choose to protect with my life, but for the sake of this writing, I’ll just keep it about my wife and kids. I love my wife and kids SO much that I would do just about anything in order to keep them from harm. In that same line of thinking, that also means that I will not allow anyone to take my wife’s husband from her. I will not allow anyone to take my children’s father away from them. Love always protects. (More on that in a future article).
When assessing how good you need to be at this, spend some time thinking this through, and perhaps even write down some of your thoughts. It’s a great question because the answers to it are deeply motivating.
The Nine Worst Holsters
It’s time to talk about holsters. There are nine holsters that are the worst ones on the planet, and here they are:
1. The holster that doesn’t cover the trigger guard.
A good holster will cover the entire trigger guard, so that nothing can get inside the trigger guard while the firearm is in the holster. Many holster manufacturers will skimp in this part of the design, allowing some of the space behind the trigger to be exposed. This is dangerous, cheap, and not worth carrying. This is especially true of those who carry striker-fired handguns. A good holster will cover the entire trigger guard.
2. The holster that doesn’t provide a full firing grip.
A good holster will allow you to get a full firing grip with your strong hand even while the firearm is fully seated in it. You should be able to draw the firearm with the exact same grip as when you are indexed on target. If your holster doesn’t allow a full grip, it’s time to buy a new one. I’ve seen way to many students show up to courses with holsters that force them to draw with one grip, transition to another grip, and then finally find their shooting grip. It’s not only slow to draw, it’s also horribly unsafe. Make sure you can achieve a full firing grip while the handgun is in the holster.
3. The holster that doesn’t retain the firearm. Our friends at Phslter have a wonderful resource to help you learn more about this. CLICK HERE to read it!
4. The holster made of nylon.
Friends don’t let friends carry nylon holsters. There are many brands that create this type of holster, and all of them suck. All of them. The list is almost endless as to why, but here’s a few examples I’ve seen firsthand. I have seen nylon holsters shake completely loose from their belt mount, meaning that the belt clip stayed on the shooter’s belt, but the entire holster and the handgun inside it fell freely to the ground. I’ve seen shooters struggle to draw because the front sight gets snagged inside the holster on - you guessed it - the nylon! Friends don’t let friends carry nylon holsters.
5. The holster that has a “gun list”.
If you are looking at a holster, especially one sold at a big-box retailer like Bass Pro Shops, and it gives you a list of all the different gun models it will fit, run away quickly. This means that this holster is cheaply made, not formed to your handgun, and will certainly not provide quality performance. You’re not buying a T-shirt, so avoid ANY holster that comes in sizes S, M, L, and XL. (Author’s edit: this does not include the Safariland GLS, or solid holsters like PHLster Floodlight. This is way more about cheap one-size-fits-all options that should never be considered)
6. The “Flip Flop Gun Bucket”
The “Flip Flop Gun Bucket” has a piece of leather or neoprene that WILL become soft and flexible over time, essentially becoming a worn-in flip flop. Attached to this flip flop is a gun bucket. It’s one-third of a kydex holster, or what I call a “gun bucket”. The most common name for this kind of holster is a hybrid holster. Most hybrid holster manufacturers break the second and third rule of this post. Most of them will not cover the entire trigger guard, and they will not retain the firearm. Another HUGE safety risk here is that most hybrid holster wearers wind up pointing a loaded gun at themselves as they put the handgun into the holster. This happens because the flip flop gets in the way of the gun bucket. Avoid these types of non-holsters.
7. The Blackhawk SERPA
Much as already been written on this. Greg Ellifritz from Active Response Training has complied an excellent resource on this that you can find here: https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/the-serpa-compendium
8. Anything with the words “Urban Carry” on it.
The Urban Carry holster is a colossal failure. Their IWB leather folding satchel demands a two-hand draw, and their newly released OWB leather holster has a retention device inside the trigger guard (no, I’m not joking). DO NOT use these products.
9. The “I Don’t Train” Strong-Side Magazine Combo
A great way to prove to the world that you don’t train with your handgun is to have a strong-side holster that also has a spare mag pouch attached to it. That’s not how it works, and anyone who has taken a fundamental handgun course knows this. If you choose to carry strong side, and you choose to carry a spare mag, make sure your spare mag is accessible by your support hand.
Your holster is your choice, but make it an educated choice.
Cue the “it works for me” crowd in the comments.
The Three Worst Carry Guns
There are many handguns out there, and we are living in the golden age of polymer framed, striker-fired handguns. There are so many options, many of them good, and most of them are all designed to perform the same basic function in the same basic ways. Certainly, each manufacturer puts their own little twist on the appearance of their product, but on the inside, many of them are fairly identical.
There are, however, three commonly carried handguns that are the absolute WORST to carry on a daily basis, and but they might not be what you think. Leave a comment on what you think of this list!
1. The handgun you don’t dry fire with.
Dry fire is a method of practicing fundamentals without using any ammunition whatsoever. First, clear your handgun of any live ammunition, and then going an extra step for training your mind for safety, and move to a room where there is zero live ammunition. With your cleared firearm, you can now practice many things like trigger discipline, sight picture, drawing from the holster, and many other fundamentals with your handgun.
Here are some phenomenal resources if you’re new to dry-firing that can help you get started:
Active Self Protection’s John Correia on Dry Fire Basics
Refinement and Repetition, by Steve Anderson
2. The handgun you don’t train with from the holster.
How fast can you defeat concealment, draw your handgun, acquire a solid grip, and put four shots into the “A Zone” of a target at 7 yards or greater? Don’t guess. Many of us assume we’re faster than we really are. Take a course and find out. Get some solid training from a reputable instructor on how to be smooth and efficient in your presentation of the firearm from the holster you actually use. If you don’t regularly train from the holster, how do you know what you’re capable of - and often more importantly - what you’re NOT capable of?
Sign up. Take a course. The biggest reason most people don’t take courses like these is pride. They assume they’ll know what to do and how to do it when the time comes. Don’t gamble your self-defense on your educated guess, and don’t let your pride keep you from stepping out and getting training. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest and want to learn how to do this well, check out our Level 3: Concealed Carry Course.
3. The handgun you haven’t tested your carry ammo in.
I often have students come to the firing line who have never fired a single round of the defensive ammunition they carry in their firearm. They have no idea what the recoil might be like, what their accuracy is like, or whether or not their handgun will feed it well. It’s worth the time and investment to run a box of your carry ammo through your handgun.
What do you think of this list? Leave a comment and let’s talk!
5 Lies You Might Believe…
We all do it… so here are just some in regards to training:
1. Standing still and shooting at static targets prepares me to defend myself.
Let’s be really, really clear on this. Standing still and shooting at static targets is fun. It’s a great way to start, and a useful method of checking fundamentals and equipment. It is not, however, a useful metric for preparedness to defend yourself. In a defensive encounter, the person(s) attacking you will certainly be in motion, and that changes… EVERYTHING.
Don’t fall victim to the lie that going to a gun range and putting rounds on paper in a sterile environment is actual training. Seek out courses beyond watching social media posts and videos. Get time in with your handgun under instruction and find out what you can and cannot do.
2. I can assume that the best possible scenarios will happen to me.
One of the things I see often as an instructor is that many people assume that on the worst day of their life, the best possible circumstances will unfurl in front of their eyes. I have actually heard students at the beginning of a course declare their confidence that the person attacking them will be unarmed. This is but one example of many ways that citizen defenders believe a lie that says that as an armed citizen, you will always have the upper hand. As a starting point, what would you do if your dominant hand were injured, bloodied, or being used to keep a loved one safe? Start there - and keep thinking.
3. My handgun is a magic wand.
Drawing a firearm can invite more conflict, stress, and sense of endangerment to bystanders, and to you as a defender. Being able to produce a firearm does not make you a wizard with a magic wand. Your firearm possesses zero magical abilities to control anyone’s behavior. The only factor that has the greatest chance of impacting the outcome of your defensive encounter is your mindset. Are you prepared with a plan? If that plan fails do you have another one?
4. I’ll have time to chamber a round.
I won’t waste much time on this, but chances are no, you will not. John Correia from Active Self Protection says it best - if you carry without a round in the chamber, you are choosing to start your defensive encounter with a malfunction clearance. Simply put, planning on having both the time AND the ability to chamber a round in time to defend yourself is putting yourself at risk.
5. The most important feature of a defensive handgun is being small for concealment.
Should you face a situation where you need your handgun, the moment you put into action, the only feature you will want is CAPABILITY. Sure, small size can make for easier concealment, but I strongly encourage you to consider that we don’t buy handguns to be able to conceal them. Rather, we conceal handguns so that we can use them to defend ourselves on the worst day of our lives. To be able to defend ourselves, we need to have tools that work best under less-than-ideal scenarios.
A longer barrel means more accuracy and a greater sight radius. A wider, longer grip can mean better control when our fine motor skills are diminished by stress. Instead of thinking about less capacity for concealment sake, try considering each round as another opportunity to defend yourself and those you love. Get the handgun you’d actually want to have with you to defend yourself, and then figure out a way to carry it. A great source for carry gear that I personally use is Tucker Gun Leather.
What are some of the other lies that you think folks believe about concealed carry? Leave a comment, and let’s talk more.