I’ve gotten more than a few calls and messages about last week’s post on Cold Heat. All but one were very positive, which is nice, but never to be expected. Disagreement is a very good way to learn and so I appreciate any dissenting opinions, as long as they are well presented. A few points should be made about this test. It is not the alpha and omega of shooting tests, nor of street-relevant skill. It is a very simple test that can be done every time you train. It is the single most important skill for a person who carries a concealed weapon. That is, you need to be able to access your weapon and get vital zone hits in a street relevant time. Every other gun-related skill comes later.
Running this test (or any other test that purports to be street relevant) when warmed up, completely defeats the purpose and benefit. You can train while warm (there is no choice there really), but you cannot test real-world skills while warm, as you will never be warmed up on the street. This is perhaps the biggest flaw with most of the standards out in the training world. Almost no one does them cold, tests them cold, or even talks about them cold. There is a LARGE difference between what most people can do cold, and what they can do warm. Through good training, you can close the gap between your cold performance and your warm performance, but you can never eliminate it. Most people seem to have no real grasp on what their cold performance is, on anything. This is a huge capabilities gap in an individual’s training.
I originally learned this concept from the martial arts and sports. I’m sure most people knew this back then too, but it seems that almost no one adapted it to shooting. In the firearms field Brian Enos’ was the first to mention it in his groundbreaking book as far as I know. I started training on cold skills in the mid 90’s, thanks to that book. When Todd and I started training together in 2004, he had also been doing similar stuff, and we practiced a version of this at the NRA range, every day we shot together. It was the first thing we did, every time. The distance was a bit longer and the target was usually a bit bigger (though sometimes smaller), but the concept was the same. How many hits can you get in 2 seconds when cold, from a concealed holster? We tracked our cold hits and our warm hits and we saw over time, that while our warm hits got better, our cold hits also got closer to our warm hits.
Since you only have one cold run per day, does that mean you do this once and then move on to something else? No. After my first cold run for record, I continue to do it for the rest of the magazine, and usually another magazine as well. This allows me to practice this important skill, while also showing me what I am capable of when warmed up. As I mentioned, my goal is to close the gap on my warm performance, not necessarily to improve my warm performance.
This is a critical point. Competition-oriented shooters want the highest level of performance possible. 4 hits on something like Cold Heat is ok, 5 is pretty exceptional, but if they can get 6 or 7 when warm, that is what they want. Hopefully, they will get to 8 or 9 even. When warm.
Street-oriented shooters care much less about what they can do at the limit of human performance. They are much more interested in improving their cold abilities. If I can get 5 hits when warm, but only 2 hits when cold, I want to close that gap, not raise the 5 to a 6. By the way, there are far fewer street-oriented shooters out there than you might think. Many shooters say they are, but many are just covering for lower performance. Of the shooters who really are street-oriented, most of them don’t understand how to train for that mission and are trying to use competition training methods to improve their real-world ability.
There are lots of ways to train, and lots of ways to train effectively and I am not saying that the shooters mentioned above are not capable, of whatever mission they choose to be ready for. What I am saying is that neglecting cold ability, misunderstanding its role and relevance to the mission, is a common oversight. Many people lament the good guy hit rate in street fights. Most blame “poor training” or “too little training”. Astute observers understand that it is very difficult to train a nonenthusiast to do anything well, and make no mistake, the vast majority of professional gun carriers and CCW holders are not shooting enthusiasts. I would add to these two points by saying that training on a range, which already has little in common with a street fight, is made even less relevant when you ignore cold performance.
No school I have ever been to has emphasized this. Trainers I have talked to or read have not made this a priority point, with the one notable exception, and he was a competition shooter. Yet, what could be more important than your cold ability?
Finally, Cold Heat is not designed to be a comprehensive test of street ability. There are plenty of other skills that might matter at any given time, and I don’t mean to neglect them. Many fights don’t involve drawing from concealment at all, or not in a hasty way. But, if you need your gun NOW, then meaningful skill starts with a good draw and good vital zone hits. And goes from there.
I’ll be interested to try this when I finally get back to shooting after an embarrassingly long Winter layoff. It will be an extremely cold run.
For years I would start most practice sessions with a cold draw to 3×5 index card @ 7 yards with the setup I was carrying. I expect to put that chambered HST round into the card within 2 seconds. It sounds kind of easy, but it gets harder if you are wearing heavy or unfamiliar clothes, and if you don’t allow yourself to practice indexing your hands on your cover garment or pistol first.
It’s amazing how much easier it is if I allow myself to practice-index my cover garment before shooting the drill, so I started to consider this cheating, like I was gaming the test. I’ve found I need to slow down the ‘clearing cover garment’ part of drawstoke to avoid mishaps on a cold run without first practicing that ‘calibration index’.
Cold Heat probably makes more sense than what I’ve been doing. I’ll probably switch over.
I would have called it Cold Turkey though.
I would never say that a cold hit from concealment on a 3×5 at 7 yards in under 2 secs is easy sounding. Great shooting! Why Cold Turkey?
As I recall, Larry Vickers had an idea that one’s accuracy potential is likely to degrade significantly under duress, perhaps even likely to double in size. I figure my 3×5 @7 on the range is probably less impressive when adjusted for my lack of experience in a serious fight. I hope never to find out.
Regarding Cold Turkey…I guess I’ve just got a thing for Turkey? Cold Turkey, Talking Turkey, a Turkey Shoot, Wild Turkey in a glass- Turkey just seems to have some history- and a ring to it.
Cold Heat is clever though, even if lacks that certain Turkey panache that so lights my fire. To each his own. 🙂
Sounds good, thanks.
SLG, I read you description yesterday and my shooting friends and I tried it today on our weekly practice session. 5 of us, between 67 and 76 years old. 1 passed and I was close at 2.03. It is very clothing dependent. The fellow that passed and I both had heavy jackets zipped up with gloves (it is Wyoming ) The rest had unzipped coats with gloves. My one friend and I carry appendix (ish) the others carry 3 o’clock. What really made a difference for me was using the interview position. When wearing a zipped up coat, I would normally have my right hand staged in my trouser pocket and left hand up. Having to putz with my right hand made me fumble more. Looking forward to our 2 weeks of summer so I can blaze with just a shirt Excellent drill and concept. We’ll use it every week. Thanks, Ed
Hello Wyoming! A state near and dear to us. No doubt, heavy jackets and gloves make things difficult but It sounds like a good showing anyway! No problem with staging in real life if you are able to, just not a part of this particular test. Glad to hear you guys like it, please let me know how it goes over time.
Every time I practice I run a cold test, be it FAST, something related to IPSC, or now, the one in the original article you wrote. I mix it up a lot, everything from concealed (just for giggles really) to unloaded gun, sometimes unloaded gun on table etc. Whatever it is I do, I then run at least 3 runs after, sometimes more, to see just what the difference is between cold and warmed up. Sometimes it’s not a huge difference.
Always a good idea!
Great article. And in complete agreement. And you added a few perspectives to my training philosophy. So thank you for the post. To add a little to what you’re talking about, the best way to improve is to shoot at one’s realistic and repeatable limit, and to slowly push and increase the speed/accuracy while never letting go of the technique in favor of speed. I was guilty of trying to be a speed demon, and not to toot my own horn here, but since I box and am known as a guy with fast hands within my local boxing circuit, a part of me thought I could use my athleticism to help shoot me to the top in a short amount of time, but even athletic ability does not overlap good ol fashioned correctly done techniques with training and drilling. It was actually a rather famous and well known trainer in the shooting community that told me I need to focus on the technique, even if it means slowing down to get the proper grip, draw, hits at first, and THEN I’ll work my way into being fast. Funnily enough, it’s no different than boxing in that regard, but for some reason there’s some kind of mystic wall behind shooting in most people’s minds, when it really is just put in the time, and QUALITY reps.
Absolutely true. We have been preaching slow correct technique as a base for over 20 years now. Most people are unable to slow down enough to get good.
So, I’ll continue to report attempts, even if not quite there yet-2.08 this morning on the indoor range at work. I had done some dry practice the evening before and first thing in the morning, so just have to keep working at it. Really like this for the simplicity if you will.
This AM, I just sat on the sight too long, reconfirming. It also occurred to me that I do a number of par time drills/evals, e.g., the 5 yard roundup, which has a 2.5 second par. Not an excuse; I’m recognizing I should push more to get better-duh.
This run was with an ACRO optic on a G19. I’ll also work with irons too.
Thanks for the motivation!
That’s awesome to hear, thank you for continuing with it. Is your cell the same as it used to be? I’ll give you a buzz tomorrow with a question, if you don’t mind.
Should be, sir. I am doing work around the house and yard, so leave a message if I don’t answer.
I look forward to speaking with you.