Even wonder what happens when a former Top Gun instructor turns his attention to practical pistol/CCW skills?
Pk14 from FirearmsTrainingAndTactics.com has begun what will be a multi-part discussion of how he has taken his professional training as both a pilot and instructor and applied it to his personal approach towards mastering the skills associated with carrying a pistol for personal defense.
“As I have come to discover through my own journey to be a better pistol shooter, there are a great many parallels between aircrew learning to employ their aircraft as a weapons system and a shooter learning how to employ a pistol.”
Check it out and take the time to subscribe to Pk14’s thread so you can keep up to date as new chapters get added.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
It will be extremely interesting to hear PK’s take on this. A fighter pilot’s life is training to reflexively perform complex tasks under extreme stress…something anyone who uses a firearm can appreciate.
Todd,
Seems like there’s a lot going on these days with folks committing to training schedules. My goal is to get good/fast enough to meet the pre-reqs for one of your classes. The two main issues I’m confronting are 1) finding an area/range that will allow holsters (I’m in Northern CA) and 2) finding an instructor(s) that can get me from my current level to the desired level. I’ve never had any formal training and it seems as though there are few options between basic pistol safety course and a course like yours. How do I get there from here? Fantastic blog, keep up the excellent work.
Todd,
Another interesting parallel going to other way. I have been training in small arms, armorer, and tactics since around 1993. I’ve also been riding motorcycle that entire time. Recently, in my advancing age, I got into motorcycle street racing. I started doing racing and track schools, and was surprised at how similar learning the safest way to operate supersport motorcycles has tons similarities to military and firearms training.
You might consider reading Keith Code’s “Twist the Wrist, Vol. II.” Skip volume one. It’ll take you about 2 hours to read. But in volume two, Code discovers all of the “Survival Reactions” that people need to overcome to be an effective racer/rider, and how to overcome them (practice, training, fundamentals, etc). The anthropological and psychological parallels (big words for me), really struck me.
A good example is the “Roll on.” When new riders get into a corner too hot, their instinct is to roll off the throttle, or grab brake. When you’re almost always better off increase the throttle at a consistent rate because it maximizes your traction (rear tire, suspension, etc). And the only way to do that is train and train, and due it under stress (which happens quite a lot on a race track).
My weapons training has really helped me enormously to become a better rider on the track. Interesting.