WHY MOST TRAINERS MARCH IN LOCK STEP WITH THE PAST.

Why Most Trainers March In Lock Step With The Past.

INTRODUCTION:

An instructor's bona fides and the originality of his material, were brought up and discussed negatively and at considerable length in a recent web thread.

The specifics of the dissing-session will not be detailed here, as they were not the "reason WHY" the attack thread was started in the first place.

That "reason WHY" was recognized by one of the participants, and his posting to the thread, presented a clear picture of it. It is presented here with his OK.

He is a long time shooter, and has attended training classes given by the trainer in question, as well as classes given by other professionals.

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A BACKGROUND NOTE:

The police and military are strict hierarchical organizations that are charged with keeping citizens safe, and the ship of state afloat. And because of the serious nature of their work, little or no variation is allowed in the way things are done.

Their ways and rules of doing things are fixed. And interwoven into them, are the ideals, emotions, and mysteries which are part and parcel of life and death issues. It is their dogma.

And a large proportion of gun trainers come from the police and military ranks, and with them comes that dogma.

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THE REASON WHY

TRADITION Vs. INNOVATION

In TARGET SHOOTING:

1. targets can be shot again and again,

2. different people can be taught in different ways, and

3. their training results can be compared.

Through that process, we can gain statistically significant information about the best techniques of both target shooting and techniques of training target shooters..

With COMBAT SHOOTING we can't do that. We can't shoot enough people under a wide enough range of controlled, but real life conditions, to thoroughly test what works and what does not.

The result is that MISinformation can be and is passed down from generation to generation.

Many trainers claim to have been there, done that, and know all there is to know because they have survived two or three gunfights; but they have little or no comparative knowledge at all.

I have the greatest respect and admiration for our soldiers, Marines, Seals, Rangers, LEOs and other uniformed shooting men, but they tend to be not very innovative or open minded. That is because of the nature of their organizations, and because of the business they are in.

They rely on authority which is not to be questioned. They follow orders rather than relying on logic, rationality, facts and testing.

Many trainers come from such a background, and as a consequence, it can be hard to find a combat shooting trainer, who will not train you in the "bad ideas" that he was trained with himself.

Past dogma becomes the dogma of the present, and the more "Guru like" a trainer is, the more his disciples will accept and defend it. And woe is to any, who does not recite the "true message" and go along with it.

Now and then, a trainer comes along who does not march in lock-step with the past. And who has a new idea or innovation, and is able to present it rationally and convincingly.

In such a case, there is no doubt that he will be attacked as a heretic and treated: 1. like Galileo who was tried and sentenced to house arrest for life for questioning the dogma that the sun revolved around the earth, or 2. like Gioedano Bruno who was burned at the stake on february 17, 1600 for similar thinking, or 3. or at least be the subject of lengthy dissing-sessions on the web.

That is the way it is, in the world of the gun.

And it also follows, that should the trainer prevail, it will not be long before his disciples will defend his way as the new dogma, and in much the same way as did the true believers of the dogma of the past.

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