{"id":499,"date":"2009-10-26T01:13:18","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T05:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=499"},"modified":"2009-10-26T01:13:18","modified_gmt":"2009-10-26T05:13:18","slug":"the-value-of-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/the-value-of-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"THE VALUE OF PRACTICE"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 Practice was a constant thread that ran through the entire experience.<\/p>\n

The two events that kill more cops than anything else are shootouts and car crashes.\u00a0 There was heavy emphasis on preparing for both.\u00a0 When your vehicle is slewing out of control is a lousy time to START getting experience in steering out of a skid.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the $45,000 Skid Car device we mentioned in the last post is absolutely worth its price for training purposes.\u00a0 Training costs are cheaper than death benefits and lifelong Workman\u2019s Comp, and those two things are exactly the stakes on the table.\u00a0 As cops have long said, it\u2019s better to sweat in the training environment than to bleed in the street.<\/p>\n

The pistol match kinda brought that home for me, and for the significant other. She\u2019s the current state and regional women\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Primarily an auto pistol shooter, she grudgingly practiced with her \u201cold fashioned\u201d Smith & Wesson Model 67 revolver. The practice paid off at the match: she won High Woman in the service revolver category.<\/p>\n

I had practiced with her, something I don\u2019t usually have time to do before a match anymore. The practice paid off for me, too.\u00a0 Another truism in law enforcement is that \u201cin a fight, you won\u2019t rise to your greatest possible ability, but will probably default to your training.\u201d\u00a0 This course involved the police B27 silhouette target fired in competition mode, which means that the target is a 2\u201d X 3\u201d oval tie-breaker X-ring, fired at under time constraints from as far as 25 yards.\u00a0 The practice scores were consistently 100% in \u201cqualification mode,\u201d but in the much tougher \u201ccompetition mode\u201d scoring they ranged from 97.5% to 99.2%.\u00a0 Did I skyrocket with a flash of brilliance and shoot 100% on match day? Hell, no\u2026but I did default to the 97.5% bottom line of performance \u201con demand,\u201d and that was enough to win the revolver match (S&W Model 64 .38 Special, 4\u201d barrel) and the pistol match (Beretta Model 92 9mm), and take the overall win.\u00a0 For me, practice beforehand hadn\u2019t delivered stellar performance, but it HAD helped to guarantee a safety net where \u201cfallback\u201d wouldn\u2019t fall TOO low.<\/p>\n

The lesson is, I guess, that the more you drill with the relevant skill, the more you retain that skill for \u201con demand\u201d performance. The deposits practice makes in your bank account of what some call \u201clong term muscle memory\u201d give you a balance against which to draw a check when you need to pay out some skill for something important.\u00a0 That\u2019s a check you can\u2019t afford to bounce.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason cops practice. It\u2019s the same reason we all should.<\/p>\n

Practice target: Gun is S&W Model 64 .38 Special with Craig Spegel “Boot Grips” designed for concealment.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"HiLiTarget\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"HiLiMas\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"HiLiGail\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"HiLiCert\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 Practice was a constant thread that ran through the entire experience. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-competition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}