By Jeff Houghton
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Tactical skills, like other acquired skills, are perishable. If you don’t regularly practice they deteriorate. Most of the skills we acquire are based on a hobby or an area of interest, and the loss of that skill as we develop new interests is a minor consequence. Some skills are developed on top of a natural ability or aptitude and can lead to a career – think professional athlete. The deterioration of skills for the pro athlete will have a serious negative impact on their career.
Why did you develop skills in the tactical arena? Some reading this article developed your tactical skills because it is a part of your vocation, but others are not involved in military or law enforcement careers. Many of us started because it was challenging and a lot of fun. Some started because we were concerned for our safety. Of course the reality is that tactical training is a mixture: it is challenging and fun – and it just might save your life.
Deterioration of tactical skills also has consequences. On the low end of the scale, not keeping up our skills might mean losing a friendly competition. On the high end, however, the consequences can be devastating.
A challenge for us is to keep something important like this (maintaining tactical skills) included in our personal schedule. Life throws a lot of ‘urgent’ things at us, and these urgencies have a tendency to push aside what’s important . Steven Covey calls these ‘important but not urgent’ things Quadrant II activities.
Personally I have had some successes, and several failures, at working to keep my tactical skills up. Here are a few things I have personally seen to be helpful to keeping my skills up. While I wish I could claim these ideas as my own, they came from observing what others were doing and adapting them to fit my life.
One way to approach an area of your life is to ask the basic reporter-type questions of yourself and then write down the answers. I have found this approach to be helpful on several occasions.
Who?
- Who am I training for? Personally I am training for myself – I don’t want to fail in a critical moment. I am also training for my family and friends, and potentially for someone I don’t even know.
- Who do I want to emulate? Is there somebody you aspire to get to their level of ability that can serve as an inspiration to you? Perhaps you could attend a course taught by that person.
- Who should I train with? One of the best motivational methods is to have a training partner or two. They can encourage and critique, and they push you to achieve your best.
What?
- What training do I want to do? You might want to build on your strengths, or you may want to focus on your weaknesses. The point is to have a plan for the training you want to accomplish over the next several time periods – but probably no longer than a year out.
- What else in my life can help me stay sharp tactically? Or said another way, are there other goals that will also help me maintain my tactical skills? For example, maintaining strength and flexibility will allow me to make the movements necessary in a tactical engagement. It will also allow me to push harder and go longer during any tactical training I engage in, helping to maximize my limited time. So in my mind I have additional motivation to stay physically fit to assist in staying tactically sharp, too.
- What equipment / materials do I need to accomplish the training? Are there a few items you need that would make a major difference in your tactical readiness? Where do you get them? How much are they? Do they work as advertised? As I talked with individuals I admire for their shooting abilities, I was amazed at how much time they spend doing dry-fire practice. To help me in this, I acquired a dry-fire training device that emits a pulse of laser-light down the barrel when I squeeze the trigger. This one device has helped me maintain a consistent trigger pull, and I can practice with it virtually anywhere. The one I have is Laser Ammo, and so far I have been very pleased with it.
When?
- How frequently should / can I engage in practice activities? That will be dictated by the type of activity, cost factors, any special training equipment or location requirements, etc.
- Specifically when will you? A technique I have found efficient and effective is to actually write training time into my calendar, whether it is to enroll in a class several months away or to schedule my workout times for the upcoming week.
Where?
- Where will you do these specific types of training? Again there may be specific requirements, such as going to a range to shoot or a gym to workout, but other activities can be accomplished at home. Try to accomplish more than one thing at a time if you can.
Why?
- Why do I want to do this training? We have already listed some of the reasons, but are there others that are personal to you? Can you quantify it as a motivating factor? For example, a photo of your family might be what keeps you motivated.
How?
- How will I accomplish my goals? This is perhaps the single most challenging – and the most rewarding – question of all. This is where your creativity intersects with your unique situation to develop a plan that works for you.
In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t have everything wired up in a nice neat bundle. Life throws curveballs at me just like it does to you. Some of my days/weeks/months are better than others. And no matter how much I do there is always something I could do more. By walking through the above questions a few times each year, I make sure I have a plan to work on and ultimately I have included this important, but not urgent, priority in the mix of other priorities in my life to make sure it isn’t pushed off to the side and left behind.
What about you? What have you found that has helped you maintain your proficiency?
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