Are you really prepared?
“Be prepared for the fight always and in all ways!” That’s the tag line of Reticent Warrior Tactics because you never know who will attack you, when it will happen, where it will take place, how they will do it, what weapon(s) they will use or why they chose you. If you are attacked, the time for preparation is over! Either you are ready and able to protect yourself and your family or you are not. There is NO middle ground and NO do overs. So, in simple terms, here is the question you must answer right now, in this moment. Are you ready? Are you truly prepared to protect yourself and your family today in this moment? Before you shout out your answer, let’s talk about what most people say about this and then we’ll see what being prepared really looks like.
I have a concealed carry pistol and I go to the range regularly so I’m ready. Actually, you are probably not ready or well prepared. Over and over I have students come to the range for a class thinking they are ready. Many inquired about going into an advanced class and skipping our Fundamentals class but that is almost always a bad idea. Usually after the very first cold standard shooting drill, they quickly realize that their skills are severely lacking and how much they actually need the training. Honestly, this is what our cold standard drill is designed to do. It shows you what happens to your previous training and experience under time constraints and a little peer pressure. In the past five years I’ve had three students or less perform well on our cold standard drill. This includes military, law enforcement, security specialist, martial artists and armed citizens. Of the few students who have performed well, I can remember two. One was a young, fit, active duty, highly elite Special Forces soldier and the other was a young, fit, high level firearms and tactical trainer who was an active duty police officer and SWAT team member. So, where does that leave you?
I did Martial Arts when I was younger so I know how to fight and defend myself. While you may be able to kick and punch better than the average guy, you are probably not prepared. Unfortunately, many Martial Arts instructors don’t really know or understand real-world self-defense. They don’t know self-defense law or the elements that must be present for you to actually use self-defense or deadly force. Many have never even been in a real fight (at least since high school) and very, very few have been in a deadly force encounter such as a gun fight or fought against an armed attacker who was trying to kill them. Don’t misunderstand, I love the Martial Arts and have lots of respect for those who have become instructors or coaches and dedicated their lives to helping and teaching others but…. they can’t give you what they don’t have. This very likely means you don’t have it either. Let’s be honest, asking a martial artist if his style is good for self-defense is like asking a dog if he’s hungry. Most martial arts are not complete. They are good at one thing and don’t even address others. Karate and Taekwondo are great at kicking and punching but lack grappling and ground fighting. Muay Thai is great for striking, especially in clinch range but has no ground defense. Boxing is great for punching and hand speed but leaves out everything else. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is great at grappling on the ground and submitting but has no striking or weapons defense. Judo is great for clinching and throwing your opponent to the ground but again lacks strikes and weapon defenses. Krav Maga is one of the few that attempts to put it all together but even it can be lacking depending on the instructor. Unfortunately, there are a lot of martial arts schools and instructors that are just not very good or have little to no real-world experience.
As you can see, being prepared involves so much more than carrying a handgun or training martial arts. At Reticent Warrior, we believe you must be prepared Mentally, Physically and Spiritually. Mental preparedness just like physical means training under pressure and developing a warrior mindset which is the ability to remain calm in the storm. It’s not “what” to think but more on “how” to think. Physical is more than training to kick, punch or grapple. How strong are you? How good is your cardio? How flexible and mobile are you? Most people can’t fight with all they have for 60 seconds before they are ready to puke and quit! Spiritual preparedness involves a few very deep and very important questions that you must answer. Is there a God? What happens when you die? Is it moral to kill another person in self-defense and could you really do that? I’m happy to share my faith and my journey if you are interested but this is not about me, it’s about you. You must settle what you believe in your heart and you must do it soon because tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us. Those three areas could fill multiple newsletter pages if not a book but since we are focusing more on the physical skills in this edition, we’ll discuss those. Having a pistol doesn’t make you prepared to protect yourself any more than sitting in your garage makes you a car. You must do more than just go to the range and shoot. You must train the things that are important in the context of real-world self-defense.
In order to be prepared for a real-world attack, you must train to develop a fast draw from concealment immediately followed by getting multiple shots on target quickly and accurately. Speed and accuracy are always in direct opposition with each other. The faster you shoot, the less accurate you become and the slower you shoot the more accurate you become. You must be able to access your weapon when fighting an opponent who is bigger, stronger, faster and intent on harming you. It generally takes an experienced instructor or coach to help you with this. Then, you need lots of correct reps under time and under pressure. After that, you can start training on your own to hone these skills.
As you can see, a single martial art is rarely enough. You must train in striking, escapes, standup grappling, take-downs, ground fighting plus weapon defense and deployment. We teach Krav Maga and Integrated Survival Combatives (ISC) Fighting Pistol to meet this need. You don’t need a black belt in multiple martial arts but you do need to be competent in each of those seven areas. Even if you become proficient in those areas and well-trained with your pistol, that’s still not enough. You must learn to see danger before it happens and then avoid it when possible.
Situational Awareness are big buzz words in the self-defense industry but few really understand what they mean. You can’t walk around with your head on a swivel all the time. If you try, people will think you are weird and your family and friends will become annoyed with your behavior. No one outside of the fictional characters of James Bond and Mission Impossible’s Ethan Hunt can see and remember everything in their environment anyway. The rest of us without a genius level IQ’s and a photographic memory must rely on other tools. We must learn to recognize baselines and anomalies in our environment in order to see danger and respond to it before it happens but that too is another topic for another time.
Unfortunately, many people come to us to train and prepare after something bad has already happened. Please don’t wait, get trained and get prepared. We hope you never need what we teach but hope is not a plan or a strategy. Our training helps prepare you for what will likely be the worst day of your life. Our goal is to help you survive and thrive before, during and after.