Fortune Favors the Foolish

By Cori Tyler

I have a confession to make.  I’m sure it’s not going to be a huge surprise.  In fact, I’m betting many of you are in the same boat as me.  I’m not even ashamed a little bit by this either.  In fact, I think this is a sign of strength of character.  OK.  Here goes.

I love the “Die Hard” movies!  Even in their most ridiculous moments, John McClain is just about the most awesome hero to hit the screen.  I think the only way to make him cooler would be to find a way for John Wayne and Clint Eastwood to play roles in his movies.  Imagine the full spectrum from old-school to irreverent they’d all cover.  It would be gloriously majestic.

Now, I’m actually headed in a moderately constructive direction with my ramblings this time around.  At least I sure hope you’ll find it constructive.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a big fan of being prepared.  I believe in training for a lot of “what-if” scenarios.  Now, I consider myself to be a pretty normal, average kind of guy.  I don’t think I’m anything extraordinary in either direction (crazy or possessing of immense foresight).  Still, I’m reasonably prepared.  And, I’ve never found myself in one of the extraordinary situations that Detective McClain encounters every few years or so.

Soooo, here’s what’s stuck in my socks tonight:  John McClain said it himself in the second movie; the one where he was shooting the poo out of Dulles International Airport.  He asked the question we’ve all asked so many times before in these movies.  How can one guy have the same stuff happening to him time and again?  I think I’d like to add to that.  Hold this thought, while I go off on another tangent.

I just read an article the other day, interviewing a cop who survived a gunfight by the skin of his teeth.  It involved multiple adversaries, with more firepower, as I recall.  I don’t remember if he ran out of ammo, or was just about out of ammo.  What I DO remember is that he now carries roughly a gazillion rounds of spare ammo, in magazines, on every shift.  About half of them are on him, the other half in his squad bag.  He said he’ll never be faced with the problem of insufficient ammo again.

The shootings at Columbine taught law enforcement a costly lesson.  That day, the whole profession learned that responders cannot just set a perimeter and wait out the bad guys.  The doctrine since:  run to the sounds of guns and stop the chaos.  Now, it isn’t even about waiting for SWAT, waiting for EMS, or waiting for command.  The first on-scene runs to where the bad guys are shooting in hope of using their own shots to stop the chaos; minimize loss of life.

The thing is we humans tend to learn from our weaknesses, shortcomings, and mistakes.  So, much as I love John freakin’ McClain, I have to acknowledge how Hollywood apparently wants us to all believe he’s just a complete moron.  I was watching the one where he’s trying to stop a hacker, played by Timothy Oliphant, from destroying the country.  I mean, after all he’s been through, I watched him tonight still carrying his Beretta 92, with two spare magazines.

He’s on duty, picking up a witness for transport, and gets shot at.  No portable radio on him.  He doesn’t use his phone, or find any other way to call for backup until he’s killed most of those bad guys and escaped.  AND HE STILL DOESN’T WEAR A BALLISTIC VEST!!!  I mean, by this time, he’s been shot . . . let’s see . . . one . . . two . . . three . . . maybe even four or five times BEFORE this movie and doesn’t think a vest is prudent?  He doesn’t have a trauma kit, either?

Let’s think about this a minute.  Our motto at LLDT is “Preparation is Survival.”  We didn’t just barf those words out when we started the company.  We put a lot of thought and discussion into what we wanted to represent our mindset as individual instructors, and as a company.  There’s a saying that it’s better to be lucky than good.  Still, luck runs out.  If you’re well-prepared AND lucky, you’ve got a much better chance at sticking around past that point.  With absolutely no preparation, it’s pretty farfetched that even John McClain can prevail.

Of course, how much fun would the movie be if the first action scene involved John calling for backup and responding officers taking all bad guys into custody, to interview them and investigate the leads that would take them to the main bad guy before he can perform his dastardly deed?  Not much at all.  Instead, McClain HAS to be an idiot who, despite his repeated adventures, is always caught unprepared.

I, for one, think I’m going to have to live a much duller life than John McClain.  I choose preparation instead.

It's All So Serious, Right?

By Cori Tyler

Think about the worst training you've ever been to.  I mean the most tedious, boring, and unproductive.  The kind where you just wished, minutes into the course, that you could use yourself to practice treating sucking chest wounds, or something - anything - more interesting that what you're doing.  Right.  Freaking.  Now.

Hopefully, I wasn't teaching that class.  I've taught some snoozers over the years, but I try to throw something interesting into everything.  Sadly, I've attended those classes, too.  There are always certain facets of those classes that are pretty identifiable.  Do any of these sound familiar?

1. An instructor who takes their self WAAAYYYYY too seriously.
2. A course that was clearly created by lawyers for no reason other than to protect an employer from liability.
3. A course with no purpose other than political correctness.

Now, compare that with the best training you've had.  You probably enjoyed it, felt challenged, and had fun.  Even if it was a somber, serious subject, you probably had a good time.  Am I right?

Let's look at self-defense training.  It might be your passion.  You might find a good time in the most monotonous, basic, repetition-driven classes out there.  Good for you!  I might fall into that category, too.  If you aren't in that category, I think there's hope for you, too.  Follow me on this wonderful tangent.

I just attended Outbreak:  Omega 6 this past weekend.  It's a kind of three-gun match, where there is no score kept, and where each stage is a scenario related to a zombie apocalypse.  Like a bunch of fools, geeks, or whatever you want to call us, a bunch of grown adults dress up, gear up, and get all psyched up to shoot zombies.  Some more than others.  This is our group.  Believe me.  Some folks blew away anything you see here that might seem a bit extreme.

LLDT is ready for the zombies!

We had a fantastic time!  We camped, smoked some ribs, sweated, hydrated, got eaten by the Unofficial Minnesota State Bird, 

 

and had an all around great weekend.  There was even a free AR15 taken home!

My point, he said as he arrived back in the original conversation, is that we went there solely to have a good time.  All the zombie preparation, and such being the theme of the shoot - our goal was to have a blast.  Even so, the best training is fun, right?  Let's look at what kind of training we might actually have taken away from the weekend.

Every round fired was an exercise in fundamentals, whether front-sight, breathe, press, or point and squeeze.  There were transitions between weapons, reloads, and sadly some malfunction drills.  That's right.  Some of us discovered bugs in our equipment.  We also experienced stress, whether due to the scenario's design, ranger officers' participation, cheers and jeers of friends, or just not wanting to look like fools.

There was use of cover and concealment, communication with a partner, movement, and situational awareness was a must just for safety's sake.  We also learned about how clothing impacts the ability to move.  Ask that guy in the kilt how going prone, or climbing high stairs at steep angles was.  I'm here to tell you, being as it was a family-friendly environment, it wasn't something in the realm of possibility.

Imagine.  We just set out to have a great time.  Which, we definitely did.  Completely by accident, we ended up getting in some decent training in the whole process.  What kinds of events might you be able to find training value in?

You May Not Know It, But I Am NOT Operator-As-Fuck

by Cori Tyler

I think each of us that puts some thought into protecting what we hold dear tend to periodically take stock of how we’re doing.  If I’m wrong, then I’ll just talk about me, because I definitely do a periodic inventory.  I mean looking at skills training, equipment, and what they’re all needed for.

Like so many people, I need more training.  Don’t get me wrong.  I do OK, and I’ve been lucky enough to soak in some very outstanding training from some great instructors.  Still, I often find myself looking at what’s available, and dreaming about what I’d like to learn, or who I’d like to teach it to me.  This is where the conundrum I want to talk about comes into play.

Sure, I want to keep a measure of preparedness for the worst-case scenarios on a global scale.  Nothing is impossible.  I plan for my family and friends to still be around when the zombies come, and flourishing in a safe and secure place.  That being said, it’s probably a safe bet that I have a greater chance of running afoul of a mugger, or a home invasion robbery, than a ghoul that’s craving my brain.

By the same token, I don’t see a lot of door kicking, flash-bang tossing, dynamic entries in my future.  It isn’t a need I have.

I’ve done that training.  I’ll be the first to admit.  IT’S A FREAKIN’ BLAST!!!  When I did it, I was working at a career goal specifically satisfied by that training.

That’s not where my needs are, today.

If we all take a look around the internet, there are trainers coming out of the woodwork whose videos feature shooters with helmets, vests, plate carriers, thigh holsters, bloused fatigue pants, and just about every other tacticool thing in existence to show us all what a bunch of badass, high-speed warrior-killers they are, and by extension, will transform anyone awesome enough to complete their course into as well.

Let me be clear.  Those guys are cool (the ones who are the real deal).  Their skills are cool.  The ones who we’ll never know or hear of, who do that kind of stuff every day?  Yep, they’re pretty cool, too.  I’m in awe of, and gratitude to, such people.  Thank God for spec-ops.

Also, their gear is cool, and fun to play with.  I have a Kevlar helmet.  It’s a souvenir from some of the aforementioned training.  I have a tac vest.  Know what?  It has nothing to do with duty.  Might it be handy if the world goes nutso and I have to be a Minuteman?  Sure.  And, I may or may not have used exactly that justification for keeping it set up.  The bigger truth is; it’s a handy way to carry a lot of crap for when I want to shoot a lot of rounds.  It looks pretty cool, too.

I’ve worn it at the range a few times.  Mostly, and the initial reason I bought it, it was for wearing at a fun shoot:  Outbreak:  Omega 5 in 2012.  O:O6 is happening this June.  You guessed it.  I’m dusting off the tac vest for that.  Like I said, it looks cool, and carries a lot of crap for when I want to shoot a lot, which I intend to do at the dozens of scenarios at Outbreak.

So, it could be that I’m basically doing zombie apocalypse cos-play.  It could also be there are a lot of practical uses for this gear.  The vest is a convenient, easy way to carry some heavy stuff.  It’s also got cool Velcro panels for some of my sweet patches.  When I gear up with it, weapons, magazines, a Camelbak, and whatever else goes along with it, I feel like I’m awful damn prepared.  It doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the daily risks I actually want to be ready for.

You’ll probably notice a similar theme with the classes our organization teaches.  We aren’t training spec-ops warriors.  We’re teaching people to defend themselves in their boring daily lives, in case they should find themselves suddenly in much less boring circumstances.  So, I’m not, and we won’t teach you to be, “operator-as-fuck.”

We will train ourselves, and our students, to be “lawfully-armed citizen going through daily life-as-fuck.”  That’s the stuff that we see in our daily lives, and that’s the stuff many people seem to forget to study in their own training.  So, if you find yourself looking at what you’ve learned, what you want to learn, or what you see a need to learn, ask yourself how it might be useful to you today or tomorrow.

There’s nothing wrong with having a good time with the other stuff.  Learning it is fun!  Using the gear is great.  The nice thing about shooting is, you can make it into whatever you want it to be, on any given day.  That’s why I know people who are cowboys on one day, high-powered rifle competitors on another, police officers another, and zombie hunters right alongside me another.

Enjoy yourself.  Just don’t kid yourself if you’re training at something for fun, that it’s something else.  Enjoy it.  If you find something in it that applies to your actual needs, throw it into your toolbox.  If you don’t, just have a good time anyway!

Well-Rounded Training

 . . . by Cori Tyler

Why do you train?  I'm sure you've likely put some thought into that question.  Right?  Right?  Sure you have!

If you're like me, you train to defend the people, places, and things dearest to your heart.  In fact, most of the worst case scenarios I can imagine involve a threat to my family or friends.  I work to be effective in defensive skills, whether with a firearm or unarmed combatives, or any number of other possible weapons I might find in between.  Hopefully, if the moment comes that I have to use the skills I learned, I'm good enough to win.  I intend to be.

Of course, when we talk about defensive skills, combatives, weapons, or attackers, we're talking about an outcome where someone ends up hurt.  There's even a real chance someone might end up dead.  That's why this is such a serious topic.  We train to hurt or kill people if it becomes necessary.  The alternative is we let them hurt or kill us, or even worse, someone else we'd protect.

For non-self-defense-types, this is where they lost interest.  How could anyone in their right mind want to prepare to injure or kill someone?  What kind of person would even open themselves up to that possibility?  Didn't our mommies, the Bible, or any number of other potential sources of morality instruction impart that little tidbit on us?

I know I learned "Thou shalt not kill" from an early age.  Of course, being curious and hungry to keep learning, I looked beyond that initial learning to find there were a lot of exceptions.  Soldiers in battle, peace officers in the righteous course of duty, and those defending what they love all appear to be allowed to kill, when necessary.  So, it seems the more complete iteration might be "Thou shalt not MURDER."

We don't look to kill, or even injure someone else.  We acknowledge that another's actions might not leave us with a choice.  In preparing, we've likely drawn that line where acceptability ends for us.  It's a good bet we can all envision scenarios that really come close to that line, or blur it quite a bit.

How about injuring someone?

Are you prepared to break an assailant's arm, leg, fingers, elbow, etc?

How else can you prepare?

My first foray as a training instructor was through the American Red Cross - great organization, by the way.  Their training and assistance programs do countless good things every single day.  As a First Aid/CPR/AED instructor, I taught correctional staff how to assist someone having a medical emergency.  I had students who used their skills at work, and even more who used them outside of work, on family members.

When I first became a Defensive Tactics instructor in the same place, I jokingly described my instruction as the total skills package.  I could teach you how to break 'em and how to put 'em back together.  Part of that characterization also came from the fact that, at that time, those two skills categories were pretty much all we got for in-service training.  So, I taught the total annual offering.

Time marched on, my career grew, changed, progressed – in step with the rest of my life.  I continued acquiring and polishing skills wherever I could.  Something I’ve added along the way, originally out of necessity but maintained out of personal desire to keep those skills, was certification as an EMT.

The joking from years ago comes back to me more often now, except there’s some truth that rings through a lot more.  To an extent, I really do know, and teach others, how to break ‘em and how to put ‘em back together.

No, I’m not a doctor.  Nor am I a hardened killer.

I guess I’m trying to speak more to things that I think are important to consider for a well-rounded set of skills.  I think if I’m doing all this training, studying, contemplating, learning, and improving my abilities in self-defense, I have to balance it.  I have to be able to render aid of a type other than use-of-force.

Realistically, most people are likely to use medical skills more often than self-defense skills.  People get hurt in accidents, get sick, and have other medical needs all the time.  Knowing how to deal with those things is important.

Even the most skilled fighters get hit.  If you have to defend yourself, your chances of being injured are better than average.  If you’re shot, you might have to stop bleeding, while continuing the fight.  You may have won the fight, but found yourself cut deeply, or suffering any other significant injury.  You need to be able to provide care for your injuries to truly survive.

Now, it gets surreal . . .

Fact is, if you have to defend yourself physically, you may face the ironic perspective of being the one to provide medical aid to your attacker.  If you knock someone out, you may have to protect their spine and head from injury.  If you break one of their bones, you may have to splint it.  If you shoot them, you may have to try to control the bleeding.

I’m not talking about being soft on the bad guy.  I’m talking about being the good guy in every aspect.  Not only is it important for your humanity to assist where you can, but imagine the difference when you have to explain your actions in court.  It sounds terrible, but it’s much better for you in that analysis if the bad guy died in spite of your best lifesaving efforts than if they died abandoned in the street, where you shot them.

Does this mean I think everyone should be an EMT?  Nope.  I think if you are going to be a serious student of self-defense, you should also prepare to address the consequences of defending yourself.  You should be prepared to help everyone survive the fight that can, after the conflict is resolved.

Freedom and Power

 . . . by Cori Tyler

I haven't gone on a rant for a little while, so why not start now?  I figure I'll throw one of the unspeakable topics out there.  Sort of.

Though we're a training organization, politics affects us.  Of course, it affects all of us, but since we particularly work with an area that is always contentious, firearms and self-defense, often the fighting and bickering hits us pretty close to home.  Chances are, if you're reading our blog, I don't really need to preach about those topics, or specifically I can't likely give you a whole lot of food for thought that isn't already in your own head.

I want to instead go with something else.  Voting.

Is there a more taboo subject in the taboo of discussing politics than voting?  I don't think so.  Everyone seems to want to tell anyone who will listen how they should vote.  Well, I'm trying to avoid doing any such thing.  I think the liberty to vote for the candidate of your choice is one of the many great freedoms we have here.  My interest here is in getting everyone to appreciate what that means.

You get to put your choice in writing at every election.  Every single one!

I think a lot of people have watered down the importance and strength of each vote.  How many times do you hear someone say if you don't vote for the big two candidates, you're wasting your vote?  "They", whoever "they" are, tell you that any other choice takes votes away from someone who actually has a chance at winning.

Think about that a minute.

Why would they actually have a chance at winning?

It's our votes.  They only win if enough of us vote for them.  Yet, every election, I hear people talking about choosing what they saw as the lesser of two evils.  If you really didn't want them in office, why in the sweet, blue monkey crap did you vote for them?

See, this two party bullshit is a self-fullfilling, defeatist prophecy.  People pick the lesser of two evils because they want a guarantee they're voting for a winner.  Of course, this only solidifies the hold a bunch of jackasses (whether shaped like donkeys or elephants) have on government, and our nation.  At this point, all they want is to grow and solidify their power bases, and wealth.  None of the ideology matters to them anymore.

Want to know the real difference between Democrat and Republican parties?

There is none anymore.

Of course, maintaining their power means they have to convince you and me to keep voting for them.  That means they have to exclude any other options, and divide those supporters.  They have to make other positions, other candidates, seem futile.  Want proof?  Who has heard of the Libertarian Party, Tea Party, or Green Party?  I bet all of you have.  I bet you might even remember some of the candidates they've run.  You may have even said to yourself that you liked one of them, if only they had a chance.

It's time to make that change.  We're coming up to a midterm election this year, and a general election in just two years.  Here's my challenge to each of you.  It's the same thing I'm challenging myself to do.  Vote your conscience!  If there's someone running for office who you like for that office, VOTE FOR THEM!  Don't overthink it based on party affiliation and who holds the power.  You hold the power.  Your only means of truly exercising that power in the voting booth is to vote your conscience.  If everyone did this, you might be surprised at where these politicians would learn the power really lies.

Stay Hungry, My Friends

by Cori Tyler

Nature abhors a vacuum.  That’s one of those phrases we've heard for years.  Have you ever thought about that?  Wherever there’s nothingness, it’s either a bad thing, or nature scrambles to fill that void.  When it comes to self-defense training, I think there are two kinds of vacuums we might find.  The first is pretty obvious.  It’s simply a complete lack of training.  Nothing learned for one’s own survival.  The other vacuum, in my opinion, is stagnation.  Failing to continue learning, growing, improving, and moving forward is just as bad as failing to prepare in the first place.

In fact, I think that second vacuum is more dangerous to us than the first.  Another word for stagnation is complacency.  Both of them are no good for self-defense.  When we grow complacent, we become lazy.  We take shortcuts that we should never be OK with.  We forget why we avoided those shortcuts in the first place; why we chose to prepare at all.  With this, we can undo all of the work we may have previously done, while still believing ourselves to be more prepared than the person living in the other vacuum – with nothingness.

False confidence can be a killer, or at least an ass-kicker.  Either way, it’s stupid, and stupid hurts.  I’ve been kicking around long enough to know that hurting might be one way of knowing you’re still alive, but it might also be a sign you’ve done something worth reconsidering.  In the interest of working smarter, not harder, I think that’s a pretty sound path.

One of the challenges of being an instructor, especially in an area as remote as ours, is providing for one’s own ongoing training.  It’s easy to teach the courses I’ve been teaching for years, and feeling like I’m on top of my game because I can easily answer students’ questions.  The problem is, I’m not faced with a differing perspective, knowledge beyond my own experience, or even from a different cultural perspective.

I broke out of that rut a little bit a week ago when I spent the weekend learning hand, stick, knife, and gun combatives with Hock Hochheim.  We hosted this two-day seminar, and I couldn’t be gladder for the opportunity.  Previously, the last time I was a self-defense student – on paper, at least – was at an instructor recertification in 2012.  Of course, all that did was recite what I’d been using, and teaching, for years.  The intent was that I be able to pass a test at the end of the recertification course.

I believe I’ve mentioned how I feel about the goal of a class being to pass a test at the end.

So, that was little more than practicing the old stuff, from the old perspectives.  That means the last time I was learning something new, from a different instructor’s perspective, it was Summer, 2010.  FOUR YEARS AGO!!!  I hadn't even realized.  Talk about stagnation.  Talk about a major, sucking vacuum in my knowledge, skills, and abilities.  Shame on me!  For shaaame!!!

There was once a time when I lived in a place that I could get fresh practice and training a couple of times a week.  It really was a self-defense Utopia.  I miss that.  It just isn't an option out here, on the edge of the prairie, where it literally – not figuratively – snows three days before Easter Sunday.  Not only is there no practical opportunity within 75 or so miles but the money for it, and for that drive, just isn't there.  It’s up to me to find ways to stay fresh.  Now, I realize it and pledge to do all I can toward that end.

Last weekend, I encountered philosophies on combatives strategy that were different from what I’ve followed and preached for years.  I encountered preferences in technique, and differences of opinion that gave me some real food for thought.  In fact, I found so many different views, new (to me) ideas, that I’ve been mulling them over ever since.

And . . . I love it!!!

Along with getting a lot to think about, I also came away with a lot to practice, break down, examine, and digest.  With these added tools, I will be that much better prepared.  With practice and understanding, I’ll become a better instructor, as I become a better student.  And you know what?

I really missed being trained.  I miss it again already.

I know now that I must keep finding these opportunities to improve myself, keep my skills fresh, and learn to practice more effectively.  Now that I got a fresh taste, I’m hungry for more.

Daily Training Opportunities

- by Cori Tyler

We’re big on self-defense training at LLDT.  Go figure.  I mean, what’s in a name, right?  So, it’s not really surprising that I’m going to write about training some more.  What might surprise you, though, is the type of training I want to talk about this time.  My experience is as an empty-hand tactics instructor.  I’ve seen it called a lot of different names over the years.  Defensive Tactics, Control Tactics, Combatives, Hand-to-Hand Tactics; you get the idea.  We’re talking about ways of defending yourself against an attack when you find yourself unarmed, or unable to deploy a weapon.  Somewhat misleadingly, use of sticks/batons/canes, and knives also falls into this realm.

But, that’s not the training I’m going to talk to you about today.

I think it’s important we discuss something that will give anyone forced into any physical conflict an extra edge:  Physical conditioning.

That’s right.  I’m going to talk to you about exercise today.  First, I think I ought to let you in on something that isn’t a very big secret if you know me.  I haven’t been very good at staying in shape.  In fact, I’ve never been super physically fit, but in recent years I’ve gotten worse than before.   Recently, though, I’ve decided, for a number of reasons, to rectify this situation in earnest.  I’m three weeks into a workout program, and I can already see and feel the differences.  I think it’s important to share some of those, for the sake of the discussion I want to have.

Already, my flexibility – which was not one of my weakest areas – is improving.  My strength and endurance in the lower back is much better, too.   Overall, stamina is much better, and I think maybe, just maybe, I’m already feeling stronger.  The greatest benefit, one I didn’t expect, is how much regular exercise decreases my stress levels.  My family says – in so many words – that I’m much less of an ass-hole when I’ve been working out regularly.  Of course, lowering my daily stress levels also prepares me better for times when stress might be elevated – like facing physical conflict.

I’ve found, with the program I’m doing, that some exercises also offer me a little opportunity to practice some of my empty-hand techniques.  Certain movements are identical to knee strikes, punches, or other types of strikes.  Others are similar enough that it doesn’t seem to change the workout’s goal if I modify them to match those strikes.  As I move around my floor, there are a lot of opportunities for practicing body positioning and movement.  I can often hold my hands and arms in a ready position, my feet and legs in a ready stance.  If I change directions of movement, changing the positioning of my body accordingly provides some practical exercise, making the workout twice as beneficial.

Now, there’s a challenge I’ve found.  I have to focus on what I’m doing.   I have to be careful to keep my energy geared toward the goal of the exercise, while also concentrating on not getting sloppy with the technique I’m practicing.  As the session goes on, and I get more fatigued, this gets tougher.  There is an adage that says as we train, so shall we fight.  If I’m gasping for breath, sweating like a whore in church, and shaking in the knees, it’s a pretty good simulation of the physical stresses that are part and parcel in a fight.

What I run into with my workout program is, sometimes it wants me to move in ways that are counter to my training and experience.  I’ve chosen to modify the movements in those cases so they fall in line with my defensive training.  For example, an aerobic workout that includes punches delivered without both feet on the ground do not jibe with how I’ve learned and practiced punching.  Anyone who’s studied any form of unarmed physical defense knows that planting your feet is essential to delivering a solid strike.  I just can’t make myself go against that.

It seems to me this approach might work for a number of different things we choose to learn and practice.  There are probably lots of ways to adapt daily exercises or activities to provide practice toward something else.

Any ideas?