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?