A lot of gun owners are overconfident in their abilities.
They make a few trips to the range, punch a tight set of holes in a paper target from 7 yards away, and think they’re ready to draw down on a real predator.
But a paper target isn’t the same as some street thug ambushing you without warning as you’re putting groceries in the car.
To prepare for THIS challenge, you’ve got to train in a way that’s safe…
…but that’s still going to give you a realistic sense of what it really takes to defend yourself in the chaos of a violent attack.
I can think of no better man to address this than the man who popularized the “sheepdog” concept, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.
Recently, I discussed this with him, and here is what he explained to me.
The #1 Challenge (And SOLUTION!) To Mastering Your Personal Defense Handgun
There’s a measured continuum of violence you can use to protect your home, your church, your school, whatever environment you’ve got to keep safe.
But to do that, you must embrace a defining challenge from now on.
That challenge is setting a standard.
It’s more violent than ever out there.
Homicides are up after being down for decades.
The fact that they’ve gone up again is pretty scary.
Setting a standard, and then fighting to meet it, is the only way you’ll continue to meet the challenge of defending your family and yourself.
Let me explain:
Every 16 year old boy sweats bullets over passing his driver’s test.
You, your security team, your survival group… any armed citizen should be sweating bullets over passing the qualification standards you’ve set for your firearms training.
Here are three solutions to meeting the challenge of setting a standard.
1. FIGHT To Your Standard!
Whatever your personal training standard, you should be FIGHTING to meet it.
Don’t set your goals so “realistically” that you never feel challenged.
You should always feel like you’ve got to go above and beyond to get to the next hurdle so that your training gains will actually mean something.
Here’s another example:
Millions of people take martial arts.
Only a couple thousand are active competitors.
Which of those people do you think are better prepared to defend themselves in a crisis, all other factors being equal?
Is it the people who just go to class, put the time in, and never feel challenged?
Or is it the people actively testing themselves and pushing to become better?
What we want to do is turn our firearms training into what these martial arts already are…
…and that is a challenge to keep fighting to meet.
2. Compete Against A Standard!
Now, with that in mind, don’t confuse competing against other people for actually competing against a standard.
When you compete against a benchmark YOU set, then YOU are constantly competing against a new measuring stick.
That means that YOU are your own worst opponent.
Understand that and keep competing to better your own skills by trying always to beat your best.
Only when you adopt that mindset will you really start to push yourself.
3. Push That Envelope!
Complacency will get you killed when it comes to training.
If you’re training in a lazy way, if you’ve gotten accustomed to performing at a certain level and not going any farther, then you might as well not be training at all.
Whatever your training, whatever you choose as your standard, push that envelope.
If you have a security team for your church, your community center, whatever, if YOU are the security team, have a standard that people have to work actively to meet and maintain.
Keep pushing that envelope personally.
If you’re not actively fighting to get better, you’re missing this critical challenge… and you’re not the sheepdog you think you are.
Only when you are constantly striving for improvement can you truly consider yourself one of the sheepdogs protecting your family and society…
…and only then will you truly be meeting your full potential.
