Scenario training is realistic training that most people don’t even think about.
It’s not offered as much as a lot of other training out there.
Most of us are focused on the fundamentals of using a firearm, basic hand-to-hand, and things like that.
Even the “tactical courses” usually see these guys dressed up like in the military, shooting from behind barrels, maybe shooting out of a car or something like that.
But they’re typically shooting paper targets.
How, then, can we use realistic force-on-force scenario training to make us better gunfighters?
The forefather of force-on-force training has to be reality-based fighting pioneer Peyton Quinn.
Here’s a run-down of what he had to say about it this topic.
3 Tips For Using Scenario Training To Be A Better Gunfighter!
Realistic training is extremely important.
When you’re carrying concealed, it’s not like firing your gun on the range.
Everything is more difficult.
When you talk to people who’ve gone through a shooting, many of them, including police officers, don’t even remember how many shots were fired.
They’re not lying or forgetful.
Under adrenal stress, they experience things like auditory exclusion.
They don’t hear anything; they just feel the gun bucking in their hand.
This stuff is very real.
But until you experience it for yourself, it’s all sort of theoretical.
That’s why scenario training is so important, to help give you the experience associated with the training.
Tip#1: Blank Guns
A device I found useful and that I’ve used in training is to start out with blank guns.
This gives you a little bit of recoil, a little bit of noise and muzzle blast.
Using a blank gun, you can draw the gun, fire, point it at a human target, and pull the trigger.
The slide goes back.
The shell ejects.
You feel the recoil.
When you are fighting for your life, you don’t want that to be the very first time you’ve ever pointed a gun at a human being and pulled the trigger.
You need to experience what it looks like, what it feels like, so you won’t freeze up when it is no longer a simulation.
Tip #2: Point Shooting
The next thing a student should learn is that he or she doesn’t need to use the sights.
Most shootings occur at less than five feet away.
There are laser target pistols, like the SIRT, that fire a laser beam.
You can practice at home in your apartment and the laser will show you where your shot would have gone.
Doing this practice, there’s no way to fire a real bullet, but you can practice your point-shooting skills.
This is extremely useful for teaching you how to get off a round, quickly and on target, without trying to acquire the sights at all.
Tip #3: Sharing Goals
Finally, a lesson that goes through all of scenario training is the idea of shared goals.
You’ve got to develop some confidence in your ability.
One way to do this is to train with people who all share the same goals.
This is why students in classes like this, that sometimes take place over a few days, will stay in dormitories together.
It’s like military training turning an infantry unit into a cohesive whole.
There’s a bonding that takes place that makes the group effective.
Most people have a natural aversion to shooting people.
Even their firearms training conditions them not to shoot people by accident.
In scenario training, you create a miniature society in which everyone shares the same training goal: stopping the attacker.
This is tremendously helpful psychologically.
Militaries have been doing it for thousands of years.
It’s the same with a shooting.
(It’s not rocket science.)
There’s only a few things you have to keep track of in the instant to do the right thing.
The problem people have is the first time they have to point a gun at somebody and pull the trigger and make a decision, they’re completely untrained.
They don’t know the law.
They’re not conditioned to the total adrenal stress.
Scenario training can fix that problem.
