Downrange training

[Michael Bane]

Not a fan of downrange training, but I do tend to agree with Combat Diver re: high-end military team training. In a civilian context. let me give you another reason why downrange training is a bad idea (one that I think Combat Diver will identify with)...it creates a FALSE sense in the student's mind that he or she has "been there and done that" when the fact is the student has done nothing of the sort. I, too, have heard the bullet that didn't hit me go whipping by my head and thunk into a nearby tree...I don't think it made me a better person. In fact, it made me seriously consider wetting myself. I don't believe that experience can be "simulated" in any meaningful way. Perhaps another analogy — as a one-time certified cave diver with a lot of dives in scary places, I could create a cave-diving simulation that would make the students FEEL good about being ready to go into the caves. But I don't think such a simulation would prepare the student diver for what happens half a mile back into some narrow tunnel when the Schumer hits the fan — the lights tank at the same time, a regulator smacks against a rock wall and goes free-flow, the tunnel silts out, a team member panics and starts thrashing like a hooked salmon. Instead of simulations, cave diving training is a long, grueling regimen in the caves with a seemingly endless focus on "the basics."

Michael B

[PegLeg45]

Not a fan of downrange training, but I do tend to agree with Combat Diver re: high-end military team training. In a civilian context. let me give you another reason why downrange training is a bad idea (one that I think Combat Diver will identify with)...it creates a FALSE sense in the student's mind that he or she has "been there and done that" when the fact is the student has done nothing of the sort. I, too, have heard the bullet that didn't hit me go whipping by my head and thunk into a nearby tree...I don't think it made me a better person. In fact, it made me seriously consider wetting myself. I don't believe that experience can be "simulated" in any meaningful way. Perhaps another analogy — as a one-time certified cave diver with a lot of dives in scary places, I could create a cave-diving simulation that would make the students FEEL good about being ready to go into the caves. But I don't think such a simulation would prepare the student diver for what happens half a mile back into some narrow tunnel when the Schumer hits the fan — the lights tank at the same time, a regulator smacks against a rock wall and goes free-flow, the tunnel silts out, a team member panics and starts thrashing like a hooked salmon. Instead of simulations, cave diving training is a long, grueling regimen in the caves with a seemingly endless focus on "the basics."

Michael B

As Hank Hill would say, "Yep."

[Trident Firearms]

IDIOTIC!  My one word description of this training method.

Reminds me of a SGT with Alameda County Sheriff's Dept. that used to have two lines of Deps walking towards each other while shooting at targets... if that makes sense, it is hard to describe.  But, again, it too was IDIOTIC!

Or the fairly well known trainer from CA that used to like to stand between targets that his students were shooting at so he could "keep me sharp... keep my edge"  Again, this too is IDIOTIC!