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We have all
heard, "you can't miss fast enough", "I'll take accuracy before speed any day",
"don't be fast, be smooth"……they are all good sayings used by good
instructors for what seems like forever. They apply now as much as they applied
when whoever thought them up. But they are slogans for training students as
various stages of their skills, they aren't for fighting. Show me an old
warrior and you will be looking at a fast warrior, that's how he got to be old,
by being fast……
How many times have
you heard me say, "action beats reaction"? Probably a lot of times, right. Well
let me put it a little differently, "action beats reaction, maybe!". If action
is slower than reaction, then which one beats the other? Reaction will get you
every time if you stand there and watch it. So if you are going to beat
reaction, you better be pretty damm fast with your action.
So how fast is fast? Or, how fast is fast
enough? Well, it's a gamble. For every person who ever beat reaction with
action, there was a gamble, a risk. It may have been what we refer to as an
educated risk, but a risk nonetheless. Whether it is race car driving, dog
fighting, kick boxing, or gun fighting, to beat reaction with action, you have
to face a risk and bet your ability is better than theirs.
When you are facing the muzzle end of a 45
and the guy is demanding your money and you decide to step off the line of
attack, draw your favorite peashooter and blast him three to the upper chest,
before he can react to rezone you and return fire, you gotta know you are
taking a risk, a gamble that everything you can do, will work for you during
these split seconds of the rest of your life, or his.
If you are going to draw and shoot an
attacker before he can shoot you, you have to decide before you start, that you
are going to most likely kill this person. You can't draw and decide at the
last moment to press the trigger, all decision making has to be done before the
action starts. Your action has to be reflexive and complete to the end.
Now before we go on here, please keep in mind
that I have probably selected the worse scenario example there is and the worse
decision you could probably have made. It may be your only viable decision, but
the worse nonetheless. I don't endorse or recommend that anybody go strutting
around thinking they are good enough to draw on a drawn gun. But your decision
to act may be in any number of situations involving any number of different
weapon mixes or bare hands. I do recommend that you become as fast as you can
at what ever you fight with and keep your speed skills honed, and that
especially includes the bundle you have between your ears.
So, how fast is fast enough? Well let's
continue with this worst of examples, guns at two paces. Drag out your shot
timer and test your own reaction times at 2-3 yards. Point in at your target
and fire one shot when the timer goes off. Check the elapsed time, which
includes your reaction time and shot performance time combination. What was
your time? Two tenths of a second, a half or ¾ of a second?
Add to your time 2-3 tenths of a second to
allow for additional time it takes to react to a visual decision key. You see,
with the timer, your reaction and decision making time was stripped to bare
minimums using a familiar auditory sound, so add a few tenths for visual
recognition which usually takes more time to process. You may even want to add
another 1-2 tenths of a second for the surprise reality shock syndrome. So now
where are you? Probably about 7-8 tenths of a second. If you are ever going to
beat someone like yourself, that is the time to beat, only you have to do it
out of the holster, cold! Think you can do it on the very worse day of your
life? What's your best time out of the holster, on target, for the first hit?
One and a half seconds? 1.2 seconds? One second flat? How about from under a
jacket or other concealed carry? You see drawing against a guy that already has
his gun out and ready isn't a level playing field.
Well, if your action time to beat your
reaction is looking pretty dim, don't despair, sit down, buckle up and hang on,
you might be better than you think! You are probably capable of being a lot
faster than you may realize. Try this test on; go to your safe dry practice
area and get ready for dry practice. Now face off with your practice
target….wait, did you check that chamber 3 times?....OK, perform the five
step presentation in slow order, making each step as perfect as possible. Now,
without pausing repeat it. Repeat it several more times, each time in slow
motion making each step as perfect as you possibly can. Each time make sure you
holster in the opposite order as smooth and deliberate as the draw stroke.
Now, without taking a break continue the
perfect presentation and add a little more speed, do this for another several
presentations. And now a little faster, and a little faster, and a little
faster. Flex your muscles and push yourself. Stop thinking about the individual
steps and think of the end result, bullet to the chest. Keep going, if you are
not starting to sweat, push yourself. Your number 1 hand and arm (primary hand)
should be feeling the strain of work. If you mess up, keep going, get in a
rhythm and keep it going. Each time focus your thought on getting to the end
results, FAST. Now STOP! Your arms should still want to be drawing, but STOP.
Now give yourself an honest evaluation. Was your speed on target getting
better? Do you think you were approaching that magic 1 second 1 hit on target
speed?
If you are disappointed in your
performance and are saying to yourself, "I'm never going to be that fast", then
you should probably skip the rest of this. If you feel you made an improvement,
then you are probably capable of improving your speed to warrior class. If you
are already faster than lighting congratulations. If you can draw, get on
target and make that first hit in 1 second flat, you are real fast, because not
many can. But simple math tells us we are still short 2 tenths of a second to
beat your reaction time. Acknowledging this, we are able to face the reality of
the gun fighter…….in a heads up scenario I gave you, yourself with
your gun on target waiting, and you opposite yourself with your gun holstered,
you can't beat yourself! This is true for almost all encounters with anyone,
anytime, face it, trying to beat reaction with action is a deadly serious (pun
intended) game.
To be successful at beating
reaction you would do well to have something else in your favor and now we are
talking about the gamble. We should have a good idea about the risk when you
tried to beat yourself, but the gamble is when you try to beat someone else.
Your ability to beat reaction time may also be combined with other advantages.
It may be something very simple, like a distraction that you create or just
happens in your favor at the right time (true warriors call this, "LUCK")!
You have been making decisions all your life,
some inconsequential and others of great importance. I'm sure you have made
your fair share of split second decisions you have regretted, but as you
matured you learned to stop the snap judgments and start evaluating before
making that decision. Evaluating the ability of an opponent who wishes you
lethal injury is one of those extreme evaluations we seldom have the luxury of
repeating. It's something you want to get right the first time because like the
great Bill Jordan said, "There's No Second Place Winner"!
Your evaluation needs to include, Can I, Am
I, and When. Can you beat this guy? While keeping one eye on his hands use the
other eye to look into his. Is this a crazed criminal, a street punk, a young
kid scared to death? Or is he a stone cold killer? Scan over this guy and look
for revealing signs of capability, commitment, and guts. What kind of stance?
Is he solid on the ground, balanced or off center? How is he holding the gun?
Where is his trigger finger? Is it loose on the trigger or tight? Is he
bouncing around and nervous or steady and relaxed? Is he drunk or sober. Is he
at arms distance or farther? Is he wearing glasses? Is it dark? Is the sun in
his face or yours? What's the environment, cold, hot? Is there nearby noise or
confusion, like traffic or construction, or is it quiet? Are you or him on flat
ground, a grade or on steps? Are you out in the open or in a hallway? Each
situation is of course going to dictate a number of differences and the list
would be a mile long, but his eyes, demeanor and voice will be the strongest
indicators of his willingness and his ability to fight. Your decision, "can I
beat this guy", will be based on your evaluation of his capabilities and
willingness and your skill level and confidence.
If your evaluation to the first question,
"can I beat this guy", is yes, you need to move on to the second, "am I". Are
you really going to do this, knowing when you start, your fate is sealed and
the outcome is short at hand. If a guy is threatening you with a pointed gun
and hasn't fired yet, you are in a very bad position, but you aren't shot yet.
When you draw your gun on him, he has to be thinking, this guy is trying to
kill me, I need to shoot him. Once you move to draw, the race is on, and surely
has the outcome of two opponents fighting til the end. Are you really going to
do this? Just because you have a gun, doesn't mean you have to use it, or
should use it. You may have other alternatives, you could yield to his demands
and hope for the best. If your gun is showing, one of his demands is for sure
going to be taking your gun. As you may have guessed, giving this guy my gun is
not one of those options I would like to consider, but every situation is
different and my grand-pappy use to say, "son, never say never!"
Well, now that I have you in one of the worse
scenarios imaginable and you have made probably one of the worse decision in
your life, "am I", yes…..now you need to move to the last question,
"when". When do I make my move, when do I trigger my action? At this point an
old fighter pilot saying comes to mind, "timing is everything". Remember back
during your Concealed Carry Permit Training, when the instructor was going over
Mental Conditioning and Mind-Set? I bet he started out with the Color Codes of
Awareness and probably ended up with something we call "What-If's". Your
decision "when" may very well be connected to a "what-if" and thereby linked to
"timing".
I think, if I was in this rotten
scenario I have put you in, I would be thinking, "I can't beat this guy
heads-up, I need a half second advantage", and that's what I would be searching
and waiting for as long as I could. Perhaps a distraction. It could be a
passing car, a bystander, a loud noise. It could be a verbal response to his
demands by asking him a question he has to think about. It may be I have no
available distractions and rely only in timing my action with his eye blinks,
but I'm going to try and get that advantage of a split second I think I need,
hunting for the right timing.
With all this
to consider, you may have minutes to successfully complete, or you may be stuck
with only seconds. With out a doubt, your speed will have a lot to do with your
success. When "action beats reaction" it is always coupled to these elements we
have discussed. It's not just simply being fast with a gun, it is being fast at
whatever your situation provides you with, or whatever you can maneuver the
situation into.
Can you be too fast? I don't
think so, unless your speed sacrifices some other important element like
hitting the target. Speed, acquisition and hits are synonymous, they all go
together here. When you develop your skill to be fast, it must include the
final results, getting hits, and the first hit is the most important. Most
likely no matter how many times you press the trigger in a string of shots, if
the first one was there the rest will follow. If the first one misses, you are
in a mess because most likely the shots to follow will tend to be like the
first miss…..
We should also realize the
realities of a gun fight, even the victor may get shot, it comes with the
territory, nature of the beast so to speak. Although there are cases of guys
who were shot just once in the torso, seeming to instantly be incapacitated and
later determined to bed dead when their body collapsed on the ground, it is
rare. Opponents usually do not stop instantly within a fraction of a second.
They are capable of continuing to fight or even if they are DRT (dead right
there) they may have some sort of muscle and nerve reaction discharging the gun
as their lights go out.
So, let's get real
here. Drawing your gun from a holster on a pointed gun is risky and a gamble.
It would be viewed by most as plain stupid. With each opponent having their
guns drawn and pointed at each other, action will beat reaction every time, so
if your gun is holstered, I suggest you find that distraction that will buy you
the extra half second you need to clear leather, get off the line of attack and
cut him with little round holes multiple times as FAST as you can.
There are more aspects of this discussion
than I include here, but I hope I have got you thinking about being as fast as
you can when you enter a fight. The sooner you end the fight the more you
decrease the likelihood of getting injured. This doesn't preclude that all
fighting is action or reaction, we must always fight smart. Fighting smart
means we hone our abilities, rehearse our actions and reactions to form
responses, and build our bag of fighting tricks. Remember the gambler, "you got
to know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, and know when to shoot'em", OK,
maybe I added that last part!
Remember, just
as it takes time to develop your skills to be fast, it takes time to maintain
your speed. As you build speed, build confidence. Keep a level head and don't
underestimate your opponent or over estimate your ability. And also remember
every night before you go to bed, pray to the Luck Goddess, because if you ever
find yourself in this worse of scenarios, making the worse decision in your
life, in addition to all those warrior skills you have developed, it wouldn't
hurt to have her blessings! |