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Submitted just as received in the e-mail to me from Suarez International
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HOW TO TRAIN?
Recently we completed the first session of our Zero To Five Feet courses. Many guys learned a great deal about what a real fight (guns or no guns) will be like. As it happens anytime a new area of study opens for a student, there are many questions. This event was no exception.
One question that immediately came out was about training. How should we train?
Traditionally, the gun community has trained by loading several cases of ammo into the back of the family SUV and headed out to the range to bust caps. After a few thousand empty fired cases lie on the range, a trainee felt that he had, well, trained. Sadly, this is not the best way to spend your training time.
Much of what goes on in the fight deals with positioning, movement, weapons deployment and weapons management. Things like getting off the line of fire dynamically, drawing and getting the gun on target, clearing stoppages, etc., are often of far greater importance than a trainees' ability to fire an accurate group on a target at the range.
Similarly, the ability to perform against a live adversary is more important than how much ammo you go through in a given day. Everyone is a "Shootist" or a "Combat Master" against an inanimate piece of cardboard. Not so much against another man who is fully intent on shooting you without being shot. So in addition to a great deal of non-shooting technical practice ( also known as dry firing, or weapons handling ), a trainee must spend a certain amount of time in force on force drills of varying pressure and intensity.
So how much do we really need to shoot? Very little. If you spend your training time in weapon handling drills, and in periodic force on force exercises, I would say you only need to shoot once a month in order to keep your marksmanship skills and recoil control ability up to speed.
Most of your time, probably up to 75% of your time must be spent in weapon handling and force on force. This does not require the firing of a single shot, but it is the only thing that will make you a better fighter. Why don't more guys train like this? It is a matter of discipline. It is entertaining to go shoot at the range and requires little expediture of energy for most guys. Drilling gun handling in the garage for an hour three times a week is alot like work. But work, and not leisure, is what produces gold. Look at it this way - dry drills and weapon handling only costs time, not money spent on ammo.
The next aspect, force on force exercises should take up about 15-20% of your time. And not every force on force exercise needs to be as intense as a UFC fight. You can vary the intensity as needed, going full force and full pressure occassionally to proof-test your skills. The more you do force on force, the more combat effective your gun handling exercise will become and then subsequently the better you will perform in force on force.
The final aspect, live fire, is there almost as an after-thought. Maybe 5-155 of the time should be spent at the range actually shooting. Live fire at the range is akin to a boxer punching the heavy bag. He has to do it, but it does not comprise more than a small amount of his time in comparison to to other things. Most "defensive minded" shooters could stand a great deal less range time and a great deal more gun handling time.
I would put any of my Suarez trained students, who use this method, against any students from other schools who spend all their time shooting. If your goal is to be a better fighter (in this case a gun-fighter), try this method out for six months and see how good you get.
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
1). In our rifle courses, students can bring any rifle and any caliber they wish to bring. Even in the Kalashnikov-based courses.
That means if you want to bring a 22 conversion kit weapon, it is fine. If you want to go through the rifle class with your Kel-Tec 9mm or UZI 9mm, it is also OK. If you want to bring a Ruger 10-22, it is fine as well.
Bring what you want to shoot and learn what you need to learn.
2). Same goes for pistol classes. You want to shoot a 22 in class, bring it and be welcome.
For further on this, please email us at info@suarezinternational.com
Or at least run a 3 gun match....