The Tactical Life

A quote from an article that I firmly believe:

“Right now the buzz is that everyone wants a ‘high capacity’ pistol to prepare to shoot it out with a terrorist cell. Get real, it’s not how many bullets your sidearm holds, or how many spare magazines you have on your belt; it is about how well can you shoot effectively when the chips are down”

I am with you on this, good advise for all.

Thought for the day:

One must develop an instinct for what one can barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts. Mark the boundary of your current ability, and aim a little beyond it.” Albert Einstein

Following up on this quote, this article is worth your time:

The Difference between Good and Great for the Tactical Athlete

One of the many titles used to describe those following XXXXXXX Programming is the term tactical athlete. “Tactical,” referring our savoir-faire in oftentimes ambiguous and—more often than not—dangerous situations, and “athlete,” bestowed upon us for our endless quest for physical perfection as required by our chosen profession.

In sports and war, there are performers and non-performers, hype and legitimacy, good and legendary. The NBA has great players, like LeBron James and Stephen Curry, and legends like Michael Jordan. So does the NFL, NHL and MLB; who can forget people such as Rich Froning Jr., the 4-time Fittest Man in the world; arguably the greatest all around athlete ever.

While there isn’t a tactical athlete Hall of Fame, we do have legends in our own right, though much less well known than people such as Michael Jordan or Cal Ripken Jr.

Every sport has their respective arena except the tactical athlete. Our arena is the world and our specialty is war. This fact must remain at the core of our pursuit of greatness and thus makes us more than just athletes. The question still remains, that while sports and war share many parallels, how do we recognize and thus improve our status from good to great; are they born or are they made?

Author David Epstein discussed a facet of this question in his book, “The Sports Gene,” noting how sports and athletic performance have continued to evolve at an exponential rate despite any significant leaps in human evolution. David’s argument focuses on how major sport organizations essentially weed out people who are deemed genetically unfit. “There are definitely sports genes," he said, with “some cases where just a single gene makes a big difference to someone’s athleticism.” However, whilst the average height of elite female gymnasts in the last 30 years has shrunk from 5’3" to 4’9" in order to accommodate better spinning in the air, no such case can be made for our tactical athlete.

While gymnasts, NBA players and NFL players (respective of their positions) all fit a rather similar bill, our tactical athletes still find themselves on both ends of the genetic spectrum, from your 6’3, 225 lbs, corn-fed slab of man-meat out of Wisconsin to your 5’6, 135 lbs (when wet) Skeletor from the Bronx.

Here’s the catch: both of them are infantryman in the 82nd Airborne.

Genetics Can Lead to Goodness, But Not Greatness

When you break down greatness on a genetic scale, those who have the biggest chances of success are, first and foremost, those who are genetically gifted to perform the task. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, and there are certainly exceptions to every rule. For us meat-grinding tactical athletes, the key to success isn’t to change the hand we’re dealt, though at times we all wish certain body parts were bigger; our goal is to optimize the cards we were dealt and better choose the games we play.

In an interview after her victory at the 2014 CrossFit Games, Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet spoke about a place familiar to all people who have pushed themselves to any extreme, that place where everyone goes to visit: the dark place, that place of utter mental chaos where every fiber of your being is telling you to quit and yet you fight back on a conscious level… coaxing yourself through the discomfort until it’s over. The willingness to go to that place speaks to your likelihood for such an achievement.

Many of today’s tactical athletes have grown up reciting the mantra of “be comfortable with being uncomfortable.” While I agree that is a valuable skill to have for life in general, heaven forbid your “legend-making” moment knocks on your door and you are unable to meet the challenge because you are broken. All the greats both in sports and in war performed optimally during their “on-season.” While everyone should know their dark place intimately through experience and self-awareness, no one need linger there permanently to where your body kicks you out. No one gets remembered for what they do in the off-season.

For most of our tactical athletes, especially those in the military, metrics are everything. Metrics, statistics, and numbers in sports are how we quantify and track everything that matters. This also is true for regular athletes; stats are a way to quantify their greatness when standing side by side on the podium. As previously discussed, due to the genetic diversity within our population, we can expect to see a wide range of physical prowess. The greatest aren’t necessarily the strongest in our really; I can out bench both Desmond Doss and Audie Murphy but my highest award is a Bronze Star.

Greatness is Made, Not Born With

Am I comparing apples and oranges here? Are physical prowess and battlefield efficacy synonymous? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. I am doing so to highlight that in our field, greatness isn’t reached in the “athlete” part of our title: it’s reached in the tactical.

Now while the two are closely intertwined do not sacrifice one for the other. In order to ensure your genetic optimization at the moment of your greatness your fitness pursuits should directly correlate to those activities MOST likely to be encountered. The reason we move heavy shit around in different planes of motion is because your buddy, with all his shit on is heavy, and war isn’t conducted in two dimensions. (Note: This applies to LEO’s )

If your job is to be an athlete, then be an athlete; if you have a quantifier before the term “athlete” then be that first. The athlete part comes second…a close second, but still second.

Greatness is ultimately a compilation of many different factors aggregating at the right moment in time. Most of us are good—really good, even—at what we do, but we will never reach that mystical level of “greatness” or even be seen as a “legend.” The best we can hope for lies in our pursuit of our own holistic optimization in case The Moment arises. The people who we admire for such feats didn’t consider themselves to be such either; they did what they did to the best of their ability, addressed and worked on their weaknesses, and ultimately let the fates decide how they were to be recorded in history.

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Agreed. I would say the same thing about the rndless debate about the stopping power of this pistol round over that. Pistols suck at stopping fights, period.

That said, if you put it where it needs to go the practical difference between 9mm and .40 is negligible. If you miss it doesn’t matter if you miss with a cannon or a pea shooter.

Agree mostly. Thing is, we have to train with what we carry, and if equally trained, a bigger faster round will be a hair more effective. There’s also barrier penetration capability to consider. That’s part of why I carry Critical Duty rounds–if someone tried to carjack me I can put the round directly through the door, and figure the 45 is gonna hit harder after penetration than a smaller round.
Btw, the reason I carry a 45 is because they don’t make a 46 :wink:

Then we get to the “one shot stop” myth. If it’s not a head shot, one shot isn’t always going to stop someone. That’s y our military qualifications train with 3 shots to center mass. Personally, I train with 3 to heart area, one to neck, then one to forehead when shooting silhouette.
Of course up close, shooting downward to the hip girdle is going to be best cause if u bust that, the guy will immediately hit the ground.

I agree, but came to a different conclusion. My first pistol, and still one of my favorites is a Colt 1911. But I carry 9mm. As someone with a low income the fact that 9mm target ammo is almost half the price of 45 ACP means that I can train more, and therefore be more proficient if and when the day comes.

Will put a 5th vote in for the 1911, with the caveat to stick as close to the original design as possible. That’s what was proven in combat. Colt gold cup is my favourite, though I only shot that, never owned it.

The wife liked mine so much I got her a micro compact 3" 45acp from Springfield. We sent it to SA, tried 4 different mags, infinite ammo types, worked on by a local smith, different springs. That damn thing wouldn’t feed anything. Jam-o-matic for sure.

Not saying that it had anything to do with the jamming, but most .45 ACP doesn’t perform as well out of a short Barrel. The Winchester Rangers are a notable exception.

Yessir that’s very true. Win Ranger is some good ammo all around. Personally prefer a 5" barrel but see where smaller works for some people and situstions related to concealment. However I ain’t one of those who struggles to conceal a full size 1911, and often carry two. So 9 rds in each holsters gun, and a total of 32 in spare mags, with a combined total of 41 rds of 45 ready to go - I consider that adequate whereas many think it’s overkill. But they don’t know about the backup and hideout guns…

Great read. This touches on something I’ve been thinking about. There are plenty of cops who are just plain lazy and don’t train at all. I understand this. It’s inexcusable, but I understand it.

What I don’t understand is why so many cops will train hard at something like crossfit, bb, triathlon or whatever but getting cops out to fight class is like pulling teeth. Moving heavy s#!t is great and all, but moving heavy s#!t that’s trying actively to fight you you is even more job specific.

Maybe if that jacked dude on shift came out and got rapid-fire tapped a few times by a skinny blue belt or tried to go a few rounds with a fit boxer he’d might see things differently…

Agree. However carry is a non-issue for me as a Canadian. The only gun I carry is my issued service pistol, which is 9mm, so it’s a moot point for me. .

Interestingly enough though, the FBI recently switched back from .40 to 9mm after running the stats and finding that a.) many members could shoot 9mm faster and more accurately due to lower recoil and b.) the higher mag capacity due to smaller round size offset the marginal loss of lethality due to the smaller calibre (especially given the amount of missing that happens in the average LE gunfight).

Not arguing for this calibre or that. Just arguing in favour of learn to f@$king shoot under stress. @Uncle_Gabby makes a great point here. If you can afford to shoot your 9mm twice as often as your 45 ACP, I’d argue that you’re better armed with your 9mm.

Yup, money is always a factor, sadly. Reloading helps, can shoot twice as much for the same price. However, I don’t carry reloads. I just don’t…

About the FBI going to 9 from 40, I’d read that. I think the HRT uses a Springfield 1911 in 45 tho. Everyone can justify what they carry, on duty or off, but the most important thing is hitting the target as quickly and accurately as possible.

For me, there’s more to it than cost, though cost is a major factor. With two pistols of equal size and weight a .45 will have more recoil than a 9mm, and more recoil means slower follow up shots. Especially in a compact or subcompact pistol. Now with a full sized service pistol, I can shoot .45 almost as fast as 9mm.

I’m an amateur shooter, I try to shoot at least once a month, and dry fire three rounds four times a week, and hope to be able to afford to take a class or two next year. But I’m not a great shooter, and I’m not going to depend on great shot placement.

I know I can shoot faster, with tighter groups on center mass with the 9mm than I can with a .45. I also like being able to carry 13+1 of 9mm in the same compact size pistol as 6-8+1 of .45. I have read that the average number of shots fired in a defensive shooting is five, but bad things happen, and I’m not going depend on averages to save my ass.

Smart to realize that and adjust accordingly

For me, I’m confident enough to rely on 8+1 of 45, but all this boils down to personal preference.
Last I shot at a range, I put 8 rounds in a 4" bill , at 7 yards, in 5 seconds, some had two billets cutting holes.

Of course the target (or anyone) wasn’t shooting back, but … just sayin that to illustrate the speed and accuracy can be there. Add stress and things vary, but the capacity is there.

When I was on an assault team we trained shoot center mass until the target is no longer a threat. We may have had a given round set on the flat range or conducted failure drills (2 chest 1 head), but force on force (with sims) or on mission it was shoot until the threat is eliminated.

Yeh I’m talking “regular” boot camp training.
Realistic training does dictate firing until the threat is stopped.

Sorry I misunderstood. I went to basic in 1987 so I am pretty much out-of-touch with what is being taught at that level anymore. When I did MOUT as part of basic and my initial AIT; we tossed a grenade in a room, the first person sprayed the room with automatic fire, and the next few shot individual targets that still presented. Times have changed!!!

That has been my experience also with a large amount of LEO’s, especially teaching CQB courses that actually has resisting role play actors. This “bench press mentality” seems to always be around.

Funny story:

We were finishing up a CQB course and the last day was “fun day” . Everyone was issued paintball rifles and Simiunitions ammo for their pistols. The final exercise took place in a large air craft hangar converted to a kill house. The only difference was 4 of us would be active terrorists and do anything to kill the entry team.

I was hiding in a crack in a wall, when the lead team guy walked right by me, at the same time, my partner tossed out a stun grenade in the hallway and when it went off, I stepped out and took the rifle from the guy. He turned to the side and I shot him three times. Pissed off, he charged me and reached to grab me with the typical out stretched arms. I pulled him buy and used a basic judo move to throw him onto the floor. It knocked breath out of him and while he was recovering, I reach down, took his pistol and shot him in the face.

That night we met in a bar for a goodbye beer and the guy was still pissed at me and said, “I can bench press around 400, what can you do? “I really don’t know, I replied, I don’t train that way, maybe 200? He looked at me at said, “I knew you were weak”. LOL. OK, bro.

Everyone who has that mindset needs to watch that vid I posted. Bench press numbers don’t mean shit in combat situations.

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Personally, I dont wear tee shirts with any logos, but, for those that do, I think this one really belongs on this thread. This is from Combat Iron Apparel, which is a veteran / LEO owned business. I have no financial ties to this company:

Tee Shirt

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Flashback Friday :

For all the medics on this thread…Thank You