I stole the title for this post (and made it grammatically better) from Jeff Gonzales's post Skill development and then some. Lots of good stuff in that post, let's look at some of the highlights.
First, let's talk about this "gunfighter" business. I'm not one. Neither are you. About the only people that can, and should, be using that term are those with current or previous employment like Jeff's. That's it. Not cops (and I'm including SWAT... perhaps ESPECIALLY SWAT), not 7-11 cashiers, not accountants, attorneys, or doctors... So I'm ignoring it. And the thing is, shooting is shooting either way, so who really cares? "Gunfighter" is getting to be like "sheepdog".
Isolation vs. Compound Skills
Friggin' awesome. Something that escapes most people, and also applies to virtually every single task you physically perform. One might even argue that there is a third level, which is Fundamentals. I don't know if the below is how Jeff would break them down (probably not), but this is my take.
Fundamentals
Fundamentals are the basics. Sight alignment, trigger control, and stance. "Fine motor skills" could also fall into this category. Things like pressing the magazine release button, manipulating the mechanical safety, etc. Think of them as the most basic skills or manipulations that you can perform individually. You can, and maybe should sometimes, practice ONLY your trigger press. Or dropping magazines.
Stance
Some will argue stance doesn't matter because in a gunfight/match you won't get to use your perfect static range stance. That's silly. If you understand stance and what aspects are important, you can make intelligent choices about what to sacrifice, when, and why when you are confronted with less than ideal circumstances. To equate this to hunting, if you are presented with a shot on a deer at 100 yards that will require you to shoot offhand standing on a hill, and you understand stance, you may choose to move four feet to the right and rest the gun on that fencepost. Or wait for the deer to get closer. Or get off the hill. Or not take the shot. If we don't teach people stance and the concepts behind it, then they won't be able to make those decisions. Or at least not intelligently. Not teaching a good stance right out of the gate is doing students a massive disservice. and "because tactical" is a bullshit reason that only exposes your own lack of depth.
Trigger Control
Trigger control. Press the trigger straight to the rear. It matters not whether you do that after an "ease to reset", or "slapping". Whether you're shooting a revolver or a 1911. In order to disturb the sights as little as possible, press the trigger straight to the rear. Seems pretty easy, right? After nearly 20 years of shooting, this is still the one I have a problem with. Go figure. Teaching it correctly, and why it matters, and forcing the students to work on it (even if it's to the exclusion of teaching disarms and ninja rolls) is critical to producing good shooters.
Sight Alignment
Sight alignment. Provided the gun is mechanically adjusted correctly, and you understand the method of alignment with the target that the adjuster made, the projectile's path is determined by the alignment of the sights at the moment said projectile leaves the barrel. If you understand this, you start to understand trigger control and why it's important (not to mention that stance thing) a whole lot better.
Isolation Skills
To me, these are one step up from the fundamentals. Put Sight Alignment, Trigger Control, and Stance together and you have the "isolation" skill of marksmanship. Put together the fundamentals of breaking your support hand grip, pressing the magazine release button, retrieving a fresh magazine, and inserting said magazine into the gun, and you have the "isolation" skill of the reload. Walking is probably an isolation skill, or it could be if you include doing to in a way that least disturbs the sights on the gun. Think of it as the first level of combining fundamentals.
Compound Skills
Shooting on the move. Engaging multiple targets. Shooting around objects/people/obstructions. Shooting on the move then reloading while engaging multiple targets around objects/people/obstructions. See where this is headed? There are compound skills, and then you can string together the compound skills to have compound-compound skills! But just like everything to this point you should probably break down and learn to shoot on the move before you work on adding a reload to the mix. Work on shooting around barricades with your other weak hand before you try to do it with your weak hand.
Evaluation of Skills
If you're not doing something to evaluate your skills and track your progress, you're doing it wrong. You might as well just go back to the public range with the dirt-shooters and... well... shoot dirt. Seriously. If you took up golf you would be forced into this because they do things like keep score. Even if you just went to the driving range and worked on the isolation skill of the drive, you would still be forced into an evaluation of distance and accuracy. I guess if you went to the beach and hit balls into the surf you could avoid it. And for most people, if it were legal, they might as well shoot guns that way too. and if you're not going to add a timer at some point, you might as well stop using targets too. Unless, that is, shooting the tightest groups possible with all the time in the world is all you're after. Shoot one round per day for a year at that point, for all I care.
Gunfighting/Tactical/Sheepdog/Self-Defense/RAHOWA....
"But Rob, I could get in a gunfight on my way home from class tonight!"
Yeah, and pigs could fly out of your ass, eat the monkeys that flew out yesterday, and then win the lottery. So shut up with that shit already. Have you ever done the math of just how statistically insignificant the likelihood that a suburban adult man will get himself into a "gunfight" is? Not to mention the completely inequitable amount of time you sink into "preparing" for this statistically insignificant eventuality? "But Rob, I don't live in a good neighborhood like the suburbs!" Then fucking move. And take the monkey-eating, lottery-winning, flying pigs with you.
"It does not matter what someone else (whoever they are) can do, it only matters what you can do. "
This is something that has been a concept of great interest for me for a long time, especially when one factors in the likelihood-of-a-violent-encounter : time-spent-training-for-same ratio. Everyone's heard me harp on the physical fitness and general wellness thing enough, but to sum up that track, if you're spending more time at the range than you are getting exercise, eating reasonably well, and limiting your intake of toxins, you're fucked up and you aren't prepared for shit. But beyond that, you have to do what works for you in your situation. Real people have real responsibilities. Real jobs, real families, real day-to-day issues of life. Just because some instructor or pro shooter can drill the center out doesn't mean you can, or even need to. In fact, if he can't, I'd be shocked. Every time someone tells me "oh, ninja-x can do this and this" the first thought I have is "no shit, he's supposed to! It's his JOB!" (reminds me of this scene) Do what you need to do, with the time and resources you have available, and be happy with it. But at the same time, be honest with yourself about your situation, both why you're really training and the reality of the likelihood that you'll need that training, and if you're missing out on hours per week with the family to prepare for something that is NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN, or spending your retirement money on learning ninja rolls, you're probably fucked up.
2013-08-22
2013-08-06
"Why are guys so in love with mil-spec parts?"
This is pretty entertaining on several levels.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1517007_Why_are_guys_so_in_love_with_mil_spec_parts_.html
Level 1 is probably the most important, and that is that he is missing the point. As I've repeated over and over again, the issue is not that so many companies exceed the minimum standard of "mil-spec", it's that so many companies can't even bring themselves to comply with the baseline. The ignoramuses (ignorami?) of the internet constantly assume that a company that doesn't comply is exceeding the spec. This defies logic. I'm a maker of a knockoff brand of ARs. I want to make money. I am presented with two materials, one costs twice what the other costs. I even have a third option, which is to spend thousands of dollars on R&D to come up with my own proprietary "better" material. Which do you think I'm going to choose? 90% will choose the cheapest material (DPMS, Olympic Arms, etc.), 9.99% will choose the more expensive material because they have some integrity and want to do it "right (BCM, Daniel Defense, etc.), and 0.01% will look to actually innovate (KAC..., and I can't think of any others). Again, "Mil-Spec" is a minimum standard, and it's a minimum standard that very few can even bring themselves to meet. Those that are not required to hold to a standard (Colt), rarely do.
Level 2 is where the fun begins. And that is that despite two pages of replies, almost none of the people posting can articulate the above. Why? Because they are just as clueless as the guy that started the thread. They fell into the trap of just buying whatever is more expensive and got lucky. The AR world is very much one of Sneetches when looking at the vast majority of buyers. Whether one has a sub-standard, non-mil-spec gun or a gun that meets or exceeds the spec is largely a matter of luck and personality type. The guy that is always looking for a deal and to save a few pennies winds up with a DPMS and the guy that mistakes expense for quality winds up (luckily) with the Colt. What is truly entertaining is when you get the dummies from group 1 and the dummies from group 2 ARGUING WITH EACH OTHER! It's like a food-fight on the short bus! Hey Colt guy, you don't know shit from brown bread any more than the DPMS guy does, you just got lucky on this one. If you can't respond to a thread like this with content similar to the first paragraph of this post, you are just as bad as the guy that started the thread. The scary part is when you get someone like the thread-starter who thought he was getting quality because he over-paid and turns out to have bought a bunch of snake oil at 2013 inflated prices. Ouch.
Level 3 is the guy that started the thread. Oh boy. As is usually the case in these situations, he gets outed for being all sand-in-pussy over previous slights on the internet.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_118/617203_SUPER_EXPENSIVE_AR__over__3000__PICTURE_THREAD.html
He over-paid for sub-standard parts, and still didn't come out with a quality gun or even one that's truly expensive, and gets trumped by the first person replying who posts a truly expensive gun (albeit one that probably cost the poster not $1 and in fact probably MADE him money). Then we go on to discover that this rocket-surgeon started another thread before that to brag about his "most expensive AR"
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_118/617197_Most_expensive_AR_.html
Frankly, I think the worst part of all of this is that he gets people replying. Which means there are more of him.
Level 4 is the Chart. Even after all of this time it's still getting referenced. I suspect that most of the people that posted about it in the original thread did so because they were being smart asses, but they are referencing it nonetheless. What is equally interesting is that the Explanation of Features is still live and all anyone has to do is link to it, but for whatever reasons (mostly pathetic Dr. Phil type reasons, I'm sure) they won't. Not to toot my own horn, but I still haven't seen a better answer the the thread-starter's question than the E of F.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1517007_Why_are_guys_so_in_love_with_mil_spec_parts_.html
Level 1 is probably the most important, and that is that he is missing the point. As I've repeated over and over again, the issue is not that so many companies exceed the minimum standard of "mil-spec", it's that so many companies can't even bring themselves to comply with the baseline. The ignoramuses (ignorami?) of the internet constantly assume that a company that doesn't comply is exceeding the spec. This defies logic. I'm a maker of a knockoff brand of ARs. I want to make money. I am presented with two materials, one costs twice what the other costs. I even have a third option, which is to spend thousands of dollars on R&D to come up with my own proprietary "better" material. Which do you think I'm going to choose? 90% will choose the cheapest material (DPMS, Olympic Arms, etc.), 9.99% will choose the more expensive material because they have some integrity and want to do it "right (BCM, Daniel Defense, etc.), and 0.01% will look to actually innovate (KAC..., and I can't think of any others). Again, "Mil-Spec" is a minimum standard, and it's a minimum standard that very few can even bring themselves to meet. Those that are not required to hold to a standard (Colt), rarely do.
Level 2 is where the fun begins. And that is that despite two pages of replies, almost none of the people posting can articulate the above. Why? Because they are just as clueless as the guy that started the thread. They fell into the trap of just buying whatever is more expensive and got lucky. The AR world is very much one of Sneetches when looking at the vast majority of buyers. Whether one has a sub-standard, non-mil-spec gun or a gun that meets or exceeds the spec is largely a matter of luck and personality type. The guy that is always looking for a deal and to save a few pennies winds up with a DPMS and the guy that mistakes expense for quality winds up (luckily) with the Colt. What is truly entertaining is when you get the dummies from group 1 and the dummies from group 2 ARGUING WITH EACH OTHER! It's like a food-fight on the short bus! Hey Colt guy, you don't know shit from brown bread any more than the DPMS guy does, you just got lucky on this one. If you can't respond to a thread like this with content similar to the first paragraph of this post, you are just as bad as the guy that started the thread. The scary part is when you get someone like the thread-starter who thought he was getting quality because he over-paid and turns out to have bought a bunch of snake oil at 2013 inflated prices. Ouch.
Level 3 is the guy that started the thread. Oh boy. As is usually the case in these situations, he gets outed for being all sand-in-pussy over previous slights on the internet.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_118/617203_SUPER_EXPENSIVE_AR__over__3000__PICTURE_THREAD.html
He over-paid for sub-standard parts, and still didn't come out with a quality gun or even one that's truly expensive, and gets trumped by the first person replying who posts a truly expensive gun (albeit one that probably cost the poster not $1 and in fact probably MADE him money). Then we go on to discover that this rocket-surgeon started another thread before that to brag about his "most expensive AR"
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_118/617197_Most_expensive_AR_.html
Frankly, I think the worst part of all of this is that he gets people replying. Which means there are more of him.
Level 4 is the Chart. Even after all of this time it's still getting referenced. I suspect that most of the people that posted about it in the original thread did so because they were being smart asses, but they are referencing it nonetheless. What is equally interesting is that the Explanation of Features is still live and all anyone has to do is link to it, but for whatever reasons (mostly pathetic Dr. Phil type reasons, I'm sure) they won't. Not to toot my own horn, but I still haven't seen a better answer the the thread-starter's question than the E of F.
2013-07-02
Why do you Care? (or, What's the Point?)
Very often people ask me one of the other of the questions above, or some variation thereof. They want to know why I bother, why I care, why I engage with "idiots on the internet", etc. Ironically, it also often comes along with "you're a dick". I find this ironic because I'm being both accused of caring about other people too much and being a dick. I'm not sure I get that leap.
Why I care is that I genuinely want people to avoid the same mistakes I made in the shooting sports. And I have made a lot. Most of them have resulted in a ton of money flushed down the toilet to no benefit, and a set of shooting skills that are below where they should be for someone that shoots as much as I do, and for as long as I have.
But what I really want people to do is ENGAGE THEIR FUCKING BRAINS, and be honest with themselves about what it is they want and need from a firearm. Since all we have to go on are the way that someone presents themselves and the words they use to describe their situation,
"Grab & Go"
I get a lot of questions from people about "grab and go" solutions. My first response is typically "what do you think you're grabbing and where do you think you're going?"
To set the stage a bit, and to keep me having to re-write more than necessary, the articles that people have typically read that lead them to asking me these kinds of questions are
To set the stage a bit, and to keep me having to re-write more than necessary, the articles that people have typically read that lead them to asking me these kinds of questions are
Some seem to miss the first two for what they are, which is examples of the concepts outlined, not a recipe for what to buy. Further, the first article was posted 4 September 2008 and the second article was posted 1 January 2010. The specific gear outlined may not even be available now, let alone what I actually use. The last, at least, is up to date but is pretty basic.
So let's talk about the concepts, and the core questions. What are you wanting to grab, and where are you wanting to go? Some mean they want to grab a pistol and a few supplies for inside the home, while others are wanting something to run off into the wilderness with to use in fighting blue helmets, zombies, or whatever. Some seem to think these things are one and the same, along with the rig they're going to use for competing, training, etc. Most often the reason for using the "grab and go" rig for the last two is some clutching to the concept of "train as you fight". A much better approach is what Pat McNamara calls "train for a fight". That subtle difference matters. There is a time to get all geared up and run around in all your muticam goodness, but that time is not every single time you pick up a gun. A boxer does not solely train by sparring while wearing all his ring gear. A quarterback does not solely train by playing scrimmage matches. A race car driver does not solely train on a track filled with dozens of other cars.
I can only assume, then, that at least part of the reason for this quest is one of attempting to save money by having a singular rig that does everything. In my experience the quest to have one setup to do everything means it will do everything half-assed and nothing well.
Something else to consider is what you are used to carrying. If your daily exertion is maxed out walking from the house to the car, and the car to the desk, and the desk to lunch, and the reverse of those three, you're fooling yourself if you're going to "go" very far with all that shit you "grabbed". Most prior military folks will have something of an advantage here in that they may know what it's like to carry a bunch of shit around, but depending on how long ago that service was they may have unrealistic romanticized notions about the "good old days" and may be failing to acknowledge that the guy at the desk isn't the same 22 year old kid humping a pack. Carrying more than you need, no matter how strong or willful, is stupid. As is carrying less than you need just to save weight. Factor that in to your decisions in your "grab and go" kit.
I am a big proponent of being prepared. Don't get me wrong. But the truth is that most of that preparation is mental and physical, and far less reliant on gear. People ask me "what do you use for home defense?" and my response is "whatever is handy." If my (or your) home defense plan is reliant on a specific gun, in a specific holster, in a specific place in the safe or closet, and you are not in a position to "grab" all that specific shit, it's useless to you. Or, worse, you go running looking for it and waste all that time only to find that it's in your range bag because your training rig is the same as your panic rig. Oops. If your end-of-the-world rig is sitting home on the day of the rapture and you're at Disney with the family 3,000 miles away, you're probably equally well good and fucked.
If you still think you need a "do all" solution, I'm probably not the best person to ask. I prefer to have specific gear for specific tasks while focusing instead on maintaining "muscle memory" (spare me the hipster , contrarian, arguments, I understand that muscles don't actually have brains or memories). I put my pistol in the same place, every time, all the time. I put my pistol reloads in the same place, every time, all the time. After my mental faculties and situational awareness have failed, and I find myself in a gunfight, I'm going to be happy that I know where to find the things that I need. While I may not have control over what portion of my house I'm in when the meth-heads down the street (by the way, if you do, in fact, have meth-heads down the street, you don't need a grab-n-go, you need to move) finally perform their brazen daylight home invasion, and therefore separate me from my armor, howitzer, and 5 million lumen strobe light on the other side of the house, I do have control over where on my immediate person I choose to place my pistol and my spare magazine.
It is my opinion (there, happy? I am trying to appease those easily upset) that for anyone outside of soldiers in a combat zone, your brain is your primary, you training is your secondary, and your pistol is your tertiary. Given that, it is important that your tertiary be prioritized and made readily available, and be where you expect it to be on your person when you expect it to be there. So whatever you grab and add to it, for wherever you're going, and whatever you're doing when you get there, have your pistol where you know how to get at it.
2012-10-25
Confessions of a reformed addict
You ever know somebody that had a problem with drugs or alcohol, or gambling, or whatever who got "cured" and then became all holy-roller and high-horse about how evil their former addiction was? I was ruminating the other day about my lack of drive to sign up for more, and more, and MOAR classes, and I happened upon something online where I referred to myself as a "training junkie". That's not a term I made up, as I've heard it used to describe others, or heard others use it to describe themselves.
What happened for me was a bit of a lightbulb moment, which wasn't really a moment at all and took me awhile to figure out. The realization that I came to is that I don't need more classes, I need more range time. Much like the shooter looking for MOAR when it comes to gear, trying to find that one magic item that will suddenly make them shoot like Enos or Butler. but it never comes. Well I've been stuck in a rut of trying to find that one instructor that's going to give me the magic pill that allows me to shoot better. It finally dawned on me that these are two sides of the same coin, and just like what the gear guy needs is more practice, what the training-class guy needs is more practice too.
Look, I've enjoyed every single class I've ever taken. Even the WORST training/instructor experiences I've had have been enjoyable in the end because I was surrounded by like-minded folks and because we shared a common bond of bitching about, or making fun of, the instructor. It's fun to get out of town, go out to dinner, and hey, even if the instruction sucks you're still outdoors all day shooting guns, which is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with treating a class like Outward Bound with guns and just going for the fun of it. But if your goal is just to get better, you are going to reach a point of diminishing returns, especially if you aren't doing anything to practice in between.
Kyle Defoor (who, by the way, offers what I think are some of the best "advanced" classes in the market) has said "a gunfight is an athletic event", and having never been in a gunfight myself it seems like a logical statement, but I think SHOOTING is also a bit of an athletic event, for lack of a better term. One thing I've noticed in the shooting sports in general is that a guy that is naturally athletic, or who grew up involved in sports (which is usually one in the same, since people rarely do anything they're not naturally good at) is going to take to shooting more quickly and naturally. Not being a physician or a head-shrinker I have no idea why that is, but it holds true over and over again. Now, by "athletic" I don't mean some juice-head that can't scratch his own shoulder because he's so "swoll", as I've seen those guys righteously struggle more than many others when they're trying to learn to shoot after getting big. The point of this is that there are some guys, and I know several of them, that can do virtually NO shooting between classes and show up and shoot better than 99% of the line, still complain to themselves about their own performance, and can actually use semi-annual courses as a tune-up just to keep the skills up.
I don't know about you, but I'm not that guy. I'm the guy that started out life playing sports like any other kid in the '80s, then became a teenager and decided all that shit was for losers, and started doing other things. Of course, I was never very naturally good at sports, I just tended to be taller than the other kids which gives you an advantage in most sports played under the age of 12. So when I got into shooting it was after a decade of basically not doing anything athletic, and that decade was spent in my teen years when people's bodies are chaging the whole time, so what you thought you could do when you were 12 is unlikely to be the same when you are 22 both due to a fond mis-remembering and an actual, total, physically different person.
So I struggle with shooting. Carbines I do OK with because they are frankly more about manipulations than anything else if you're doing anything other than trying to make the holes touch. Pistols, I struggle mightily. My eye focus is all fucked up, I rush the trigger and try to make the gun go off, I squeeze the grip too hard, etc. I can, and have, successfully teach others to shoot pistols better than I do, because I can see in them the same mistakes I make, and know what to do to correct them, I just can't seem to implement it for myself. So I keep going to these classes, hoping I'm going to get the magic pill. I'm going to encounter the one instructor that's going to tell me "put your pinky finger HERE" and it's all going to be better. it's not going to happen any more than that fancy new $200 trigger is going to have you shooting like Taran Butler.
What I need is more practice, not more instruction. Even with the little nuggets I've gotten here and there, they don't overcome the months of inactivity in between. Now, going to the occasional class is certainly better for your shooting skills than not shooting at all, that's not what I'm saying. But given that a class is probably going to run you $1k+ for a weekend including tuition, ammo, lodging, etc. there are probably WAY better ways to spend that money if your real goal is to get better. Of course, there are also way worse, depending on what kind of better you're looking for. I read a post the other day from a guy that shoots 1k rounds/month at the static range and only made Sharpshooter at his first IDPA classifier because he's not used to a timer, moving, engaging multiple targets... Sure, I suppose he's gotten better and better at Dot Torture, and maybe his holes have gotten closer and closer together, but if his goal has been to become a better practical, or all-around, or defensive shooter he's probably well beyond the point of getting any real return on the expense of the static range. At this point he would get more out of shooting one match per month and dryfire practice of the skills he's lacking at home than he will spending 2 nights a week at the indoor range trying to make the bullet holes touch.
Someone out there is surely saying right now "but you're constantly brow-beating people about more training!" and "didn't you just start your own training company?" and the answer in both cases is yes. I absolutely believe that you need to get some amount of training under your belt to start with. You need an introductory course. you may need two or three introductory courses. You should go take at least one intermediate or "advanced" course so you can see how much you suck. But beyond that, what you really need is practice. There is no such thing as a class that can make up for 4-6 months of not doing shit, not practicing what you learned in the last class, not dry-firing... So while yes, you absolutely need some training to start you off, what you need to do with that $1k after a few classes is take your ass to the static range, shoot some local matches, and get in your dryfire practice. going for MOAR classes isn't going to help you. and in fact, with the huge number of "advanced" classes that are nothing more than drills with the occasional supervision, they are often little more than practice that costs you twice as much because you took time off from work and traveled to go do it.
Randy Cain has told the story of his first rifle class at Thunder Ranch where they spent three days shooting positions at various distances, and that's basically all they did, and how he was disappointed when he started out on his drive home. But at some point on the road he realized that he kept telling himself "I could have stayed home and done that", and then after a few hundred more miles realized "yeah, but I wouldn't/didn't." That is the benefit of the multi-day course. If you're the guy that has a good baseline of skills, but never gets to a range, or never gets to a range that allows more dynamic shooting, then maybe what you do need is the occasional class to tune up and keep sharp. and let's not forget, they are fun. But if you don't have those limitations and you're not just looking for fun and you genuinely want to improve, what you should be doing is making the time to practice at home or nearby. If your baseline skills are that good you can probably stay just as tuned up and get better at things you're never going to get in any class simply by attending an IDPA or USPSA match once a month and doing a little dryfire in between.
So, much like the pothead or the drunk who got clean, I'm more of a reformed training junkie myself now. Which means I'll probably get on my high horse and get preachy about it from time to time. Or maybe this blog post got it out of my system.
PS
Our "Clinics" at Goal-Oriented Training are an attempt to offer this very type of supervised, structured, practice. When we started the company I mistakenly thought that more people realized that this is what they really need. Either due to poor marketing on our part, or due to my being completely wrong about what people think they need, the Clinics haven't done as well as I'd have hoped and thought. I'm not sure if it's because people don't understand the format or concept, or if they simply don't want to actually practice and be measured and prefer the silent anonymity of the bulk class where they can quickly hide their performance with tape. Our Clinics aren't about fun (although they are, in fact, fun) or war stories or hobknobbing with Tier 1 guys, they are simply about taking an opportunity to spend 6 hours on the range focusing on a single skill, or a series of like skills, to get better as a shooter, and to get an opportunity to have your performance weighed and measured. Maybe the problem is that people are afraid of winding up like this guy.
What happened for me was a bit of a lightbulb moment, which wasn't really a moment at all and took me awhile to figure out. The realization that I came to is that I don't need more classes, I need more range time. Much like the shooter looking for MOAR when it comes to gear, trying to find that one magic item that will suddenly make them shoot like Enos or Butler. but it never comes. Well I've been stuck in a rut of trying to find that one instructor that's going to give me the magic pill that allows me to shoot better. It finally dawned on me that these are two sides of the same coin, and just like what the gear guy needs is more practice, what the training-class guy needs is more practice too.
Look, I've enjoyed every single class I've ever taken. Even the WORST training/instructor experiences I've had have been enjoyable in the end because I was surrounded by like-minded folks and because we shared a common bond of bitching about, or making fun of, the instructor. It's fun to get out of town, go out to dinner, and hey, even if the instruction sucks you're still outdoors all day shooting guns, which is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with treating a class like Outward Bound with guns and just going for the fun of it. But if your goal is just to get better, you are going to reach a point of diminishing returns, especially if you aren't doing anything to practice in between.
Kyle Defoor (who, by the way, offers what I think are some of the best "advanced" classes in the market) has said "a gunfight is an athletic event", and having never been in a gunfight myself it seems like a logical statement, but I think SHOOTING is also a bit of an athletic event, for lack of a better term. One thing I've noticed in the shooting sports in general is that a guy that is naturally athletic, or who grew up involved in sports (which is usually one in the same, since people rarely do anything they're not naturally good at) is going to take to shooting more quickly and naturally. Not being a physician or a head-shrinker I have no idea why that is, but it holds true over and over again. Now, by "athletic" I don't mean some juice-head that can't scratch his own shoulder because he's so "swoll", as I've seen those guys righteously struggle more than many others when they're trying to learn to shoot after getting big. The point of this is that there are some guys, and I know several of them, that can do virtually NO shooting between classes and show up and shoot better than 99% of the line, still complain to themselves about their own performance, and can actually use semi-annual courses as a tune-up just to keep the skills up.
I don't know about you, but I'm not that guy. I'm the guy that started out life playing sports like any other kid in the '80s, then became a teenager and decided all that shit was for losers, and started doing other things. Of course, I was never very naturally good at sports, I just tended to be taller than the other kids which gives you an advantage in most sports played under the age of 12. So when I got into shooting it was after a decade of basically not doing anything athletic, and that decade was spent in my teen years when people's bodies are chaging the whole time, so what you thought you could do when you were 12 is unlikely to be the same when you are 22 both due to a fond mis-remembering and an actual, total, physically different person.
So I struggle with shooting. Carbines I do OK with because they are frankly more about manipulations than anything else if you're doing anything other than trying to make the holes touch. Pistols, I struggle mightily. My eye focus is all fucked up, I rush the trigger and try to make the gun go off, I squeeze the grip too hard, etc. I can, and have, successfully teach others to shoot pistols better than I do, because I can see in them the same mistakes I make, and know what to do to correct them, I just can't seem to implement it for myself. So I keep going to these classes, hoping I'm going to get the magic pill. I'm going to encounter the one instructor that's going to tell me "put your pinky finger HERE" and it's all going to be better. it's not going to happen any more than that fancy new $200 trigger is going to have you shooting like Taran Butler.
What I need is more practice, not more instruction. Even with the little nuggets I've gotten here and there, they don't overcome the months of inactivity in between. Now, going to the occasional class is certainly better for your shooting skills than not shooting at all, that's not what I'm saying. But given that a class is probably going to run you $1k+ for a weekend including tuition, ammo, lodging, etc. there are probably WAY better ways to spend that money if your real goal is to get better. Of course, there are also way worse, depending on what kind of better you're looking for. I read a post the other day from a guy that shoots 1k rounds/month at the static range and only made Sharpshooter at his first IDPA classifier because he's not used to a timer, moving, engaging multiple targets... Sure, I suppose he's gotten better and better at Dot Torture, and maybe his holes have gotten closer and closer together, but if his goal has been to become a better practical, or all-around, or defensive shooter he's probably well beyond the point of getting any real return on the expense of the static range. At this point he would get more out of shooting one match per month and dryfire practice of the skills he's lacking at home than he will spending 2 nights a week at the indoor range trying to make the bullet holes touch.
Someone out there is surely saying right now "but you're constantly brow-beating people about more training!" and "didn't you just start your own training company?" and the answer in both cases is yes. I absolutely believe that you need to get some amount of training under your belt to start with. You need an introductory course. you may need two or three introductory courses. You should go take at least one intermediate or "advanced" course so you can see how much you suck. But beyond that, what you really need is practice. There is no such thing as a class that can make up for 4-6 months of not doing shit, not practicing what you learned in the last class, not dry-firing... So while yes, you absolutely need some training to start you off, what you need to do with that $1k after a few classes is take your ass to the static range, shoot some local matches, and get in your dryfire practice. going for MOAR classes isn't going to help you. and in fact, with the huge number of "advanced" classes that are nothing more than drills with the occasional supervision, they are often little more than practice that costs you twice as much because you took time off from work and traveled to go do it.
Randy Cain has told the story of his first rifle class at Thunder Ranch where they spent three days shooting positions at various distances, and that's basically all they did, and how he was disappointed when he started out on his drive home. But at some point on the road he realized that he kept telling himself "I could have stayed home and done that", and then after a few hundred more miles realized "yeah, but I wouldn't/didn't." That is the benefit of the multi-day course. If you're the guy that has a good baseline of skills, but never gets to a range, or never gets to a range that allows more dynamic shooting, then maybe what you do need is the occasional class to tune up and keep sharp. and let's not forget, they are fun. But if you don't have those limitations and you're not just looking for fun and you genuinely want to improve, what you should be doing is making the time to practice at home or nearby. If your baseline skills are that good you can probably stay just as tuned up and get better at things you're never going to get in any class simply by attending an IDPA or USPSA match once a month and doing a little dryfire in between.
So, much like the pothead or the drunk who got clean, I'm more of a reformed training junkie myself now. Which means I'll probably get on my high horse and get preachy about it from time to time. Or maybe this blog post got it out of my system.
PS
Our "Clinics" at Goal-Oriented Training are an attempt to offer this very type of supervised, structured, practice. When we started the company I mistakenly thought that more people realized that this is what they really need. Either due to poor marketing on our part, or due to my being completely wrong about what people think they need, the Clinics haven't done as well as I'd have hoped and thought. I'm not sure if it's because people don't understand the format or concept, or if they simply don't want to actually practice and be measured and prefer the silent anonymity of the bulk class where they can quickly hide their performance with tape. Our Clinics aren't about fun (although they are, in fact, fun) or war stories or hobknobbing with Tier 1 guys, they are simply about taking an opportunity to spend 6 hours on the range focusing on a single skill, or a series of like skills, to get better as a shooter, and to get an opportunity to have your performance weighed and measured. Maybe the problem is that people are afraid of winding up like this guy.
2012-09-19
Future of TYV
Right out of the gate, let me tell you, if you subscribe to my facebook, read my blog, miss me on the forums, or are otherwise concerned with paying attention to what I say because you like my gear reviews, you may as well go ahead and un-like and un-friend me now. As of this writing I have 865 fans on my TYV facebook page, so lets wait and see if that number goes down in the next few days.
The bottom line is I can’t compete with the other guys that are out there doing this stuff, and it seems silly to try. I don’t have the time or the financial backing of Andrew over at vuurwap...whatever to do the kind of analytical analysis he does. I wish I did, God bless the guy. I have a couple of tests I probably ought to just send him. But here’s the thing, and that is that based on the Curve of Inevitability, I realize that it doesn’t matter. How many times can I go test some New Hotness, be unable to discern any real measurable improvement that the same investment of ammo wouldn’t have produced, and release my findings only to be met with the wailing and gnashing of teeth of the internets, and maybe one or two percent that get it?
I can’t take pictures, nor do I have the industry connections, like Stickman or Militarymoron. I don’t have the personality of Milspec Monkey. I am hopefully not quite as mentally challenged as nutnfancy or that weird Russian dude (if he even really is Russian). I’m tired of dealing with deadlines, editors, and publishers all to make less money in writing commissions than I spent doing whatever it was I was writing about.
I’m tired of starting projects I don’t have time or resources to see through. I’m tired of industry people sending me knicknacks and then getting all assed-up when I don’t produce a review, or a favorable review, in their timeline, which they don’t bother to tell me about right out of the gate but instead work themselves into a lather with zero communication, and when they do write to complain I offer to give it back only to have them reply with “no, no, just keep it”. Do they really think this shit pays the bills? Like I don’t have a job to get to in order to actually make my car payment, aside from all this silly “firearms lifestyle” stuff? I tell them right out of the gate that this is a part-time side gig and things happen when they happen. By the same token, I don’t blame them for being mad when they’re out product, which is money, so it’s probably better to just stop asking.
What I can do is what I’ve always naturally done, and that is question things. Especially establishment things. I’ve always been a “why?” guy, and if 20 people are saying the same thing, it just makes me ask “why?” even more. As Patton said, “if everyone is thinking the same thing then someone isn’t thinking”. In architecture school, why is everything. I learned quickly that what you said was as important as what you did. The Guggenheim makes a horrible house, and Falling Water makes a horrible museum. Why, or a purpose, matters. And just because you say, or think, you have a purpose doesn’t mean that’s the real purpose. The guy that buys a Harley and tells his cowokers he wants to “ride and be free” may very well think he wants to do just that. But if he’s logging 20 miles a month and they are all to the bar and back to go meet his new biker friends, I would argue that he’s neither riding, nor free. Similarly if a guy is buying a gun because he says he needs to protect his family but then can’t go take a single Saturday away from them to learn how to use it, I’d say he must not really be feeling that threat all so much. You may not see it the same way, and you don’t have to. Start your own blog and support all that stuff. Or stay subscribed here and tell me off.
I just simply don't know any other way to be, and at nearly 38 years old it's too late to change. The good news is that I can keep saying what I want, how I want, whether I'm posting on a forum or banned, have 865 facebook fans or 8. Frankly, at 8, I bet it'd be the 8 that were getting the most out of it. But trying to be the evaluator guy with accelerometers and high-speed cameras, or the photographer guy with 10,000 facebook likes, a phone full of industry friends, and a calendar, or some youtube celebrity, just isn’t in my DNA.
So, going forward, what TYV will be is primarily the blog. If you’ve read stuff there and found it informative, keep on subscribing. If you like concept pieces, like arguments, like to occasionally read something you don’t agree with but that gets your brain spinning, keep on reading. If you like hearing the counter-point to whatever new-hotness drops at SHOT, this is the place. But if you’re waiting for charts, reviews of training classes, links to the latest magazine articles, etc. that shit is done and you’d probably be better served by un-liking the facebook page. Your bloodpressure will thank you. If you’ve been putting up with me because you’re waiting for some new review to come out that “makes his attitude worthwhile”, it’s not coming. I don’t have the time, the results are no longer interesting to me, and I’m tired of casting pearls before swine. Which isn’t to say that every single time my fingers strike a key a pearl is produced, but I’m no longer interested in hearing your snorts, or wasting my time and money only to be greeted by snorts.
The bottom line is I can’t compete with the other guys that are out there doing this stuff, and it seems silly to try. I don’t have the time or the financial backing of Andrew over at vuurwap...whatever to do the kind of analytical analysis he does. I wish I did, God bless the guy. I have a couple of tests I probably ought to just send him. But here’s the thing, and that is that based on the Curve of Inevitability, I realize that it doesn’t matter. How many times can I go test some New Hotness, be unable to discern any real measurable improvement that the same investment of ammo wouldn’t have produced, and release my findings only to be met with the wailing and gnashing of teeth of the internets, and maybe one or two percent that get it?
I can’t take pictures, nor do I have the industry connections, like Stickman or Militarymoron. I don’t have the personality of Milspec Monkey. I am hopefully not quite as mentally challenged as nutnfancy or that weird Russian dude (if he even really is Russian). I’m tired of dealing with deadlines, editors, and publishers all to make less money in writing commissions than I spent doing whatever it was I was writing about.
I’m tired of starting projects I don’t have time or resources to see through. I’m tired of industry people sending me knicknacks and then getting all assed-up when I don’t produce a review, or a favorable review, in their timeline, which they don’t bother to tell me about right out of the gate but instead work themselves into a lather with zero communication, and when they do write to complain I offer to give it back only to have them reply with “no, no, just keep it”. Do they really think this shit pays the bills? Like I don’t have a job to get to in order to actually make my car payment, aside from all this silly “firearms lifestyle” stuff? I tell them right out of the gate that this is a part-time side gig and things happen when they happen. By the same token, I don’t blame them for being mad when they’re out product, which is money, so it’s probably better to just stop asking.
What I can do is what I’ve always naturally done, and that is question things. Especially establishment things. I’ve always been a “why?” guy, and if 20 people are saying the same thing, it just makes me ask “why?” even more. As Patton said, “if everyone is thinking the same thing then someone isn’t thinking”. In architecture school, why is everything. I learned quickly that what you said was as important as what you did. The Guggenheim makes a horrible house, and Falling Water makes a horrible museum. Why, or a purpose, matters. And just because you say, or think, you have a purpose doesn’t mean that’s the real purpose. The guy that buys a Harley and tells his cowokers he wants to “ride and be free” may very well think he wants to do just that. But if he’s logging 20 miles a month and they are all to the bar and back to go meet his new biker friends, I would argue that he’s neither riding, nor free. Similarly if a guy is buying a gun because he says he needs to protect his family but then can’t go take a single Saturday away from them to learn how to use it, I’d say he must not really be feeling that threat all so much. You may not see it the same way, and you don’t have to. Start your own blog and support all that stuff. Or stay subscribed here and tell me off.
I just simply don't know any other way to be, and at nearly 38 years old it's too late to change. The good news is that I can keep saying what I want, how I want, whether I'm posting on a forum or banned, have 865 facebook fans or 8. Frankly, at 8, I bet it'd be the 8 that were getting the most out of it. But trying to be the evaluator guy with accelerometers and high-speed cameras, or the photographer guy with 10,000 facebook likes, a phone full of industry friends, and a calendar, or some youtube celebrity, just isn’t in my DNA.
So, going forward, what TYV will be is primarily the blog. If you’ve read stuff there and found it informative, keep on subscribing. If you like concept pieces, like arguments, like to occasionally read something you don’t agree with but that gets your brain spinning, keep on reading. If you like hearing the counter-point to whatever new-hotness drops at SHOT, this is the place. But if you’re waiting for charts, reviews of training classes, links to the latest magazine articles, etc. that shit is done and you’d probably be better served by un-liking the facebook page. Your bloodpressure will thank you. If you’ve been putting up with me because you’re waiting for some new review to come out that “makes his attitude worthwhile”, it’s not coming. I don’t have the time, the results are no longer interesting to me, and I’m tired of casting pearls before swine. Which isn’t to say that every single time my fingers strike a key a pearl is produced, but I’m no longer interested in hearing your snorts, or wasting my time and money only to be greeted by snorts.
2012-09-18
The Curve of Inevitability
Pretty arrogant huh? To call something you came up with “inevitable”? Like most things I say or do that come across as arrogant, it’s mostly tongue-in-cheek. Mostly.
So what about this curve? What is it? What’s invertible about it? Well, to start with, it’s two curves, and it looks like this.
Right about now you’re either thinking “yeah, I get it, it’s the indian not the arrow” or you’re thinking “this guy is a jackass, everyone knows good gear helps you if you have the ability”. And you’re both right.
As a community or industry we throw around phrases like “it’s the indian not the arrow “ or “it’s the singer, not the song” all the time. Mostly we pay lip service to them. It’s not until you keep trying to solve software problems with hardware (how’s that for a cliche?) and START RECORDING THE RESULTS, and see that you’re not getting anywhere that you really start to grasp those concepts. And what is outlined in the curve is the reason for that.
For someone starting out right out of the gate with their first gun, if you take away their stock Colt 6920 with iron sights shooting Wolf and hand them a gun with stainless barrel, two-stage trigger, magnified optic, and bi-pod, and give them some match-grade ammo instead, they are going to shoot tighter groups. “But Rob”, you’re saying “aren’t you the one that always says those things don’t make you a better shooter?” Yes, I am. And they don’t. They just made some guy with a whopping 100 rounds through an AR ever shoot a tighter group on a piece of paper. Now, if his whole goal in life is to only ever shoot that size group, and he’s never going to practice beyond that first 100 rounds, and he’s never going to shoot any other gun until he need to shoot that size group again at some point in the future, then he should go buy all that shit and bolt it on his rifle and stick it in the safe. He will forever stay at the far left-hand peak of the red line. He doesn’t know shit from brown bread, has zero ability, and so gear matters more to him than to any other person in the universe of firearms. He will see more improvement per dollar spent on gear than anyone else, ever. And it still matters twice as much in your head as it does on the range.
But the very next time that guy goes to the range, all that shit is going to matter less. And less. And less. and his buddy or partner who doesn’t have so much disposable income to burn on gidgets and wizmos is probably becoming a better shooter, and catching up to the guy with the proton pack and flux capacitor on his gun pretty quickly. Give that broke guy a class instead of a scope and a bipod and he’s going to be smoking the rich dude right quick. Because the money guy that never practices and relies on all his accessories is going to plateau right out of the gate. So not only does your actual reliance on all that stuff wane pretty quickly, but it also means your abilities are going to stagnate right where they are, and sooner or later your head is going to pop out of your ass and even you are going to realize how little it matters. That’s why after the initial peak both the red and the green lines go down, but the red line really drops fast. That’s the post-head-pop trajectory.
Whether you start with the basics or you start with more gun than you know what to do with, at some point the two lines almost meet. They never fully meet because most people will always fool themselves into putting more emphasis on the equipment than they should. More on that at the end of this post. But you reach a point where the gear is mattering less and less and your skills really are being limited by the equipment you’re using. Many people think this happens much earlier than it does, and they go from Production to Limited to Open all in the matter of a few months because they think it’s their skills that plateaued. They haven’t. If you’re not WINNING Production at your local match, to the point that everyone else that shows up is battling for second place, it’s not the gear. Most people are going to miss that bottoming out, which is why the green curve bottoms out a little bit after the red.
But there is a point that you simply can’t improve in either time or precision without changing the equipment. If you’re shooting 2” groups with iron sights at 100 yards with XM193 out of a Milspec barrel, you’re definitely at the limit of your equipment. If you’re cleaning dot torture at 7 yards with your Glock 19 with mostly stock parts, you’ve definitely reached the limit of your equipment. If you can shoot a Half-and-Half clean with iron sights and a stock 6920, you’ve reached the limit of your equipment. There are dozens of other examples, but these are just a few, and they’re made here to point out that there is a limit. I had a 2005 GTO that I used to take to the drag strip. When I was getting the same ¼-mile time, week after week, and it was the best time I was seeing anyone report with a stock car, I had reached the limit of that equipment. If I wanted to go faster I needed a torque converter, or drag radials, or I was going to have to start getting into power-adders.
So the results actually do improve with the new gear. The thing is, you’re also still learning and practicing all this time. If you’re not, you’re not seeing the improvement. And if you’re not the type to practice, you’re not the type to keep records, and in that case this whole post is useless to you. You cannot report improvement if you don’t keep records. If you can’t tell me how much tighter your groups got with your new trigger or optic, or how much faster your times got, you’re no less silly than the guy who put a cold air intake into his Civic and reported a 15 HP increase by measuring with “the seat of my pants”. So if you know it is helping, you must be keeping records, and if you are keeping records you have to be practicing, otherwise what is there to keep records of?
Now notice on the graph that about the time you start to plateau in ability, the “thinking” curve, the red curve, starts back down again. you though I just drew this shit with my finger, didn’t you? Well I did, but I still drew the curves with a purpose. That’s because you’re finally starting to get it. That’s the second, smaller pop. Like when a jet comes back down from breaking the sound barrier.
Remember earlier when I said I’d talk about the curves touching at the end of this post? Well this is that part. Notice that the red line is still on a downward trajectory? If you’re lucky, that will continue, and you will finally, actually, understand what people mean when they say “it’s the indian and not the arrow”, and you’ll also realize how you had no idea what you were talking about when you said it before this point.
So what about this curve? What is it? What’s invertible about it? Well, to start with, it’s two curves, and it looks like this.
Right about now you’re either thinking “yeah, I get it, it’s the indian not the arrow” or you’re thinking “this guy is a jackass, everyone knows good gear helps you if you have the ability”. And you’re both right.
As a community or industry we throw around phrases like “it’s the indian not the arrow “ or “it’s the singer, not the song” all the time. Mostly we pay lip service to them. It’s not until you keep trying to solve software problems with hardware (how’s that for a cliche?) and START RECORDING THE RESULTS, and see that you’re not getting anywhere that you really start to grasp those concepts. And what is outlined in the curve is the reason for that.
For someone starting out right out of the gate with their first gun, if you take away their stock Colt 6920 with iron sights shooting Wolf and hand them a gun with stainless barrel, two-stage trigger, magnified optic, and bi-pod, and give them some match-grade ammo instead, they are going to shoot tighter groups. “But Rob”, you’re saying “aren’t you the one that always says those things don’t make you a better shooter?” Yes, I am. And they don’t. They just made some guy with a whopping 100 rounds through an AR ever shoot a tighter group on a piece of paper. Now, if his whole goal in life is to only ever shoot that size group, and he’s never going to practice beyond that first 100 rounds, and he’s never going to shoot any other gun until he need to shoot that size group again at some point in the future, then he should go buy all that shit and bolt it on his rifle and stick it in the safe. He will forever stay at the far left-hand peak of the red line. He doesn’t know shit from brown bread, has zero ability, and so gear matters more to him than to any other person in the universe of firearms. He will see more improvement per dollar spent on gear than anyone else, ever. And it still matters twice as much in your head as it does on the range.
But the very next time that guy goes to the range, all that shit is going to matter less. And less. And less. and his buddy or partner who doesn’t have so much disposable income to burn on gidgets and wizmos is probably becoming a better shooter, and catching up to the guy with the proton pack and flux capacitor on his gun pretty quickly. Give that broke guy a class instead of a scope and a bipod and he’s going to be smoking the rich dude right quick. Because the money guy that never practices and relies on all his accessories is going to plateau right out of the gate. So not only does your actual reliance on all that stuff wane pretty quickly, but it also means your abilities are going to stagnate right where they are, and sooner or later your head is going to pop out of your ass and even you are going to realize how little it matters. That’s why after the initial peak both the red and the green lines go down, but the red line really drops fast. That’s the post-head-pop trajectory.
Whether you start with the basics or you start with more gun than you know what to do with, at some point the two lines almost meet. They never fully meet because most people will always fool themselves into putting more emphasis on the equipment than they should. More on that at the end of this post. But you reach a point where the gear is mattering less and less and your skills really are being limited by the equipment you’re using. Many people think this happens much earlier than it does, and they go from Production to Limited to Open all in the matter of a few months because they think it’s their skills that plateaued. They haven’t. If you’re not WINNING Production at your local match, to the point that everyone else that shows up is battling for second place, it’s not the gear. Most people are going to miss that bottoming out, which is why the green curve bottoms out a little bit after the red.
But there is a point that you simply can’t improve in either time or precision without changing the equipment. If you’re shooting 2” groups with iron sights at 100 yards with XM193 out of a Milspec barrel, you’re definitely at the limit of your equipment. If you’re cleaning dot torture at 7 yards with your Glock 19 with mostly stock parts, you’ve definitely reached the limit of your equipment. If you can shoot a Half-and-Half clean with iron sights and a stock 6920, you’ve reached the limit of your equipment. There are dozens of other examples, but these are just a few, and they’re made here to point out that there is a limit. I had a 2005 GTO that I used to take to the drag strip. When I was getting the same ¼-mile time, week after week, and it was the best time I was seeing anyone report with a stock car, I had reached the limit of that equipment. If I wanted to go faster I needed a torque converter, or drag radials, or I was going to have to start getting into power-adders.
So the results actually do improve with the new gear. The thing is, you’re also still learning and practicing all this time. If you’re not, you’re not seeing the improvement. And if you’re not the type to practice, you’re not the type to keep records, and in that case this whole post is useless to you. You cannot report improvement if you don’t keep records. If you can’t tell me how much tighter your groups got with your new trigger or optic, or how much faster your times got, you’re no less silly than the guy who put a cold air intake into his Civic and reported a 15 HP increase by measuring with “the seat of my pants”. So if you know it is helping, you must be keeping records, and if you are keeping records you have to be practicing, otherwise what is there to keep records of?
Now notice on the graph that about the time you start to plateau in ability, the “thinking” curve, the red curve, starts back down again. you though I just drew this shit with my finger, didn’t you? Well I did, but I still drew the curves with a purpose. That’s because you’re finally starting to get it. That’s the second, smaller pop. Like when a jet comes back down from breaking the sound barrier.
Remember earlier when I said I’d talk about the curves touching at the end of this post? Well this is that part. Notice that the red line is still on a downward trajectory? If you’re lucky, that will continue, and you will finally, actually, understand what people mean when they say “it’s the indian and not the arrow”, and you’ll also realize how you had no idea what you were talking about when you said it before this point.
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