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[greybeardactual]

#flashbackfriday to the early Chicago Police days of leather jackets and vests under the shirt. The job and the world were different then. #chicagopolice #hillstreetblues #bigcitycop #beforethebeardwasgrey (at Chicago, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfMZIHxLzLb/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

Happy birthday to my @vixen_actual - my partner, my muse, my prize. So very grateful you’re mine. #birthdaygirl #ourlifeourway #mine https://www.instagram.com/p/CfH9srjLPRI/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

Quality Over Quantity “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Will Durant It’s all to easy to think that more is simply better, especially where training is concerned. This has long been a struggle of mine. That’s partially because of my personality type, and partially because of the nature of much of my early training, both military and even earlier in the dojos of my youth. It’s a flawed paradigm though. As others have said, practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent. Or at least it makes long-term. I have damaged my shooting, and other skills, in the past by practicing incorrectly. Especially because of my tendency towards a more is better mindset. Don’t misunderstand my point here. Volume is absolutely necessary, as is frequency. No one ever truly masters a skill without a large amount of frequent and focused effort. But it has to be the correct effort and intelligently applied. Simply throwing sloppy effort at a skill will never get you to the level that quality practice will. Each repetition, each training session, must be purposeful and mindful. Every press of the trigger, every round fired, every step of footwork, should be a lesson learned. You need training volume and frequency to improve, but quantity alone won’t get you where you need to be without a commensurate focus on quality effort. Quality over quantity. #thewayisintraining #greybeardactual #trainlikeanathlete (at The Way) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfG2HgdrQqK/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

For West Texas and New Mexico/Arizona LE and military, I’ll be teaching a day of flat range and two days of CQB in El Paso through @ttpoa August 17-19. Register on the TTPOA website. #swat #cqb #tacticaltraining #firearmstraining (at El Paso, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfFZme1rC-B/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

Happy Father’s Day everyone! This is my favorite picture of my dad. He sent it to me on his 65th birthday, when I was on a deployment. The older I get the more that I realize his contributions to who I am are immeasurable and irreplaceable. #fathersday https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce_YtmXLGYS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

Only two slots left for this class. It’s sure to sell out, so if you want in better grab it now! #thewayisintraining #greybeardactual #firearmstraining https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce0vD-7uXWr/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

Weapons Retention “Remember the first rule of gunfighting... have a gun." - Jeff Cooper Weapons retention is crucial for anyone carrying a firearm. In law enforcement management circles, this is all too often addressed solely through mandating holsters with multiple levels of retention rather than through effective training in combatives. At its heart, weapons retention is a software issue, not a hardware one. Situational awareness and combatives skill trump kit selection where this is concerned. In the military, until relatively recently, weapons retention hasn’t received enough attention, especially in conventional units. Now though there are realistic training programs such as the jujitsu-based MACP and SOCP system that effectively address weapons retention. In this though, as in so many other aspects of the profession of arms, it simply isn’t enough to rely on the training your department or unit provides. You need to seek out training on your own. Regardless of whether you are a policeman, or a soldier, or an armed citizen, weapons retention needs to be trained, and it needs to be trained realistically and effectively. I’m a proponent of basing weapons retention techniques off of jujitsu. If you look at the classical development of jujitsu, it developed in a weapons based environment and included techniques for retaining your weapons and stripping an opponent of theirs. It has been explored for modern application and remains as effective now as it was in feudal Japan. If you combine this with a study and practice of Filipino martial arts such as kali and arnis you can develop a solid level of applicable skill. The SOCP and MACP programs of Gregg Thompson, the Shivworks training of Paul Sharp and others, the excellent ECQC courses of Craig Douglas, and other training can help provide a framework, but the truth is that skill requires regular practice. Seek out that practice and frame it in ways applicable to your environment and weaponry. Develop a solid foundation of combative skill and it will serve you well. As always, the way is in training. #thewayisintraining #greybeardactual #jujitsu #kali #shivworks #ecqc #socp #weaponsretention (at The Way) https://www.instagram.com/p/CewJAPCLo1R/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

The website is updated and working. All open enrollment classes and merchandise are available for purchase. https://www.instagram.com/p/CeuNPvrLMRY/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

The design for our official target is finalized, thanks to @rileyconcealedcarry and @nationaltarget, and they should be available for sale on our website soon, and used in my classes. The target has a B8 Center for accuracy work as well as three 3” circles for my trademark drills and my 3:45 Skill Card. The rest of the target uses my “gunfight hit factor” scoring zones. Upper half of the USPSA body A zone stays an A, along with regular head A zone. The C zone is extended down to pelvic girdle and up to head A. Rest of head and body is the D zone. Idea is that in a gunfight these reflect optimal, acceptable, and unacceptable hits more realistically than standard USPSA targets. #thewayisintraining #greybeardactual #hitfactor (at The Way) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceo8-MMOO7U/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

Permission To Fail “Show me a guy who's afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time.” - Lou Brock One of the biggest flaws I see in institutional training, both military and police, is a zero-defect mentality. This idea that we can never miss, even in training. I understand where it comes from. It’s rooted in the doctrine, fundamental to our professional culture, that we are accountable for every round fired and cannot afford collateral damage. And this doctrine is valid, when it comes to the application of our skill. The problem is that, except when testing skill, carrying over that doctrine to the training environment will prevent us from ever reaching our potential. To improve, we have to push ourselves to the failure point when developing skill. This is especially true when developing speed in our shooting. No one ever became truly fast without training at a pace where they couldn’t guarantee success. One of the cliches of institutional firearms training is the admonition to “slow down and get your hits.” The problem with this is that when you slow down you are no longer challenging your skill. You don’t get truly good at anything by staying in your comfort zone. Instead of “slowing down to get your hits,” maintain that challenging pace and learn to make your hits without backing off the speed. Continue that process, and in short order you will drastically improve your performance. You’ll make a lot of mistakes along the way, but the point of training is to get better, not to feel good about your current level of skill. #thewayisintraining #greybeardactual #gofasttobefast #performanceshooting #firearmstraining (at The Way) https://www.instagram.com/p/CegcDhCLAvv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

I’m coming up on two weeks post-op on the second hip. Recovery is right on schedule. I’m going to be finally able to teach, shoot, move and live at a much higher level again very soon. Time to put in some work with my @vixen_actual at my side #moremachinethanman #resleeved #thecostofbusiness (at The Way) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeYiAO5rSHu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

Flashback Friday to when @lespepperoni and I both still lived in Illinois and were training partners for USPSA. #tbt #uspsa #flashbackfriday #beforethebeardwasgrey https://www.instagram.com/p/CeWC8c2rwTl/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

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Support Side Training There are typically three reasons for training support side work. It can be for competition. It can be for when the shooter is wounded on their strong side. Or it can be out of a desire to minimize exposure when utilizing cover. There is another reason in my opinion though, that for the serious student is more important than any of the others. I’m a big believer that some drills have a training carryover out of proportion to their application value. In my opinion, support side work is one of these. The better I am at a wide variety of tasks with my firearms, the better I can competently address unique situations. There is a phenomenon referred to my sports psychologists as “chunking,” where tasks are combined into groups or chunks which are then used to ensure correct and competent responses by the athlete. Chunking allows us to have building blocks of subconsciously competent skills we can apply to unforeseen situations. Then when we are faced with a unique problem to solve, our subconscious can assemble those “chunks” of skill into a workable solution. There is also a carryover value in my opinion in learning to do things with the “opposite” body alignment. Shooting with my support hand has a carryover value to shooting with my strong hand regardless of how likely it is that I will need to do it in application. The same is true for weapons manipulations. Before I started competing, I never practiced any skills that I didn’t think had direct application to gunfighting. And when constructing training for people who have limited time or motivation I still think that is a valid training strategy. But someone who is going to put in a significant amount of time and work towards mastery can and should take a different approach. Challenging the brain by changing up which side we run the gun with or otherwise altering motor patterns can be a valuable skill builder, as long as it isn’t made a training priority. Do this sort of training too frequently and it can interfere with your progress. Use these sorts of challenges sparingly though, and you’ll see skill improvements. #thewayisintraining #greybeardactual #practicalshooting (at The Way) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeOt7dYuxL4/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

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These men sacrificed all for us. For their teammates, for their country. But, I guarantee you they didn’t do it for accolades or tribute. I’ll honor their memories, and the memories of others who gave all every year on Memorial Day. But the way to honor them is to live. Live a life worthy of the sacrifice. Live a life of accomplishment and experience. Live a life of freedom. And enjoy the act of living. (Song is “Rolling With the Heat” by @bonesfork, a band of Special Forces Veterans.) #memorialday #neverforgotten #specialforces #greenberets #deoppressoliber #gwot #oef #afghanistan @specialforcesfoundation_ @20thspecialforces @mattpucinofoundation https://www.instagram.com/p/CeLqvvEMSCF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

New Blog Post: “Priority of Life” “Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.” - Johnathan Swift As of this writing, our nation is reeling in the aftermath of an active shooting in a rural Texas elementary school. Politicians, journalists, and activists are attempting to exploit the tragedy for their own agendas. Parents are grieving, and in their grief they are understandably questioning the law enforcement response. If accounts are to be believed, there was both heroism and risk aversion on display by law enforcement as the event unfolded. I can’t speak to the truth of what happened, I wasn’t there. But I feel very strongly about how such incidents should be handled. When you take an oath as a police officer, you are accepting the responsibility of valuing others’ lives above your own. Your response to an incident should be dictated by the priority of life doctrine, rather than concern for your own safety. Priority of life is a term used by SWAT teams for a doctrine that determines how the team will choose the appropriate tactic on an objective. In the priority of life template, there are several levels of value placed on the lives of those on scene. The highest value is the victims and bystanders, followed by other law enforcement not on the team. Of next importance is the SWAT team, and the lowest priority is the life of the offender. This scale of value is at it’s heart pragmatic. Why should you place the same value on an individual attempting to harm innocent victims as on the law enforcement officer honorably serving his community? It’s pragmatic on the flip side as well. If I can’t place the lives of innocent children above my own as a policeman, then I don’t deserve the title. Full blog post is live on our website at the link in my bio. https://www.instagram.com/p/CeHAxjrLzCS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

@ttpoa routinely brings the industry’s best instructors to Texas for the training it offers. I’m honored to be included in that company and have the following offerings on their schedule for 2022: Pistol - August 17 - El Paso CQB - August 18-19 - El Paso Pistol/Carbine - October 26-27 - Pasadena Pistol/Carbine - November 3-4 - Rockwall Pistol - November 15-16 - Hutto Carbine - November 17-18 - Hutto Vehicle - December 5-6 - San Antonio You can sign up for these classes on their website, and you don’t have to be a member to attend. Any LE or military can train through them. See you in class! #thewayisintraining #greybeardactual #ttpoa #swat #tacticaltraining #firearmstraining (at Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeBR0rwrJUY/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[greybeardactual]

I love teaching because I love training. I’ve spent a lot of time and effort learning how to construct my own training for maximum efficiency. Now I enjoy passing along those hard earned lessons to others. Come to a class and learn the best ways to train and shortcut your learning curve. Our course offerings are filling rapidly, both for open enrollment and LE-only, so don’t wait if you want to attend one of our classes. You can see the current class schedule on our website at the link in my bio. If you’d like to bring us to your area for an open enrollment class, or set up training for your unit or agency, contact Angela - @vixen_actual - at alittle@greybeardactual.com. #thewayisintraining #greybeardactual #swat #firearmstraining #specialforces #tacticstraining (at The Way) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd8DnXPOgyj/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=