Country singer Toby Keith sings a song with the lyric, “I ain’t as good as I once was, but once, I’m as good as I ever was.” In SureFire Field Notes Episode 59, Bill Blowers of Tap-Rack Tactical discusses how to properly track your training performance and determine if your proficiency is trending upward consistently.
“Why it’s important is I want to know where I live,” Blowers says. “I use a lot of sports analogies in my training. One of the sports analogies in my training is a mile and a half runtime. For me, I can tell you that I can run a mile and a half, right now, at any point, between 10 minutes and 11 minutes — somewhere in the range. But I can’t peg it every time at 10 minutes and 18 seconds. Sometimes I’m a little bit slower. Sometimes I’m a little bit faster. I’m looking for that range and then making adjustments to my training to make sure that, for instance, I’m always going to be under 10 minutes and 30 seconds, no matter what.”
Blowers says that this same mindset applies to firearms training drills. SureFire Field Notes Episode 59 demonstrates how he runs a given drill 12 times, discards his fastest and slowest times, then averages the remaining 10 times to determine his proficiency and give himself a more accurate baseline and possibly adjust his technique to achieve a desired goal. As he points out, increased speed might not be that goal. Instead, increased accuracy at the same speed might be. Being fast once just doesn’t cut it.
“The miracle isn’t what you’re looking to accomplish,” Blowers says. “You want that consistent performance across the board, based on your parameters, your training time and your resources…You can’t do it one time and think you’re there…If you keep tracking that consistent performance, seeing what you are actually capable of doing, it also starts to guide you down the path of how you’re going to improve in the future and start establishing your workout plans.”
ABOUT BILL BLOWERS
Bill Blowers was a police officer in Washington State for over 25 years, retiring in February 2018 as a Sergeant. He also served in the United States Army from 1986 to 1992. He was assigned to SWAT in 1995 and absent a single year, stayed on SWAT for the remainder of his career. He served as a ballistic shield carrier, breacher, entry team member, team training coordinator and ended as a team leader. As a team leader, Blowers has successfully planned or participated in over 1500 pre-planned and in progress SWAT callouts. He has over 5000 training hours and has personally trained SWAT officers in different locations around the USA. For more information, visit Tap-Rack.com.
ABOUT SUREFIRE
Located in Fountain Valley, California, SureFire, LLC is the leading manufacturer of suppressors, high-performance flashlights, weapon-mounted lights, and other tactical equipment for those who go in harm’s way, or anyone who demands the ultimate in quality, innovation, and performance. SureFire illumination tools are used by more SWAT teams and elite special operations forces than any other brand. SureFire is an ISO 9001:2008-certified company. For more information on SureFire’s complete line of tactical illumination tools and equipment, visit SUREFIRE.COM. To view more episodes of SUREFIRE FIELD NOTES, visit the SUREFIRE CHANNEL on YouTube.
