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THE WARRIOR EXPERT
this. Watching any world class competitor
take out a plate rack is awe inspiring,
but unless they are being attacked
by a bunch of guys who are duct-taped
together and will go down with one hit,
the skill is not a useful one for defensive
shooting. When you don’t know that the
targets are going to be in the exact same
place and you must shoot and assess
(question #4) because you don’t know
how many shots you’ll need to fire at
each target, techniques developed for
shooting multiple pieces of steel will be
irrelevant.
Questions 5, 6, 7, and 8 are directly
related to the condition of our brains
and bodies when we are performing
our skills. It is very well documented
that there are predictable changes that
take place throughout our system when
we are startled, scared, and in a life and
death fight. The degree of these changes
may vary, but their existence is about as
close to an absolute as we can have in a
real fight. This article is not the place to
detail the various natural reactions, but
they include changes in blood flow, heart
rate, vision, motor control, and the perception
of time. If you want to brush up
on the details, I cover the most important
ones in my books, but Mike Martin does
an even better job in his, Fundamentals
of Concealed Carry. These changes are
significant and they will impact performance.
While we can’t really simulate
them in our training environment, we
should choose to train techniques and
tactics that take them into account, not
simply accept that something is a good
idea because it “can” be done or works
well in another type of shooting.
Question #1 is the only question that
I haven’t addressed. Its relevance is
much more about what you choose to
purchase and train with before your incident.
If you only own one type of gun
and carry it, it is fair to say that you have
an incredibly high likelihood of being
able to answer this question accurately.
The answers to the other questions and
the skills you choose to develop should
strongly influence what type of gun you
choose. Choosing one that excels in other
types of shooting could be like entering
a tractor pull with a Ferrari. Choose
the right tool for the job you’ll need to
do, under the conditions that you’ll most
likely need to do it.
Go back and look at the questions
again with a thought to the worst-casescenario
defensive shooting; No, not
zombies at the movie theater, just a
single attacker situation where most of
the questions are unanswerable because
you are truly caught off guard. We call
this the Ambush. True defensive shooting
should be done from the approach of
Counter Ambush Training. The foundational
requirement for any training to be
truly Counter Ambush is The Processing
of Information prior to the Execution of
any Learned Skill.
Without that important component,
you are merely shooting free throws instead
of training for the conditions of the
The Warrior Expert Theory
The Warrior Expert Theory states
that through frequent and realistic
training, one can become capable
of using the power of recognition
to make responses during a dynamic
critical incident more efficient.
WET is a simple theory that has huge
ramifications on the way we train and
what we choose to train in the first
place. Recognition is the method of an
expert. You can only “recognize” something
if you have been exposed to it previously.
Experts are people who have
spent a significant amount of time being
exposed to a specific area of study
and are able to capitalize on their ability
to recognize information related to it.
In my book, Combat Focus® Shooting:
Evolution 2010, I talk about chess players
and doctors as typical experts in
their areas. They can often make accurate
diagnoses or choose appropriate
moves without long periods of research
or cognitive processing because they
recognize patterns of information in
their observations. As a person interested
in self-defense, we need to be a
Warrior Expert. We need to seek out opportunities
to be exposed to the stimuli
that represent threats and the appropriate
responses to those threats frequently
and realistically so that, in the worst
case scenario, we don’t have to take a
lot of time to cognitively process, make
decisions or execute complex learned
responses (like drawing and shooting a
gun).
The Warrior Expert Theory covers
both the soft side of decision making
and the hard side of skill performance.
In the brain, what we have commonly
referred to as “muscle memory” is actually
created by the strengthening of the
connections between neurons in the
brain that are used to perform physical
skills. This strengthening is actually
a physical thinning of the gap between
the frequently used neurons through
repeated layering of fats when the connection
is used. The thinner the gap, the
less time it takes for an electrical signal
to be passed between the neurons, the
faster an action can be performed and
the easier it is to perform it. Given the
choice between a relatively wide gap
(an unrehearsed action) and a well established
thin gap, a charge is more
likely to follow the path of least resistance.
This can be seen as physical skill
recognition.
Knowing that our training resources
are always limited, the Warrior Expert
Theory reminds us that we need to
maximize their value by training as few
tactics and skills as possible (to increase
the “frequency” of exposures and repetitions)
and train in the context that we
will need them (“realistically” based on
plausibility).
This column will take the title
“Warrior Expert Theory” and will use
WET as a backdrop for everything that
I discuss. Developing recognition level
responses means that you can take full
advantage of your brain and body’s
natural ability to work together and integrate
with tools to help you get safe
as quickly as possible when ambushed.
Your automated system can “take over”
when you need it most, if you prepare
it. That preparation starts with sound
principles and concepts that lead to the
development of efficient techniques
and well reasoned tactics. H
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USCONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n MAY/JUNE 2011