Thought for the day:
***Train like the best, or die with the rest.
Yes, a little stark, I know, but, we don’t live in a naïve bubble on this thread.
Sincere wishes to you and your family on this Thanksgiving week. Just be aware and safe as you can.
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This is a great video. We have air soft and pellet guns. A lot cheaper to run and practice mechanics , your draw, etc especially since live ammo is hard to find. Like toilet paper again…
It doesn’t replace live fire but is a good alternative.
In re: to nothing.
Older now, 51 , and shit is breaking down still of course. Should make my username InjuredMan. Thought id stop by, read a while, and say hi. Hope everyone has a happy Christmas season.
VA Fn with me. After 20 years of not working, they clIm I can and have, which is a huge error costing me $1300/mo now. Ill get em lined out but man they piss me off!!!
Recently got a diagnosis for spinal stenosis, after a shit ton of imaging. See a neurologist next week to get help with my quads going very weak very fast. I expect script for PT, WILL learn how to rehab them, and be ok by June.
Since last here, have acquired a Sig P365XL, and a S&W J frame Airweight. They both have their uses. Still prefer a 1911!
Ya all take care
It is certainly good to hear from you and totally understand the VA frustrations. Best of luck with the neurologist and the treatment. Don’t be a stranger, brother.
Thought for the day:
THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated”
Thomas Paine
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For those of you who have been deployed into war zones, what were the best packages you received from friends and family? Not talking cards from your kids, or mushy stuff- more like cigars, rc cars… More “Boys toys” etc.
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Decent protein bars and supplements. The stuff they have in the field kitchens, FOB’s , DEFAC’S and PX’s are usually total crap, decent razors, quality socks, tee shirts. If you happen to be stuck on a NATO base, any personal hygiene supplies would be grateful, since the PX’s are always short due to the number of troops.
Thought for the day:
It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps the perfect sweetness and independence of solitude.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
A new training tool you may be interested in:
Thought for the day:
“What’s the hack? How do you become stronger, smarter, faster, healthier? How do you become better? How do you achieve true freedom? There is only one way…The way of discipline.”
I don’t think anyone who scans this thread needs to be told to be aware of their environment for violent attacks, but, you probably need to make friends and family aware of predators like this:
My God, we’re scared," Amos Frederick, 37, said Wednesday as he walked through the complex. “All of us stay indoors except during the day. If someone is just walking to their car, we watch out for them."
I am glad you are watching out for your neighbors, but, you have the right to self defense, so think about using it.
Nathan Lumunye, 24, works nights at a home improvement store.
“I have to go to work," he said. “So I make sure I leave the house earlier and keep an eye out."
As we all should keep “an eye out”.
Personally, I despise predator’s like this. Coward attacks, leaving some people scarred physically and emotionally. Hopefully, someone will LEGALLY blow this cretin’s brains out.
Authorities are offering a $5,000 reward to find the person, or persons, responsible for a string of violent attacks on the streets of Waltham, Massachusetts.
At least 10 men have been attacked by a blunt force object since Nov. 10, including a man out for an evening stroll, another who was taking the trash out and a Postal Service worker who was delivering mail, according to the Waltham Police Department.
Thought for the day:
Virtutem in Pugna.
*𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝, 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤. *
Odd object carries are a part of almost every workout. They perfectly represent the real world strength demands of combat and do not discriminate. You can either move it or you can’t. Train hard to ensure you CAN when the time comes.
Loaded carries are my go to training method for building strength and conditioning. How many here train loaded carries as their " combat conditioning"?
I am still doing the weighted carries routine I have posted several times before. the way I do it is to try to RUN as fast as possible while carrying the load.
Thought for the day:
Requiescant in Pace.
Sometimes there is no explanation or reason for the level of violence innocents are force to bear. All you can do is track down the predator and hopefully, put it down.
1-year-old boy shot dead in 'heinous crime,' reward offered for information: DC mayor - ABC News
Thought for the day:
How you do anything is how you do everything.
Attention to detail, adherence to high standards, and prioritizing quality movement is the key to skill development.
Make it a habit.
Tip of the day:
If you are going to carry a concealed handgun, make sure you use a high quality holster. Carrying a handgun in your “waistband” is just idiotic.
Witnesses initially indicated there may have been a dispute occurring between two individuals when they heard a shot fired. However, officers have uncovered additional information showing there was no dispute related to this. Instead, a male was walking through the store and adjusting his pants when the firearm he had in his waistband discharged. It appears the shot was accidental and no one was injured by the bullet,” police said in a news release.
Thought for the day: Never, ever, forget.
Today is the anniversary of the surprise Japanese attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor. Sadly, we no longer even hold ceremonies commemorating that day.
( No, its not sad, its a fucking national disgrace not to honor those who died at Pearl Harbor. The left wing nut jobs controlling the country now are probably happy as hell about this)
We have raised generation after generation who take what we have for granted and vilify the sacrifices of our forebearers. They make us out to be the bad guys.
Every year there are fewer and fewer of out greatest generation among us. Let us always honor their sacrifices to keep America, and the world, free.
I’d also like to take a moment of silence for the 2402 Americans who were lost on that day, along with the hundreds more, who were wounded during the attack. We are forever in your debt.
Thought for the day:
Parare Vim.
Read this and place yourself in this situation. What would you have done?
Special education teacher robbed during Zoom call with student and parent
“He was coming up knife in his hand, threatening to kill me.”
An Ohio teacher is speaking out after having a terrifying run-in with a man who broke into her home as she taught a remote lesson over Zoom.
Cleveland resident Amanda Zupancic told “Good Morning America” that she was talking with a student and his mother on Nov. 23 in her upstairs office when she heard glass shatter.
“I was at the top of the stairs. He was struggling with my baby gate,” Zupancic said of the assailant. “He was coming up, knife in his hand, threatening to kill me. I actually said, ‘Is this happening right now?’ It seemed unrealistic. I was scared.”
Actually, not an unusual occurrence. Most people often experience an “out of body” feeling when confronted with violence.
“coming up with knife in hand” . Good time to armed.
Zupancic, a special education teacher at Kirtland Local Schools, was home alone with the doors locked when the break-in occurred. Her husband and 1-year-old child had left 20 minutes earlier and Zupancic suspects the man saw her family leave the house before breaking into her porch window, she said.
Zupancic said the man brought her into her bedroom where he forced her to lay on he ground while he went through her belongings, taking watches and wedding rings.
She was very fortunate here.
He was telling me, ‘Don’t move. Give me your wallet and keys,’" Zupancic recalled, adding that her student and the parent were still logged into Zoom in the neighboring room.
Zupancic said she brought the man downstairs and instead of leading him to her wallet and keys, she unlocked another baby gate to release her German shepherd and a Great Dane-boxer mix.
Smart thinking here under stress. Good Job.
When one of the dogs went after the robber, Zupancic grabbed a pair of scissors, chased him out of the house and down the street. She said she screamed to several neighbors who called the police.
Grabbed a pair of scissors and chased after a violent predator armed with a knife. Glad things worked out here with your tactical decision.
Zupancic said a local contractor working on a house in her neighborhood witnessed the incident and unsuccessfully attempted to detain the robber.
Transit police, who happened to be in the area, apprehended the suspect, Charles Derosett, until Cleveland Police arrived and arrested him, officials said.
Thought for the day:
To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
— Sun Zu
*Mushin is achieved when a person’s mind is free from thoughts of anger, fear, or ego during combat or everyday life. *
There is an absence of discursive thought and judgment, so the person is totally free to act and react towards an opponent without hesitation and without disturbance from such thoughts.
At this point, a person relies not on what they think should be the next move, but what is their trained natural reaction (or instinct) or what is felt intuitively. It is not a state of relaxed, near-sleepfulness, however. The mind could be said to be working at a very high speed, but with no intention, plan or direction
It’s almost pointless to have a dog or dogs that have the potential to protect you if you don’t give them the run of the house.
Thought for the day:
"The physical always takes its toll. The choice is theirs in the face of such pain — to fight back or to give in. This happens in the mind.
Such is the choice we all face. Do we learn to control our fears, and our doubts by driving forward? Or do we retreat?
The answer to these questions is not for words to answer. It is what we do in life that defines us.
We choose perseverance over all."
A good reminder from Pat Mac:
Look where you want to go. Don’t look where you don’t want to go. Whether it’s a date with someone you desire or an exciting new job opportunity, attitude and intestinal fortitude are necessary ingredients for the stew of life.
Each of us continuously takes in millions of pieces of information every day, the great majority of which is processed unconsciously. Some people take in this information primarily through their five senses—what they see, hear, touch, taste or smell. Others take in information through their sixth sense, focusing not on what is, but rather on what could be. Each of us has the ability to use our senses and our intuition, and we all use both every single day.
Intuition is a gift that we humans are born with. We can exercise this function and make it stronger—just like we do with our muscles. Intuition works best when we register what we’ve sensed and then put our five other senses aside. Intuition is our sixth sense, but it’s often stifled by our overdependence on the sensations available from the material world. When we tap into our intuition, decisions that seemed difficult to make suddenly gain more clarity.
In our culture, it is easy to lose connection with the fact that we create every single aspect of our existence. Often, it may be difficult at the time to see how or why, but we do. Of course, this can be a very hard concept to accept as truth. However, in order to get out of being a victim, it is helpful to just go with this for the moment. So bear with me.
Basically, every step we take toward having complete power over our lives is one step away from being a victim, where we have none. Nowadays, we are so connected, plugged in, that we are disconnected. Our situational awareness is nearly nonexistent. We are basically fat, dumb and happy button-pushers. We are comfortable, flaccid, gelatinous and complacent.
Sometimes we have to put the analytical mind aside and allow the body to work as it has for millions of years. We must access our databank’s primal side. As human beings, we were born with natural defense mechanisms. We must give the mind permission to allow these mechanisms to work automatically like they have before. We humans have been here a long time, and though we are no longer hunting mammoths and dodging saber-toothed tigers, danger still lurks around the corners.
Our primal survival instinct is mobility, and mobility equals survivability. Many of us have relinquished our primal survival instincts and are stuck in a 45-degree-syndrome world, with our heads bent 45 degrees toward our smartphones.
Too often I find myself on an airport people mover or rental car shuttle bus, and I am the only one looking around. Everyone else is completely oblivious to his or her surroundings. So, too often, I say to myself, “Well, looks like I’m in charge of security.”
But being eternally vigilant can be exhausting. Being prepared to save your life or someone else’s requires work—sweat equity. We expect our kids to look both ways before crossing the street, but we don’t want to look behind us while at an ATM because we might hurt someone’s feelings. We often relinquish our intuitive nature and do this at great cost to our own safety. Intuitiveness is a gift and a primal instinct that we cannot afford to relinquish. Thankfully, a little situational awareness goes a long way.
Try to see things full spectrum. Perform a focal shift in your everyday life. Look around. Slow down before you park and take a look at the other vehicles in your proximity. See things close and then continue your scan further. Perform a 5- to a 25-meter scan. Slow down before you enter a building or other venue and take a look at others in your proximity. It’s OK. You were born to do this.
A successful assault happens with surprise, speed and violence of action. We can mitigate the surprise by being tuned in or situationally aware. If we take the element of surprise away from a predator, he or she will fear reprisal and forgo the attack.
Whether I am armed or unarmed and enter a venue, I do the same thing. I consider it a possible crisis site. I want to get a pretty good lay of the land. Exits, avenues of approach, choke points, intersections, safe areas, alternate routes, lines of drift—they’re all stored in my databank. I will give people a “once-over” and look for potential assets and liabilities. I will visualize chaos and picture complete bedlam with everyone running for the same exit.
We do not plan to fail, but we do fail to plan, so this visualization becomes a crucial step in disaster preparation. Mentally, we must prepare ourselves to exit without hesitation, if exiting is the safest recourse. We must do this even if this means throwing a table or chair through a window. When pandemonium strikes, there is no time for analysis. Through analysis comes paralysis.
Forget the Flock
If shit does hit the fan, running with the “sheeple” may not be the best course of action. Don’t be victimized by an ocean of people who have their heads up their asses. Lines of drift and likely avenues of approach may be part of a plan with a well-organized adversary who may use a ruse or diversion to send the herd in a desired direction.
Exercise your OODA loop and come up with a quick plan of egress. Sometimes, flanking or egressing at an oblique is more conducive to longevity. Run until you have made it past effective small-arms range or have some good cover. Take a second to assess the situation and to readjust your plan.
Here’s a tip: Ditch the flip flops. Those are for the beach or the YMCA. You are no good to yourself or your loved ones if you can’t run your ass off. Mobility equals survivability.
These are simple tactics. Action versus reaction. If you are aware, you are acting. If you are switched off and have no situational awareness, you are one step behind and will at some point in time fall into a predator’s web and be caught reacting.
As mentioned earlier, before you climb out of your vehicle, take a look around and look into the depths. It only takes a second to scan your “primary and secondary sectors.” Your primary sector is directly outside of your vehicle, and your secondary sector runs two or three cars deep in all directions. You will see things that you have never seen before.
Occasionally, you will find someone looking back at you. Most of the time, it is benign. Additionally, you will notice how oblivious many other people are to their surroundings. This newly acquired situational awareness will suddenly become a new normal for you.
Get in the habit of backing into a space instead of pulling into it. Not only does this allow for an easier departure, but it may also mitigate any would-be scammers looking for you to back into them. Make it routine to hook your keys onto a belt loop or clip them onto your purse so they are at the ready. Buy one of those key clips with a built-in light so you have an emergency light at your disposal at all times.
Avoid Diversions
There are times when you should question intuition. For instance, if it looks good, it may be a diversion. Diversionary tactics are as old as the day is long because they are effective. Explosions followed by fireballs and smoke will draw our attention like moth to a flame.
Here is a hypothetical situation: The elevator door opens, you take a step out and something grabs your attention to the right. You get sucked into staring at this while a predator closes in from the left. Crack to the head, lights out—your money and wallet are gone.
Next time you are drawn in unexpectedly, take a moment to look the other way. Even a snapshot in the other direction can be the determining factor in whether you become a victim or succeed in averting a bad situation. Don’t get sucked in by one of the oldest tactics in the book.
Situational Awareness: Do Your Part
It is our duty and responsibility to protect and serve. If you are a competent and trained gun handler, you should be carrying wherever the law permits and never go outside the parameters of that law. Don’t be a nugget. Just because your state allows “open carry” doesn’t mean you should. That is some amateur-hour bullshit.
Take the proper classes, get the proper training and be an asset to your community instead of a liability. Just because you have a gun does not mean that you are armed. The mind is the final weapon. All else is supplemental.
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Thought for the day: Esse Monuit.
Received a call from another instructor I worked with last year. He stated his daughter was carjacked in a local Walmart parking lot Saturday afternoon. She was loading groceries in her car, when the predator walked up behind her, said, “Hey” and when she turned around, punched her the face. When she fell back into the backseat, he pulled her out, threw her on the pavement and stomped her face, breaking her cheek bone. His daughter is still in the hospital (as of yesterday). As always, violence happens fast. Talk to your family about being hyper aware.
“We do know that oftentimes the carjackers are targeting people that that may be distracted,” he said. “You have the mother who’s taking her child out of a carseat. You have people that are unloading groceries, that sort of thing, where people’s hands are tied up. Keep your eyes open. Drive by where you are going to go. Take a look, see what’s happening. See if there’s anyone lurking.”
Unfortunately, it usually takes learning the hard way for folks to actively be aware of their surroundings. One helluva lot of trouble can be avoided by staying aware and actively reading situations. Not all trouble, but a lot of trouble.