You Can Shoot, But Do You Know How to Fight?

Most good fighters are also good shooters, but not all expert shooters are actually good fighters. I learned this during Army Basic Training. It became very easy to see the difference. The best athletes didn't always prove to be the best soldiers. The best shooters weren't necessarily the best fighters. Mastery of your tools is absolutely essential, but it’s mastery of yourself, in the face of stress and ambiguity and fear, that distinguishes you on the battlefield.

Finding the Balance

In Army Basic Training, I realized the difference between really good shooters and the best fighters. They aren't guaranteed to be one in the same. I remember one guy in particular who illustrated this for me during those early days in the military.

We were about the same age. He knew how to shoot with precision on the range. He was physically fit, and had no trouble keeping up on PT and drills. He achieved all the right metrics and marks without a problem.

But then he took a sharp turn. There was a live fire exercise, and this guy just fell to pieces. I'm sure I might have had some compassion for him, somewhere deep down, but the only response I remember giving him was a look of "Dude, what's the matter with you?"

That was the first time I really understood that there was a distinct difference between good shooters and competent fighters. Some have it; some don't. And I still see it today as a professional weapons trainer.

Guys come to classes geeking out on gear and showing off their range prowess, but put them into a combat scenario and their confidence and skill just disintegrate.

Hopefully you understand that my point here is not to elevate one type of shooter while denigrating others. If that were my goal in life, I wouldn't have made a career out of teaching combat and defensive skills. After all these years, I'm fairly confident that courage and combat conditioning are muscles you can train.

While you may not have the rare capacities of a DEVGRU operator, most people with fairly good fitness and firearms skills and a drive to learn can teach the mind and body to respond when the chaos comes to your home or community. If that weren't the case then Warrior Poet Society probably wouldn't exist.

That's what the Warrior Poet Society specializes in. We train "normal" people (OK, you're probably not THAT "normal" if you're involved with us) how to become extraordinary defenders of their homes, families, and communities.

The danger I often see is in another direction, and it stems from a dangerous lack of self awareness and an overabundance of confidence. In other words, a lot of guys will put far too much weight on their competencies at the gun range and leave a lot of other essential skills and disciplines underdeveloped.

Know What You Don't Know, Then Train Wisely

If you've got the skills to crush it at the range and operate your various tools with effectiveness in a controlled, safe environment, I absolutely applaud you.

The question now is whether you can translate that toward outsmarting and overcoming an attacker. Can you hit those marks, act with courage, make decisions with a clear mind, push through pain and chaos, all while the whole world is kind of on fire around you.

It's unlikely that most people could suddenly face such a situation with an appropriate, controlled response. So even if you're the best shooter in the world, it won't matter if you your mind shuts your body down.

In fact, I'd be so bold as to assert, it's possible to be a crappy shooter and still be a great fighter. (For the record, it'll really pay off if the great fighter is also a competent shooter.)

RELATED POSTS | Shooters vs Operators • Becoming Courageous • The Warrior Test

A great fighter has a warrior mindset, capable of summoning courage, mastering fear, and pushing through with a brutally effective response. To get to this point, you have to know what you don't know--and I mostly mean what you don't know about yourself.

Do you know how you respond under stress and chaos and ambiguity and a real threat to life and loved ones? What have you done to mitigate any perceived weaknesses? In what ways have you trained to uncover the damaging habits you might have buried down years before?

This is why the military, and especially the Special Operations community, presses down on guys until they nearly break. It's better to break in training than to break when you're downrange and responsible for the lives of the men around you.

So how have you strengthened your mindset, hardening for the day of battle? And, now, what about your mechanics in a kinetic environment? Do you know how to respond with intelligence and shrewdness to mitigate risk and maximize your battlefield advantage?

You Can't Be A Fighter Without Good Tactics

Are you tactically competent? It's more than fast, accurate shooting. Do you have the skill to escape an ambush and establish a counter ambush and lay waste to an enemy? You'll need some accurate and fast shooting within the scope of that operation, but it's only one piece of the chess game.

To get off those accurate shots, you've got to see the threat quickly, think quickly to get off the X and counter the attack. You've got to learn to be at the right place, at the right time, with the right mindset to summon your reserves and make the moves that win the fight.

Of course this means good instruction, realistic training scenarios, a good philosophy of life that propels you courageously to do the right thing, and enough solid repetitions of right actions to hardwire responses for when the time comes to use them.

In other words, Train Hard. Train Smart. Live Free. Good Fighters Don't Happen By Accident.