New to the EDC mindset (I know I am late to the party), but I wanted to know how are y’all scheduling practice? I have time, but I want to maximize that time so I have better retention moving forward. And my apologies if this has been brought up before.
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Take notes of the drills you perform at classes. What are you doing and why. Then you have a drill you can practice at your own leisure.
Each drill is a step to the next drill and it builds upon each other to achieve an over-all purpose. Usually just to become efficient at self-protection.
I would suggest that you take a class at minimum once a year. Twice a year even better. Then you can practice as often as possible. I use the SIRT gun for practicing at home so I can spend 15 minutes on my draw. I also practice target acquisitions.
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For an excellent explanation of training versus practice, and advice on what to practice and how, read Tom Givens’ book Concealed Carry Class. It is very reasonably priced. Even may give you what you need to add to or improve your gear.
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Retention is achieved through muscle memory. Muscle memory is achieved through repetition. Everybody is different. For me it is achieved subconsciously so I wouldn’t know how to explain it. I could explain it neurologically if that is what you’re looking for.
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On target with the importance of repetition. However, it is not a mental process of subconscious action. It is actually physiological as the neural pathways (nerves) begin to change physically with the repetition building a heavier sheath around the nerves being used more often.
The sheath is formed from substance called myelin, so the newer term for muscle memory is myelination.
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I just read 32 pages out of this book on Amazon by clicking “read sample”
It looks really good, although I would guess some of the legal discussion is outdated since its release in January 2020.
The sample brought up a very important discussion I have always thought conflicts with what a “reasonable” person would do without being educated on legal aspects. This regards retaliation. The book says if a person hurts you or your loved one , no matter how severe, if their agressive behavior stops, then you cannot legally inflict harm to them. Here’s an example: you witness someone stabbing your wife and running off with her purse. Even armed and having a clean shot, legally you cannot take the shot. I think most “reasonable” people would …
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I recommend “journaling.” Basically you create a notebook and fill out a page for each trip to the range. Each page will have an entry for: 1. The date. 2. Your plan - what you want to accomplish. 3. How well you did vs. your plans (good and bad). 4. What you want to work on next time. Take a picture of your target and you can correlate it to your target based on date. Plan the work, work the plan.
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Maybe to a neurologist. My electrons don’t flow through my neurological pathways consciously. In other words, my neurological pathways are not myelinized consciously, but subconsciously or unconsciously.
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I would disagree,. The legal principles Tom reviews are pretty accurate. Tom is a retired cop with several active lawyers on ihis Rangemaster staff of instructors. For a more complete understanding of the realities of self defense law, I recommend Andrew Branca’s book Law of Self Defense which you can get for onlya few dollars shipping coste\s directly from the LoSD web site
As for the reasonable person aspect, no, the law definitely does not consider it reasonable to take a revenge shot at an attacker once the attack is completely stopped with no further risk.
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@TNPhil .
First of all you need to know which type of learning works the best for you.
Some people learn by listening, some by watching and observation, some needs both.
Definitely you should start a class with Instructor.
Don’t count on yourself. You need any feedback to know your starting point and find out if you improve or not over the time.
If you have an option to train with multiple Instructors, go for it. Each one gives you a little different view and you may hear something common from all of them about yourself, meaning you probably go in good direction.
If you have time, train once per week and then practice (dry fire) everyday for few minutes everything you learnt at training.
Whenever you can use a range, confirm your dry fire practice with live fire. You must verify it live.
The best results are if you get feedback. Otherwise you may think you improve… but you may actually go worse…
Good luck 
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