do you consider shooting a martial art and how has your firearms training been
like or unlike martial arts training well shooting is absolutely a martial
art I mean maybe not the way people pictured martial arts nowadays because
when you picture martial art people picture you know a guy with a gr yeah
doing karate that's that's right that's the generic picture to me that's not
that's not martial arts actually to me martial arts is the art of war the art
of individual warrior skills that it takes and firearms are absolutely a
martial art because it's something that you train it's something that you get
good at it's something that you need to maintain your skill at and it is
absolutely a martial art and to me it's another piece of the puzzle it's another
thing that you shouldn't you need to know how to do and just like tactics
that go along with shooting are an important part of being a warrior you
need to know how to shoot and the training is very similar in my mind to
martial arts training in that it takes you know repetition you
have to know what the basics are you have to repeat those basics and then you
get more advanced and it's it's about movement and getting efficient with your
movement and then you want to train it very similar to the way that you train
mixed martial arts or martial arts in general and that is you know you're
going to have different threat levels and how you gonna deal with them and you
want to deal with your weak side you know you can you shoot with your offhand
in various environments in the low light in the dark in the rain and the you want
to mix it up so you're used to all of it you want to be used to people at close
range you want to be used to people at further range
and then once you get all those mechanical skills down then you want to
train your mind around this thing you want to train your mind around this
skill so that your mind knows how to utilize this skill when things are
unexpected and when there's chaos and when there's mayhem going on and that's
that's one of the things that I really like about simunition training or
paintball training or laser tag training is it allows you it allows you to have
somebody else you back at you mmm which is just like you know just like rolling
in jiu-jitsu or sparring more tie or sparring MMA is you have to react to the
person it's no longer just a kata right it's no longer just shooting paper
targets that don't shoot back and don't move mm so you so I love to take it once
you've got the skills down and then you learn you've got the fundamentals down
then you take the advanced fundamentals and then you begin to train to simulate
combat and this is I'll tell you I had these um I got these laser tag guns hmm
for my son I just got two of them at first but that
escalated very quickly because they were awesome there were these little nerf
laser tag guns and you could shoot each other at I don't know maybe a hundred
meters which is a pretty good shot it's like a pistol and so when I got these
and as soon as I got two of them and I realized how good they were I bought two
more so I could go against my son and his friends and they could go against
each other and I taught my son like all the basic military maneuvers that he
would need to know and this is when he was maybe eight years old okay and he we
would play this game all the time you know and so I taught him out of cover
and move I taught him how to get elevated positions I taught him how to
do individual movement techniques where you don't show your face at the same
spot like twice in a row every time you up you move a little bit and he he
realized that's how you win in these little games and they're real those are
the real tactics and so I had a speak and speaking of speaking of the Marine
Corps I had a friend that was was came over the house one time and he was you
know of a Marine and we got the conversation all of a sudden you know my
son comes out with the laser tag guns and my son's like oh you know do you
want to go and the guys like you know yeah of course let's do it so my son
looks at him and says indoor-outdoor in Yeltsin you could see there was
something going on and the guy goes outdoor outdoor so my son you press the
button on the thing and it counts down for 10 seconds and then it's on so late
so you go find cover or something like that so yeah so 10 seconds my son hits
the thing my son takes off out the door so I'm watching the guys I go this guy's
doomed because you know you're going against a training the kid so the guy
comes out and and it's dark right but the guy comes out of the door and I'm
watching he's kind of crouched a little bit and all of a sudden his gun cuz it
all is in this one system it's all takes place inside the gun you don't wear a
helmet you don't wear anything you actually are shooting the other person's
gun and when it's shot when you gonna get shot it goes and shakes and the red
light flashes so he walks out and sure enough my son had run around the block
got in an elevated position and as soon as he came walking out my son sort of
drilling him and the guys like Steve freezes it's in wrestling he freezes he
doesn't even think to myself oh I'll take cover no he just froze and got
drilled and then as soon as it CC sander he's kind of looking around looking
around looking around finally he sees my son he starts to point the weapon up
towards my son my son just disappears and then the guys the guy starts kind of
walking over in that direction and then 15 seconds later my son pops up on his
flank and drills them again from behind another offense and a whole wall and
anyways the ends have killed him the and then the guys okay let's go again
and my son beat him like three times in a row yeah and it's because he had the
basic the basic skills basic infantryman skills is what it was you know he would
shoot and then move and that's what it boils down to so that kind of thing is
is very important in as far as being a martial art and you should train you
know that's another thing you know I said this to Sam Harris when I was on
his podcast you know yeah maybe there's a no chance because you live in the in
the bubble and you live in a great neighborhood and you're well protecting
you have alarm system your house and all that and maybe you're never gonna have a
problem and that's great I mean there's always a chance I would never believe
that you're never gonna have a problem but there's always a chance that
somebody's going to confront such evil is going to enter your world mm-hm and
you want to be ready for that now if that makes me sound paranoid okay let's
just say you're not paranoid and you don't think it's ever going to happen
but it is still highly valuable to train in these situations because they make
you a better person they make you sharper they make you
smarter they make you more prepared if something does happen it's just good to
know this stuff and it makes you a better person more reliable it's a real
skill set you know I always was kind of bummed out about basketball or football
or baseball because those are the there are life skills involved in them I don't
say that but the skill itself of throwing a baseball of shooting a
basketball of throwing a football is not as valuable as a skill as number one a
martial artist mmm you know Muay Thai boxing wrestling jujitsu because there's
a real applicable applicable to life 100% and it's the same thing with
shooting a gun I mean that is a real applicable skill that you may need at
some point in your life and you should have it you know