Diversity of Training
After arriving home at 3:30 a.m. Monday morning, I’m back from another great Rangemaster Tactical Conference. As always, there were a ton of great people (over 300), great instructors (over 40), and great lessons to be learned. With four training blocks each of the three days, I had twelve chances to do some training. I had to make some difficult choices on which blocks to take, with a couple of those choices being made about two minutes before the blocks started. Without a doubt, I got every bit of my money’s worth.
Every class covered either completely different topics or different takes on the same topic. For instance, of the two church security blocks, one was a classroom block that focused on the administrative side of managing security teams, while the other was focused entirely on pistol skills for security team members. If you’ve got an interest in something dealing with self-defense, I suspect you’ll find multiple relevant blocks. As for me, my three days looked like this:
Day 1
- Control the Recoil – Ashton Ray & Tim Chandler
- Undertrained Concealed Carry Tactics – Gabe White
- Defensive Knife for Concealed Carriers – Greg Ellifritz
- Church Security Team Development – Steve Moses
Day 2
- Dominating Contact Distance Shooting – Cecil Burch
- Close Quarters Street Skills – Chuck Haggard
- Recoil Control Clinic – Tim Kelly
- Managing Unknown Contacts – Craig Douglas
Day 3
- Cold Performance – Simon Golob
- Real Confidence Requires Receipts – Scott Cronin
- Church Security Team Essential Defensive Pistol Skills – Steve Moses
- Intro to Competition – Tim Reedy & Patrick Flores
I’m a big proponent of training a wide range of disciplines to cover all the elements of self-defense. From hard skills with tools and techniques (pistols, knives, grappling, etc.) to soft skills like avoiding fights altogether or adjusting positions to clear the backstop for a shot, to training and practice concepts, to first-aid skills and legal knowledge, life is multifaceted, and our training should be too. And TacCon is a great opportunity to dip into a wide range of topics if you’re so inclined. It’s also a great opportunity to spend some time with different instructors and see who you click with. Everyone is different, and so is every instructor, so it’s not surprising to find you gel with some instructors more than others. TacCon gives you the chance to taste-test multiple instructors and see who you want to take a full class with in the future.
Developing My Craft
There are two great outcomes from TacCon for me. First, I get to work on my own personal defensive skills, techniques, and knowledge, improving my own ability to defend myself and others. Second, I get to watch over a dozen different instructors run a dozen different classes on a wide range of topics, both in the classroom and on the range. It’s an amazing opportunity for me to improve not only my defensive skills and tactics, but also my ability to instruct and teach.
Diversity of Topics, Diversity of People
The Tactical Conference is a great opportunity to get some training in a staggering number of self-defense topics. It’s also a great reminder that self-defense is for everyone. Just looking at this post’s featured image, you’ll see all kinds of different people in just one training block. Jacked young adults and seniors with arthritis, men and women, different races, all kinds of ethnicities, all at different points on the skill curve. There are individuals with decades of experience in some form of self-defense, and people with none. Some attendees have been shooting longer than I’ve been alive, and some just started shooting last month. And I got to learn something from every single one of them.
Wrap Up
I’ll be posting more over the coming weeks about the blocks I attended and what I got out of each one, so stay tuned. The summary, though, is: if you have even a passing interest in self-defense, you really should consider attending next year’s conference. It’s a great opportunity to grow and develop your skills and knowledge in a safe and respectful environment. I highly recommend it.
Train diversely.
