A popular concept taught in many defensive shooting courses (including mine) is movement off the line of attack. It’s variously referred to as “getting off the X” or “lateral movement”, and probably some other terms I’m not remembering, but the concept is pretty consistent: make it harder for the bad guy to hurt you by getting out of his way.
In both the self defense and prepping communities, people talk about preparing — training and equipping — for “the worst case scenario”. “We train for the worst case”, schools brag (and their students claim).
What, actually, is the worst case?
If you were to take a little time (or perhaps watch an apocalyptic movie or two) I’m sure you could imagine an absolute ...
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If you saw this announcement earlier, we’ve changed the date to take advantage of the low airfares before Spring Break.
When we checked airline tickets, we discovered that in the week before our original dates the prices dropped by more than half (in many cases)! If you were holding off because of travel costs, delay no longer and get ready to join my in ...
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Let’s be honest: There is a ton of really awful self defense training aimed at women. I’m not sure why that is, but I constantly see bad techniques, bad advice, and bad teaching methods pushed at women — and the offenders are both men and other women.
It doesn’t need to be that way, and on last night’s episode of Training Talk I discuss ...
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The first Training Talk episode of 2018 was like throwing a lit match into a dynamite factory: Should you use lethal force to protect your property?
My special guest Aaron Israel of Fundamental Defense and I discussed a Christmas Eve incident where a man shot and killed his 22-year-old son, mistakenly believing that he was a car thief stealing the man’s pickup.
It was ...
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Last night was the season finale of Training Talk. 2017 was a great year, and we capped it off by inviting all of the Special Guest Experts back on the show for a self defense roundtable!
Not everyone was able to make it, unfortunately; some were traveling for the holiday, others had family emergencies, but we did manage to ...
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With the recent attack on a church in Texas, in which 26 people were killed and dozens injured, many people are looking for ways to prevent or respond to such attacks. And there are others ready to prey on that need with bad or incomplete information. Everyone, it seems, is suddenly a “Church Security Consultant”.
As a result you can find lots of misguided articles and ...
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Any preparations you’ve made for your safety and protection — whether physical skills, gear and equipment, or storage commodities — need to be maintained to be useful. There is a cost to maintenance, and it’s one we often ignore in our zeal to always acquire more.
That cost may affect your ability to respond efficiently ...
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As I write this it’s been five days since a man opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and wounding over 500. While information is still being processed by law enforcement, and there are still many unanswered questions about the motives of the attacker, enough information has come out about the circumstances of the incident that we can ...
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In the aftermath of the horrific and cowardly attack in Las Vegas this week, I put myself on a mandatory commentary blackout. The reason I did so was to prevent idle speculation without solid facts, and if you followed any of the news stories you know how far off the mark the first day or two of reporting was!
I’ve ...
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Be sure to join me tonight at 6:pm PDT/9:pm EDT for PDN Training Talk, the live webcast about self defense: training, equipping, and preparing!
Tonight I’m planning on having an in-depth discussion with Caleb Causey of Lone Star Medics. We’re going to look at the practicalities of immediate medical response in a mass casualty incident, when people are panicking and you might still be “under fire”. What do you need to know, what do you need to do, and how should you practice those ...
Continue Reading →Be sure to join me this Thursday evening at 6:pm PDT/9:pm EDT for PDN Training Talk, the live webcast where you’ll learn about the things you can do to keep you and your family safe!
This week my special guest expert is Caleb Causey of Lone Star Medics. We’re going to look at the practicalities of immediate medical response in a mass casualty incident, when people are panicking and you might still be “under fire”. What do you need to know, what do you need ...
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Last night we did Take Two of Training Talk. Our last show (on the 21st) was “rained out” due to a Google Hangouts crash, so last night we started over. And what a show it turned out to be!
I started off with a rant about holster purses that will probably have some of their manufacturers up in arms. They’re too often ...
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If you tuned into Training Talk last Thursday, you witnessed a technical failure that left me steaming mad!
About 10 minutes in, the Google Hangouts cloud-based software crashed. I saw an error message, was locked out of the video, and then the video itself shut down. The software wouldn’t let me log back into the session and when I finally got logged back in everything was ...
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More great articles to help you and your family stay safe and sound!
…but do you know how to use it? Caleb Causey from Lone Star Medics shows you the basics of applying a tourniquet properly.
…but have you practiced applying it to yourself under a realistic scenario? Caleb’s back, this time with ...
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Be sure to join me tonight at 6:pm PDT/9:pm EDT for PDN Training Talk, the live webcast all about self defense: training, equipping, and preparing.
Here’s the link to the show page, which goes LIVE this evening. I hope you can join me! (If you can’t make the live show, you can always watch the replay at that link as well!)
— Grant
P.S.: Remember to invite your friends!
Continue Reading →Be sure to join me this Thursday evening at 6:pm PDT/9:pm EDT for PDN Training Talk, the live webcast where you’ll learn about the things you can do to keep you and your family safe!
Here’s the link to the show page, and it will go LIVE this Thursday evening. Be sure to join me then! (If you can’t make the live show, you can always watch the replay at that link as well!)
— Grant
P.S.: Remember to invite your friends!
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If you missed last night’s Training Talk episode, you’ll definitely want to watch the replay!
My Guest Expert was Joshua Gideon, who presented us with a conundrum: what happens when technology becomes both friend and foe?
We looked at a number of technologies and the implications — both good and bad — of relying on them. From pairing your phone in ...
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Last night’s show it was all about man’s best friend!
My guest was Evan Carson, owner of Off-Leash K9 Training and Innovative Defensive Solutions. We talked about a dog’s role as a defensive asset, what it takes to train a dog to perform protective tasks, what you can expect from a mutt, how responding police see dogs, and much more.
If ...
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On last night’s episode of Training Talk, I had the pleasure of talking with martial arts master Cecil Burch. He’s one of the foremost practitioners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the world, along with having high belts and instructor credentials in a bunch of other disciplines. If anyone can speak to the topic of martial arts for self defense, it’s Cecil!
Which is exactly what ...
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If you didn’t see Training Talk last night, you missed a great show!
My special guest was Aaron Israel of Fundamental Defense, and we talked about something we both have some experience with: the similarities and differences in competition and defensive shooting. It was a wide-ranging discussion, and you might be surprised at some of the answers he gave!
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Daughter, 22, shot by dad who says he mistook her for intruder
Hardly a week goes by that I don’t see an article like this cross my electronic desk, and they bother me. Quite a lot, actually. Why?
Because I don’t think we in the firearms world are doing enough to truly educate people. We do a pretty good job of teaching folks how to pull ...
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On yesterday’s episode of Training Talk we took an in-depth look at some of the classes on this year’s PDN Training Tour. I was joined by Caleb Causey of Lone Star Medics and we talked about what he does, why he does it, and why his material is important to the person living the self-reliant lifestyle.
I had a great conversation and learned about some courses I’ve not yet taken.
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Spring is taking its sweet time getting here, but that hasn’t stopped me from collecting great articles for you! This week: a look at how you walk influences predators; what not to do for home security; why you should stop buying and start practicing; a proper response to a potential intruder; and, believe it or not, someone used a snubby to defend ...
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On last night’s episode of Training Talk, my special guest expert Barret Kendrick of Bearco Training gave us some insights on how to make sure our families are protected when we leave the house.
It’s something a lot of people worry about, and if you’re the “designated protector” and you’re not home all the time you should too. Would your spouse or children ...
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Last night’s episode of Training Talk was perhaps the most important I’ve done yet. We like to think that, if we use our gun in defense of ourselves or others, the cops will see us as heroes and everyone will hoist us on their arms and cheer us in the streets.
As my special guest Aaron Kreag discovered, it doesn’t actually work that ...
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It’s a short List for this week, but good things come in small packages! I’ll start off with an important article about securing your online profile; some tips about hotel security; the courts have not violated the 4th Amendment rights of concealed carriers; how to institute active shooter drills at your company; and what to look for when you buy locksets and ...
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Last night’s episode of Training Talk was one for the history books!
Rob Pincus made a cameo appearance to kick off the 2017 PDN Training Tour, but for some reason his audio wasn’t coming through. Never one to give up the ship, Rob used his mime skills and a Sharpie marker to tell us about what’s coming on this year’s tour!
Apparently Google was ...
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If you’ve ever thought about taking one of my famous Threat-Centered Revolver courses, you can still get into the class in Phoenix on April 1 & 2!
This is the class to take if you want to learn — really learn — how to use your revolver to defend yourself and your loved ones. I take my knowledge of defensive shooting and my ...
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I remember my first serious (multi-day) defensive shooting course. It was a spring day in the early 1990s and, as is normal here in the Pacific Northwet (no, that’s not a typo) it was raining like crazy. It was a cold, wet, miserable day.
Being a native Oregonian I was prepared for the conditions, but that didn’t make them any less miserable.
As ...
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