| OK, I don't like the term "training" used to describe just any sort of work with a gun because it is apparently misleading people. Some people don't think they need to take any classes because they "already train".
I think it causes some people to think that practice is equal to taking classes. I run into people all the time who have never been to any class, which is fine, but they sometimes try to justify that by telling how often they practice and how many rounds they shoot each time. I guess they are convinced that by shooting enough, they are doing the same thing as going to a class.
So they use the terms "training" and "practice" interchangeably, as if the their practice sessions are the same as a class. I would bet that they are not.
At almost any IPDA or IPSC match I shoot, I will overhear someone say "this is great training for the real world". I disagree, I think it's great PRACTICE. If it was training, you would have gotten an earful by the eighth time you walked around a wall into the open to shoot at four targets.
Matches are what you make of them, and most make them into a good practice session. That is a good thing to do, but it isn't training because nobody is correcting your mistakes (Well, that you want to listen to).
But like the first example- By thinking of it as training, some people believe they are prepared for the street if they just shoot a match now and then. They're wrong.
If we can get people to believe and accept that what they're doing isn't "good enough", then maybe we can get more people to get proper instruction. Calling any practice session "training" isn't helping to burst that bubble. |