Cutting
Edge or Tried and Proven Ideas
By Irv Lehman
Note:
The author is a retired entrepreneur living in Miami, FL. He is a
highly experienced firearms practitioner who has trained with nearly
every major instructor and at nearly every facility in the U.S.
Additionally, he has attended numerous NTIs.
How many supposedly great ideas
have we seen come on the scene only to be gone in a short period of
time? Wasn't the Edsel the automobile to revolutionize the
industry? How about the Studebaker or Stutz Bearcat? How many new
calibers in the hunting field were going to set the world on it's
ears but aren't even produced anymore? How about the 8 track sound
system? Are you old enough to remember that? How many different
cutting edge martial arts techniques have been forgotten over time?
How many gasoline savers were sold promising to increase gas
mileage? How many pills are sold for weight loss or building
muscles? And the list goes on! As Barnum said, "there is a sucker
born every day".
Point is many new and exciting
techniques are bandied about as being "cutting edge" and they arrive
with a big bang and leave with a whimper. Most of us don't ever
remember them leaving--they just slink off into cyberspace.
Remember the FBI flashlight technique? How about the one where you
hold the light in your mouth and push the button with your tongue.
It was great and worked real well until you brought your handgun up
to eye level and then all that light spilled back into your eyes. I
remember a group of instructors saying this was the latest and
greatest. We don't even hear of it today.
If these new and unproved
techniques won't get you killed so what? No big deal. It was fun to
try them out like it was fun to own a few 8 tracks. And, yes I
wasted my money and didn't lose any weight or grow gigantic biceps.
But if we are going to bet our lives on a technique, it had better
be proven because my life is important to me and I would assume
yours is to you--if not you wouldn't be reading this.
The problem comes about because
some "wannabe" instructor who had never been there, done that and
got the "T" shirt" adapts a new technique that they have heard of.
Something is changed a little here and there and he calls it his
own. He is so enamored to get his name associated with something,
anything, he will go about trying to sell the idea to anyone who
will listen as if he invented it. He may even name it after
himself! He puts it on the internet, sends stories to the gun rags
and talks it up as though it were a great technique. Now this won't
get anyone killed (hopefully) as long as his students are not going
to be involved in a gun fight and all they do is range practice and
classes. All is cool and it looks great until the elephant shows up
and that technique is found to be faulty then we can only hope the
student survives.
We may be slow to adapt but I
would rather defer to the side of caution. A technique that has
worked in the past and has a proven track record is the one we want
to be proficient with. Give me the old time proven techniques that
work. I will develop a proficiency in those techniques until I can
execute them at will and on demand, let someone else try out the new
stuff and if they survive they can tell me all about it. If a few
more find that it works I may try it and add it to my tool box but
until then...... If the "cutting edge" technique has proven itself
in battle then we will endorse it as long as it is safe.
Before trying anything new a well
versed practitioner will ask himself: Is it necessary? Will it
work? Can I duplicate it under a stressful situation? Do we really
need 47 colors of "red" under 47 different names? Does the wheel
have to be reinvented each week?
Are we just trying to have the
newest technique and is it so important that we are associated with
that new technique that we will forgo safety? Do we really have to
make a name for ourselves that we may teach a skill that is
dangerous? What is it that we are trying to market? Is it a life
saving skill or life taking? We can experiment with being first
with a lot of things as long as our life is not based on the
technique or product being absolutely correct. A new bullet hits
the market with all the hoopla, do we buy it and bet our life on it
or do we wait until it has a proven track record?
We are not suggesting that we
don't try new techniques and we admit that for everything to get
better it must evolve from a beginning idea, but if these are
techniques that may put ones life at risk and are deemed to be
unsafe I think we should pass. It is important to progress and
improve or else we become stagnant, if not we would all be shooting
from "the speed rock" position. Progress is natural and because of
many world conflicts our dogma is changing rapidly but these changes
are proven in combat and are not just some wild idea for a square
range. Trying new things does allow us to progress towards a better
operating system but how much is your life worth? Let those who go
continually in harms way test these new techniques and report back
to us, the layman, that they are workable and safe, then and only
then will we decide to use them.
So it boils down to this; I may
not be the first kid on the block with a skateboard but I will have
one and I'll have fun with it but only after it has been perfected.
Remember the very first four
wheel drive autos? I knew you wouldn't!! How many of you remember
the first seven heart transplant patients? The only ones who
remember them are their next of kin and possibly the doctor who did
the operation! They probably had to have the operation to extend
their life but do we have to experiment with a new technique with
our life?
We all use the catch words and
phrases like "cutting edge" but cutting edge could be turned into
cutting your life short!
Yes, for me, if my life depends
on it, I want it proven by others in a real life situation and not
some simple range drill.
Get professional training, check
the instructor's background, learn the basics because everything is
built upon them.
