I have been watching this community down here in Mexico for many years now and have noticed that many of you copy things you see others wearing or doing, especially, if it is from the special operations community. I’m sure that feels cool, but there are some things you should consider before doing that:
- Does this make sense to my mission? For example, if they are using arctic gear and a pistol and your mission is in the desert landscape, well you might put yourself at a disadvantage.
- What is their mission? If they are doing a smash and grab on a HVT and you are running long term surveillance, things may not match up.
- What is their role in that specific mission? Again, if they are PSYOPS and you are a door kicker, copying their kit may not work out for you.
- How will this practically help me? Remember, professionals don’t wear or take things to look cool, everything you wear is for a reason, and in many cases for several reasons. So, if you are carrying something and don’t know how to use it, you may want to reconsider it, because you are wasting space.
- Finally, is this the best thing to use up my limited real estate? Basically, you can only carry so much, and even less that can be quickly accessed, so figure out if that specific item or items, will be able to answer the call when you need solutions quickly.
Your kit needs to be adapted to the mission
We all have a different mission on the battlefield and in life. You would be smart to figure out what works best for you and not what works best for others. For example, as I have stated in many of my courses and workshops, I shoot my pistol left-handed, but fire my rifle right-handed. I trained that for a long time for efficiency of kit and to be able to continue to keep rounds going down range as quickly as possible. Although, I love it now, it took a lot of trigger time and constant practice. I became my biggest critic and never gave myself a break. I had to master it. I lived the rule of 10,000 hours, but then that was not even enough. I then had to think, what if I need to shoot with my other hand? So, there I was again, starting from scratch trying to master that side, but I digress. Back to the topic at hand, I figured out what I wanted to do that was good for the way I like my kit and for my role in the fight.
It is funny because the more I practiced my goal of making my dominant pistol hand, my left hand, the more my kit mutated. I found that it was more than just a simple change of where my pistol was located, it changed my magazine situation and my med kit and the location of my grenades too. If you were to see my gear before and after, you would not think it was for the same person. And to be honest, in a way, I was not the same person. I had evolved the way I did tactics all together.
To put things into perspective, I am telling you to experiment and figure out what works for YOU and your specific mission. My gear frequently changed throughout my career due to more experience and different mission needs. I generally had a basic setup depending on the mission, but as I got more experienced, I started to be more specific about my choices. You should be using this time (coronavirus) to figure out what you like and do not like. Wear your kit around your house and just do things in it. Maybe borrow a friend’s kit and see if theirs is more comfortable or the setup is better. There is nothing wrong with seeing something and trying it out, but there is something very wrong with ignorantly copying someone because you think it will make you look cool.
Try timing yourself with drawing your pistol or transitions. Challenge yourself and see where it takes you. Remember something, the guys you idolize didn’t become the way they are from going to a workshop or even a course and then never practicing again. They are the guys they are because they experimented and figured out the best way to do something and then mastered it. Try using the 10,000 rule. Basically, do something 10,000 times correctly and with the intention to do it the best you can and watch the results. If you are a person who has been to a course or workshop with me and you never practiced again, then you can go ahead and assume I am talking to you. You know the concept of doing it correctly, but you most definitely do not do it correctly, because you have not kept up with nurturing the skill. Put your practice in and you will become a master.
So, my point to all of this is, if you just copy someone from a picture or a video, you may not even start to learn what your potential is. Try to understand why you have everything on your kit and see what you can do to evolve your kit to fit YOU. This reminds me of a great quote a great man once told me,
“Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”
It is the same in tactics. Yes, figure out what statistically works, but evolve it to match how you fight and use it to win the fight. Thanks guys, keep your heads on a swivel and Ill see you when the fight is over.
Don´t forget to support us in our social media and check this video of Gato talking about his gear.
https://youtu.be/SigGbxpxZeE
