What is Practical Fundamentals?

Many times, we go back and forth about a name change for Practical Fundamentals. I feel sometimes that people see the name, they see the word “Fundamentals” and they freak out. “I am too advanced for fundamentals,” or “what about an advanced class, I want to take an advanced class.”

People really need to focus on the word Practical and not the word Fundamentals. Most shooters in the United States think there is a trade off between speed and accuracy. Practically speaking, there is not. It is how you get to making those fast shots at speed that is the telling factor of the trade off between speed and accuracy.

Flawless Fundamentals

When you look at any of the guys coming out of Tier One outfits, they all seem to say the same thing. The guys who win are the ones that have flawless fundamentals executed under all conditions. Whether they are tired, bleeding, cold, wet, no matter. It is the thing that makes them … ahem, not the average US shooter, or even competitor.

One of the things the Practical Fundamentals course does is it breaks down each fundamental to its lowest level, and each lesson builds upon the last. The course is laid out in the most logical order possible. The other thing that Practical Fundamentals does for a shooter – of any skill level – is provide a plan on how to train for the future. Going to the range and shooting is not really training, it is the validation of what we are doing in training. Think of going to the range and performing well as if it were running a marathon. You don’t wake up on Sunday morning and decide that you are going to run a marathon next Saturday. It usually takes six months to a year worth of work behind the scenes. Training. Then the marathon shows you how effective or ineffective your training regime was. Too often we go to the range and do nothing but make expensive noise. We don’t know how to train, and somehow equate going to the range as effective training.

We also examine the subconscious and how it plays a part in speed shooting. The subconscious is so important, and too often neglected.

Advanced class?  An advanced class is nothing more than the same things you do in a so called “basic” class, but the times are tighter and the shots are harder. There are no super soldier secrets that get laid on a shooter in an advanced class.

Who is Practical Fundamentals for? It is for anyone, at any level, who has safe gun handling, at least some experience drawing from the holster, and a desire to get to the next level. Practical Fundamentals has been called a PhD in trigger control. And that about sums it up.