“That One Thing” and “Give me my 5 minutes”

Why do we train? I, as most good instructors, continue to go to various training courses, many of which can seem to be a basic type of class. I try to blend in, but inevitably someone will learn about my background and ask why I would ever be there in the first place. It seems people have this mis-notion that if you have a certain resume you shouldn’t have to take another class in your life.

In the military you are either doing your job, or training to do it better. Even after the military my life has been a constant school. I am always taking another class, another course, another certification, another seminar.

Beyond the reasons of military structure or life curiosity, why would someone train constantly, and more importantly why would someone take a course which teaches skills they think they already know?

“That One Thing” usually comes during “Our 5 Minutes”. If I go to a three day course in basic rifle skills, 99% of the material I either already know, I don’t agree with, or it won’t work for me. But somewhere during those three days there is going to be 5 minutes where I learn one new thing. One thing which could one day be the one thing which saved my life, saved my friend or family member, or allowed me to escape a bad situation. As an instructor, it might not even be 5 minutes for me to keep. Perhaps it is something I learn which I can then teach to someone else, and maybe it is their One Thing which will save their life.

There is ALWAYS someone tougher, faster, smarter, and better trained.  If you do find yourself in a crisis, hopefully you will be that tougher, faster, smarter, and better trained person.  But you should always be striving to increase your odds of being that person.  The saying “you rise to the moment” is probably one of the most deadly sayings in the world of self-defense.  You will actually fall to your level of training.  Yes, you may get lucky, but that is a huge gamble.  Your skills are built on a foundation of basic fundamentals.  You should never stop trying to make that foundation stronger.  The skills that sit on that foundation are unfortunately perishable.  If you do not consistently keep them sharp, you lose them.

Self-defense course aren’t about how to build a better sand castle. They are about life and death situations. Situations we hope will never occur. But if we find ourselves in that situation, how much is the “One Thing” worth at that moment? Will it matter it took three days to find our five minutes?