What a wasted day. Spent most of it on the computer trying to get the website back up. So much for going to the range to practice. May the hackers who took out Matt Burkett's server be waterboarded for eternity in Hell.

For the last 10 years or so 70-80% of my practice time has been spent on fighting with a pistol and not developing competition skills (prior to that it was 60/40 in favor of competition). Might explain why I don't finish as high as I used to, might be age, but I'm stronger than I was 15 years ago and work just as hard as I did then so it's probably the focus change. The other 10-20% livefire training time is spent on pure accuracy. Often this is done by shooting at rocks at the back of the berm ~70 yards away. Actually that could also be concidered fighting skills in this day of the active shooter. I want the skillset to take a sniper shot art some POS on the other side of the mall.

Until the last 2-3 years much of that "fight" training was close range with very dynamic movement drills. However, for some time I've been focused on low light skills and manipulateing a hand held flashlight. I've virtually given up on pistol mounted lights for several reasons. If I'm using the switch on the light it always seem to be off when I want it on and on when I want it off. With a remote grip activated switch they certainly work but I'm locked in to having the light on when shooting. While that does make for speed and accuracy I don't really like the idea of having to have the light on to shoot. I am commited to being right where the "shoot me beacon" is every time. What if there are more threats out there I haven't ID'd yet? There's that pesky +1 rule to worry about. I also see problems with using the light mounted on the gun to investigate "black holes". Can't exactly do that when walking down the street at night without atracting negative Law Enforcement attention. This isn't an issue when using a handheld light. If I'm going to have a light in hand anyway what do I need a light on the gun for? What am I going to do with the handheld if I do have to resort to the gun?

Realistically 90+% of the time all I need the light for is to check black holes and get a good look at someones hands (with the increadable bonus of blinding them). At night in an urban / suburban environment, and even generally out in the country, you can see good enough to see where people are but not good enough to see what's in their hands. That's what's really important, and I can't exectly point my gun at everyone I want to check for weapons without a Aggravated Assault charge.

Bottom line is that some time ago I decided I needed better skills with a handheld light. Over the last few years I have developed some techniques and tactics for a handheld light that seem to work for me, both from a simple shooting perspective, and they work VERY well in force on force exercises. The techniques I'm now using I have never seen documented before even with all the studying I've done one self defence. I'm not saying I've invented something new just that I've never seen anyone else do it. The closest I've seen is Ken Good and the Strategos crew, but not quite.

A lot of what is to come will be focused on this subject. I won't explain much about the tactics involved because anyone can access this page but I will probaly explain some of the techniques along with unknown "other stuff"