In this article, I will continue to define the 3 tenets of I.C.E. Training Company’s Programs: Integrity, Consistency and Efficiency. We started with Efficiency because it will always be our goal in program development and course execution. Now, we will turn our attention to Consistency, in both action and thought as a means to achieve greater efficiency.
 
By borrowing from mathematics, we can use set theory to envision the relationship between Efficiency, Consistency and Effectiveness. Picture a large circle encompassing all of the things that are Effective containing two smaller circles that partially overlap. One of the small circles contains all of the items that are Consistent with one another in one or more ways. The other small circle would contain all of the efficient options (those using the least energy, effort and/or time to achieve the desired goal). The area of overlap between the two small circles would identify our preferred methods, techniques and tactics whenever possible and represent the focus of our training and program development.
 
 
As could be seen in the above graphic described above, anything that is Efficient will also be included in the group of all things that are effective. As mentioned in a previous article, there are a great many things that are objectively effective that are not efficient. It can be dangerous when something that is Effective but not efficient is considered “easy” or “fast” because of someone’s familiarity with it. For example, there may be a person who “porpoises” the gun into the shooting position (allowing the muzzle to point above line of sight to the target during presentation… and in some cases even breaking this plane with the gun and bringing it back down before firing), but does it very quickly. This person may shoot well and faster than others in his peer group. That does not make his technique efficient. Anything in the area of the yellow above, but not in the red, may very well get the job done, but it is not using the least amount of energy, effort or time to do so.
 
On of the most important things that we can do in our training to increase efficiency is to be more Consistent. By doing mechanical things (weapons manipulations, etc) in the same way and the same place as often as possible, we are being more consistent. Similarly the fewer options that we have when it comes to what we are doing (our techniques and tactics), we will be more consistent with our training time and in our execution of any process. The circle in the center of the above described graphic indicates the things that are both Effective and Consistent with one another. As reflected above, not everything that is efficient will be consistent with something else. For example, we would not generally place our pistol backwards into the holster, but when performing a one-handed weak-handed reload, this is part of the most efficient process.
 
The use of the high compressed ready position is a great example of consistency in action to achieve efficiency. While there may be extreme situations in which other ready positions would be more specifically perfect, the acceptance of the high compressed ready as an efficient solution to almost all needs for a ready position (between holstered & shooting, while assessing, after a shooting, while moving, for retention, etc) and allows us to perform all of our standard weapons handling manipulations (loading, re-loading, malfunction clearing) and is performed in a place that is consistent with presentation from the holster without stopping, the high compressed ready position’s benefits come largely from the consistency that it allows in our training and operations.
 
Using the overhand method to “rack” the slide of a semi-automatic pistol to get the action into battery is another example of consistency in action. While there may be times when a shooter could be faster by using a slide release lever, there are other times (with specific firearms, needing to reload with the slide forward, malfunction clearing) when the skill of releasing the slide this way has no use whatsoever. Training time is always limited, so by also limiting our options and always using the overhand method to rack the slide when we have two hands, we are being more consistent and getting more practice with our needed skill sets for the time we invest in training. Trying to have the perfect solution to every possible situation quickly leads to a laundry list of overlapping options that get confused under stress and spread training time very thin.
 
Another important aspect of Consistency in training is related to the context of the use of the skills we are developing. Using approaches that don’t take into account the circumstances under which we will need to perform various skills, especially the worst case scenarios, can lead to a false sense of confidence at the very least and an inability to perform when it is most important at the very worst. “Testing” our skills in controlled environments or isolating particularly skill sets from the conditions of a dynamic critical incident can be especially dangerous. Understanding as much as we can about typical conditions (primarily through the observation of empirical evidence) is vital to being consistent with those conditions.
 
On the program development side, consistency means making sure that as much of our information as possible fits in with everything else. Some of you may be familiar with the phrase “Run, Run Faster, Run as Fast as you Can” as a replacement for the old “Crawl, Walk, Run”. If our goal is to run, we don’t want to teach skills used for crawling, which will become obsolete and irrelevant as our training and skill increase. While we may break a technique down to component parts and learn in a slow/controlled and safe manner, we want to avoid learning a “basic” approach that will be effective for a time or in a limited way, but be replaced later by something that is more efficient.
 
Consistency is an important part of I.C.E.’s approach to tactical and shooting training and should be a significant component in your development as well.