pmcimagazine.com
CONTINUATION TRAINING
This time Andy takes a moment for reflection on the things he wishes he’d known, and now sets out to embrace
as he winds down from his operational time. Focussing not just on the physical aspects of how “to stay in the
fight” but also some all-important mental considerations.
I
t wasn’t long ago that I decided to take the plunge
and retire from active service. I’ve been in the
military and PMC role for nearly 30 years now and my
wife has begun starting to tell me that I am now the
wrong shape and wrong age to carry on in this line of
work. I’ve loved working the circuit, the people I’ve
met, and the contracts I’ve taken, but most of all I’ve
loved the lifestyle.
Now that I’m in my “old-age”, I’ve decided to carry on
teaching others so they can live the experiences and lifestyle
that I’ve had. Now that I’ve kicked off my boots and hung up
my body armour, I find civilian life a little boring. I’ve taken it
upon myself to live as much of the past as possible and carry
on training the way I have before. I’ve noticed I’m a little slower
on the draw and not as strong as I was in the gym, but that’s
not going to stop me from trying to be the best that I can at
the age that I am.
As we all know, as with most things in life, shooting skills
and drills are perishable. That is to say, if you don’t practice and
keep on top of things you will soon lose the ability to perform
to the best of your ability, and in our game that’s what counts. I
know I’ll never take on another contract, but that’s not going to
stop me from hitting the range and running the skills and drills
44
that I have always loved to do in my past.
Now the words that I write are not intended to persuade
you to hit retirement, they are intended to give you a heads up
on how important it is for us to carry on building ourselves fitter
and stronger during times of rest. There have been many times
in between contracts that I’ve had a period of rest. I’ve always
taken this time to rethink my training program and learn to
develop new skills as well as keeping up-to-date, and speed,
with the ones I already possess.
Working the circuit kicks up a whole host of challenges,
but when these challenges end, life seems to get a little bit
tedious. Hitting the range, for me, has always brought forward
challenges, and this is something I’ve always loved to do, and
I have decided that range time will now consist of pushing
myself just as much as I did when I was younger.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Long gone is the day of “point, pull, bang, drop”!
Both research and development now play a major part in
modern day “gun foo”. In the ever-changing world of tactics,
you need to be on the ball all the time. It’s not enough to
rely on old school time proven skills and drills that you learnt
on day one of your training. The way people think and the