Urban Rifle by Clint Smith Far be it from me to cast aspersions on any of the “grand old men” of the training community, but dude, seriously? If you cannot figure out, this many DECADES in, why the fuck we use shot timers for skill development, in a combative shooting class, “because I’ve never seen a shot timer in a gunfight,” you need to check your fucking meds. I actually quit reading at that sentence, so I can’t tell you how the rest of the book was. If you’ve never taken a class, or read a book, or watched a video on carbine/rifle training, this might be okay. If you’re jumping in a time machine, and going back to 1975, this might be okay. Otherwise, I’d pass on it. That pains me to say, because I watch Clint’s videos on YT, and the dude cracks me up. I’ve been told we’re pretty similar in our teaching style as well. But, I honestly feel, at this point, if someone is telling people that shot timers are not important in combative rifle training, then they’re fucking their students. Sure, “Speed is Fine, but Accuracy is Final.” But, if that round doesn’t get to its target in time, you still lose. If I shoot you in the fucking leg, a second before you break your shot, guess what? There’s a pretty solid chance you’re going to fucking miss, because you’re going to be a little distracted. If I keep shooting you, accurately ENOUGH, while you’re trying to line up your shot, because you’ve never used a goddamned shot timer, in order to train yourself to shoot accurately FASTER, then I’m going to win, even if I’m not as accurate as you are. The Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde by John Boessenecker My wife downloaded the new Netflix movie Highwaymen last week, and convinced me to watch it. It was surprisingly good, and this is coming from a guy who has basically given up on American cinema. I knew quite a bit about Frank Hamer, but decided to refresh my memory after watching the flick. This was a good bio of him, and, as a friend pointed out, “if half this stuff is true, Chuck Norris, on his best day, couldn’t polish Hamer’s boots!” The Straight Lead: The Core of Bruce Lee’s Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do by Teri Tom I’ve had this book for years, and finally pulled it off the shelf to read it. I’m not what anyone would call a Bruce Lee fan. I think there is a whole lot of Hollywood/Hong Kong movie mythology surrounding the dude, and if anyone today made the claims that Lee made, about “secret” fights and death matches, we’d laugh at the fucker. I remember reading Tao of Jeet Kune Do when I was in High School, and thinking it was the cat’s meow, until I was telling my grandfather about it one day, and he got really pissy with me: “You wanna know about Bruce Lee? He was a little gook faggot! He couldn’t’ve fought his way out of a dirty pisser stall! Fuck Bruce Lee!” (My late grandfather was a very vocal advocate of western boxing and Judo as the foundations of combatives.) I pulled this off to read though, because, I’ve always felt like my lead jab left a lot to be desired. I’ve always read about dudes—and I’ve met one or two—who could land a KO punch, with nothing but their left jab. So, I’ve made it a point, over the last several months, to focus on developing my left jab more. From focusing my pre-boxing workout warm-ups on nothing but throwing left jabs from various angles and positions, on a weighted “head bag.” (I actually don’t know WTF it’s called. It’s basically an oversized speed bag, but it weighs about 60#, and it hangs lower and freer than a speed bag), I’m trying to develop that KO left jab, or at least one that will make even a big dude stop and think, “Fuck that hurt…and that was his weak hand! Maybe I don’t want to tangle with this dude after all…. So….I’ll mine it for details. I’m not done with it, because it’s not a huge priority in my reading queue, and so far, it’s a bunch of fawning over a dead movie star, but we’ll see if it gets better. The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution by Andrew Meffero This is a survey, featuring interviews, with a bunch of organic, no-till farming practitioners, operating on various scales, from commercial to small family farm opertions. It’s really good. Even the parts that are talking about commercial scale production methods—which carries no interest for me, at all—gave me some good ideas, and a couple of the folks in the book had ideas that made HH6 and I decide to change our approach to a couple things. Highly recommend. Continue reading...
