If you want to be competent – no, really good at something, you have to practice the skills needed for that “something.” Want to be a safe motorcycle rider? Practice riding safely. Want to be fiscally responsible? Practice fiscal responsibility. Want to be an expert shot with a handgun or rifle? Practice shooting.

I started a motorcycle skills class this evening. It runs for six weeks, about two hours per session. It does not teach you how to ride fast in a straight line. Any idiot can do that, and I’m pretty sure you’ve seen those guys zipping by you on their crotch rockets. No, this class teaches slow-speed maneuvers. Actually, it teaches the basic mechanics of slow speed maneuvers, and by combining them you can handle just about any crisis that crops up.

“But Cary” you say. “I though you already knew how to ride?”

Yes, I do. I also know how to shoot (qualified expert on the M-16 and the M-1911 whilst in the Marine Corps – I know how to shoot) and I know how to walk and I know how to draw cabinets in the quasi-CAD program called Cabinet Vision, too, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more things to learn about any of them. One of the instructors at the skills class (all the instructors are members of the Arizona Precision Motorcycle Team) has been riding for 47 years, and he says he’s still learning.

I also go target shooting when the opportunity arises. I would rather be practicing on a CQ range, but they are expensive. Another aspect of carrying a firearm that a lot of people don’t think about is 1) how to carry it without being obvious that you are carrying it and 2) keeping your mindset in the place it needs to be while you are carrying it. Anyone can strap on a hogleg and strut around. It takes a patient and thoughtful person to carry a loaded weapon at all times, knowing in their mind and in their gut that if called upon by circumstances, they will use it to defend life or property for themselves or for those around them.

Having skills and being able to use those skills are two different things. If you don’t practice your skills, they become rusty and clunky and you are not as effective as you could be. Practicing your slow-speed maneuvers is important, so the muscle memory is developed in case you need to use those maneuvers – at any speed. Shooting and carrying practice is important to develop a different kind of muscle memory, so you can appear to be an unarmed person, but can react and act in a way that will save lives. You have to constantly use skills that you learn on the computer too – or on the drafting table, or in the negotiation meeting, or operating the equipment, or you can go rusty and lose skills, lose opportunities, or lose control. Never lose control.

A piece of advice from the guy who has been riding for 47 years – “Learn the skills, and then practice them. The two best times to practice are when you are alone, and when you are with somebody.”

That goes for any skill you have, at which you want to excel.

Chat ya later…

Thanks for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, and Wear Red on Fridays!

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