Perspective in training

As many might have noticed, I am not a big fan of focusing on what we supposedly cannot do “under stress”. I instead focus on training hard, or training my guys hard, and using proven techniques.

As a soldier in Norway, an arctic climate is one condition that had to be accepted – we cannot change the weather. As such, proper hand wear is not only necessary, but vital for being able to conduct operations.

For a few years, recruits would report to basic training in January – I was stationed in the North, with -30*C being the norm. When working on basic rifle fundamentals and handling, such as reloads, malfunction clearance, shooting etc, our recruits start out wearing our 3-layer hand wear system; consists of a thin inner liner glove, a wool terry insulation mitten and an outer wind/water resistant mitten.

Here is a picture of new recruits of this year, from my old unit, doing some initial training. Note the hand wear. Is it slower than using thin gloves? Absolutely. Still, they get damn good handling that firearm while wearing bulky mitts. This really crosses over when the weather gets warmer, and they can start using combat gloves. Note that the mag pouches on our LBV’s are closed top with full lids (as opposed to flaps).

My point? Stop fuzzing over stupid little details and just train. You are the biggest factor when it comes to developing skills as a shooter. If you let outside factors play too big a role, you will severely hamper your progression.