“Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.” - Bruce Lee

Experience is extremely relevant to training and instruction. But it’s relevance lies in perspective. Without the correct perspective it’s difficult to discern what is practically effective from what appears sound in theory. Without experience, sub-optimal tactics and techniques can be seductive, leading your training down the wrong path. This is a tale all too familiar in the martial arts world, especially before tests of style such as the UFC became popular. It is also astonishingly prevalent in the tactical world as well, even in military and LE circles. Especially when adapting TTPs to a different operational environment without the proper perspective.

All too often tactics become dogma and technique becomes religion. The principles underlying sound tactics and techniques are universal, but the application of those principles varies depending on the operational environment and the individual applying them. You have to use the perspective of your own experience to develop your own best application of those principles in any given situation.

Individuals and their experiences vary widely. And experiences only have value if they contribute to growth and understanding. I’ve known plenty of cops who repeated the exact same year without growth or development twenty or more times. That’s not twenty years of experience. That is one year repeated twenty times. I’ve known individuals with multiple gunfights who had no true understanding of why they prevailed and their adversaries did not. They failed to gain perspective from their experience.

The other common failing is assuming your perspective is universal. This is a frequent flaw in highly intelligent and educated people who assume that their expertise in one area of knowledge carries over somehow to all other fields of endeavor. It’s no less prevalent in the tactical community though. There is a huge commonality between GWOT experience and police work, but there are also vast differences. Indeed, there are vast differences between one individual’s experiences and perspective even in the same profession.

My combat experience is not the same as everyone else’s, and neither is my police experience. I am proud of my accomplishments and experiences, and feel I have many valuable lessons to pass on. It would be a staggering act of hubris on my part however if I thought only my perspective was the correct one, only my experiences valuable. And I would forever limit my development if I cut myself off from other’s lessons learned or blindly followed one perspective.

Research and learn from your’s and other’s experiences and perspectives. Put tactics and techniques to the test. Absorb what is useful and valuable, regardless of its origin. Reject what has no use, no matter its source. And add what is yours, what comes from your lessons learned. The hard earned perspective of your own experience.