Creating a Personal Training Schedule, by Mike

In the Team Leader Class, one of the things I teach students is how to make a team training plan.  Today I will endeavor to show you how to create a personal training plan so that you as an individual can seek self-improvement.

Identifying Your Mission

You should start your training journey with a goal in mind.  It’s hard to hit a target if you don’t know what your target is.  To do this, grab a notebook and try to visualize what you are training for, then write it down in one or two sentences.  This is your personal mission statement.  For example;

“I want to train myself in the skills necessary to operate as unsupported light infantry in order to survive a civil conflict.”

or;

“I want to be ready to help my family in our day-to-day lives”

These are two very different mission statements, leading in two specific directions.  While there may be some overlap in the skills required for each mission, there is a lot of specific skills unique to each mission.  This leads to our next step.

Create a Personal Mission-Essential Task List (METL)

Now that you have your desired end state in mind, it’s time to brainstorm what kind of skills contribute to your mission so that you know what to train.  For demonstration purposes, we will go with the second sample mission statement.

“I want to be ready to help my family in our day-to-day lives”

Skills that contribute to this mission could include:

• First aid care
• Concealed carry weapon proficiency
• Situational awareness
• Vehicle handling
• Contingency planning

Look at that, we now have a list of skills that we should strive to train to.  I could list many more, but you get the point.

Set Measurable, Attainable Standards

We are now pointed in the right direction, but we need to determine what level of skill we desire.  The way to do this is to set standards/goals for each mission-essential task.  Using the example above:

• First aid care
  • Apply tourniquet to an extremity under 90 seconds
  • recite from memory the questions to ask to determine a patient’s mental state
  • lay out items in the first aid kit and describe how and when you would use each item.
• Concealed carry weapon proficiency
  • from concealment with a time limit of 5 seconds, engage an IPSC target at 15m with a hammer pair

And so on and so forth.  What we have now is specific tasks to train ourselves to.  This makes decisions in the final step much easier.

Seek Training that Supports your METL

There are a lot of trainers offering a lot of cool classes.  To make the most of your finite resources, you should attend training that helps you accomplish your mission and enables you to complete one of your mission-essential tasks.  I don’t know what your personal mission statement is, so I can’t write your training plan for you.  However, I will link our training partners so you can check out their classes and see what fits your requirements.

NC Scout; Brushbeater Training & Consulting

Mechmedic: Stuck Pig Medical

JC Dodge: Mason Dixon Tactical

and myself;

Mike: Von Steuben Training & Consulting (VSTAC)