(Before It's News)
Many firearms instructors, myself included, have a saying that goes something like this “train the way you fight.” Meaning that, if you’re training isn’t related to real-life scenarios, you’re
doing something wrong. Outside of my basic NRA handgun classes, my other (limited) firearms training classes are geared to real-life training. When on the range, we don’t train you to stand there, squared off to a target, at a pre-determined range, and just stand there and shoot. No! Instead, my training consists of on-the-move training, as well as firing at a 180-degree area. We shoot right to left, and front to back. We shoot on the move, too – as well as from behind cover, and in the prone and kneeling position. In a real-life active shooter situation, you can’t just stand there and square-off, and keep shooting – if you don’t move, you’ll die – simple as that.
After the first shots are exchanged, you should be seeking cover, or changing your plane, and reloading and looking for other threats. While there’s nothing wrong with learning basic Marksmanship skills; sight picture, trigger control and follow-through, in a real-life deadly shooting, you need to be on the move, and make good use of cover and concealment if possible. Look, this isn’t the Old West, where you and an opponent stand face-to-face, and see who can draw their weapon the fastest. That will get you killed. You have to train the way you’ll fight – be it in the military, law enforcement or as a civilian gun owner. This also means using the weapon and equipment that you’d be using on the streets or on the battlefield.
Uncle Sam issues hard body armor to our troops, and it’s really good armor – it’s made out of ceramic and compressed aluminum (I believe), and it is designed to trap the rounds fired into it – thus, breaking-up the ceramic/aluminum plates – they are meant to be some what fragile – it’s the way they absorb the rounds – by breaking apart. However, one serious drawback to this type of hard body is that, when worn in training, these plates take a beating, and they can break or fracture when you go prone, or for that matter, if you accidentally drop you body armor carrier on the ground. Some law enforcement agencies actually have their had body armor (ceramic-style) x-rayed yearly or an CT scan used – very expensive procedures for ensuring that you hard body armor plates haven’t been damaged.
Today we consider Warrior Trail, a company manufacturing a patented type of hard body armor training armor – please read that again, this isn’t hard body armor, instead it is TRAINING body armor. It is designed and manufactured to the same size, shape and weight as ceramic-type hard body armor plates. If you’re on a SWAT team, for instance, you will be training the way you’ll fight – and that means wearing your hard body armor – if your department issues it.
Source: http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/12/pats-product-review-warrior-trail-training-body-armor.html