Train With Willis

      As I travel through my life, cresting now 50 years of age,  and continue to expand my knowledge as a man, a student, and an instructor, I wish to be less concrete in my thinking. A common folly of most younger men, and one that some men never shake. Now those who know me, KNOW me, and are wholly aware that there are a few hills that I am still willing die on, but those hills are fewer and farther in between than a few years ago. I am off course flawed, but I try.      Every once in a while I'm fortunate enough to be amongst peers and professionals in our beloved community that I consider to be at such a high level that I call "a table." This is generally a group of people who are so incredible gifted in both knowledge, skills, and instructional methodology that I am humbled simply to sit and listen. Every once in a while, I like to get into some deeper discussions with my friends, and simply ask; "What, in the last 5 years or so, have you be...

     By Jonathan Willis     It's easy to feel like you've "checked the box" by carrying a tourniquet. I see it all the time. Someone straps one on their kit or throws it into their glove box, and suddenly the feel squared away for trauma response.  Here's the reality: YOUR TOURNIQUET IS NOT A SYSTEM! And a system is what you want.  A tourniquet solves exactly one problem - uncontrolled extremity hemorrhage. Yes, that problem can kill quickly, it is far from the only life threatening bleed, or lethal trauma related injury you should leave your home prepared to deal with on a daily basis. DO NOT forget, you are 8X more likely to be party to a significant traumatic injury that a violent conflict. Does your training, or daily carry, reflect that reality? The Limits of the Tourniquet Let's be blunt: if you carry only a tourniquet, you are wrong. You are not prepared. Why? Because obviously, the body doesn't just bleed from the arms and legs. And remember, ...

by Jonathan Willis For a long time, Montgomery County, Ohio carried a grim title—the worst place in the nation for opioid-related deaths. That wasn’t just a headline for me. That was my backyard. That was where I spent my career responding to calls that, more often than not, ended in heartbreak. Over my years on the job, I responded to well over a thousand overdoses. WELL over a thousand. (I've tried to do the math and stopped) When I say that out loud, it barely seems possible. But every one of those calls was real—a kitchen floor, a gas station bathroom, a home with a room filled with bodies, a car that "randomly" rolled out of a parking lot into the middle of the street. I saw addiction, and accidental poisoning, and overdoses tear through families in every way imaginable. Parents burying children. Children burying parents. Siblings trying to make sense of it all. For years, I told myself I was unaffected. I wore the armor, kept my tone dry, brushed off the weight of i...

By Jonathan Willis Bleeding is the number two cause of trauma related death in the United States. Thankfully, in the realm of trauma care, through many different outreach efforts, civilians are more equipped and capable than ever to effect a positive outcome on the bleeding emergency. Tourniquets for example are more plentiful, easy to use, and of a higher quality than ever before. Bleeding control kits are more visible in the day to day environment and  more people are choosing to carry them on their person daily. This is great progress.  Although carrying a tourniquet is wonderful for preparing a person to stem life threatening extremity hemorrhage with a quickness, most people leave it at that. Effectively choosing to realistically affect the outcome of only one type of bleeding. In the absence of wound packing gauze, no matter the type, I ask, why bother?  Now, many are gonna read that and recoil. "HOW DARE HE??" I've had many discussions with folks in which I strongl...

By Jonathan Willis Update:               It has been a while since this article was originally published, but due to recent events, I felt a need to revisit this important topic. I recently attended the Rangemaster Tactical Conference in Dallas Texas. The evening prior to this event a meet and greet is held, allowing old and new friends alike to come together to kick off what is the biggest weekend of the year in the firearms training world. A short time into the evening’s festivities things “went sideways” so to speak when a friend of mine abruptly said “Jon, we need you NOW!” Two other friends of mine were attending to a close friend of theirs at a table and I approached to assist. As soon as I made contact, the gentleman lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest. Immediately we took the man to the floor and initiated aggressive CPR. Calls immediately went out to call 911 and for the AED to be delivered. The call w...

            Any working instructor can attest, there is a great spectrum of useful coursework that can be undertaken in the realm of instructor development. As we’ve all experienced, there are many amazing shooters who could benefit from putting down the gun for a few weekends to concentrate on instructional methodology. We’ve also seen folks with solid teaching skills who lack the technical skills to legitimize content delivery within this industry. Both of these examples happen often, and it’s incumbent on all of us to expect and model a higher level of commitment to this vital work.             It has been a couple of decades since I picked up my first NRA instructor certification. I can recall being relatively shocked at what so many folks thought was “ok enough” to call themselves an instructor. This remains the absolute minimum bar in the industry but still the expectation of many an insuranc...