Dealing with Heat in Texas Training

We completed another Beyond CCW course recently, with temps above 105 F.

305 TAC conducted another Beyond CCW course on June 11. I want to thank the students who came out and braved the heat for another great day of training. We covered firearm safety, use of force (per Texas law), base, grip, sight picture, sight alignment, target transitions, failure drills, and more. This is a class designed to improve upon basic understanding from concealed carry courses. There is so much involved in the decision to use force of any kind. There is literally life and death in every round fired in a defensive firearm use. We all need to be able to make good decisions and ensure that we hit the target we are firing at.

Saturday gave me a refresher in dealing with heat and monitoring my students to make sure we were keeping up with our hydration. I drank six cans of LaCroix and three bottles of Gatorade Zero. All that with no urine production. I allowed myself to fall behind the hydration curve. It’s easy to do when you are focused on teaching.

Monitoring your students when the heat is this high (107 F) is paramount. We took breaks inside vehicles with AC running which certainly helped us cool down. We pushed fluids every time we came off the line to reload magazines. All of this allowed us to keep going. But by 2:30 PM, everyone was feeling it and the students decided to call it for the day. I didn’t argue!

One of the great things about teaching is how much I learn every time I am involved in a class. Students are all different and all of them have different abilities. This class was no exception. I relearned important lessons about dealing with heat and will adjust my equipment and hydration to continue training in the hot summer months here in Texas.