One of the subjects we discuss in this blog, a lot, is the importance of having quantifiable metrics of performance. A large part of that is what I call “soft standards,” i.e. “I did better than I did last time,” and “I performed the drill/skill correctly.” On the same hand however, there is a time and a place for “hard standards.”
“Hard standards” are simply a published set of metrics that a given group of people are expected to be able to achieve, on demand, without specific preparation or warm-up. As individual practitioners of…dare I say…the “Heroic Ideal,” soft standards really should be more important to us than soft standards, but hard standards do have a very important role to play as well.
In the first place, it allows us the confidence to accept fate stoically. “What is, is.” If I have met a hard standard, on demand, without preamble…
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Firearm User Network 
Colorado Pete
Jul 09, 2017 @ 12:11:24
Good article that addresses a topic many never even think of. I often hear people say “I’m a good shot” or “I want to be good”. Then to the former I usually just say “uh huh, have you ever competed?” but to the latter I say “define good”. If that leads to a discussion about standards and training I say, “how good do you want to be, and how bad do you want to be that, because it takes work?”
All that results in a lot of looks of uncertainty. But it starts them thinking about the real issue, which is the prerequisite for everything else.
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