Then it was once again time for a bunch of crazy Shindenkaners to meet for a round of POMW (Project Old Modern Warrior). Joking aside, that's not what we are. On the contrary, we are all normal people who try to make something out of what we do. As with other Shindenkan courses, POMW is a professionally organized course, and this means that all participants come with a good serious attitude. However, it is of course still combined with the good mood that comes when people who know each other meet. This is particularly important here, as POMW is about the use of firearms, and therefore it is important that things such as security is absolutely top notch. And if people don't feel comfortable handling firearms, then security risks can also increase quickly. Or as Kimu Sensei told us, "it's about enjoying your shooting." Otherwise you can't shoot well".

POMW III is primarily about 'practical shooting'. This means that, unlike POMW II, where we focused a lot on precision and range shooting, primarily with caliber 0.22, POMW III was about being able to shoot at different distances, against several targets, and with one or more shots in succession. We shot almost exclusively with 9mm, where recoil control plays a far greater role than with the lighter ammunition.

And actually we shot a lot. Just over 1100 shots in total, which equates to between 5 and 7 years of normal shooting experience (if I remember correctly). And if I think back to what it was like to shoot with 9mm during POMW II, I can safely say that I have moved on. Back then, it felt as if the shots sent off a small shock in the body, and one's muscles quickly tensed up in the wrong way when shooting. Accuracy was more luck than sense, and I even managed to hit the wooden posts next to the target that time. It's called recoil, and it may take some getting used to. But that was then. Now I can e.g. shoot through an entire magazine at several different targets and still hit within a relatively small area, or almost consistently hit a smaller sheet of metal at 40-50 meters away. It is still significantly more difficult to shoot accurately with 9mm than with 0.22, but after over 1000 shots, the 'fear' is almost gone. Then you come back to the fact that you have to remember to bring the good technique that we learned in POMW I and II.

So the results were there, but of course it also required a lot of work in addition to the actual shooting or 'wet training' as we call it. As in the previous POMW courses, all participants had done some 'dry training' from home. This means that we had practiced POMW shooting technique at home. And in POMW III, we also had weight training with 2 kilo weights, in order to be able to shoot for such a long time at a time. 2 kg is approx. what a loaded CZ Shadow weighs, which is what we shot with. In addition, the extra strength can also make it easier to handle the recoil. Although you shouldn't try to counteract the recoil (you can't), it can still help to hold the gun correctly, which can make your aim quickly return to the target after a shot, i.e. recoil control. If you are reading this because you are going to attend POMW 3 soon, I will give this advice. Get as much dry training at home as possible. Out on the court, you don't have time to think about changing your grip or your technique, so if it's not already on your spine, you're going to keep having problems.

We were also exposed to a few surprises, when we e.g. got time to try shooting around the barricade. It really just meant that we had to lean a little to the side while shooting, but as Kimu Sensei said at the time, we could no longer be taken aback by such small changes. One interesting thing was that the last thing we did was go back to range shooting from POMW II to see if we could still do the precision shooting with the .22 caliber. This should be like shooting a toy gun, here after the shooting with the 9mm. Personally, I shot probably the same as my best results from the POMW II or slightly better, just consistent every time, and yes the gun didn't feel like much. We hadn't practiced precision at all and we only got 3 attempts to deliver 30 good shots. The result was that participants shot slightly better than they had done at the end of POMW II, and some individuals achieved very impressive results corresponding to the 1st division Danish standard. In fact, we pretty much all shot the Danish division standard, i.e. to competition level, but honestly it doesn't feel like much.

What you realize is that shooting is not complicated at all, and after relatively short training you can easily achieve really good results, as long as you train in the right way. You can say that we now shoot as if we were 'black belts' in shooting, but with the same training effort, we would probably only have been able to stay approx. 8th kyu in martial arts. It gives the picture very well, but for us it is not that important. We take it with us from the shooting that we can use for something, and then it's just about recognizing that the world is as it is. It has certainly been an exciting and fun course, and a good eye-opener in relation to how you can transfer your martial arts training to quickly become good at something in the modern world. But the truth is that shooting is simple, so you can quickly become a world champion in your own small village. It can be very nice for many, but for us, you can also choose to look forward to the real challenge that still lies in martial arts.