Learn And Practice Survival Skills

learn-and-practice-survival-skills

Do you have everything that you need in case of the worst case scenario? Water? Food? Tools? How about skills?

Regardless of how much equipment or how many supplies that you stock up on, skills are still your most valuable asset.


 
by Charlie Mike Adkins of CharlieMikeSolutions.net

So you have a Ferrocerium Rod, but how many fires have you actually started with it? Have you practiced purifying water? This list of questions could go on and on. The bottom line is that our brains have always been our most valuable tool and our most deadly weapon. However, people are lazy. That’s not an insult, it’s a fact. Anthropologists theorize on the origin of our laziness and have come up with some pretty interesting insights. It’s about conserving calories. Think back to the days of Fred & Barney. The less efficient that I was and the more physical work that I performed, the more calories that I needed. That meant more hunting, more gathering and even more energy expenditure! So the logical conclusion was to do the least amount of work possible in order to conserve calories.

For most people in America today, we aren’t worried about getting enough calories. Actually, it’s usually exactly the opposite. However, the part of the brain that is responsible for self-preservation (the limbic system) still wants us to conserve our calories, just in case we can’t get more. Conserving calories means not practicing your skills. However, your limbic system isn’t making your decisions for you. That’s happening in your pre-frontal cortex (PFC). Your PFC is your executive thought center. That’s what gives us the ability for complex thought and decision making.

So here is a decision: Do you want to practice your skills and perfect your techniques BEFORE the emergency situation? Of course we do. Do we always get around to practicing? No, life tends to get in the way. That’s where Charlie Mike Solutions can help.

Charlie Mike Solutions is a Retired US Special Forces owned and operated outdoor skills training company in West Virginia providing you with the chance to learn, practice and perfect the skills that you need for surviving and thriving outdoors. Their classes include: Basic Land Navigation, Advanced Land Navigation, Military Advanced Land Navigation, Basic Winter Survival, Basic Summer Survival, Advanced Survival and the menu is still growing. Some classes that are coming are Basic Pistol, Basic Carbine, Small Unit Tactics and Surviving With Kids.

Think about this: Can you REALLY use a map? By the way, the batteries are dead in your GPS! Can you truly stay warm when you get caught out in the woods overnight on a “short winter hike”? You don’t really know until you’ve done it. Studying skills is great, but performing those skills is the only way to perfect them.

‘Charlie Mike Solutions’ uses an adult learning model which is specifically designed to aid in skill set retention in new students and reinforce skills in more experienced woodsmen. If you are ready to take your preparations to the next level, make the decision to improve your skills. That’s more important than buying another knife, or one more backpack.

 
About the author:

Charlie Mike Adkins is a retired U.S. Army Green Beret (Special Forces). He is the primary instructor for all Charlie Mike Solutions classes. He is a graduate of numerous shooting schools, survival schools (including 2 international schools) and has years of real world experience. Charlie Mike completed 11 overseas tours during his time in Special Forces including multiple combat tours to Afghanistan as a member of an ODA (Special Forces A-Team).

11 Comments

  1. I totally agree with the article Ken brought up. The only true way to learn is to fail and do it till you succeed. I learned very early to be able to hit the wood with nothing but what I could carry. This “trial and error” taught me more about what is truly important in survival and what I didn’t need. One of the hardest things that I learned through “trial and error” was starting a fire when the wood was wet. Nothing like freezing cold to motivate you. Learn now and teach others what you learned.

  2. This is an important article to be prepared. I learned many survival skills by doing them,… including winter/summer camping by joining historical re-creation groups and attending their events. You also learn from minor mistakes so they don’t become major ones.

    This is a great way to apply skills in a primitive manner and they often have seminars to teach you. They teach firestarting, primitive cooking, making canoes, honing blackpowder shooting skills, wild food gathering, building shelters, snowshoeing, and trade skills. I would say it was a fun time and a tough time but very rewarding. We were re-creating our more primitive history but learning how to survive and enjoy the experience.

  3. Thanks for the article. Ive done wilderness nav and survival classes outside of pittsburgh, and I’m going to take a course by Byron Kerns in Fl in a few months, but I’ve always wondered about my son. I’m a single mom of a 7 year old boy. Boy Scouts, as much as I respect them, seem to go too slow for this age group. Therefore, I’ve started teaching him myself. I do it in fun ways that don’t seem like major life lessons (lets make a fire from flint and steel, and then we can roast marshmallows, etc). I really look forward to the class mentioned above about surviving with children.

    1. Have you talked to the scout leader for a guest spot during the meeting to teach some skills? IF the leader and kids like your presentation, you can be a helper for more.

      I quit the girlscouts because they were way too slow for me. They were into cutting out paper dolls and walks in the neighborhood, and I was into freshwater fishing, making preserves from wild fruits, and camping.

    2. PA Jes – You’re correct about Boy Scouts at age 7; until about age 10 or 11, the Boy Scouts’ focus on outdoor/camping skills doesn’t really begin in earnest. But your local BSA organization likely does have periodic leader training, including outdoor parts of the program, that you could access now.

    3. Hi PA Jess. Hope you are getting ready for turkey day tomorrow. In response to you question my husband and i took the Basic Land Navigstion Class from Charlie Mike Solutions and we loved the class. I have told everyone it was one of the best weekends my husband and I have ever spent together. Mike Adkins, owner and instructor of the class did a great job with the course. His teaching style was very easy to learn from and made everyone feel like they were an important of the course. We enjoyed the course so much we quickly decided to take his basic winter survival course in December. We hope to many more courses on the future with Mike Adkins and would highly recommend his douses to anyone.

      1. Sorry I forgot to put my name of the previous post. If you have any questions feel free to email me :)
        Frances Tomblin

  4. Has anyone taken one of Charlie Mike’s courses before? I’m curious about reviews. Thanks!

  5. PA Jes, I took the basic land navigation course in October. This also included a night time navigation exercise. This was my first time at something like this. Great course, Charlie Mike is a great instructor. Always took time to answer our questions and made sure we understood what to do. He also has helped me improve my handgun skills considerably. I thought I was already good, but I got much better. I’m trying to get to another course sometime soon. I would highly recommend checking out one of his courses.

  6. As someone who has taken Basic Land Navigation with Charlie Mike Solutions I can tell you that he is very professional, extremely knowledgable, and an excellent instructor. In the Basic course, he created a challenging and safe environment and provided advanced equipment.

    I’ve already signed up for the Basic Winter Survival course. I think it is a great price compared to other related training. I’m a little nervous. We go into the woods on day 1 and don’t come out for 3 days. No tent or sleeping bag. This is the lost hiker scenario. I work at an international consulting firm in a large city and wear a power suit and heels every day, so this feels like an adventure. However, I love the outdoors and hike often. For me, learning these skills is extremely valuable because I never know what may happen. When I complete the course I will feel significantly more confident in my ability to take care of myself and my family. Preparedness matters!

Comments are closed.