In the army, whenever you are taught a lesson or course on any particular skill, whether it be rifle-handling drills or first aid procedures, the process always ends with a "final confirmation of skills".
This final confirmation usually results in a scenario, constructed to simulate a real-life situation where you may have to use these skill. For example, at the end of the 2-week TCCC (Tactical Combat Casualty Care) course, it culminates in a full-blown urban simulation. You storm the village, neutralize the bad guys, and give care to wounded civilians and comrades. All of your classroom practices becomes galvanized in an uncomfortable stressful environment.
At Zombie Survival Camp, we like to adopt the same principle. For our weekend camps, every skill you learn on Saturday will be immediately tested in Sunday's simulated zombie outbreak. So after spending a day swinging through air with machetes, performing repeated combat rolls on a mat, and hiding in the grass from notional threats, all fifty campers get to wake up the next morning and "do it live".
At the end of the day, all that matters is if you can perform under pressure. You may find that your performance in the heat of the moment does not always meet your prior expectations. Your body shuts down, your mind freezes up - you may find you have suddenly forgotten some key techniques to survival.
Learning without testing yourself lures you into a false sense of superiority. Many people walk through the front gates of our camp with a lot of steam, only to be served plentiful servings of humble pie on the Sunday - but then rise up again from the bottom and triumph when it really counts.
This final confirmation of skills is central to our training philosophy. In the zombie apocalypse, you don't rise to the occasion - you sink to your lowest level of training. Two full days of exclusive workshop and range time, would be like going to school but missing all the tests. No degree for you, buds.
