• Each training program and the individual sessions in the program must have a specific design and purpose.   I truly believe this is on of my personal failures in my past training programs, don't do as I did!  
• Make sure that your program allows for a thorough test of your equipment.   Try to break it, or make it fail.   If it fails in   your training sessions, it WILL fail in combat.
• Aggression is the name of the game.   An aggressive response with a firearm will solve most problems immediately.   Learn to flow when applying this aggressive response, always finding ways to protect yourself from fire, and return it with precision (what is needed to do the job).
• Stimulus Repsonse.   Training for combative firearms skills is a bit different than that of just training to shoot a target.   One of the primary things that should be focused on is training with the intent to "neutralize" a threat.   This means that when training, two shots or whatever doesn't always do it.   Training drills should emphasize responding to a threats response (or lack of).   This includes failure drills, for circumstances where the shots aren't working.     A well trained person will always shoot until the threat drops or is clearly neutralized.
• Training sessions should include all available weapons.     Most   people make the mistake of training with a rifle, handgun, etc. seperately, but expect themselves to be able to flow from one weapon system to the other in combat.   Strap everything on, and train through your entire weapon arsenal.   You will learn the flaws and weaknesses of  your gear setup this way.     Another  note...please don't  make the mistake of being proficient with the weapon you like the most.   They are tools, train with them equally.    One warrior I know calls this a "layered offense", meaning that as one weapon fails, or doesn't work for the specific task at hand, flowing the next level weapon should become instinctive. 
  

Physical Keys-

When training for a combat, design your training program so it matches the physical skills you will need.   This seems elementary, but its common to watch people train on simple movements like the draw process or rifle mount while they are static, and then expect themselves to perform the same   while sprinting like hell to a position of cover.   Gear is of utmost importance.   Training in anything less than FULL gear will completely change the physical   keys to manipulating or shooting a weapon.   Make sure you train with EXACTLY the same gear and uniform items as you expect to fight in.     Some other considerations:

• Fitness is key.   Yes, this is a firearms training website, but this page focuses on using firearms for combative purposes.   If you are out of shape, good luck!   Your fitness level will get you through the tough times, and will allow you to apply good fundamental shooting skills when the heart pumping at max.
• Full gear, bad weather, uneven ground.   As stated above, train in full gear as much as possible.   Bad weather uneven ground, and obstacles are all environments we will find in combat, why train on a nice flat range and expect to perform well when the chaos ensues?  
• Training repetitions should be done with specific attention paid to learning the correct movement, then increasing speed so you are practicing the skill at full speed.   You will NEVER know how fast you can do something until you push yourself at top speed.  
• The goal should be to perform repetitions increasing in speed until the accuracy element degrades below your acceptable level (which should be very high, since accuracy is THE key in most games).   Then train at that maximum controlled speed until you are able to increase the speed again maintaining   a certain level of accuracy.
• Remember that practicing wrong at full speed, will degrade your skill faster than anything you can do.   Your learning repetitions must be correct, NEVER EVER perform repetitions faster than you can do them correctly.  

Mental Keys-

The mental aspects of training for combat, and designing training programs are critical because of what the past has shown us.   It has been proven time and time again that warriors will default to their level of training, and will perform in combat the same way they trained themselves to perform on the range.   One common story firearms instructors tell is the story of the law enforcement gunfight where officers were found to have picked up their empty brass sometime during the fight.   This was a result of their habits on the range repeating themselves in actual combat.   Training design should take this into account that whatever we perform in practice, we will most likely do under stress in combat.  

Other mental aspects that must be focused on when designing training and executing training sessions is a constant will to win, and an attitude that no matter what happens in the training drill, the trainee MUST NOT QUIT.   We don't allow ANY quitting in our tactical classes at USSA, even to the point where we get very close to breaking a range safety rule.     Developing a NEVER quite attitude   is that important!  
Mental aspect of a good training program:

• Don't separate the mental from the physical.     Even if you are practicing by shooting at a paper target, believe in your mind that you are engaging a living breathing human.   Make sure you scan and treat post shooting actions as though that live human can always get up and return fire.  
• Pay particular attention to believing you can win the fight.   Perform each repetition like your life depends on it (it does).
• Educate yourself on the mental issues you may face when in combat, and train to overcome them.   I recently read a great book about teams that relied entirely on visual communication when the bullets started  flying because of auditory exclusion (hearing goes away during some high stress situations).   Know what you may experience  because of how your brain works ahead of time, and implement training procedures to overcome these handicaps.    
• Believing is achieving.     Although this comes from the competition section, it applies in combat as well.   Although I don't have the ability to lie to myself and believe I can win unless I feel that I have put in the hours of work where I deserve to win, I do work constantly on building my confidence on performing   key techniques....on demand.   You should pay a particular amount of attention to "performing on demand" in your training sessions, meaning that you should set up a drill or a shot and repeat it over an over (sucessfully), ingraining your belief in yourself that you can do that particular thing, on demand...perfectly....ten times in a row.   This will increase your confidence on hard shots when the pressure is on, because you already KNOW you can succeed.   What if you have to take that shot that will pass within inches of your partner...will you be able to?   Have you trained to build your confidence?