WARRIOR TALK NEWS

The Floating Gun

If you’re going to take your point shooting skills as far as the fight needs them to be, you’ve got to have it.

Suarez International Instructor CR Williams

I see it over and over again, and I still do it myself (not as often as I did, but I still do). I see them at classes, on the range practicing, in groups, watching others work, and when working by myself. Once you know what to look for they’re pretty easy to spot. They’re like chronic or recurring illnesses.

Let's call them the 'Welded Hand Syndrome' and the 'Locked-In-Position Syndrome'.

Welded-Hand Syndrome is characterized by an unconscious but nonetheless strong and determined reluctance to release the support hand from the grip of the gun. The shooter beset by WHS acts as if his or her hands have been super-glued and duct-taped to the grip such that they are unable to let go and shoot with one hand despite the position they are in or the angle to the target they are engaging. They will twist and turn and step, bend and flex, and move the wrong way trying to keep their gun on the target, unaware that they are in the grip of the Welded-Hand Syndrome.

Related to and often seen in conjunction with Welded-Hand Syndrome is Locked-In-Position Syndrome. LIPS is characterized by the unthinking drive to keep a pre-set arm and upper-body shooting position under any and all circumstances and no matter where the target is or how they are moving (if they’re moving) whether it is appropriate to the circumstances or not.

WHS and LIPS do occur in isolation but will most often be observed appearing together. Both syndromes have the same three primary causes: A lack of experience or training, a history of training that is totally or almost totally devoted to the proactive gunfight, and the tendency we all have to want to remain ‘squared up’ to something or someone that is trying to kill us.

Diagnosis of either or both conditions involves observation of the shooter in question to answer these questions: Is the position and placement of the gun appropriate to what the shooter needs to be doing with it? Does the shooter appear to be ‘bound up’ or in an awkward position? Is the shooter moving more slowly and awkwardly than they should be or in a different direction than they intend or that is appropriate to the situation? If the answers are ‘No’, ‘Yes’ and ‘Yes’, then WHS or LIPS should be suspected. Further observation is then necessary to confirm the presence and severity of the conditions.

Examples of Welded-Hand Syndrome and Locked-In-Position Syndrome:

Moving from right to left while attempting to keep a two-hand grip and squared torso. I did not deliberately cross-step, it occurred naturally as a result of my conscious desire to keep the same grip and upper-body position. You will see this unconsciously with those suffering from WHS and LIPS. If I had continued out of camera range, I would end up walking backwards.

Here I am moving properly to about 1:00, but because I refuse to release the grip or alter extension I would end up doing two things: putting the gun in range of a still-standing opponent, and curving back into the target instead of properly flanking it like I would prefer to.

(Full-size versions of all photos available at: http://photobucket.com/FloatingGun)

Effects of these conditions range from being frustrated about your ability to easily get good hits on a target that’s other than directly in front of you to your being killed in a fight because you can’t maneuver properly, move too slowly, are unable to get the gun into line like you need to, or from ineffective use of cover that exposes too much of your body to incoming fire. Given the potential severity of the effects, serious thought should be given as to how to avoid falling victim to these conditions. Fortunately, effective treatments are available and are simple (not always easy, but simple)  to apply.

Treatments are both corrective and preventive and may need to be applied on an ongoing basis.

 Treatments are as follows:

Learning and practicing ambidextrous use of all weapons. (At the least, getting as near to full ambidexterity as is possible.)

Learning and practicing one-handed shooting (of the handgun).

Learning and practicing to be able to shoot accurately with the gun below the eye-line, in other than dead-ahead directions, and held at distances ranging from in contact with your body to full extension.

The aim of the treatments is to develop the ‘Floating Gun’. This is a state in which you will automatically and without much if any conscious thought put the gun at the level you need and extended to the distance required in any direction of the clock face as the situation and the target you are engaging dictate. Sometimes one-handed, sometimes not, sometimes in one hand, sometimes in the other, sometimes held far away and sometimes in contact with your body, high, low, in-between, getting hits where you need them as you move where you need to without binding, bending, or twisting unnaturally. Furthermore, that point, that extension, that position, that direction, can and will change the moment the situation changes and the moment your relationship to the target changes. As you turn, as you change direction, as you change levels or speed or distance, or as the target does, so does your gun. It goes where it needs to be so that it can do what you need it to do.

 

 

 

This is a simple illustration of letting the gun float. Beginning in arm's reach of the target, I displace left as I draw and fire the first shot at waist level with the gun close in. I will continue to fire as I bring the gun up to eye-level to first a close-in two-handed shooting position and then, as I cross the 'T' of the target and then turn to advance along a parallel track, move to a more standard two-hand position. (Because of restrictions necessitated by the camera view range, I maneuvered in a much smaller area than if I were running this as a full-speed drill.)

 

 

 

Another way to answer the same question is to switch hands. Beginning from the same position and with the same initial displacement, I move the gun from right to left and continue the engagement. For complete development, both options should be learned and practiced.

Note that, unlike in the first examples, I was able at all times to move normally and naturally and did not have to cross my feet or become awkwardly 'bound up' to get the hits.

To best develop and keep updated on the use of the Floating Gun concept, therapy under the guidance of a qualified Suarez International instructor is highly recommended. Formal courses of treatment include Point Shooting Gunfight Skills, Close Range Gunfighting, Point Shooting Progressions, Advanced Close Range Gunfighting, and Advanced Point Shooting Progressions. Ongoing practice and training and refresher training is advisable, as without re-emphasis of the concept, Welded-Hand and Locked-In Syndrome will often re-occur. It’s happened to me; don’t let it happen to you.

Don't forget to work on 'floating' the long-gun as well:

 

 

PSP graduates will recognize this as the parallel-track approach to evasion and counterattack. I use a rifle here to illustrate that the concept of 'floating' is not limited to handguns. Long Gun Point Shooting Progressions will teach you more about this and is recommended for those wishing to become more facile in the quick and sure handling of the rifle or shotgun.

(I’ll get a bit more serious now: I believe there are two fundamentals that should not change no matter what you’re doing with the gun, and one fundamental that almost never should but can sometimes. The two things that should not change are your grip (the way you grip, not the tension of the grip), whether one or two-handed, and the way you work the trigger; these should always be consistent. The one fundamental that should almost not change is eye-hand, or eye-weapon, alignment. Even if the gun is below your line of sight, it should as much as possible be aligned with the dominant/shooting-side eye in order to have the best chance of hitting the intended target. As long as these fundamentals are satisfied, then the gun should be allowed to ‘float’ to where it will best get the hits you need.

Being able to float the gun does more for you than just to enable you to make hits from any position in any direction in an emergency, though that would be more than enough to justify the acquisition of the capability. Where employed deliberately, ambidextrous and one-handed facility with the weapon specifically will give you tactical options you will not have otherwise. For all these reasons, having the ability to float the gun is an all but must-have skill to everyone that carries and a definite must-have skill for the serious student of the gunfight.)

Take the time, make the effort, get the skill, and learn the Floating Gun. You will not regret it.

You be safe out there. And if you can't be safe, float like a butterfly and hit like the Hammer of Thor.

Tourniquets fears, revisited

John L. Meade, MD, FACEP

Director of Tactical Medicine, Suarez International

I got this email from a friend today:

There is a persistent belief among the general public (including an EMT I talked to yesterday) that applying a tourniquet means the limb below the tourniquet is a guaranteed total loss. How do we address this concern?

Simply tell them it has been conclusively proven that this is untrue.

a) People have tourniquets applied in the OR every day, for various orthopedic and vascular surgical operations. These are on for hours, without amputation.

b) Data being followed very closely from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan show that rapidly and properly applied tourniquets are saving lives at a dramatic rate, and not a single amputation has been caused by the tourniquets.

c) Addtional military data shows that in cases of isolated severe extremity hemorrhage, if the patient has a tourniquet applied rapidly, before shock sets in, the survival rate is 90%. If tourniquet use is delayed until after shock (which can happen in as little as 1 minute), survival is only 10%.

The issue of tourniquets causing amputations is a myth left over from many years ago. We now understand how to use them, when to use them, and how they should be constructed (size, materials, etc.). We instituted the use of a tourniquet protocol for the state of Alabama a few years ago, after seeing the fantastic data from the military. At an international trauma meeting just yesterday, I was told that the state of New York was going to copy the Alabama protocol to give their residents the same advantages.

We can teach you how to evaluate and treat trauma, to try and keep your loved ones alive until the ambulance gets on the scene. We have scheduled "Trauma Medicine for the CCW Operator" (TMCO) classes all over the USA. Register now, to beat the 2012 price increase.

And learn what most medical people don't even know.

The "Floating" Support Hand

When we look at the deployment of a rifle, we need to understand that rifle work is not limited to CQB.  The rifle is a weapon that can be used from zero distance to the limit of its intended use, which for the assault rifle is approximately to 300 meters.  Training beyond 100 yards/meters is difficult for a number of reasons.  Most ranges are limited to 100 yards and few people ever get the opportunity to really stretch their rifle's legs farther than that.  As well, few people have the opportunity to shoot in the field on a regular basis.  Thus the focus is CQB, almost to the exclusion of other distance intervals.  I believe this is a mistake,as students thus trained only get a part of the full picture.

In this article we will be discussing a concept that we have taught for many years, and that is the "Floating Support Hand".  Specifically the idea is that the support hand (alternatively called the "reaction hand", the "left hand", or by cave dwellers - the "weak hand") should not be anchored into a given position, but rather float to wherever it needs to go to facilitate the shot.

That position may range from the forward hold popular in competion circles, to the magazine hold popular in the MP5 days.  It all depends on what the target is, how far away it is, what position you are shooting from, and what the angle is.

The Forward Hold

This is from an article that was written by S.I. Instructor Dale Hunter for our Staff - Only Section. 

"With modern assault rifles, gripping the magwell as a default position is selling yourself short in terms of maximum effect on target. Usually the magwell is close to the balance point of the rifle. Ignorant riflemen say this allows quicker handling of the rifle. Physics state otherwise. Try holding a children’s seesaw at the middle/balance point; not very stable. Try moving the front axle of your car to the middle and see how well it rides and steers. We drive with the front wheels as far out aspractical.

Taking the car analogy over to riflery, we should be gripping therifle as far out as practical based on the shooters arms and position the shot is being taken from. This enables better leverage and control over the mass in front of the balance point thus permitting much quicker shot to shot recovery,transitions of targets, and less disruption of the sights while engaging on the move. Gripping the magwell is the same as gripping a vertical fore grip like a joystick and gives the same result of gripping a pistol too low; the mass is sitting on top of the hand discouraging effective control and causing the body to be reactive to the rifle."

Dale is correct about the benefits of this hold, and it is workable both on the move as well as stationary for snap shots.  At a Kalashnikov Force on Force class last year, Dale put in a stellar performance using this full speed, on a dead run against a very capable stationary adversary.  The results were that Dale was untouched while his adversary was peppered.     

While that particular hold has become popular in recent years, it - like many things in the weapons and tactics realm, is not new at all.  Here is an image of Rhodesian soldiers and their FALs.

The Middle Hold

This is the "traditional hold" involving placement mid way between the magazine and the forward end of the handguards.  This is not a "reactive" position as much as one useful for supported positions, or when accuracy at distance is paramount.

The Magazine Hold dates back to the days of the MP5 and is best suited for short SMGs such as the PPS43 and Skorpion as shown below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is also useful in supported positions in order to mainatin the correct elevation while resting the elbows, such as in sitting position.

So do not get stuck to the handguard.  Doing so will retard your development as a rifleman.  Where do you run your support hand?  The correct answer is "It depends on what I am trying to do".

Class is over; now what?

By Don Robison,  Suarez International Tier 1 Instructor

So, it’s Monday morning and you’ve got your training class over the weekend fresh in your mind as you drink your morning cup of coffee and get ready for work.  All these questions keep running through your mind from Sunday night. I’ve got the training; now what do I do with it?  The instructor said I should dry practice and then verify my dry practice at the range.  My range will never let me draw from a holster or get off the X.  Since the last time I wrote about dry practice Suarez International has realized these questions as well and come up with some solutions for working on perfecting these skills, but more about that later. 

Let start with the dry practice and work on it.  Pick a skill and do it.  Practice it, don’t just go through the motions, but practice it as perfectly as you can. Watch yourself in a mirror or video tape it so you can review your tapes and pick your technique apart.  Video doesn’t lie; it also doesn’t make you look better than you are.  Be honest with your assessment of your skills and what you need to practice.  As Greg Nichols says; “Get it right and then get it fast.”  Don’t worry if you’re slow; everyone is slow with a new skill; it’s better to practice it slow and correct rather than fast and incorrect. 

The instructors and students you see who are correctly doing a skill fast and smooth didn’t get there by not practicing or by practicing the skill sloppily.  They got there by practicing hundreds sometimes thousands of repetitions correctly and then worked on getting the speed and fluidity. 

My range won’t let me get off the X or draw from a holster.  It would be easy to say “Find another range.”, but that is often easier said than done.  What skills can you verify at your range?  Obviously you can verify the fundamentals of marksmanship, but you can also do malfunctions drills at most ranges by having your training partner setup malfunctions for you.  You can also practice failure to stop drills at many ranges.  Some ranges also have “action ranges” or a range bay set aside that you can rent by the hour to draw from a holster and practice other skills associated with competition.  It may be more expensive than renting a single lane and may require some type of special “check out” from the range master, but nothing worthwhile is usually easy.  Check at your range or other ranges in the area to see what’s available.  I’ve also had some success in the past with range owners letting me practice skills they don’t normally allow like the draw stroke during their slow time of the week when the range is empty. Find out when that is and if it’s possible. 

Other possibilities are airsoft.  It’s not perfect, but a good airsoft gun will allow you to practice the mechanics of magazine changes, and the draw stroke.  Sometimes you just need to get creative.  As cliché’ as it sounds; there really is more than one way to skin a cat.

How has Suarez International taken the reins on refining the skills of our students?  We now have Suarez International Authorized Training Groups for SI class alumni for students to get additional coaching to perfect those skills they are learning in class.  These are training groups organized and led by the various Suarez International Instructors all over the country.  For example in August I led the first training group in my area.  We concentrated on the draw stroke to the first perfect shot and the fundamentals of pistol shooting.  Each alumnus who attended received four hours of individual coaching to perfect their draw stroke and fundamentals of shooting.  First we started with repetitions of dry practice.  Then we progressed with live fire.  We were able to break each skill down to individual parts and work on perfecting the individual pieces before tying them together.  The training groups are also a great way to get connected with other students in the area who you may not have met and who may need a training partner.  All of this for a nominal fee to cover range rental and supplies.  The only other requirement is that you have taken a class covering the skills being covered in the training group meeting i.e. if Close Range Gunfighting skills are being worked on you need to have attended the Close Range Gunfighting Class or if knife skills are being worked on you need to have attended the SI knife class.

Now get out there and find your nearest training group and take advantage of the opportunities they afford.

Don's class schedule in Florida

AR15/M4 Rifle Gunfighting in Iowa

The Long Shot

...and why you should work on being able to take it.

CR Williams, Suarez International Staff Instructor

Gabe's recent article about the shooting at the Carson City IHOP was, as such things tend to be, copied to and discussed on a number of gun forums outside of Warrior Talk. On one such I frequent some posters said that they would take the shot the BBQ owner did not, some said they did not feel capable of that shot at their current level of capability but would have tried to work to ranges and positions where they would feel confident of the shot. Others expressed a need to work on their long-range shooting. Some did not think they could get 'good enough' to be able to take the shot and some did not think their current carry weapon was up to the shot. Others raised concerns about stray rounds and whether you really could make an effective shot at that distance (between 70 and 100 yards). Still others declared that they carried for their own defense and would make a good report of what they saw but otherwise, if it wasn't their problem, they saw no need to try and be part of the solution. And there was a hint from one or two to the effect that they didn't see a need to learn to 'go long' even with this incident on the records. They, and others, correctly stated that the majority of shootings were going to be at shorter range.

It is true that times when you might need to go beyond 25 or 30 yards like this...and the shooter with the SKS on the second-floor walkway of a mall...and the guy that went into another mall with a shotgun...and Murray with his AR in the parking lot of New Life Church...and (for those in that Too-Thin Blue Line) Phillips and Matasareanu outside the bank, where both range and precision were at a premium...

...rare as  they are, are still a not as rare as you want them to be. It has happened before, it will happen again.

And when it does happen again, who will they be aiming at?

What if next time it is NOT 'somebody else's problem'?

One of the reasons we carry is because we can't depend on the police, right? We can't base our strategy of defense and survival on the hope that a cop will be right-there-right-then when something lethal starts happening, right? Then why are you going to depend on someone else there being able (and willing) to take that long shot? If the next man with the rifle is aiming it at you, or someone you care about, is your strategy for dealing with it going to be to hope that someone else with a gun is there and able to take the shot you can't make?

You don't depend on the police being there, but you are going to depend on the smaller probability of another gun-carrier with that skill-set to be there? Why should you?

 

 It's not as distant-looking if you're not a camera, but it still looks long.

Regardless, you can learn to make the shot.

 

 

Not only that--learning how and practicing to make the long shot can help you in other ways as well:

It is a way to practice fundamentals without specifically practicing fundamentals.

Shooting long, whether with regular sights or a red dot, stresses the fundamental principles of good shooting as much, if not more, than standing five or ten yards away from a target and thinking "grip, stance, picture, alignment, breathe, press". The need for solid basics is paramount. The slight twitch of a trigger or fractional-degree skew in sight alignment that puts you off an inch or two at ten yards is going to be a clean miss at fifty or a hundred. Consistent trigger work and the steadiest hold and/or position you can get before taking the shot appears to be the most important, but every fundamental has to be done well for the long shot. Training and practicing this kind of shooting is a way to push yourself into developing solid basic shooting principles that carry over to every shot you will ever have to make.

It will help with closer-range precision shooting.

We acknowledge the possibility that we might have to move from COM to a small-area or even pinpoint target. Besides specific practice for that possibility, working on the long shot is a way to help prepare for the close precise shot. The same fundamentals are as important; repetitions of anything that stresses those fundamentals is good; and your subconscious can be conditioned to not panic about any very small target you have to hit, whether it is a torso at 75 yards or somebody's right eye at thirty feet.

The better you get at it, the more confidence you will have in your general ability and the more confidence you will have about almost any kind of shot you have to make.

Marc MacYoung calls it the "Monkey Brain". It's the part that takes over when things like madmen pointing rifles at you or your family happens. One of the things it does is look for familiarity, something you have done or experienced that is like or close to what you're experiencing now. If it can't find something like that or close to like that, there will be a greater tendency for you to panic and/or make the wrong decision about what to do. The greater the range of knowledge and experience, the more likely the Monkey Brain can latch onto something and the less likely you are to lose yourself to indecision and maybe outright panic. The confidence of knowing your limits and knowing what you've done gives your survival controller more to work with and you a better chance of staying alive past the end of the event.

Better to have it and not need it than...

It's like a seatbelt and insurance, ladies and gentlemen. You put it on and set it up without ever expecting to need it. But understanding that there is just enough of a possibility that you might have to use it, you do it anyway. Just in case...

Kelly McCann, by admission, is not a point shooter and never has been. But in his Combative Pistol DVD, McCann tells how his mind was changed about learning point shooting by someone he talked to at a conference. McCann saw the need to go beyond his current sphere of capability in case he ever was in a position where he couldn't get to the sights in time. He might never, ever need it, but if he did need it, he needed to have it.

Kneeling, standing, unsupported, supported, none of the above---whatever you need to do, you can learn how do to it.

Perhaps you do as well...just in case...

Here, then, are four reasons that training to 'go long' will be useful to you. Assuming no physical limitations to prevent it, most people can learn to make shots of fifty to one-hundred yards and beyond and maintain that ability without having to invest huge amounts of time and effort. It is not a special skill, it is an extension of skills you already have, and worth it to you to get them even if you never, ever have to do it to save your life. Even if you never do manage to get to where you can go to a hundred yards or more, shouldn't you at least make the effort to find out how far you can go? What price "in the event" would you pay to know for certain that you're good out to fifty yards or seventy-five yards and no more? Why not take a little time to know how far you can reach with your short-barreled carry weapon? Why not find out what to do to be sure of your shot at over twenty-five or thirty yards?

Why not?

The first two shots weren't in your direction, which was fortunate. You, your wife, and your daughter were within easy killing distance when the crazy guy opened fire. You got them down and put some fire on him quick and got one hit, you think, but he's still shooting and now it's a gunfight. You and the family are behind the engine block of one car and he's thirty or thirty-five yards away behind another one alternating shots at you and whoever else gets in his vision, and he's got a rifle. Can the car you're behind keep you sheltered? What if he starts moving again? But all you've got is little parts of him and his gun when he shoots at you or somebody else---wait--under the car, the foot or ankle, somebody did that to stop a shooter one time!* At least stop him from moving or maybe shooting more...almost thirty-five yards and so little for a target... He's shooting again! IT HAS TO END....

So tell me: If you're on the target end in this situation, what would you want to be running through your head?

OhGodOhGodOhGod I hope somebody else has a gun and can take the shot!

I CAN MAKE THIS set-up-sights-on, I CAN MAKE THIS HOLD HOLD NOW...

Here's my confession: I can't do all of this as well or in as many cases as I want to...yet. Here's my word to you on it: I'm already working on being able to and will continue until I can, or at least know where my limits are. I will have the option even if I choose not to take it.

What are you going to do?

Be safe out there. If you can't be safe, be dangerous--from as far away as you can be.

*Matasareanu at the North Hollywood Shootout, stopped by a round in the ankle fired by a SWAT officer under a car, if you want one historical reference. His partner Phillips was stopped first by a hit on his left wrist and then his right hand. Phillips suicided, Matasareanu bled out from multiple wounds before medics could reach him.

Train with CR Williams.

Train with an SI Instructor near you.

Conditioned Response

          

Conditioned Response
By Scott Vaughn

    Have you ever wondered why we train in and with weapons, tactics and combatives? The reason is to learn the best techniques for our application and how to train and develop the muscle memory, those instinctive values, so we ingrain into our muscles and minds the Conditioned Response! What makes or allows us to respond/react to a given stimulus? If a car slams on the brakes at a distance of 500 feet ahead of you and you are travelling at 60 MPH, how do you react? If you see this as it happens, you probably start braking to a controlled stop, if necessary. Of course, if you are not paying attention at the time the car slams on the brakes and moment you realize this has occurred, the car is at a distance of 50 feet in front of you and you are travelling the same speed as above, what is your reaction now? Most likely you stomp on your brake pedal while trying to veer the car into a path to avoid the crash. Maybe you don’t try to veer but only slam the brake. Maybe you only veer and no brake. However you handle this crisis, it will most likely be different than the response to the first mentioned situation. Agreed? The response taken is conditioned, whether from years of driving experience or a new driver lacking the driving experience to help make snap decisions. The difference in the response will be from experience, training, instruction or maybe yesterday’s movie. Yes, we have all been mentally conditioned all of our lives from media, school, peers, family, the neighbors, etc. How deeply fixed in your subconscious the conditioning is will help determine how you respond/react.

    These are all typically conditioned responses of a variety of people. The first instinctive reaction from the stimulus comes from the mid-brain and depends on 1: experiences we have been through in our life. 2: the wrong type of information instilled in our mid-brain (where our instinctive reactions are housed) for given stimuli. 3: the lack of training, experiences and mental conditioning. 4: ingrained/habitual reactions that we have developed through repetition of training and practice.

    Remember when we were kids? We were indestructible, we could do anything given the right chance, we would never get ‘old’ but always get stronger, faster, better, smarter and would live forever! We had not experienced life but only a fraction of it. Then most of us started driving and learned dangerous situations could happen fast, our fault or not. Some never made it through their first year of driving, but those of us that did, understood driving could be dangerous and not as easily done like we assumed from watching our parents or from television. Some continued to take chances and others didn’t. Some took drivers training to learn to be a better/safer driver and most others didn’t. Of those that took the driver training, did it ensure the successfully safe driving experience for life? Of course not as there are no guarantees in life, period! But it did help condition them with, hopefully, better responses to more stimuli while driving and faster reaction time from not having to think all the way through the response. In highly stressful situations, the fore-brain (the part of the brain that we use to think rationally) shuts down and the mid-brain takes over to instruct us to react from our mental conditioning. –Conditioned Response-

    When we were kids we started developing reactions or habits. Some of these habits we carried with us to adulthood. These conditioned reactions, habits, are hard to unlearn sometimes. If you don’t develop better, safer, quicker habits and just continue to feel what you do is ‘OK’, you will never reach your potential and ALL of the bad habits/responses/reactions can get you and/or yours killed! I’m reminded 4 times a month by those that attend my concealed carry classes. Most have been around guns a long time and have developed habits from their parents and friends for things like the grip, the way they look through the sights (one eye closed) and how to stand while target shooting. Even though they are shown the best way to do some of these, once a pistol goes into their hands, their old habits automatically take over! They also are reminded repeatedly throughout the class of gun safety rule # 3, yet when they finally get to handle their guns….finger goes to trigger for too many of them.

    When our men and women of our military go over a technique once, they are soon convinced they will revisit this particular lesson numerous times, sometimes until some are sick of it! Repetition is necessary to build the muscle memory for a conditioned reaction to combat that can save their life, and/or the lives of their friends. Most of this training is done under circumstances to build the best response to the situations they may face on the battle field. These consist of training in the rain, the cold/heat, with the sound of guns firing and bullets buzzing overhead! Conditioned response! Some martial art students learn maneuvers and techniques for combat. They train these moves repeatedly to develop the muscle memory it takes to use the moves automatically. Most of the training and techniques are new to these men and women but they still learn it, just like you can. Occasionally they fight under controlled circumstances to help develop the ideal conditioned responses to the stimuli shown to them via opponent.

    It is proven that training and experience can be developed properly and with it, conditioned responses for certain circumstances, i.e. FOF, CRG, 0-5 feet GF, etc. That trained and experienced people generally survive more than those who are not, is a given. My brothers and sisters at SI understand this and I think most others would agree. The difference is this: We study and train to develop the techniques that are proven to work under combat. We work to build the muscle memory and habits for those reactive situations we all know can happen anytime/anywhere. We put ourselves in the Lion’s Den to help condition the mind and body. The ability to make immediate decisions under stress needs to be developed. To fine tune the OODA Loop.

    If you can see the threat coming toward you from 100 feet away, how would you react? Think about this for a few seconds, but I think you already have a plan of some type for this situation. Maybe you get set in mind and body for the fight. Maybe you take off to avoid the fight, if you have this option. Possibly you move to cover or just haul ass out of there. Whatever you decide will depend on the situational elements: Inside or outside- Family with you or not- Dark or light- Raining or not- Armed with gun or knife- or not…. If, when you first realize the threat is there, you are 25 feet apart, how will you react? Maybe you freeze! Maybe you bust a ‘GOTX’ to cover or to avoid the BG’s attack or shot, possibly to line up the 2 BG’s to make your defense easier (yeah, we know multiple advisories are anything but easy). The relative distance between you and the threat will definitely make a big difference in the immediate level of necessity to respond with the best decision. If your BG is standing behind you holding a pistol to the back of your head and says “Get in the car and drive or die right here”, how will you react? Freeze and give-up? Or mess up your BG’s OODA Loop by explosively moving your head to one side while turning to wrench his shoulder and arm to control his pistol while you bash this POS in the face, knees, ribs, etc. to keep yourself/your family safe! You got it, Conditioned Response.

    Training is what we do at Suarez International. When is the best time to train for your fight? Yes, before the fight! Where is the best place to learn how to fight? You got it, Suarez International! Training people to fight with their hands, knives, guns and minds like Warriors. Helping to understand and develop the muscle memory, to build the mindset to think, act, train and fight like Warriors!

    We won’t teach you how to drive, but we will teach you how to fight with your gun from your ride! We want you to win your fight as bad as you do! Come train with us to help develop and/or sharpen your skills with SI. You are never too old or too young to become a warrior in mind, body and spirit.

      

The Quiet Enemy

There are so many clichés that come to mind when I think about how easily we are lulled into complacency, where we are slowly led to believe a lie. The frog in the pot of water comes to mind immediately. For the couple of people that don’t know, it goes like this, “Throw a frog into a pot of boiling water and he will immediately jump out, but put a frog in a pot of tepid water and slowly bring it to a boil and the frog will cook to death.” You see, the frog’s mind never hits the action mode in response to danger because the danger is not obvious until its too late.

So it is with us. We respond to imminent and obvious threats and actions easily and without thought. We respond to a car rushing toward us. We respond to someone screaming at us. We respond to a misbehaving child. What we don’t respond well to, what we can’t seem to recognize, are the quiet enemies in our lives. Laziness. Apathy. Gluttony. Lust. Selfishness. Greed. Comfort. Work. The list is endless.

These are the little things. The things on the margins. The corners we cut. The excuses we make. The things we don’t do instead of the things we should do. The things we do that we shouldn’t do. It’s a battle fought minute by minute and day-by-day. It’s a battle we are losing every day and the world is telling us its ok.

Except its not. Look, we should never major in the minors, but it’s the little things in life, the little battles won, that make the war easier to win. The battle we fight is one of attrition and we are our own worst enemy. It shows up in what we chose to eat. It shows up in what we choose to do, or not do. It shows up in how we treat those around us. Our laziness, greed, apathy, etc. is apparent in everything we do, if we just take the time to look for it. But we don’t.

So it is with training. Losing in a violent encounter doesn’t happen during the encounter. The battle is lost way before the fight. The battle is lost when we eat one more doughnut or when we decide to sit on the couch instead of getting up to train.  We lose it in our prayer life where we refuse to acknowledge God in our motivations and actions. We lose it bit-by-bit and day-by-day and we think its no big deal. We lose in our marriages, we lose in our work, we lose in our life because we don’t get up and do the hard work of being deliberate about what we are doing.

So, what are you going to do about it? What am I going to do about it? Start being more deliberate today. Look at your calendar for next year. Start to schedule your training year. What are you going to do weekly, monthly and quarterly? What refresher classes do you need to take? Where do you need to get initial skills training? Companies all over the world right now are working on their vision, strategy and budgets for their business for next year. We should do the same.

Here’s my plan for next year:

Weekly: Martial arts training 2 nights per week. CrossFit 2 times a week. Running 2 times a week.

Monthly: Teach a class either in martial arts or other combatives to hone my teaching skills and my own proficiency in certain topics. Half day solo training in shooting skills (movement, pistol, rifle, shotgun).

Quarterly: One seminar or training class per quarter.

It’s an aggressive plan, as it should be. I won’t hit it every time, but, like a budget, this is what I will use to measure my success next year.

When was the last time you slowed down long enough to actually think about what you’re doing, much less reflect on what you’ve done? I bet it’s been a while, if ever. Our constant busy-ness and pursuit of our own comfort keeps us from taking a minute to explore the small things in our lives that are literally killing us, or at the very least, making our lives miserable. Don’t let this year end the way it started and don’t let next year start the way this one did.

How Dynamic is Your Dynamic Movement?

Greg Nichols, Suarez International Staff instructor

First we must look at the two words as defined by Webster.

    Dynamic: (1): of or relating to physical force or energy: energetic, forceful

    Movement:
A = (1): the act or process of moving; especially: change of place or position or posture (2): a particular instance or manner of moving
B = (1): a tactical or strategic shifting of a military unit: maneuver (2): the advance of a military unit


So if we are looking at this topic of dynamic movement in the context of a gun fight what can we take away for Mr. Webster?  The action, weather exploding off the X, seeking cover, returning fire, breaking contact, or advancing on the enemy needs to be fast, forceful, aggressive, decisive, and deliberate.  Fire needs to be accurate, continuous, and vicious, we’re not spraying rounds all willy-nilly hoping to hit something.
   
Let’s break this down.  If you watch any movies or cop shows you’re probably aware of the Groucho walk, the bent kneed, heel to toe, awkward fashion of movement.  There is a purpose for this but if this is your idea of “Dynamic Movement” and you don’t operate on a daily basis with hard plates and a team you’re going to find this to be ineffective at best.  You see this done as a team because you only have a limited sector of fire or area of responsibility.  You are directing your movement and fire in that small direction as well as presenting your plates to receive incoming fire and meeting hostility with accurate fire to minimize the possibility of collateral injury.  From a partisan/CCW perspective the whole is to not get hit until you can access your firearm, find cover, go hands on, or escape and evade the hostile action.  The Idea of Dynamic Movement is explosive and deliberate as well as being deliberately explosive.  You'll notice in the picture of the draw stroke how high the cover garment is lifted and how deep the grip is on the weapon while already in motion.  Direct your attention to the transition picture and see how blurred his hand is driving away from the rifle to his side arm while deliberately maintaining control of the rifle.  In the FOF picture you'll see an example of the moving combat crouch as the assailant is dropping his torso off the targeted X to avoid the pistol fire.

I’m going to assume that I’m talking to the everyday CCW holder with a bit of training.  If you’ve heard the phrase “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” what they are talking about isn’t slowing down it’s being deliberate.  Your draw stroke is deliberate; from clearing your garment to your PTO, it’s deliberate. Breaking off the X, from the flinch to sprint, is deliberate.  Dynamic refers entirely to the force with which you perform these deliberate actions and movement is referring to displacing yourself from the line of fire and the acts of accessing you firearm and putting it to use to defend yourself or others.  What I’m getting at is when you run this dry are you just walking through the footwork and hand motions?  Are you practicing your draw stroke without a cover garment?  Do you prone out just to get on the ground or ease yourself to a kneeling position after strolling over to low cover?  If you are, you’re cheating yourself and your training in my humble and accurate opinion.  I'd take a sprinter fast GOTX over a blazing fast draw stroke any day.  The key is to not be hit while getting positive control of your weapon so that you can turn the tide and go on the offensive.  The pivotal concept of Dynamic Movement is momentum.  Momentum is everything in the fight.  We as the good guys won't likely start out with the initiative so as talked about before we need to take that back.  How do we do that?  Momentum!

                                                                                                          
Breaking off the X is resetting the bad guy's OODA loop as already established.  That takes us to a point of initiative 0 or in other words starts the engagement over from that point.  We then need to move the initiative to +1 in our favor as we don't want to waste the take off.  We do that by making our draw stroke efficient and dynamic.  This places duress on our aggressor, which takes us to initiative +2.  Now the trick is to keep that budding momentum growing.  We do that by moving dynamically and delivering fast and accurate fire on the enemy.  We are now at initiative +3 and own the fight.  This is only accomplished through dynamic movement.  Dynamic movement creates the neutralization of initiative and resets the OODA to allow us, through dynamic movement and accurate fire, to push the momentum of the fight back to our enemy.  Win the momentum, win the fight.  Once at initiative +5 you have to push to gain the advantage and work to keep your momentum.   Once you have it it's easy to build on, once you've lost it it's a bitch to get back.  This concept of momentum works both for the individual as well as team tactics.  There are historical references to many to list of momentum working as well as how bad things get once lost.  Lets put this into an order of importance 1st being GOTX and 2nd draw stroke.  The separation of the two is only .1 or .2 seconds.  As my PTO begins I begin to clear my cover garment.  What I'm referring to is having a deliberate draw stroke that ensures a good grip on the gun for positive control over just being as fast as you can.  Draw as fast as you are able to have positive control of the weapon or in other words, fast not rushed.  We as a culture need to get rid of the old Revolutionary War and Wild West shoot out mentality and start thinking PlayStation and John Woo. While this is an exaggeration it adds context.  Flair for flair’s sake is just wasted energy and stand and deliver is just stupidity.  Winning the fight through unconventional fire and maneuver leads to a safer outcome in an unsafe situation.  Think, Move, Shoot as Roger Phillips says.

Now the work, getting more dynamic is work.  Remember, liabilities to a persons mobility = risk. There are muscle groups that are important and action habits that need ingrained.  Let’s start with the hardware, the muscles.  A PTO is a full body action requiring the use of hands, arms, legs, and core body.  The hands and arms need to clear the garment, grab the pistol, make the draw stroke, and mitigate recoil. The legs need to load, make directional adjustment, and provide forward momentum.  The core body is driving your targeted x off the line of fire, twisting and driving to your direction of travel and orienting after the draw stroke to deliver fire on the threat.  To get these muscle groups in condition involves, practice and exercise.  I recommend the 2 part series of Combat Fit DVDs available at OST.  Add regular wind sprints (at your level of fitness) and directional changes from standing and moving.  For the software we look at several pieces of the whole.  The draw stroke involves getting positive control of the weapon.  The footwork includes the orientation to the direction of travel or the take off.  The body articulation progressing into the combat crouch.  The last item is the orientation of the weapon to target.  The Concept of movement vs. the Technique of movement are entirely different.  Grasping the technique so that you can perform it is important as it allows you to practice it until it's yours.  The concept is more important, you have to understand the why as much as you do the how so you don't end up putting a square peg in a round hole.  In the context of a fight improper understanding can get you killed.  All of this software is found in the SI classes at the intro level and above.  I found the Close-Range Gunfighting and Point Shooting series of DVDs to be a wonderful resource as well as Roger Phillips writings on continuums.

Always put 100% deliberateness into your movement and cover strategy, but be forceful about it, be Dynamic about it.  When you break off the X have a solid grip on your weapon, push your posture down off the line of fire, drive to whichever o’clock you move to.  Deliberately, dynamically identify your target and rain Hell upon him.  Dynamically and deliberately find and seek cover and throw yourself into the experience of it.  Scrape your knees and elbows up, blood washes off, clothes can be mended or replaced, skin grows back.  Get bruises and rug burns, smack your funny bone on the kitchen table because you dropped below the window sill too fast.  Understanding the difference between hurt and injured is important here, you're going to get skinned up doing it right but to push to the point of injury is counter productive.   It’s training, it’s supposed to make you stretch, take you out of your comfort zone and make you sweat.  Lets work together to put the Dynamic back into Dynamic movement.


   

TSD Combat Systems AquaTerra™ G-17 Pistol Slide

 
TSD Combat Systems AquaTerra™ G-17 Combat Pistol Slide

AquaTerra refers to "sea and land".  And that is exactly what this package is designed for - specifically to withstand any hostile environment an operator could possibly find on this earth. Whether you need to fight in the searing heat and weapon-grinding  sand of a middle eastern desert, in the salty gun-rusting cold of a North Sea oil rig, or in the rotting green mass of a tropical jungle, the AquaTerra system will withstand anything you could possibly encounter and deliver the reliability and accuracy that has become hallmark for TSD products. 

We begin with the TSD Combat Systems Match G-17 slide, precision machined out of aerospace quality 17-4, heat treated to a uniform RC 46 throughout (not just on the surface), and have them finished in our proprietary AquaTerra plating process.  This process creates a permanently lubricious surface that eliminates the need for any grit-attracting wet lubrication, or cleaning for thousands of lube-free, corrosion-free, trouble-free rounds. When slightly lubricated, overall wear properties are superior to any other finish or plating process commercially available today to civilian or military end-users.

The AquaTerra plating process produces consistent tolerances within ± 1 to 2 microns. The result is uniform plating throughout the slide, exceeding Rockwell hardness of any other finish commercial, OEM, or military (68-72 C) and an extremely low friction coefficient (.04). For our excellence-seeking customers, this means unsurpassed durability and reliability in any environment on earth. 

The TSD Combat Systems Barrel is machined from solid 416 stainless steel, and then hardened to 41 RC. These barrels hold tolerances to +/- 0.001" to 0.002" in all critical areas. Cut broach rifling is used, with 1:16 rifling, and a left hand twist. These are superior in every way to any other aftermarket drop in barrels available today and exceed the accuracy potential of the OEM units. Unlike the OEM units, you can use any type of 9mm bullet you wish to use without affecting reliability, accuracy, or safety in any way.

The Trijicon RMR included in the package has been tested to pressures equivalent to depths of 66 feet/20 meters, meeting the requirements of an Advanced Open Water Diver.  As added assurance, the sight is double sealed with a polymer adhesive strip to provide even greater protection from the elements.

TSD Combat Systems is defined by its quest for excellence and is currently re-defining the meaning of “state of the art” in the world of small arms.  Unparalleled reliability, exacting accuracy, and martial elegance in any environment on earth. 

 

MORE INFO HERE

 

Package Includes -

 

AquaTerra finished TSD G-17 Slide

TSD Combat Systems Match Barrel

Trijicon RM02 Red Dot LED Sight

TSD Suppressor Sights

All slide internals

TSD Pistol Case & Lube

The Shotgun - Force Multiplier for Civilian Small Unit Tactics

JD Lester

Suarez International Staff Instructor

The role of the shotgun in Civilian Small Unit Tactics should be as a specialty weapon, as it is in MIL / LEO operations. 
There are several uses of the shotgun in this role. The two that most often come to mind are breaching and its use by the lead member of a patrol moving through terrain that has dense vegetation. 
For some LEOs this is the only authorized long gun available to patrol officers. Some areas are not rifle friendly for citizens to own, or they simply think the shotgun is good enough to do everything they might need it to do. (The countless times I have heard phrases that would make one think that the shotgun imparts great marksmanship skills to the user or that no skill at all is required….) 
As previously discussed in several threads on WT, the shotgun is a niche weapon and not a “Do All, Only Gun You Will Ever Need.” Pump actions and semi-autos can both be used and each type has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages.
By considering the MIL / LEO applications, we can establish the shotgun’s use for civilians conducting SUT type operations. 
Considerations for both urban operations and conducting rural patrolling operations will be discussed here. 
Both uses should be as a supplement to the primary weapon carried when possible. Don’t let it slow you down as it will not be a force multiplier if you are not in condition enough to carry the weight of an additional weapon and its ammunition. 
If a shotgun and a pistol are the only tools at hand, knowing how and when to employ the options in the shotgun’s wide array of ammunition choices is critical.

 Urban Use of the Shotgun: 

Breaching: Use of the shotgun to gain access through an exterior or interior door by defeating the lock or hinges using the ballistic force of the shotgun round.

Structure Defense: Using the shotgun’s ability to launch projectiles rapidly into threats, coupled with the ability to use slugs for mounted avenues of approach allows choke points in or near the ingress / egress points of structures to be covered by fire. 

Rural Patrolling Use of Shotguns: Terrain is a limiting factor not only for our movement techniques but also for the employment and capabilities of the weapons we carry. Some of the lighter, faster cartridges in use can be deflected from their intended point of impact by heavy vegetation, as seen in some of the IMG DVD offerings. This can be where a shotgun supplementing the primary carbine can be of use, as has been done during past wars by military units. 
I am not saying abandon your favorite carbine and just carry a shotgun in the bush. I am saying that the light weight carbine firing a light weight bullet might not offer the optimal performance you desire in certain types of terrain. 
During movement in heavily vegetated terrain the shotgun can provide a high volume of projectiles to facilitate a break contact drill. 
One type of patrol where a shotgun would be devastatingly effective would be a deliberate ambush in an area that has moderate to heavy vegetation. Think small waterway or rural road denial operations. 
We like to use the most causality-producing weapon we have to initiate an ambush. The shotgun can fill this role as it is unlikely that civilian operators will have belt fed machineguns, claymores or other anti-personnel mines. They are more likely to have the capability to employ a shotgun to initiate the ambush. Semi automatic shotguns shine in this area because of the rate of fire they can bring to bear onto the bad guys moving into the kill zone. 

We know the Saiga 12 is the premier fighting shotgun. However, employment of this system might not be the best option for this mission. Remington models 11-87 or an 1100 might be a better choice. Some Pros and Cons of each system are covered below. (Please note: Less common shotgun designs like the MKA 1919 are not discussed here.)

When we reduce the length of our barrels to make the shotgun a faster and easier to employ long gun we also reduce the capacity of the tube fed guns. When we add large capacity magazines or drums to the S-12 the height and weight are affected. As with most things there is a tradeoff: What you are willing to accept or what you have on hand will dictate how you can apply the shotgun to your specific mission requirements.

Let’s look at the options in the semi-auto shotguns that could fill this role and compare them.

 
Saiga-12 (converted to AK configuration)
Pros: 
Same manual of arms as our AK rifles. 
Rugged and reliable. 
Accessories and spare parts are available.
Folding stock option for compactness.
Drum and large capacity magazines are available which lead to the ability to rapidly reload the shotgun and rapidly change to use of slugs for anti-vehicle use. For example: 20 rounds of buckshot or slug before need for a reload. Buck and slugs could even be mixed in the drum. 
Cons: 
Platform availability and cost to convert to AK configuration.
Reliability and cost of drum magazines and other high capacity magazines. 
Size of drums and high capacity magazines can impede a good low prone position, but can be mitigated by careful selection and preparation of the firing position. 
Another trade off for noise and movement once in the ambush to prep the firing position. 
Loaded weight of drums is another consideration.
Requires a little more maintenance than the AK rifle. 

Remington 1100 or 11-87 
Pros: 
Cost and availability make it more apt to be found in gun cabinets in the US than an S-12. 
The availability of extended magazine tubes, which require the trade off of added barrel length and weight for the extra capacity. For example, The 22 inch barrel with magazine extension would offer 8+1 rounds of buckshot.
Tube magazine does not interfere with low prone position.
No additional magazines are required.
Repair / spare parts are readily available. 
Cons:
Minimum of 5 rounds before needing to reload on a standard configured gun with no extension tube.
Reloads take additional time and are slower under stress and the accompanying reduction in fine motor skills.
No folding stock option. However, pistol grip full stocks with shorter length of pull are available. 
Frequent operator level maintenance required to ensure reliability. 
System uses gas seals which, if they become worn or fail, can cause the gun to not function properly. 

Some thoughts to consider:
Should it be a purpose driven force multiplier or a supplemental one? 
This is what I have on hand, how can I best employ it? 
I have my AR or Pistol Caliber Carbine how can this added weight help me/us inflict greater damage to the bad guys?


End Part I

Are You Afraid of Change or just too Comfortable to be Cutting Edge?

-Suarez International Tier 1 Staff Instructor Jon Payne

 

We often are so comfortable with the past that we can stagnate and fail to see progress or recognize what the future can be? With technology changing so fast, can you really afford not to be on the cutting edge?

Let’s talk about the AK for a moment. We’ve all seen the Chicom Poster “Keep That Crap off My AK!” How long did it take us to get past that? First we added folders because it just made sense to make the rifle easier to store and carry. The next move was to add a flash suppressor because we wanted to dampen the fireball coming from the AK’s muzzle and a compensator just isn’t needed on a semi-automatic rifle. It wasn’t long until we began mounting Aimpoint Micro’s on our AK’s using the Ultimak Rail. If you add a flashlight to the package you have a real squared away CQB rifle. Up until a short time ago an AK set up in this fashion was the apex of the Kalashnikov Fighting Rifle. If you had a Rifle Dynamics custom build with all these features, it just didn’t get any better, could it?

 

Early this year I witnessed an AK that shot under an 8” group a 300 yards! That is hitting heads at 300 yards. This AK had an American made 12.5 inch barrel, a Texas Weapon System Dog Leg Rail Gen II, and a 3x ACOG. That rifle more than proved to me that when it comes to the AK you get out of it what you put into it! I don’t think we would’ve ever seen an AK capable of that kind of accuracy if SI had stayed with, “it’s good the way it is, it can’t be improved” attitude.

 

One of the groups of people that get stuck in their ways is handgun shooters. I remember back in the late 80’s when several Police Departments issued revolvers. You could hear the rank and file, “Automatics jam”, “I’ll take my 6 for sure.” You would’ve thought they’d still be carrying wheel guns on the Space Shuttle (I did guard a Space Shuttle carrying a S&W model 15 a few years back). As a matter of fact, if you had transported Wyatt Earp forward in time to 1988 and shown him an issue revolver off a cop’s belt, he would have stated how similar it was to his revolver! By 1991 most Police Departments either issued semi-automatic pistols or allowed their officers to purchase their own pistols.

 

Not all pistols are created equal and some designs rose to the fore-front. One of those designs was the Glock. Glock was the first successful readily available polymer framed pistol and is about as tough and reliable as a handgun can get.

 

When I was introduced to carrying the Glock pistol it was out of necessity. The town I used to work in had been hit by a 15-20 foot tidal surge during Hurricane Ike and was several feet under water. I was not about to use my $1600 Custom Shop Kimber in water that had so much stuff in it, it could be referred to as H3O. I happened to have a spare Glock 23 that I kept around for a training pistol so I strapped it on got in my boat and began doing what I got paid to do. I never went back to carrying the 1911. Soon after during a class with Gabe it became apparent my issued night sights were great out to 50 yards, but after that the front sight was just too wide. I learned in that class there were more modern and effective sights available.

 

 

The most important upgrade a Glock service pistol needed was good sights. Just adding Warren Tactical Sights improved the Glock quite a bit. The Warren’s give you a clean sight picture with a wide notch in the rear and a thin defined front sight blade. Getting reliable hits at 100 yards with a Glock 17 equipped with Warren’s is very do-able, but require strict adherence to the marksmanship fundamentals. Things were about to get easier. Almost like “cheating”.

We have all seen red dot sights on race guns and they were huge ungainly affairs, but the guys using them in competition were beating those who weren’t using them. Like I said, things were changing. Trijicon introduced the RMR as a backup sight for their ACOG. The RMR (which stands for Ruggedized Miniature Reflex) was small, light, and tough. When the Technical Service Division Combat System’s ran with the idea of putting a concealable reddot sight on a pistol something different emerged.

 

Can you really compare an RMR’ed TSD Combat Systems Glock to a stock Glock 17? I really don’t think so. With TSD’s package, chest hits at 100 yards isn’t such a feat anymore and they’re eye ball accurate out to 10 yards. Besides being so much easier to shoot, they hardly add any weight to the pistol, and don’t interfere with your ability to conceal your sidearm. Learning to use the RMR on the TSD Glock is as easy as getting you’re sight alignment and sight picture with your iron sights. The beauty of using suppressor sights with a RMR is it allows you to co-witness and really shortens the learning curve. Once you pick up the dot on top of your irons, you no longer have to focus on the front sight. You can focus on your target and just superimpose the dot to get surgical hits. Currently, I’m the only peace officer in Orange County Texas to be qualified with a TSD Glock.

 

This is a very exciting time to be a part of the Firearms Industry. I’m beginning to see things that were science-fiction become science-fact. I’m seeing platforms continue to evolve with improved accuracy, and improved ergonomics without loss of reliability. If all this technology is available why wouldn’t you use it to its full potential? Are you afraid of change or are you just too comfortable to be cutting edge?

 

 

 

 

Flashlight in the Hand

Avoiding  the Profile Individual/Deterring the Profile Individual/Dominating the Profile Individual by Roger Phillips, Suarez International Specialist and Tier One Instructor

This is basically the same lecture that I have been giving since 2005 inside of my low light courses. This lecture is a combination of Col. Cooper's lecture that I heard through a third party back in 1999, teachings from Gabe Suarez from 2002, and some very recent formatting tips from Randy Harris. This information has been around for a very long time, but I have never seen it combined with the "flashlight in the hand" philosophy.

 

"The flashlight in the hand" philosophy is the tactic of carrying a small, powerful, tactical flashlight  in your non-dominant hand whenever you are in a risky area after the sun has gone down. Whether you are walking the dog, exercising, or making a run down to the grocery store/Wal-Mart, if you are going to be in a public place after sundown, it is the tactic of always carrying your flashlight in your hand.

The main reason for you to do this is because the vast majority of the times that you may need your flashlight, in a self defense situation, if it is not already in your hand you will most likely never get it into your hand. The number one reason for carrying a flashlight is for making the identification (ID) of the hands and the waistbands for weapons, since our visual acuity is cut in half in low light.  It is the hands that kill and the waistband is where bad guys (BG) usually keep their weapons. The number two reason for carrying a flashlight is to disrupt the vision of the adversary. A bright light in the eyes not only disrupts the adversaries vision but it allows the good guy (GG) to work behind a wall of light. When the adversary can no longer see you, that causes doubt and uncertainty. This uncertainty may be all that you need to deter an attack.

 

A flashlight is not necessarily a fighting tool. I do not need the flashlight to make the hits. It is much more valuable as a physical deterrent (BG cannot see GG) and a visual disruptor (BG's vision is 5% of what it was just a second before.) If you need to fight with the light on you are creating a constant focal point to attack. If you can disrupt that adversaries vision, turn the light out and move, there is no focal point to follow, there is only blinded bewilderment! Even if they recover, you can take their vision again. We have all heard "A flashlight is a bullet magnet" but this does not have to be the case if you "see what you need to see" and "blind as you need to blind" then turn the flashlight  out. If you remove the constant focal point the liabilities of the bullet/knife/club magnet decrease. It is the lessons of when to use the flashlight and when not to use the flashlight that are the most valuable of the lessons. Being able to shoot with the flashlight in conjunction with the gun is mildly interesting, that is entry level knowledge. Knowing when to blind, when to turn the flashlight off, when and where to move, and when to turn the light back on is the advanced knowledge. This knowledge is not possible without thorough testing inside of low light FOF and from both sides of the coin. You have to be both the GG and the BG to learn the lessons as they need to be learned. The reality is that all of this knowledge is useless if your flashlight is at home, in your car, or even in your pocket. If it is not in your hand when you spot the profile individual, it will probably never make it into your hand.

The term "profile individual" (PI) speak for itself. This has nothing to do with race or sex. Trouble and danger comes in all races and in both sex. Trouble and danger has a very distinct look and feel, if you have been around the block a couple of times, you know what I am talking about. If you cannot recognize trouble and danger you may just need to be removed from the gene pool. Recognizing  trouble and danger starts with profiling. Forget about all of those politically correct idiots out there and let's get down to the bottom line. If you do not profile you are a fool! There is a very low danger level from a well groomed man in an expensive business suit or a elderly couple taking a walk in a park. But there is a higher danger level from groups of urban youths, especially in bad parts of town or where poverty is rampant. This is all just common sense here.

If you are out at night, doing whatever it is that you have to do, and you see a PI that is going to cross your path here is a very quick overview of how to handle the PI.

 

Profile; It always starts with profiling! We must profile who is in our general vicinity while we are out after sun down. BG use the cloak of darkness to hide themselves and to hide their intent. Without profiling everything else that follows is worthless. Making the ID on a PI is the first piece of your back story. Back story is very important stuff, nothing happens inside of a vacuum. Collecting and building good pieces of back story allows you to build the information to facilitate making  the decisions that you are going to have to make. The more pieces the better the back story, the better the back story the quicker you will be able to work through your OODA loop. If you make a PI and he has orientated to you, the next thing that you need to do is as follows.

Avoid; Make a directional change to your movement and begin looking for other players. Choose a direction that will require the PI to re-orientate to you. If there is no re-orientation, that is a good thing, but keep your eye out for any other players/accomplice's along with the original PI. If the PI re-orientates to you, you have just succeeded in forcing the BG to show you his hand. You have created the second piece of the back story to further facilitate your decision making process. You now know the BG is keying on you. There are not coincidences! In low light you cannot allow the BG to close ground on you. You must stop his ingress! Here are some basic concepts to help stop the BG from closing ground you. The next two thing listed may need to be put into action simultaneously, but they are set down in order of importance.

 

Command; With a commanding voice and in conjunction with a flashlight in the PI eye's order them to "Back off!" In low light, with a quality flashlight the PI will see nothing but the light. You will have disappeared to him and all he will see is the source of the light and you will be cloaked behind a wall of light. If the first "Back off!" and blinding does not work, that is the third and another huge piece of the back story. Give them one last chance (the fourth piece of the back story) and  get louder and more "street." Sometimes the street only understands "street"........."BACK THE F**K OFF! While the commands and flashlights are being used you will most likely want to doing two other things simultaneously.

Move/Monitor; It is my opinion that you should mitigate the urge to stop and square up to your adversary. I feel that you should keep moving in order to disrupt the adversaries ability to begin working through his OODA loop. By continuing to move you take away the adversaries ability to take a snap shot of the battlefield which is very important to developing a plan of attack. As you command/blind/move you should again monitor the area for any other accomplices. Since you are hidden behind a wall of light to your primary adversary, you should be able to look around quickly for other players, without the primary adversary even knowing that you have taken your eyes off of him. If the PI is still re-orientating to you, you probably have enough back story (fifth piece) to articulate reasonable fear. Some people feel that they need to ID the weapon, but FOF training has proven that action beats reaction. If you are unable to ID that something is very wrong, with all of the back story that has taken place, you may be deep into the very worse of positions.......denial! This is where all of your training comes to the forefront. This is where you find out if "your line in the sand" has been thought through well enough. This is where all of your "what if" mental preparation has really prepared you well enough. This is where you find out about the reliability of your gut feeling, and your ability to act on it. This is where it gets as personal as anything that you have ever dealt with.

If in your mind you can articulate that it is go time, then it is on.

If the threat or weapon has been identified that leads us to the next phase of the fight.

 

Access; When the line in the sand has been crossed, keep moving, access your weapon, and get to work. It is time to fight with everything you have. Accessing your weapon, from concealed carry, with a flashlight in your hand is a skill set that you must own. There are two methods that you need to know, the one hand draw stroke (circular flagged thumb) and the clearing of the garment with the flashlight hand (three digit crab claw.) Which one you use is situational and user dependent. This draw stoke from concealment is the most likely thing that you are going to blow, your "flashlight in the hand" draw stroke needs to be to the point that you have it down cold while moving. With these two draw stroke methods you have the option of keeping the flashlight in the eyes or turning if off. Either way, the adversaries vision is going to be extremely limited. If you keep the light on and draw, everything that you do is cloaked by the wall of light, but the direction and pace of your movement can be tracked through the visual connection to the light source. If you turn the light out, you cannot be tracked periodically, but the adversaries vision will eventually return. Of course you can always give him another blast of light and take it away again. Once you have accessed the weapon and driven it to the focal point it is time to take care of business.

Negate; Negate the threat with fast and accurate hits while either hiding behind the wall of light or under the cloak of blinded darkness. I cannot possibly express how important it is to have the "double edge sword" knowledge and experience of fighting from both sides of this confrontation. Without this firsthand knowledge and experience, you have no clue of the true dynamics of the fight and the power and the limitations of the "flashlight in the hand" philosophy. Experience leads to confidence, confidence leads to absolute knowledge, absolute knowledge leads to total domination. This is where you want to be, anything short of that means that you have not put in the work and you are not as ready as you think are. Fighting at night is a skill set that can only be obtained through proper preparation to prevent piss poor performance. If you have not put in the time......face that fact for the fact that it is. Reading this article is simply not going to get it done!

Once the  primary adversary has been negated and determined out of the fight it is time to move on to the next progression.

 

Scan; BG's tend to travel in packs. Just because you did not make any accomplices early on does not mean that there are none. You are going to need to scan 360 degrees to make sure that there are no other players that may need your attention. Scanning may  best be done while moving to a place of cover or tactical advantage. Whether you scan with your flashlight or not depends on the ambient light and the presence  of darkened areas. Remember the rule of thumb, "if you are in the dark, stay in the dark, if you are in the light, light up the dark." Once you have verified that there are not other players to engage and verified that the primary has not reanimated it is time to move onto the next step of the progression.

Reload; Now that there is a lull in the fight it is time to top off your gun. If we accept the fact that "if the flashlight is not in your hand at the start of the fight, it will not make it into the hand" philosophy then it would seem wise to be able to load your gun without stowing your flashlight. The "three digit crab claw" allows for a "reload with retention" all while keeping the flashlight in your hand. If you are concerned about the effects of the adrenaline dump, you can stow the flashlight for your reload. Either way, get that gun topped off.

Evaluate; The next step is a medical evaluation of yourself. Since the fight is still not guaranteed to be over I would try to mitigate lighting yourself up or putting away the flashlight. The "three digit crab claw" can still feel the body for wet spots. Another option is to shove the flashlight in between the pinkie and ring finger of the gun hand, bezel up (consistency across categories) A quick lighting of the ground for blood droplets may be acceptable. If you find a wet spot in the groin area, you are going to have to ID the color of the fluid. If you find yourself to be ok medically, it is time to proceed to the next step.

 

Proceed/Police; Due to the fact that there are some places that if you do not get the heck out of there immediately , you could be fighting the whole neighborhood. It is not always as clear as "call the police and wait for them." Sometimes you are going to have to get the heck out of there, then call the police and arrange to meet them somewhere. Unfortunately, it can be even worse than that. You may have to get out of there and never say a word to anyone. There are places in this great Country that do not allow good people to defend themselves or their loved ones from evil. In this case, since you primary mission is to get home and continue to take care of your loved ones you may just need to proceed on with your life without bringing the police in. It is a shame that there are places in America that are like this, but it is what it is! A good person needs to make it home to his/her family and not allow laws that are contrary to God's law from keeping you of fulfilling your primary mission in life.

 Like I said at the start of this article, much of this has been around for a very long time. I have just put my spin on it from within the "flashlight in the hand" philosophy. If we look at these ten things that we need to do to make it through dealing with a profile individual, it may look like it is next to impossible to remember. This is where Randy Harris suggests uses a mnemonic device to help aid this philosophy in being easy to remember. Most mnemonic devices are a little cheesy but easy to remember.....this one is not different.

PACMANSREP

Pacmans rep was if you were smart enough and fast enough you could succeed in life and avoid all of the goblins. From the very start of the encounter......and all the way through the encounter, If you can remember this cheesy little mnemonic device, you can avoid the profile individual, deter the profile individual, and dominate the profile individual.

See Roger's schedule here

Discuss this here

 

The Best Defense is a Good Offense……

By

Don Robison

Suarez International Tier 1 Staff Instructor

 

It’s a bit cliché’ but often said that the best defense is a good offense.  What does that mean?  To me; that means always be on the offensive.  All over the internet we hear people expounding the idea of the “defensive mindset”; I say hogwash.  A defensive mindset is the mindset of a person who doesn’t plan or take measures to better ensure their safety or the safety of their loved ones; they sit around waiting for something to happen so they can defend themselves against it.  A person with an offensive mindset is always thinking, they are always planning ahead and doing things to mitigate the risk of being attacked. 

What kind of a person are you?  The defensive mindset person pulls into a gas station hops out of their car and fills up with gas.  The offensive mindset person pulls into a gas station takes a look around and assess their surroundings, looking for possible problem people, areas, and avenues of approach and formulates a plan of action for the what if scenarios.

It’s 1 a.m.; you need to stop at a gas station along the interstate because you are down to an eighth of a tank of gas. You find a gas station and pull in to the end pump and get out of your car and start pumping gas.  Out of the shadow on the end of the building a young misunderstood youth walks to the back of your car without you noticing and demands your wallet or he is going to kill you.  You have three choices fight, flight, or comply with his request and hope he goes away. The gas hose is behind you cluttering your exit route and you didn’t notice that the gas station had put trash cans and displays between the pumps.  You’ve been to some training classes so you’re going to fight.  You waited until something happened and then were forced to work out a plan to defend yourself.

Let’s look at what you did wrong in the above scenario.

1. You didn’t assess the area you were pulling into.
2. You pulled into the pump on the dark side of the building where those up to no good have good concealment.
3. You had poor situational awareness of your surroundings after you exited the car.
4. You left yourself really only two options; comply or fight.

I won’t say comply is never a good idea because there are always exceptions. I also don’t think starting the fight from behind the OODA loop is a good option either. Trading punches, slashes or bullets is never truly a win, even if you come out on top. Your victory cost you more than it should have cost you and how is your family going to fair while you’re recovering from the trading physical damage?   In the above scenario a lack of attention backed you into a bad scenario where you didn’t need to put yourself. In my opinion; this is a defensive mindset.  You waited until something happened and then worked out how to defend yourself.

 

It’s 1 a.m.; you need to stop at a gas station along the interstate because you are down to a quarter tank of gas. You find a gas station and pull in to the parking lot.  As you pull in you’re looking around the area and notice the only pump open is the one on the end nearest a dark corner of the building and there are some misunderstood youths hanging out by the store entrance.  You decide to drive to the gas station up the street and not possibly place yourself in a situation where you’re uncomfortable.

Let’s look at this scenario and see what you did right.

1. You assessed the area before you fully committed yourself to it.
2. You decided to go somewhere else rather than put yourself unknowingly in a bad situation.

What are the downsides to following this option? You can only do it so many times before you have no choice but to use whatever gas station you find yourself at or you run out of gas. Me personally; I start looking for a gas station just as the needle moves below a half tank and try to stop before it reaches a quarter. I like to give myself options.

It’s 1 a.m.; you need to find a gas station along the interstate because you just went below a half tank of gas and want to find a station before you reach a quarter tank. You find a gas station and pull in to the parking lot.  As you pull in you’re looking around the area and notice the only pump open is the one on the end nearest a dark corner of the building and there are some misunderstood youths hanging out by the store entrance.  You also notice that there are tire displays set up between the pumps so you decide to go to the next station. Upon pulling into the second station you find a middle pump open and there is nothing blocking you from moving between the pumps. You also notice some shady characters hanging out at the entrance and the end of the building. This is the only other gas station for 100 miles so you decide this is the station you need to use.  Before you get out of the car you take a moment to decide what avenue of approach you would use if you wanted to rob someone and take notice of what the shady characters are doing, where they are and if they are paying any “special” attention to you. You get out of the car and begin to pump your gas while keeping a scan going looking to see if there is any change in the attitude of those hanging out. You’ve positioned yourself so that you can get back into your car and drive off if you detect something out of place early. You’ve also placed yourself so that you can exit on foot between the pumps if you need to create distance and can’t get into your car.  With a little prior planning you’ve given yourself several options.

What did you do and what are your options?

1. You assessed the situation at both stations and decided on your best option.
2. You positioned yourself to be able to scan the area and continually assess what is going on around you; you increased your situational awareness.
3. By giving yourself the extra space you have an increased chance at stopping someone with a stern word before they can get close enough to be a significant danger to you.
4. You gave yourself two routes to escape should you choose flight over fight or comply if someone does get closer than you would like.
5. By giving yourself the extra space to scan you have also given yourself increased time if you decide you need to go to a weapon. You’ve also given yourself time to get a weapon in your hand first; discreetly of course.

 

From my perspective those who advocate good situational awareness, don’t go to stupid places, do stupid things, hang out with stupid people (the 3S rule) and plan ahead aren’t setting the stage for a defensive mindset, but are actually setting the stage for an offensive mindset.  Anytime you are proactive in thwarting possible threats you are putting up an offensive posture.  If you’re sitting around until something happens so you can defend yourself; you’re in a defensive posture.  Who do you want to be?

“Only You Are Responsible For You”

By Roger Phillips, Suarez International Specialist and Tier One Instructor  

This is the last sentence inside of the Suarez International videotaped liability release. These are not just words! It should be the very core to your gun safety philosophy. It does not matter what you know or where you learned your safe gun handling habits. It does not matter where you train right now. Only you are responsible for your own safety habits.

This means that you need to look at what you have been taught or what you do and decide if it is really good enough. Remember, the most likely person that you are going to shoot IS YOURSELF!

“How good is good enough?”

 Is your gun handling safety habits really good enough?  When it comes down to putting unexpected holes into vital areas of your own body are you really doing the best that you can to mitigate this possibility, all while still learning to be combat effective?

Gunfighting is dangerous! Training to gunfight is also dangerous. The reality of the matter is that the more advanced that you get inside of your training, the more dangerous your training becomes. When we look at the reality of the fight and the likely issues that will arise inside of a fight, it is clear that we need to learn a lot more than just the optimal skill sets for the optimal situations.  The reality of the reactive gunfight puts us in sub-optimal positions that require our safety habits to be the very best that they can be. We need to understand that the whole competition based safety habits simply may not be good enough inside of a fight or inside of fight focused training.

 

We all should be at the point where we at least know the Four Basic Rules of Gun Safety.

(1)    Treat every gun as if it was loaded.

(2)    Do not cover anything that you are not willing to destroy

(3)    Keep your finger off of the trigger and outside of the trigger guard until you have made the conscience decision to shoot.

(4)    Know your target and what is in line with your target, behind and in front.

But these are very general rules that do not nail down specific safety habits.

In the past, Gabe Suarez has done an outstanding job of bringing a little common sense and reality to these rules. I would highly recommend that you check into Gabe’s take on the Four Basic Safety Rules. 

The point of this article is to talk about overlooked liabilities and bad habits, more so than rules. It is the overlooked liabilities and bad habits that really define your personal safety level. The mitigation of liabilities and bad habits are what allow you to proceed into advanced levels of training, all while keeping yourself as safe as you possibly can. I will be covering the top five overlooked liabilities and bad habits that I see inside of my courses.

Overlooked liabilities can be fixed inside of a two day course, but as an advanced instructor teaching advance students advanced skill set, I should not have to constantly babysit people through their safety awareness. I should not have to constantly point out that safety issues are being over looked. These are all issues that should be taken care before the course by wrapping your head around the safety concerns involved with overlooking basic concepts. Sure I will remind you, but really, shouldn’t this be something that I should not have to remind people of. The whole “You know that you are jeopardizing shooting yourself because you are overlooking some very basic concepts” conversation gets very old, very quickly.

Top Three Overlooked Liabilities

Loose Garments Around Your Holster

This is by far the most commonly overlooked liability by the students. It feels as if I could spend an entire course reminding people to tuck in their loose garments around their holster. Getting a loose garment caught inside of the trigger guard while reholstering will but an unexpected hole in you. Why would you risk such a thing over something so simple as keeping your under garment tucked in tight and your over garment clear of the holster?  All of my under garments tuck in a good 12” past my belt line to insure that that do not come untucked and end up in my holster or trigger guard.  When I reholster it is seen as an administrative process that is all geared toward a “Don’t shoot yourself stupid” mindset. My over garment is cleared completely before any reholstering is done. I have zero concern for speed or coolness factor. If I need to look, I look, because it is just administrative. It is my opinion that every time you head back to ammo up, you should take a look at your garments around your holster. A couple of seconds of cheap insurance mitigates your risks substantially. If your under garment is coming untucked, tuck it in. Furthermore, take that lesson to heart, go home and find a garment that will not come untucked. It is not brain surgery or rocket science, it is basic common sense! This is something that an advanced instructor should not have to point out!

 

Why do under garments come untucked?

They come untucked because of the “elbow up” portion of the draw stroke and the pivoting during “the turret of the tank” concept.  “A” shirts and Under Armor type garments work very well for me. They are tight, tuck in deep, and deal with the manipulation of the shoulder, without coming untucked.

Dress around your gun and test your garments before you show up in a course.

An instructor should not have to show you how to dress.

Untested Gear Inside of a Course

When you show up for an advanced course, it is all about the skill sets and the corresponding mental aspect of the fight that are being taught. Your entire focus should be on these two things. Heck that is what you paid for, right? This is not the place to try out untested gear! This is not the place to “try this and try that!” This is not the place to experiment! This is the place that you show up with what you know best and put it to use inside of the framework of the course.  It is my opinion that you should plan on working with the one set up that you know the best, plan on working one gun, one holster, and one ammo supply method that you know the best. This is not the place to try out four different guns or four different set ups. You are there to learn what is being taught. Take that knowledge home and dry practice with all of your other gear. Inside of a course, where the learning curve is steep, concentrate on the course…..not your gear. Some of the most unsuccessful students that I have ever had were hardware focused and not software focused. While everyone else progressed rapidly…..they struggled to keep up. While struggling to keep up, their safety levels suffered. An advanced course is a challenge all in itself. Do not make a difficult and dangerous endeavor even more so because you are hardware focused.

Some will read this and think that it is contradictory to the whole “Dual Appendix” form of training inside of SI’s most advanced courses. That would be a huge misconception! It has been written out many times to not show up in an advanced course expecting to go dual appendix unless you are absolutely ready for this type of training. These courses are not where you learn to go dual appendix, they are designed to take your advanced skill levels to the next level. You learn to go dual appendix in your dry practice, your airsoft training, and inside of the basic courses. If you are not ready to hit the ground running, do not participate in these advanced applications. Just because some students in the course have prepared themselves appropriately, does not mean that you have. And if you have not prepared yourself appropriately, deal with that reality and learn what you can without needless putting yourself at risk by biting off more than you can chew.

Having the intellect to say to yourself “I am not ready for that” is a positive trait. SI will never force you to do something that you are not comfortable with. We want to challenge our advanced student base, but even more so, we want you to go home with the same number of holes that you showed up with.

Watch for and get rid of any gear that might impede with your draw stroke. There should be nothing above your holster that could cause a snag on the gun or the hands. Take the lessons that we learned about chest rigs and CCW holsters and apply the same concepts across the board.

 

Untested Skill Sets Inside of a Course

The last topic touched on this issue. It is very common to learn untested skill sets inside of a course. The vast majority of the time this is not a safety issue. The vast majority of time that is perfectly ok and acceptable. It is when we get to the advanced training and the increase safety concerns that these issues need to be looked at more closely. This is the point where we (the instructors) need honesty from our student base. This is the point that we need the student to be honest with themselves and with us on what they are truly and safely capable of.

Everything that we learn should be run through a natural progression. This natural progression is what keeps us safe and what keeps us from biting off more than we can chew. Let’s look at one single skill set and take a look at the progression that should be involved to reach the advanced levels of the skill set. Let’s look at “Completely Ambidextrous” with the handgun skill sets. This is not something that you look at for a couple of minutes and then plan on jumping into an advanced SI handgun course to put into action.  That would be very unwise for everyone involved. Even if you are an advanced student, there are skill sets that require you to step back to the basics, to nail down the skills that will allow you to be safe. I went through a very specific progression to be at the point that I am comfortable with my skill level, to head into completely ambidextrous shooting with a handgun.

Here is what I would recommend.

Step back to the basics and run a “secondary hand” Defensive Pistol Skills course. Run the whole two day course with your off hand. All manipulations, all draw strokes, and all shooting with your secondary hand. Take those skill sets and bring them home and dry practice them until you have it down cold. Have the ability to run your secondary hand at, at least 80% of your primary hand. Take a “secondary hand” Close Range Gunfighting course and do the same thing, including the dry practice. Only then, after you have put in the time, step into an advanced course that runs dual appendix. We all need to recognize that it is secondary hand draw stroke and the uneducated secondary hand trigger finger that makes the dual appendix training a very high skill level skill set and high safety risk.

Put in the work and never bite off more than you can chew!

Inside of an advanced course is not the place to try to figure this all out!

Top Two Bad Habits

 Slamming Your Gun Back Into Your Holster

In the past, I have covered in depth my concerns with this epidemic.

I've trained a lot of places and proportionally Suarez International students are the most squared away group of students I've ever worked with. But even some the very best have ingrained slamming their guns into their holster.

Ingrained "slamming your gun into the holster" is not something that I can fix in two days.

The solution to the problem is not going to come out of taking a course with an instructor. The only solution has to be made by the person that has ingrained such a reckless and dangerous habit, to reprogram not just the way that they reholster, but to reprogram the way that they think.

The slamming of the gun into the holster comes across like an exclamation point at the end of a sentence. It's like the final emphasis put on something explosive.

The thing is that our explosiveness of the draw stroke, our movement, and our fast and accurate hits needs to be separated from the reholstering process. The "reluctant reholstering" process begins with our after action drills. We need to ingrain the fact that we pulled our guns out for a reason, in defense of life. We need to take that thinking and realize that you never want to reholster until you know for a fact that the confrontation is over. "Is he down?" "Did it work?" "Does he have any friends?" "How’s my 6:00?" "How’s my ammo?" "How am I?"

"Is this really over?"

This process allows us to change gears from the explosiveness of our initial response, to the slow, methodical, administrative act of reholstering the gun safely.

Let me make this clear. I am reminding myself just as much as I am reminding everyone else. As an instructor, when I am giving demo's, it is possible to think so much about the technique that I am teaching that I do not run through the after action drills as much as I should. But it is the after action drills and the mental aspect attached to them that allows for the down shifting the will dramatically cut down on the desire to slam that gun back into your holster.

IMHO, there is no way to over stress the dangers of slamming your gun back into your holster.

Murphy is a ruthless bastard. He will jump up and pound you mercilessly if you are not careful. I do not care if you have slammed your gun in the holster one hundred thousand times without a problem......eventually Murphy will take his pound of flesh!

 

Non-Robust Trigger Finger Index

This is my new pet peeve and the real catalyst for this article.

I am seeing all kinds of trigger finger indexes that would be considered all well and good inside of “The Four Rules.” But once again, this is not about target shooting holes into pieces of paper…..this is about preparing for a fight! How robust your trigger finger placement needs to be during target shooting is completely different from how robust it needs to be inside of the reality of the fight. This in turn, is simply not good enough for advanced fight focused training.

It is my opinion that your trigger finger should be indexed completely straight and up as high and possible/reasonable on the frame/slide.

If the trigger finger is straight, it is less likely to be effected by any sort of impact, jolt or jostle.

If the trigger finger index is up as high as possible/reasonable, this leaves us a larger “margin of error” if the gun is snagged on something during the draw stroke. This snagging, which could be due to an unwise gear choice or a Murphy moment on your garments, can lead to the gun feeling as if it is going to be ripped out of the hand. At speed, the gun feeling like it is being ripped out of the hand will probably lead to a convulsive gripping/tightening of the gun hand which can lead to a non-robust indexed trigger finger ending up inside of the trigger guard and on the trigger.  

Even something as simple as a grasp reflex, out of the startled response, can allow one to blow right through a non-robust trigger finger index.

This is something that I lecture on at the start of every course. But it is also a habit that I will simply not be able to reprogram out of an advanced student inside of an advanced course. The proper robust trigger finger index is something that needs to be ingrained before the student ever arrives inside of an advanced course. The more advanced the training is, the more important a robust index is. When we are talking about speed of the draw stroke, speed of the movement, versatile drawing/shooting positions, and possible awkward drawing/shooting positions we need to make sure that we are mitigating our risks. One of the very best things that you can do for yourself is to ingrain a robust trigger finger placement.  

As it stands, I have not “sent anyone packing” from inside of my courses. But this one issue (robust trigger finger index) may change that very soon. If you think I am making sense here, great! Show me your robust trigger finger index inside my courses. If you strongly disagree and plan to show up to one of my courses with a non-robust trigger finger index, please do not be surprise if I send you packing.

Remember, shooting yourself affects more people than just you!

If your overlooked liabilities and bad habits look as if they might affect Suarez International, my other students, or myself……I will ask you to leave.

This is the optimal trigger finger index that Suarez International  is now looking for.

 

Discuss this here

Find Roger's schedule here

 

 

 

You don't go to tank driving school to learn how to handle a car

The myth of learning from “professionals”

By Uli Gebhard, Suarez International Staff Instructor

 

I started taking firearms classes more than a decade ago and back then what really intrigued me and drew me into training was that the instructor was accredited by the FBI, an active SWAT officer or a member of a SOCOM group.

Sure – those guys look tough on their websites with their thigh holsters and M-4's but looking back, except for the basics of marksmanship they have little to offer for us lowly civilians.

Eight years ago I took a low light instructor course with one of these groups and while the systematics behind flashlight use and the coordination of flashlight and handgun were valuable, the tactics were geared towards the community of law-enforcement that the instructors originate from.

Most of it has very little relevance for me. If I have to use my gun in self-defense, I will not have a stack of guys behind me that will cover every angle of the room that I will be searching. Worst case, I will be alone in an unfamiliar area. Best case, I will be in my house and have my wife with her weapon watching my back. I need to learn from people who can relate to these boundary conditions and to fighting in a reactive mode.

What do I mean with this? As a civilian CCW operator, the only equipment that I have available when things go south is the gear that I carry. All I know about the situation that I am involved in is what my own senses tell me. I need to rely on what I see and hear to make my decisions.  I do not have the luxury of a dispatcher or fellow officer radioing information.

I can't hunker down and wait for backup. Our hometown has an average response time of seven minutes to 911 calls. With this in mind, the training I need has to consist of instinctive, stressproof and caveman-simple responses that will work to either end the fight decisively or tactics that allow me to get me and my loved ones out of danger.

Find the instructor in this picture - (hint, he's not the guy with the 5.11 vest)

 

Here is another point that law-enforcement based trainers often overlook – as a civilian I will most likely start from a reactive position. Other than most officers that have a dispatcher or fellow LEO telling them that they are heading into a dangerous situation, I will most likely find out that I am in trouble when things start unraveling.

Sure – most tactical operator based training will lecture on the OODA loop and to stay vigilant in your alertness. However, very few will teach you how to go from reactive, seeing things going south and you being the target, to proactive, where you force the bad guy to react to your actions, which provides you with a critical tool to dominate the fight.
And sorry folks – just planting the feet, followed with a fast draw, double or triple tap and quick scan left and right does not cut it.

I did a little test with my eight-year old today after seeing a turn-stand-and-deliver video on youtube. At first he thought it was cool. I had him stand behind me point his finger gun at me and told him to yell "bang" when he saw me move. When I copied the movement from youtube, I was three-quarters through the turn when I heard "BANG". We did the same thing again, this time with me moving aggressively off the X. His "BANG!" came with his finger-gun stretched out at the empty space before him. My eight-year old's perspective of "cool" changed somewhat after that.

Stand-and-deliver technique is used for the lowest common denominator in the Police Academy. It is used to make sure that even a class of cadets with no gun exposure and minimum understanding of firearm safety will be able to practice safely.

Do those tactics work for the civilian who starts fighting by himself or herself from a position behind the curve? Most likely not. The OODA loop lecture and being aware of your surroundings is nice, but local LEO's taught me without knowing that this as your only tactics has severe flaws. I've had several instances where a plainclothes police officer or Sheriff's deputy was in the checkout line in front of me. His jacket was off, his gun exposed in a level 2 holster and the badge nicely visible on his belt. Low-risk neighborhoods seem to foster complacency, since these officers more often then not let me get close enough that - had I had bad intentions - their gun would have violently changed owners.

No one is immune from being temporarily distracted. Strapping your three-year old into the carseat while trying to get the overly tired older sibling to quit whining can have a slightly negative effect on the way you keep an eye on your surroundings. There are times where you will not be able to spot every potential threat that comes within your sacred 21-foot safety perimeter.

When that happens stand, draw and deliver – the standard police operator response - does not work.
Look at all the videos that tacticool schools field on youtube – you will barely ever find an instructor, let alone a student that employs aggressive movement or combatives to change the odds in his favor. You also may want to ask yourself if these schools will truly teach you the sophisticated movements that their advertisement shows executed in perfection only by their instructors.

On top of this I live in California. We are limited to 10 rounds in the mag. This means that reloads need to be stress-proof and allow reliably holding onto a partially spent magazine. Again, standard police training is dropping the mag. Of course, equipped with let's say a Glock 22, an officer carries a whopping 46 rounds on his person. A civilian in CA with the same gun and two spares has 15 less than that – if he or she carries two spares. Absent of swift and reliable backup carrying two spares would be advised.

Let's take a look at the instructors. Often times they will wear fatigues of some sort, carry their guns on a duty belt or in a thigh holster. It does not take a rocket surgeon to figure out that this is not exactly a CCW suitable attire. This kind of gear may deliver an outstanding performance during a high-risk entry with a five-man team, but it does not work for a civilian operator who needs to bring his weapon into the fight from concealment. To take this further, training with such gear on the range while using something different on the street will deliver false confidence.

To come back to the California or New York State type restrictions: Those nice AR's that most schools show as their main rifle are a ten-shot-then-toss-fixed-mag-weapons in these states. Yes, most have a bullet button or something similar – a device that makes a swift and stress-proof reload close to impossible. A rifle with this kind of limiter installed is unsuitable as a fighting rifle. Don't get me wrong, the AR15 is an outstanding weapon platform, but only if it can be run as it was intended. My rifle students stick to what they can legally use and bring Saigas, Mini-14's, M-1A's, SU-16's or even lever action rifles to class. Try finding a law-enforcement based training group that will advertise classes for these popular rifles.

Glock and Levergun - this may be all that is available to you. 

Can your training school teach you using these weapons effectively?

I'm not trying to bash Police Training, but let's keep it in the proper context. Civilian CCW operators have a completely different frame of reference and hence we need training that is tailored to these needs. I recommend you look for the civilian experiences that the instructor has. Has he/she been carrying a weapon for a number of years and do they show up to class with their CCW gear? Can they teach you how to change the odds in your favor with tactics of decisive movement? Can they prep you with combatives that will buy you the time and room to access your weapon if you start from a reactive mode? In short does your instructor live what he or she is teaching you?
Or will they tell you “Well, you know, when I see things going down, I call dispatch on my cell with “Officer in distress” before I hold out my badge and draw my gun."

You need training that covers your specific situation as an armed civilian and that training needs to come from an armed-civilian's perspective.

After all, you don't go to tank driving school to learn how to handle a car....

 

Find out more about Uli Gebhard's courses here.

See all of our California courses here.

 

Where Modern Technique Went Wrong

By CR Williams

 

Jeff Cooper intended for his Modern Technique Of The Pistol to be adaptable to any battlefield and to the needs of the day, whether the past day when it was developed, or the present day and the kind of threats we face now in the streets as we go about our daily lives. He meant for his instructors to grow and develop the art and make it a living thing that learns as it grows. But of the instructors that Cooper brought up and of the schools that he directly or indirectly got started, only Gabe Suarez (who once taught for Cooper) and Suarez International are doing what Jeff Cooper intended. Others were content with what was, and for various reasons have 'locked' Modern Technique up. They have turned it into a Traditional Martial Art, still useful, but fit more for the battles of the past than of the present.  How did they do that? Why did they do that?

 

It started before Modern Technique even had a name. A consideration of things Decided, and of things just Allowed, and why they're important to us today.

 

Colonel Jeff Cooper is remembered as the developer and founder of what is now called the Modern Technique of the Pistol, usually referred to as simply Modern Technique or MT. In the development of the system of techniques, concepts, and principles that were codified, collected, organized, and then at some point named Modern Technique, if he was not the primary mover in that effort, he was certainly the first among equals in the group of originators. To the Colonel, therefore, goes the credit for moving the Martial Art of Gunfighting forward in a definitive way.

That forward movement was not carried on after he died, however. Instead, Modern Technique was all but locked into place, it's methodology and skill-sets, concepts and philosophies codified and set firm and deep. As a result, today's Modern Technique has the same 'look and feel' as what are now called Traditional Martial Arts styles, often abbreviated as TMA, which are styles which have been kept (mostly) as exactly as possible the way their founders first developed them.

How was this allowed to happen?

Cooper believed MT to be a complete system and fully 'sufficient unto the day'. He said as much, more than once, in his Commentaries:

I am sometimes asked why I do not do more literary work on the subject of defensive pistolcraft. I hate to say it, but the answer is that I believe that I have discovered what I need to know about defensive pistolcraft.

Just so, I learned what I needed to learn, as did many others, by the same process, and now we know how to use the combat pistol. The purpose has been accomplished.

We did, over a period of some 30 years, discover the best techniques and systems for the use of the combat handgun.

In those same Commentaries, however, he acknowledged the possibility of gaps in the system:

No subject of this sort may ever be considered completely and finally closed...

Truly, pistolcraft has taken tremendous strides in the past thirty-five years, but we have not achieved the perfect solution even yet--mainly because there are too few people asking the right questions. (My emphasis.)

That acknowledgement, however, was apparently not taken to heart by those who followed the Colonel. Instead, it appears that they heard and remembered only the part about completeness, perhaps not understanding that completeness is sometimes relative to time and circumstance. The 'battlefield' that I, as a non-military-non-law-enforcement civilian, expect to face today is different than it was then. But like the long-historied martial arts that comprise the TMAs, Modern Technique has, for the most part, been locked into a battlefield displaced in time and space, becoming less relevant to me and people like me.

This does NOT mean that Modern Technique is totally useless. Like the Traditional Martial Arts it now mirrors, MT has saved uncountable good guys and I expect that it will continue to. So will the Traditional Martial Arts. But just like there are now ways to fight without guns that are more suited to the current environment than TMAs are, there are now ways to fight with guns that fit the needs of people in our time and our space, and not that of the military, of law enforcement, or of the past.

What troubles me is that the Modern Technique Of The Pistol could have been one of those ways. The factors were present when Colonel Cooper was examining and experimenting and conceptualizing and constructing his system. MT could have come from that past into the present just as flexible and 'alive' and adaptable as either Mixed Martial Arts or the renewed and updated Combatives that were originally developed during World War II are. It could have been just as applicable to a wider range of current and possible gunfight situations as MMA and Combatives are to the kind of empty-hand fight you'll have to handle in the 21st Century.

But--it is not.

I don't think that Colonel Cooper intended for MT to be, or become, less than adequate to any kind of gunfight the practitioner would face at any time. In that, he was like the old masters, who built their systems to fit what they saw as the fight that had to be faced, looked upon the fruits of their labors, and saw they were Complete. But the masters died, the students ‘froze’ the systems, things changed, and the systems that were locked in couldn’t stay current and equal to the kinds of fights that we see today. And so we have the Traditional Martial Arts. And so we have Modern Technique.

So what makes it, what made it, less than useful to today's civilian defender? What decisions were made, deliberately or not, that makes today's Modern Technique inadequate to someone who isn't fighting to make an arrest or overcome the enemies of the United States (such fights being proactive as much, maybe more, than reactive), but who is fighting to live and win and go home to his or her family when the fight is over?

Of the various decisions made about what to look at, what to test, how to test it, what information to accept and discard, what evidence would be valid, what to leave in or keep out of the system...of all the decisions made, I believe that three are important, perhaps even critical, to understanding how and why the Modern Technique system first became what it is and then how and why it got locked up the way it was. These three key decisions were:

Core concepts and key elements of Modern Technique were based as much, perhaps more, on the results of competition than of combat.

Actual combat results and reports from life-or-death fights were not ignored completely, mind you; they were part of the evidence and research that the Colonel gathered all through the creation, formation, and maturation of the MT system. But Cooper himself, in relating a brief history of the development of the best way to fight with a handgun, points to competitions he developed and oversaw as being core components of his research and development:

...In 1959 the Bear Valley Gunslingers were established in California with the avowed purpose of introducing realism and variety into sporting pistol competition. In due course the Gunslingers evolved into the Southwest ("Combat") Pistol League......The purpose of all this was to "get real" and to evaluate the systems by which fighting skills with the handgun could be properly evaluated and rewarded. (My emphasis.) The next step was IPSC (the International Practical Shooting Confederation) founded in 1976 in Columbia, Missouri, in an attempt to spread the new doctrine worldwide...

In other parts of his Commentaries the Colonel says the same thing in different ways: That he developed competitions with the central idea of researching methods and techniques best suited to fighting--not competing, but fighting--with a pistol. The Weaver stance, for example,  was one of the core elements of MT that came directly out of those competitions. Cooper took great care to design courses of fire, when he was in direct control of a contest, that mirrored actual fight situations in order to best use them as research tools. And he was much saddened and frustrated when IPSC competition devolved into the sophisticated game that it is to this day because it could no longer be used to develop the fighting method of the pistol like he wanted to it to do.

Understand something here: The use of competition as a primary research and development tool does not invalidate the usefulness, however limited it may be today, of the Modern Technique system. To this day, the strictly combat-oriented world of gunfighting continues to look at what is done in competition, and has drawn several useful things from that competitive world. Neither am I saying that any and all information/examples/evidence that came from combat experience, either direct or reported, was categorically rejected. What I am saying is that Colonel Cooper said plainly that core principles of Modern Technique were based directly on techniques used to win competitions. Competition results were apparently weighted at least as heavily as combat experience in the process of developing the system of gunfighting that eventually was called Modern Technique.

Further evidence of the primacy of competition results in the development of the Modern Technique comes from another of the three important decisions made that locked MT more in the past than the present:

Point-shooting techniques and principles were not integrated into the Modern Technique system.

As a matter of fact, the Orange Gunsite rules for instructor conduct included formal proscriptions against speaking favorably of point-shooting and provided for penalties to be applied against any instructor who made positive comments about point-shooting. This is especially interesting in light of the fact that Cooper previously taught point-shooting, which he called "pointer fire". The decision to not integrate point-shooting and to impose these proscriptions was made in spite of three kinds of evidence that supported the idea of including it:

A proven history of combat effectiveness.

It is possible to say that the revolution in pistolcraft in the 20th century began with Fairbairn in China, though his pioneering did not achieve wide acceptance.

Cooper was aware of Fairbairn's work in China and later in Britain in World War II. Not only that, but Col. Rex Applegate was a fellow NRA board member with Cooper. Perhaps Applegate's work training operatives for the OSS was still classified at the time, but Colonel Cooper would still have been well acquainted with what Applegate was teaching and I believe would have known something about Applegate's wartime experience. Still, this was apparently rejected, despite the fact that:

Both Cooper and the men that helped him develop MT could point-shoot very well indeed, thank you very much.

Cooper called it pointer-fire, but it was point-shooting by any other name, and they were very good at it. They knew the method, they knew the principles, they knew the concepts, and they knew it was combat effective. And some of what they thought was sighted fire that won their competitions was actually a point-shooting technique. Don't believe me? Look up Type 1 and 2 Focus sometime. It's used by top-line competitors to this day, and it's point-shooting. It was not left out of the MT curriculum because they didn't know how to do it. It was a deliberate choice, made despite the fact that:

They were fully aware of the most probable kind of fight you'd face with a handgun, which was the kind that point-shooting is most applicable for. At least the Colonel was:

I have been studying this matter of personal combat for many decades, and I have almost never run across a case in which outstanding marksmanship was influential in the conflict...Ordinarily lethal confrontations take place from arm's length to across the table, at distances at which the quality of marksmanship is almost irrelevant.

When we remember that real gunfights take place at very short range - across the room - and that there is usually plenty of time, we see that the brilliant pistolcraft evident in competition is perhaps irrelevant.

As the after-action reports keep coming in, we notice that most defensive shooting situations take place under circumstances which do not call for expert marksmanship. Of course the shooter must know the fundamentals of hitting a target, and he must know correct gunhandling, but in a street fight he is almost never called upon to shoot with match-winning precision.

Colonel Cooper did make a valid point--that becoming confident of your 'sighted shooting' ability provides a great and good help in even an across-the-room face-off situation. Not only that, in his book Fighting Handguns  he recommended his pointer-fire methods for just those situations. Still, point-shooting techniques that were ideal for that combat environment were not integrated into the Modern Technique, a factor that has held MT in the past instead of pushing it to the present.

The third key decision, one the Colonel made, that concerns the development of Modern Technique, and one that I believe to be the most critical to it's being frozen in time as it is today, is simply this:

 

Colonel Cooper stopped working on it.

 

He did not stop completely, but if you read through the Commentaries, you will notice a place in time where the Colonel in a practical sense stopped paying much attention to developing the fighting methodology of the handgun any further. He did this despite, as quoted earlier, acknowledgement that what he had discovered to date might not be all there is to it.

This, I believe, is the key decision that locked Modern Technique into its current 'TMA mode'. It was not an abrupt, instantaneous decision, nor was it a conscious one in my view. It was just something that happened gradually over time. But it was a decision made nonetheless, and a very important one.
Why did he, mostly, stop? I can only speculate, but an examination of the Commentaries indicates three reasons why the Colonel turned his attention mostly away from the development of the art of fighting with a handgun and toward other areas of inquiry:

In spite of acknowledgement that more could be learned, he decided that he knew what he needed to know and that was enough.

His quest for how to fight with a handgun started as a personal investigation that developed into a public and commercial success, but still apparently remained a personal investigation throughout. It is possible that he developed the training program he did as much to provide ongoing feedback about the validity of his conclusions as it was intended to propagate and spread the method to others who would find it useful. What I cannot see, but suspect, is that the feedback was unconsciously filtered to support the conclusion that what there was was Enough, and that little more if anything was to be found or was necessary to add to the perfected methodology.

He was always more focused on the rifle and ways to properly employ it.

The more I read the Commentaries, the more I become convinced that Cooper was in heart and soul a Rifleman and nothing else. So much so that some aspects of Modern Technique practice appear to be a subconscious attempt to make a pistol into a handier, very portable rifle. Yes, he had an interest in and a focus on the handgun, but that only went so far. I read much more in the Commentaries about the rifle than about the pistol, especially as the Colonel travelled through the latter years of his life. The method of the Modern Technique was interesting, yes, but mainly a necessity. The Method of the Rifle was a thing of both interest and a kind of beauty to him though, and once he had what he needed of the first, it was to be expected that he would devote himself more to that which called him the strongest.

The most important reason he stopped? He probably expected his successors, the instructors and students he trained, to move the art forward after him.

I say 'probably' because it's not clear to me that he did, in fact, expect this. It's possible, though evidence does not support it, that he did not encourage additional research, experimentation, and innovation because he really did think that Modern Technique contained all that was necessary. What does seem clear is that he did not take pains or go out of his way to encourage additional development of the art after a certain point. Evidence such as the very careful crafting and control of the curriculum and course content and his careful training of instructors to do certain things a certain way, supports the possibility of a lack of such encouragement. I don't believe it was a deliberate thing to not encourage additional development, though. I think instead it was that he was satisfied with what was and that there were other things on his mind.

So the Colonel stopped. And because the Colonel stopped, so did those who followed him, students and instructors both. So large was the forward step in gunfighting that Cooper had made, so large his contribution to the method and ways to teach that method, so great was his contribution and so large had the Colonel become in the eyes, minds, and hearts of his followers, that when he stopped his personal investigations they, not understanding what he really was doing, also stopped their forward movement in the art. His satisfaction with his own work became their satisfaction with the entirety of the system, and so the Modern Technique of the Pistol became stalled on the battlefield of the past.
In this, they misunderstood, I think, both the man and the intent. Colonel Cooper was not as rigid and dogmatic about technique and methodology as some people think:

Over the years I have concluded that certain body and hand positions are helpful to deliver better and quicker hits, but if a student chooses to disregard my teachings it is all right with me, as long as his results are good.

Statements like this are confirmed by those who knew him and who worked for him. But because of the way he conducted himself and because of the way he conducted his work of training and taught others to conduct it not everyone that was close to him, personally or professionally, came to understand it. So Modern Technique stopped moving, and other developments, other instructors, other thinkers and innovators and experimenters went ahead of it and beyond it.

Think of what Modern Technique would be today if those others had understood.

 

There would be ongoing investigation, research, and testing. Every concept that was a part of it would have been re-examined. The concepts that were discarded would be re-examined. All of this would be undertaken in the light of what went on in today's threat and combat environment. New technologies that allowed combat simulations and testing against independent, thinking, resisting opponents such as Simunitions on the LE side and Airsoft on the civilian side would be incorporated into not just the research and testing, but actual training curriculums. Feedback and communication between class and test and the street and the field and the alleyway would be ongoing and regular. Martial disciplines such as knife and sword fighting and empty-hand styles would provide ideas, concepts, and techniques for incorporation. Everything would be tested by experienced fighters and instructors, and nothing that worked would be discarded because it didn't somehow fit someone's idea of The Way It Should Be.

 

It would be what Jeff Cooper wanted it to be. It would be what Suarez International is teaching today. SI is continuing Cooper's legacy. SI is doing today what Jeff Cooper wanted his students and his instructors to be doing from the beginning. And we will keep doing it in the future.

 

The others? They appear to be content to join the ranks of the Traditionalists. They appear to have succeeded in doing so.  And so there is what Suarez International does, and there is Modern Technique. Present and past, ongoing and stalled, open and locked...

Will Modern Technique ever be completely superseded? Will MT move into the historical records of gunfighting systems and become something to be studied only by scholars and hobbyists interested only about how it was done, not how it is? In some ways it already has. If and when it finally goes into memory, though, it won't be because of Jeff Cooper. He did not intend it to be that way. If MT does go onto the shelves of history, it will be because those that followed him--some of them, at least--for whatever reasons and rationales they had, were unwilling to do what the Colonel was doing until the day of his death, which was pushing forward and looking ahead.

That, in the end, is Colonel Cooper's real legacy and his most important message: To Go Forward.

It is sad that some people did not get that message.

How A 1911 Can Get You Killed

Dave Sauer, Suarez International Instructor

There is nothing quite like a finely tuned 1911 trigger; zero pre-travel, a light, crisp break; no over-travel, and an amazingly short reset. My one and only 1911 has such a trigger and I love shooting it.
Mine is built on a Para Ordnance high capacity frame, so it holds 14 rounds, but I do not carry this gun for fighting. It sits in the safe as a reminder of what I have seen and learned. I should probably
sell it and use the money to buy another TSD RMR package. I mean what good is a handgun you’re not going to fight with? I do not carry my 1911 for the same reason I no longer carry my Beretta 92F or my HK USP .45. I know that all of these guns have been successfully used to fight, but so have sticks and rocks. In a fight for my life I want the best I can get. And I certainly don’t want any inherent design flaws in my equipment to make my fight harder.

First, let’s remind ourselves of what we are talking about here. We are talking about gunfighting. Using a handgun to save your life or someone’s life you care about. Under what conditions might such a fight take place? Close, fast, dark, reactive and intense. How close? The fight may begin so close you have to fight your way to your gun. That is, you have to deal with the initial attack with your hands and open up the opportunity to access your pistol, maybe while trying to control the bad guy or his weapon with one hand at the same time. In our 0 to 5 feet Gunfighting class, we teach you how to prevail in such situations. In Force on Force you learn that perhaps the only opportunity you get to access your gun is with your non-dominant hand. Depending on from where you are drawing your gun, like AIWB for example, you may end up holding you gun upside down and having to pull the trigger with your pinky. Try that with a 1911. Not only are you going to have a hard time getting the thumb safety off, but that unconventional grip will probably not disengage the grip safety either.

Many reading this are probably thinking right now, “I’ve never heard of anyone doing that. I’ve never practiced that.” Yep. We can show you all sorts of things you’ve probably never seen or heard
about before. The reality of the fight, of your fight, is going to be whatever it is. Reality won’t care what your favorite skill is, or if you’ve never practiced the skill you need right then. It won’t care if you can’t get the safety off your $2,800 Nighthawk; or if you missed the safety lever on your 92F; or if you were pushing up on your HK USP safety instead of down. I have seen ALL those deadly mistakes in training. I cannot emphasize enough: The fight will be what the fight will
be. It’s up to you to be ready.

I know enough of Murphy to know that if it can go wrong it sometimes will. I have seen officers miss their 92F safety in training and when their gun didn’t shoot they tap and racked trying to fix it. The record that I have personally witnessed is SEVEN live rounds tap and racked out trying to “fix” a gun with its safety on. Is it a training issue? Yes, but it is also a desperation issue created by the adrenaline induced tunnel vision, non-thinking monkey brain that shows up in the stress of a fight. As a result of knowing what can go wrong in that critical moment, I have developed the philosophy that if you can eliminate some of these monkey brain possibilities by making an equipment change, do it! That is why I do not use or recommend a fighting pistol that has an external safety that must be manipulated before I can fight; and that includes a grip safety.

Like Gabe Suarez says, “It’s 2011, not 1911.” Take advantage of technology to give you whatever edge you can get. Sell your $2,800 Nighthawk and buy a TSD Combat Systems Glock. You’ll have enough left over for holsters, training mags, a weapon light and an SI training course. We’ll show you some things you’ve never seen before.

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FREE TSD RED DOT COMBAT PISTOL SCHOOL

 

TO: PURCHASERS OF TSD COMBAT PISTOL SLIDES (OLDER OR NEWER GENERATIONS)

FROM: TSD COMBAT SYSTEMS - GABE SUAREZ

DATE IN QUESTION: DECEMBER 3-4, 2011

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CONTENTS: TSD Combat Systems in conjunction with Suarez International USA will be holding a Free TSD Red Dot Combat Pistol School to purchasers of TSD Packages, either the new system, or older systems, or systems done on personal OEM slides.

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The addition of the RMR Red Dot Sight to the pistol slide is a game changing evolution to the combat pistol.  The issue has been in locating an aftermarket slide that was capable of surpassing what the OEM Glock Slide offered.  Sadly, we had difficulty finding one that even came close.  Every question has an answer and every problem a solution.  Nothing is impossible my friends…nothing!  I am sure we are all familiar with the phrase, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself”.  Well that is exactly what we did.  We built Glock aftremarket slides to our own specifics and and standards, which exceed that of the OEM. 

I went to the aerospace industry were I would not hear “can’t”, but only, “how many do you want sir?” I went to the people that make the parts that keep our young warriors in flight over the middle east, and our satellites in orbit.  I went to the people that know far more about minute measurements and exacting tolerances than anyone making slides for pistols today.  And as I spent hours in discussions and as my stack of hundred dollar bills began to shrink, I saw a slide forming.  A slide that was totally “drop-in” with no gunsmithing needed, yet to a quality that makes the term “match” sound ridiculously understated. And then of course, a barrel to match it, mated specifically to the tolerances and specifics of the slide.

Taking the two prototypes, we filled the Jeep with crates of 9mm ammo and drove out to our northern training area. Did we test them? Did we ever test them!!  Think of two men loading 33 round sticks, while two other men shoot until they develop blisters from the radiant heat from the smoking guns.  350 rounds downrange through each prototype in a few minutes with no lubrication at all on the guns - zero malfunctions.  The guns were too hot to hold in our hands at this point so we baptized them with a one liter bottle of Evian water.  After the geyser of steam evaporated into the dry Arizona afternoon, the gun was lubricated and firing resumed. This went on for hours until the ammo in the Jeep was exhausted. I wanted no excuses or problems...just hard results.

Made of 17-4 stainless steel, at a thorough hardness of RC 46, to exacting tolerances by aerospace technicians, to exceed the match quality requirements of TSD Combat Systems, these upper end units exceed the quality, reliability, and accuracy of any after-market components to the extreme, and  surpass the hardness and durability of OEM units, with an impeccable Cerakote finish.

Performance without compromise. Quality without excuses.  Delivery without drama. 

 

That is what has driven TSD since inception.  That is what drives us today, and that is what we promise our customers.  TSD Combat Systems – “Eyeball accuracy at room distances with 100% reliability, and first round hits at 100 yards with unsurpassed elegance”. Guaranteed!

These TSD Combat Systems top ends come complete with the Trijicon RMR, and all internals, a TSD Combat Systems Match Barrel, assembled and finished by our TSD Technicians. It is packaged in a TSD/Pelican Case. 

You want the best there is?  Its right here in front of you.

 

MORE INFO HERE

 

Standard Slides Available Here

The Double Edge Sword and Force on Force Gunfighting at Night

By Roger Phillips, Suarez International Specialist and Tier One Instructor

“You do not know what you do not know!”

  This has become one of Suarez International’s (SI) top catch phrases. The reason for that is because it has been the absolute reality of the firearms training industry since the middle of the 1900’s. When we see skill sets or tactics that are staunchly defended, beyond any common sense, that we know does not work against a living, thinking, and resisting adversary “you do not know what you do not know” is the very core of the discussion.

 The difference between the SI student base and most of the other students of the gun is that we accept the fact that everyone is ignorant about something. We understand that the word “ignorant” is not an insult…….it is an obstacle that most be surpassed…….it is a challenge that must be met and conquered.

  Unfortunately, there is some training out there that is so difficult to get, that even SI students have not stepped up to the challenge. This leaves many of them in the position where they may not be as squared away as they think they are, and you know what that means.

 ”You do not know what you do not know!”

  One of those training opportunities that are often missed out on would be low light force on force (FOF.) The reason for this is clear, it can be a logistical nightmare for the student and for the instructor. But really, is inconvenience a legitimate reason to miss out on some of the most important training that you can possibly receive?

 When we look at the “most likely” of a civilian encounter it is going to be a reactive event in low light conditions. If you have not tested your skill sets against a live, thinking, and resisting adversary you are not near as ready as you think you are. I’m sorry if this hurts your feelings, but I am not here to baby my students, hold their hands, or powder their little tushies, I am here to make them as deadly as they can possibly be. My students know that I will tell them the truth……good or bad! I am the only SI Instructor to have been running low light course every year for the past six years. I know how many students have actually trained with SI in low light. Straight up, the numbers are not good considering the quality of students that we have.

  One of my biggest concerns is that the student base has not had a chance to experience “the double edge sword” of FOF and fighting at night. “The double edge sword” is loosely defined as “what works on you will work on your adversary and what works on your adversary will work on you.” This means that we must experience everything that is in our war bag, from the bad guy’s perspective. We must also know everything that is in the bad guy’s war bag so we know what may be coming, along with its effects that it may have on us, so that we may steal his tricks and skill sets and use them against him. Whatever they can do…..we can do!

  As Sun Tzu said in “The Art of War”

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

 There is no way to experience these invaluable lessons unless you take them into low light FOF. Without this firsthand experience as the good guy and as the bad guy it is nothing more than speculation and theory.

 In the past we have seen flashlights marketed as tools just short of laser beams that can immediately blind, disorient, and vaporize the adversary. How can you possibly understand the effects of a good flashlight or your ability to fight through those effects if you have not personally experienced them? You have probably heard that “the flashlight is a bullet magnet.” How would you know whether this is true if you have not been on both the giving end and the receiving end of the confrontation? We have heard that if you have good point shooting skills it is best to fight in the dark because you have superior skills over your adversary.  How would you know if your skill sets are good enough to meet that challenge if you have not put them up against a resisting adversary?

  How do your dynamic movement skill sets hold up against an adversary that is moving dynamically……in the dark? Do you know the best way to use your flashlight after you have made the ID? Do you keep it on and engage? Do you turn it off and engage? Or do you use something in between those two concepts? Do you know the tricks that bad guys use to hide their accessed weapons? Have you seen those tricks used at night and do you know what the tattle-tells are? Have you learned how to do it yourself? How do you handle a profile individual at night? What are some easy tricks to help you remember how to deal with a profile individual? Do you know what flashlight position is best for each situation? Do you have your handgun/flashlight manipulations down pat? Have you figured out all of the body mechanics to be as good as you can possibly be with a flashlight in one hand and a handgun in the other? How do you search with a flashlight? How do you take that corner? How do you engage after you have clear that corner? How helpful are your night sights in a reactive situation? How does the RMR compare to the nights sights?

 I could go on and on!

  If you do not definitively know the answer to each of these questions, you may not be near as deadly as you think you are. 70% of all gun fights happen in low light! Have you trained properly for this reality? This is not target shooting……this is not a bright sunny day at the range! This is the down and dirty reality of fighting for your life or the lives of your love ones.

If you have not trained for a reactive gunfight at night, you have trained for substantially less than 30% of the fight!

Reality is a ruthless bastard! Train accordingly!

Discuss this here

Sign up for a Low Light FOF course here

Check Rogers schedule here

TSD Combat Systems Expands

TSD Combat Systems 

 

We have some very interesting and exciting announcements coming, one of which is that we are expanding the Technical Services Division to its own building and renaming the enterprise as TSD COMBAT SYSTEMS. There is simply not enough room at HQ. So we obtained a brand new 2200 SF industrial building to move that branch into, with full FFL, manufacturing, gunsmithing, etc. 

 

We will also be expanding the weapon systems we offer. We will be expanding the  TSD Pistol Program in ways that will surprise. Be ready for updates on this within the month.  As well, TSD will be venturing into...."other weapon platforms". Nothing is off limits. Whatever we wdo will be an example of quality.  No race to the bottom.  Think Rolex, not Timex. 

 

Performance without compromise, quality without excuses, and delivery without drama.  That is what has driven TSD since inception.  That is what drives us today, and that is what we promise our customers.  TSD Combat Systems - “Eyeball accuracy at room distances with 100% reliability, and first round hits at 100 yards with unsurpassed elegance”. Guaranteed! 

 

TSD COMBAT SYSTEMS

Avoiding the gamer trap

By Alex Nieuwland – Suarez International Staff Instructor in South Carolina

I’ve heard all of these comments, some of them recently.

“All of this realistic training to win gunfights is getting in the way of my IDPA.”

“Practicing with my reloads that barely make power factor and barely cycle my gun has made my gun handling worse instead of better.”

“I can’t stop myself from walking backwards instead of pointing my toes in the direction I’m going. I’ve been a gamer for too long!”

All of these shooters had fallen into the gamer trap. I know I had, so I could relate.

Participating in gun games, just like most things, is good in moderation. When taken to extremes, however, it becomes easy to fall into the “gamer trap” where winning the game instead of winning your upcoming gunfight becomes priority #1. As Jim Cirillo, who was an accomplished competition shooter as well as the winner of many gunfights, put it: “It may take extra time in a sports match, but in reality it would save lives. To hell with the score!” [1]

To head off the criticism that I’m just a hater bashing gun games, let me say this: Gun games are fun, and I’m a big proponent. In every Concealed Weapons Permit class I teach, I spend some time explaining the various attractions offered by Steel Challenge, IDPA, and USPSA. For example, Steel Challenge is a great way of testing your draw, sight picture, and trigger press, and finding your balance between speed and precision. IDPA and USPSA offer marvelous opportunities to come try out your carry gear for a very reasonable fee. In my area, where indoor ranges don’t allow drawing from the holster, rapid fire, or shooting on the move, they are a great gift to the shooter inclined to get better at those things. In addition, they offer a great opportunity to spend time with some like-minded individuals.

As part of teaching any Suarez International defensive pistol class, however, we always ask the question: “What’s more important: Shooting the bad guy or not getting shot?” Occasionally, we get a taker for “shooting the bad guy,” but most folks wisely opt for “not getting shot” first, immediately followed by “shooting the bad guy.”

This is where the fundamental difference between winning your gunfight and winning your favorite gun game comes in: there is no bad guy shooting at you during the game. As a result, gun games allow one to focus entirely on the “shoot the bad guy” part of the equation, to the detriment of the “not getting shot” part. Sure, IDPA enforces the “IDPA lean” that places 100% of your lower body and at least 50% of your upper body behind cover, but that still leaves a LOT of your body sticking out from cover for the BG to shoot. This is particularly evident when a right handed shooter tries to take a left-handed corner without switching the gun to his left hand, and vice-versa. When we teach taking a corner in our HRO-CQB: Fighting in Buildings courses, we reduce the amount you expose to the bad guys to no more than the arm holding your pistol and an eyeball by switching hands depending on the tactical situation.

In addition, in IDPA there’s no penalty for shooting from close to the cover where debris and bullets skipping off the edge of the cover would still be a concern to you if someone were actually shooting at you, in addition to giving away your exact position and exposing you to a potential gun grab. When I started shooting IDPA 10 years ago, I did what I saw most of the other shooters do and hugged the cover. This placed me closer to the targets so I could shoot them more easily, and made it easier for the safety officer to see that I was leaning out properly. It also meant I had fallen into the gamer trap.

To overcome my gamer habits and squeeze the maximum benefit out of the time and ammo I spend at a match I have come up with some personal guidelines that have lowered my scores, but have allowed me to climb out of the gamer trap I had fallen into.

Here they are:

1. Mindset: I realize that this is “just a game”, but I want to maximize its potential for realistic testing of my skills and equipment. I realize that using these guidelines will probably hurt my score, but I’m willing to accept that because my overall goal (winning my upcoming gunfight) is more important than my score in a gun game.
2. Use of cover: I will take left handed corners left handed, and right handed corners right handed. I will strive to stay as far back from cover as the stage design allows.
3. Concealment: I will use a concealment garment whenever the rules of the game allow it.
4. Equipment: I will use what I carry as much as the rules of the game allow. For example, in IDPA’s Stock Service Pistol division I use my Glock 19 with Warren Tactical sights from a strong-side outside the waistband holster (Dale Fricke Gideon Elite). In USPSA’s Open division, however, I will use my Glock 19 with Trijicon RMR red-dot sight from an inside the waistband appendix carry holster (Dale Fricke Seraphim). Clearly, I have no hope of winning in USPSA’s Open division competing against true raceguns with an RMRed Glock 19, but that’s not the point. As long as they let me use it in their game, I’m happy. Click here for more info on using what you carry for competition.
5. Proactive reloads: I will do a proactive reload (retaining the partially used magazine) wherever it makes tactical sense, whether I need to or not to finish the stage.
6. Emergency reloads: I will rip the magazine out and retain it during emergency reloads, unless the targets are very close.
7. After action assessment: I will ask the first two questions of the Suarez International after action assessment (“Did I hit him, did it work? Does he have any friends?”) before I unload and show clear.
8. Use of ammo: I will be generous with my bullets. If I feel that a target needs to be shot again, I will shoot it again.
9. Ammo selection: I will use ammo that closely replicates the felt recoil and point of aim/point of impact of my carry ammo.
10. After Action Review: I will videotape my performance in the stages for later critiquing. Did I do my reloads correctly? Did I stay away from cover? In other words: What do I need to be working during my upcoming practice sessions?
11. Competition: I will strive to bring a shooting buddy who is using the same guidelines and only compare my score with him or her.

Hopefully, these guidelines can serve as encouragement to shooters who have so far avoided falling into the gamer trap, and perhaps allow some that have to realize the problem and climb out as well.

Want to share your thoughts? Join the discussion here on Warrior Talk.

References
[1] Jim Cirillo in Guns, Bullets and Gunfights: Lessons and Tales from a Modern-Day Gunfighter; Paladin Press, 1996, page 65.

The RMR and Point Shooting Progressions (PSP)

Written by Roger Phillips, Suarez International Specialist and Tier One Instructor

I have been asked by many of my student base to tell them what I thought about the RMR when it comes to point shooting. When I was first asked, I made it clear that I did not have enough experience with the system to make an informed decision. Most of the people that know me know that I am an instructor that really concentrates on software, because it is the brain that allows us to be as deadly as we can possibly be. If you have your head straight you can kill a man with a stapler. But there is no doubt that the better the gear is the better the mind can kill.

When it comes to the RMR, this is something that I knew that I needed because my aging eyes have not been able to get a crisp sight picture for nearly ten tears. As a Suarez International (SI) Instructor, not only do I need to be able to bust of the X and make fast and accurate hits, at a full run, out to ten to twelve yards I also need to be able to make a hundred yard shot with my pistol on demand. I can do it with iron sights, but nowhere near the percentage as a RMR. This portion of the evaluation was a no-brainer. There is simply no comparison between my marksmanship between the RMR and iron sights. The sight acquisition is faster due to no need to change the focal plane off of the threat and back to the sights. The hits are more consistent and the follow up shots faster due to the red dot being a more accurate form of aiming a gun over iron sights.

All of this has been well documented and well established, but this is not the focus of this article. The focus of this article is on taking the RMR to the most advanced levels of point shooting. The focus is on running the RMR in a PSP course and seeing how it compares “apples to apples” with what I have been doing for the last five and a half years with iron sights.

Right off the bat, I’ll level with all of you, I was concerned. I was concerned that I would give the RMR setup a fair shake and not have anything good to report. I was concerned because the perception of my favorite point shooting aiming method “aligning down the top of the slide” was being changed due to adding the RMR to the top of the gun. During this period of concern, I kept hearing myself constantly lecturing people on the hazards of comparing brand new skill sets with long established skill sets and how it was “bad science” unless the time and the work had been put in to give a truly informed evaluation. I realized that I would have to get over my concerns and just get busy, put in the work, and figure it out. The value of what the RMR does for my marksmanship could not take a back seat to my established point shooting preferences. To not be able to make a small adjustment in my point shooting skill set to facilitate a vast improvement to my marksmanship would have been closed minded, shown a lack of versatility, and a lack of fluidity……..everything that I constantly preach against.

I hate hypocrites! I hate them even more if it is looking like I am going to be one.

  At first, I struggled! My “below line of sight sweet spot” was gone. I kept looking for it but it was no longer there for me. My hits were consistently high, because I wanted visual input on the top of the slide. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. I was simply over thinking it! Once I decided that I would just clear my preconceived notions off of the table and just run it on auto pilot, everything began to fall in place.

I just recently had an excellent opportunity to finally put my new skill sets to a significant test. I was running the PSP course at night and under the lights. There was a light turnout and the guys that did show were very squared away, so I decided that I would participate in the course at a much higher level than I usually do. 90% of my point shooting is not affected by the RMR, in any manner at all. It is just the “full extension, below line of sight, with my dynamic movement” that is affected. But the answer is as simple as just lowering the gun from mouth level, to chin level. This is all that I had to do to get the visual input from the top of the slide that I like so much. When we accept the fact that the dynamic movement drills inside of the PSP course are run beyond logical distances, it is clear that dropping the gun from mouth level to chin level is not that big of a deal. We are running five yard skill sets out to twelve yards in order to instill confidence and to extend the learning time frame.  When we look at what I lose due to this small adjustment, compared to what I gain with the RMR, it is crystal clear that the RMR is a huge asset to have added to your pistol.

 

Let’s look at what the sight continuum looks like with iron sights compared to what it looks like with the RMR.

1)      Hard focus on the very top edge of the front sight = use the red dot

2)      Hard Focus on the front sight = use the red dot

3)      Flash sight picture = use the red dot

4)      Shooting outside of the notch = use the red dot

5)      Type two focus = use the red dot

6)      Below line of sight, nose level = use the red dot (high in the screen) or metal and meat

7)      Below line of sight mouth level = window of death or metal and meat

8)      Below line of sight chin level = align down the top of the slide

9)      Below line of sight throughout the retention concept = align down the top of the slide

As you see the RMR simplifies and is more accurate at all of the line of sight shooting and just below line of sight (nose level). Mouth level takes some getting used to but it does work if you think about “the window of death” or “metal and meat.” Anything below that the RMR has zero effect on your point shooting skill sets.

This is all going to be individually dependent. What works for me may not work for you and the other way around.

The reason that I wrote this is because I know for a fact that there are many “point shooters” that are concerned with the RMR. They are concern that they are going to pay the money and not be able to make their point shooting work. I know this for a fact because they have personally told me. Guess what? You do not have to worry about that any longer. I took care of that for you. If you have learned to point shoot from another SI Instructor or I, you will not only be able to make this work, you will make it work really well with point shooting and improve your sighted fire skill sets exponentially.

I know some of you out there have waited quite some time for me to get this tested and written. I wanted to take the time and put in the work so that I could speak from a position of absolute authority on this subject. I know due to my specialty and how far outside of the box that I usually roll, there are a good number of people that believe that I move on things without putting in the time or the work. That perception is absolutely incorrect and anyone that has ever trained with me could probably vouch for that fact. I do not but my name behind anything without putting in the work and looking at from every angle. I have been working with the RMR for five months now. Due to all of the personal requests by my student base to get this evaluation done, I wanted there to be zero doubt……..and there is zero doubt!

The RMR is perfectly compatible with your point shooting skill sets and will dramatically increase your marksmanship skill sets.

That work is done, move forth and make yourself more deadly than the day before.

See Rogers Schedule here

 Discuss this here

Disrespect for another Man’s War Bag Part II

Written by Roger Phillips, Suarez International Specialist and Tier One Instructor

In the first part of this article we talked about the many different contextual issues that there are inside of the training industry. Even if we can categorize these into a reasonable number of categories, the reality is that inside each category, they can vary quite substantially. If we just look at the Civilian Defender and how broad the context can be inside of this one category, it becomes clear that a person “looking in from the outside” has very little actual knowledge of the individual’s true context. It is one thing to compare Military application to Law Enforcement (LE) application, or Spec Op application to Special Units application, but it is entirely different to compare those to the context of the individual Civilian Defender. The individual Civilian’s context is only known by the individual himself. For an instructor to believe that he knows that context is once again the height of arrogance.

Inside of Military training and LE training there are standards and standard operating procedures. The Civilian Defender’s realty can vary from one end of the spectrum, all the way to the other end. This is what many trainers do not understand. There is a misconception out there that the Civilian Defender does not need his training as badly as the Soldier or the Cop. They are often given watered down training or they are not even allowed to attend at all. They are often looked at as “wantabees” and treated with less respect than the Soldier and Cop. This ignorance to the reality of the Civilian Defender is the basis of the disrespect that is often showed to a man and his war bag. The Civilian Defender is often treated as somebody who is just there “to play Soldier or Cop” with zero knowledge of the man’s present reality or past experience.

It is this ignorance and arrogance that is one of the key factors toward the disrespect that is commonly shown to another man’s war bag. Since the realty is not known, then the context is not understood. Since the context is not understood, the individual Civilian Defender needs are not addressed.

“Hey, they’re there just to play Soldier or Cop right!”

WRONG!

Just because the instructor does not know the student’s world does not mean that the student’s world is peaches and cream. I’ve been around the block a couple of times and there is a very obvious elitist attitude that permeates from a very large segment of trainers and training companies out there. It is this elitist attitude that blinds the instructor to the concept of “context.” While understanding “context” is very important, it is even more important when teaching the Civilian Defender to be as deadly as he can possibly be. That is because there are no standards to being a Civilian Defender…..there are no standard operating procedures. There is only the reality of the individual’s world and the potential risks that they deal with.

I am pro-LEO and I am pro-Military, but I am even more pro-Civilian Defender. The reason for this is because the Civilian Defender is usually out there all by themselves, no back up, no team members, no air support, and no communication, just a man or a woman with light arms and the training that they have bet their lives on in order to protect themselves and their loved ones. I just hope the training that they bet their lives on took their context into consideration…….because that is all that they have got.

I have trained with many Civilians that have had to fight for their lives or the lives of their loved ones. Some of these people, just like me, have had to do that on a number of occasions. I have also trained with many LEO’s and Soldiers that have never had to fight for their lives. The idea that the Civilian context is less important than the other context issues that are out there is the sure sign of ignorance and arrogance. It is this elitist attitude, that leads too much of the disrespect for a man’s war bag. We all can accept the dangers of being a LEO or a Soldier, but why is it so hard to recognize the dangers of being a Civilian, especially when many of my students have grown up and live in big cities/inner cities where the crime rate is astronomically higher than small town America.

It is only after we break through the ignorance and the arrogance of the elitist attitude do we begin to understand the importance of the context of the Civilian Defender. For the Civilian Defender it is usually just him/her, their mindset/training, and their small arms. This means that the focus of the training must be different from the focus of LEO and Military training. Due to the focus being very different, the war bag is going to look very different. The respect for that war bag is going to need to be looked at through an entirely different set of filters.

Once again, this is something that very few training companies or trainers do. They do not do it because they have no knowledge, no experience, and more importantly, no respect for the Civilian Defenders context.

The Civilian Defenders context is a hard core reality. It is going to be a context that usually going to be one that entails these contributing factors.

 

1)      The lone fighter who is outnumbered with limited tools and resources

2)      The lone fighter who has those that they love most in this world in jeopardy. Any attack on me is an attack on my loved ones

3)      The lone fighter that starts off the fight way behind in the reactionary curve due to the fact that when they walked out the door they were not looking for trouble. They were just looking to live their lives. It is also a fact that criminals are not all that stupid 

4)      The attack happening in low light due to the street thugs desire to be unnoticed

5)      The mission being, to do nothing more than make it home at the end of the day

6)      Severe activation of the sympathetic nervous system, due to the fact that they have limited experience or training for life threatening confrontations

7)      Limited time to train due to being a Civilian, with all the responsibilities that come along with being a Civilian, jobs, family, financial obligations and constraints

It always amazes me when the elitist cannot see any other context but their own.

“You don’t need to move.”

“You don’t need to know how to fight without using the sights.”

"You don’t need to be versatile inside of your draw stroke.”

“Retention is a position not a concept.”

“All you need in low light is night sights and a flashlight”

These are just a few examples of some of the elitist misconceptions on the realty of the Civilian Defenders situation.

“Situations dictate strategies, strategies dictate tactics, and tactics dictate techniques.”

This means that the Civilian Defenders context (situation) is the very genesis of the Civilian Defenders training philosophy. Without the correct context, there cannot be a correct starting point. Without the correct starting point, there is no respect or even consideration given to the appropriate war bag for the Civilian Defender.

Check Roger's schedule here