This summer I had the opportunity to serve as a tackle dummy, badguy and instructor for a local police department's Force on Force scenarios. They ran every officer through the evolutions twice, from admin types to SWAT cops. It was an active shooter scenario, with lots of victims running around cluttering the arena and adding confusion.
Guns ran dry or malfunctioned, we went hands on. I used a knife on a lot of them. Both sides gave as good as they got. Good training. Here are some observations and they don't invlove caliber, bullet design, holster set up, gear selection or stance. The Really Important Things:
Weapons handling skills, marksmanship, immediate action/malfunction clearance and personal tactics will win the day. Period.
If you carry a gun for protection, to fight with. Learn that roscoe backwards and forwards. You should know it like a lover in the dark. You should not have to look to see where things go... We all "know" this, we have heard it before. But this pays dividends in a fight. Having to look down at a malfuntioning gun or to do a reload got a couple people "killed". Train on this 1000's of times until you can do it in your sleep. It is really, really important. You should not have to think about it, it should be automatic, so you can focus on fighting and making your next move. Same with proper drawstroke in all segments. Very important to be able to collapse back into retention when a guy in all over you-and still shoot.
Learn to shoot weak hand, off your left shoulder, supine, from position 2 or 3 in the drawstroke. To get your hits. This also paid off.
Marksmanship. Train to to get your hits, with combat acceptable results. In a fight, with tunnel vision and a fast moving, dynamic situation, you want to be to the point where your bullets go where you will them to, without thinking shot placement. Train to shoot on the move and to lead a moving target.
Personal tactics. Work those angles. A lot. Learn how to properly use cover. Train to pie a doorway, approach a T intersection, modulate your pace in a building between fast and slow, extended and compressed. Learn how to use all your senses. Train against a live opponent if possible to learn how to detect their mistakes and read them, and how to minimize your own. Do a debrief each time to learn what each of you did right and wrong and why someone lost the fight.
Take the time to learn some basic retention, extreme close quarter techniques, and when to use the right one. Lots of guys lost it here. They got tunneled in on retaining a long arm, instead of controlling the hand/wrist I was using to stab them with. I am not a knife fighter, Kali kind of guy. I was able to cut and stab a lot, and switch hands behind their back if I got tied up, and continue my attack.
Mindset. Stay in the fight. If you get shot, its not over. Train to use everything to win. Gun, knife, hands, feet, teeth. Never, ever give up.
Train hard guys. Train for the unimaginable as though it was inevitable.
WETSU
Guns ran dry or malfunctioned, we went hands on. I used a knife on a lot of them. Both sides gave as good as they got. Good training. Here are some observations and they don't invlove caliber, bullet design, holster set up, gear selection or stance. The Really Important Things:
Weapons handling skills, marksmanship, immediate action/malfunction clearance and personal tactics will win the day. Period.
If you carry a gun for protection, to fight with. Learn that roscoe backwards and forwards. You should know it like a lover in the dark. You should not have to look to see where things go... We all "know" this, we have heard it before. But this pays dividends in a fight. Having to look down at a malfuntioning gun or to do a reload got a couple people "killed". Train on this 1000's of times until you can do it in your sleep. It is really, really important. You should not have to think about it, it should be automatic, so you can focus on fighting and making your next move. Same with proper drawstroke in all segments. Very important to be able to collapse back into retention when a guy in all over you-and still shoot.
Learn to shoot weak hand, off your left shoulder, supine, from position 2 or 3 in the drawstroke. To get your hits. This also paid off.
Marksmanship. Train to to get your hits, with combat acceptable results. In a fight, with tunnel vision and a fast moving, dynamic situation, you want to be to the point where your bullets go where you will them to, without thinking shot placement. Train to shoot on the move and to lead a moving target.
Personal tactics. Work those angles. A lot. Learn how to properly use cover. Train to pie a doorway, approach a T intersection, modulate your pace in a building between fast and slow, extended and compressed. Learn how to use all your senses. Train against a live opponent if possible to learn how to detect their mistakes and read them, and how to minimize your own. Do a debrief each time to learn what each of you did right and wrong and why someone lost the fight.
Take the time to learn some basic retention, extreme close quarter techniques, and when to use the right one. Lots of guys lost it here. They got tunneled in on retaining a long arm, instead of controlling the hand/wrist I was using to stab them with. I am not a knife fighter, Kali kind of guy. I was able to cut and stab a lot, and switch hands behind their back if I got tied up, and continue my attack.
Mindset. Stay in the fight. If you get shot, its not over. Train to use everything to win. Gun, knife, hands, feet, teeth. Never, ever give up.
Train hard guys. Train for the unimaginable as though it was inevitable.
WETSU