Too important to keep my mouth shut anymore Part I

[lovemachine]

I'd LOVE to take a class with mercop! I try to read all his posts, and I really don't need to be convinced that he knows his stuff.

If he was in Indy, and if I could afford it, I'll take the class.

 

[Plinkuh]

Seems like the silent majority is speaking up.

One of the things that people who disagree with me say is that I am doing this to sell my training. I look at this like a doctor telling you to get a physical. I don't care where you go as long as you go. Just make sure that the person teaching is not just teaching OPS (other peoples ****). For someone to be effective at teaching this stuff they don't need to be or have been a "gunfighter" or even in a shooting, what they need is a passion for realistic training and willingness to adapt based on the expect needs and application on the student.

Earlier in the month I was doing a vehicle tactics course at the Southwest Alabama Police Academy. My lesson plan was written with the thought that the officers in the class would be working partners or at least have backup close. During introductions I asked them what the average was for their back up. The consensus for all but Mobile PD was 30-40 minuets. That had a profound effect on the way that I taught the class.

Their are basically three types of trainers out there-

Military- the majority of his training was hard gained in the military. But does he understand the repercussions of civilian use of deadly force. Be careful you are not learning tactics that only work as part of a team.

Police- the majority of their training came from law enforcement. They are used to one major thing that the citizen is not. The ability to pre-deploy their pistol at the first signs of a possible threat, a luxury seldom afforded to the citizen. Do they understand use of force when not acting under the color of law?

Been to every school/trophy shooter- Has been fully informed on the way everyone else does things, usually cannot tell you why they do something except that it is the way so and so does it. Usually not in a profession that put them in a violent atmosphere every day.

It is your money, if you are a 40 year old real estate salesman, and a father of three, you need to know if the instructor has any idea how to make the information applicable to you. Of course if you are just killing cardboard it does not really matter.- George

So what "type" of trainer should one look for, and what questions can we ask said trainer to find out about their prior training/techniques? In other words, how can we find the right trainer, with real life applicable training?

 

[ViperJock]

Nonsense. I shoot IDPA and I have learned several things about defensive shooting:

1. You MAY not drop a loaded magazine
2. You MAY not change a magazine on the run
3. The bad guys must not be able to see your gun before you draw

These and other techniques I learn there will keep me safe, of that, I am certain.

 

[DialTone301]

Excellent post Mercop!!! I hope you will be offering something again in the Indy area.

 

[mercop]

Think to yourself how whether or not the instructor is just teaching you mechanics or if they are teaching to your needs. I am careful when teaching the military not to teach them like they are cops, or teaching law enforcement like they are military, or the hardest one since much of firearms training comes from the military and police, try not to teach the armed citizen like they are soldiers or cops. Luckily I have been all three and speak their languages. The three applications are very different.

For example something something that we see all the time in force on force is students telling the bad guy to get down on the ground and put his hands behind his head and cross his ankles. They I yell "well aren't you gonna cuff him". This is when the armed citizen should be covering down on the bad guys instead of moving closer and getting pulled it. But that is not what happens, as soon as the bad guy drops down to this knees, like police they get pulled in and ofter leave their cover. You will not know unless you train for it.

Don't be afraid to ask the instructor "what do you think qualifies you to teach this subject" if they get pissed or are offended, they are an *******, run away, run far away. Yet so many people just don't ask.

A good example is when someone who has never made an arrest in real life is teaching police officers to take people down and put handcuffs on them. A first year rookie working n a sleep town will have done this dozens of time for real.

It is your money, and your time, just ask. If they are solely teaching shooting mechanics their is no need, but if they are teaching you to shooting for personal protection you are gonna wanna know if they have ever even drawn down on someone in real life, or are they just teaching OPS (other peoples ****).

If they are teaching combatives or martial arts ask them about the first time they got punched in the face, or first time they got knocked to the ground in the street. If they hesitate you are probably dealing with someone who is purely academic.

Another problem, one that really pisses me off is that many people think that only those with lots of extra time, money, ammo, and physical ability should be able to defend themselves. What about the guy who is working his ass off to pay the bills, wife is at home with kids or out of work, with a tight budget and bad back from a car accident. Does he have any less right to protect him and his family than someone who can afford to attend every school out there, and create a mound of once fired brass? Not as far as I am concerned. And guess what, there are more of the former out there than the latter. My goal is to let those people know that realistic training does not require unlimited time and money.

The same is true of the rookie police officer. How much training could he have received by the time he is 21? Does that mean that he should fail in a deadly encounter because he has not been around long enough to be exposed to better or more training?

When it comes to training too many people can only see the world through their shooting glasses. Where they have been, what they have done. They fail to see the need of other people based on their time, ability, and resources. It is like a Martial Arts Master looking at a white belt and saying "well, hopefully you will get to my level of training before someone tries to kill you or you will most certainly die"- George

 

[mercop]

All I need is a large space, something like a barn, VFW, fire hall or whatever. I bring everything to train with, just need a place to do it. I am easy to work with.- George

 

[cedartop]

George, I don't know why most would get angry at your post. This is stuff that a lot of us have realized for quite some time now. I didn't read all of the followups yet, but your OP seems pretty spot on.

 

[Shay]

Wow, that's a lot to think about! How many people are going to take 5 years of navy seals training?

Everyone starts at the same place; by taking their first class....

 

[jeremy]

George, I don't know why most would get angry at your post. This is stuff that a lot of us have realized for quite some time now. I didn't read all of the followups yet, but your OP seems pretty spot on.

And yet so many Companies still teach the wrong stuff to the wrong Peoples...

 

[mercop]

Great point Shay, I was forced early on as a young soldier to train. So now it is no big deal. But someone who wakes up one day as an adult and goes to their first class has courage.- George

 

[japartridge]

For many years, I have been polite when it comes to talking about the fact that traditional martial arts and marksmanship training fail the litmus test when it comes to surviving real life violence. Those days are over. I have decided to stop joking about it because people’s lives depend on knowing the truth. I am sure people who have made a particular martial art or the shooting sports as their religion will get their panties in a bunch, but before you do, understand that I am a traditional martial artist and practice marksmanship. Both take years to master and are a lifelong pursuit of understanding and perfection I will never give up. That said, few people will have the benefit of unlimited time and money to prepare for a deadly confrontation that can come at any time.

The good news is that by understanding human psychology, anatomy, and physiology, along with using what we continue to learn about violent attacks, you can leave the comfort zone and enter the confidence zone; all of this without spending thousands of dollars and hours. Your training time has got to be spent training for what is most likely first, and then worrying about what could happen.

Here is what I say to the police officer, which do you do more of, shoot people or go hands on with them to put them in cuffs? Train accordingly.

Here is what I say to the armed citizen, have you ever been involved in any altercation that did not escalate from a verbal altercation before it got physical? Train accordingly.

Here in Part I, I will start with the problems associated with square range, live fire training when it comes to the reality of gun fighting.

I stopped buying gun magazines about a decade ago, and every so often I will be in a bookstore and pick one up and immediately remember why. One of the most common articles is about one fighting pistol class or another. You know a middle aged white guy, wearing a 511 tuxedo, firing a customized 1911, using a two handed isosceles grip, putting rounds into a stationary target in bright daylight, while standing still; usually with an instructor also in a 511 tuxedo holding a shot timer over his shoulder. His custom leather is easy to see since he is usually not wearing a concealment garment.
I am not sure that even if I did my best I could paint a better picture of the opposite of reality when it comes to situations I have been involved in, read about, investigated, or interviewed people about. Everyone can agree that the majority of shootings occur in low light situations. Then why does low light shooting make up such a small fraction of training. And when low light shooting is done, it is usually done with a light in the reaction side hand, because we know it is so likely that you will simultaneously draw your pistol and light during a spontaneous shooting that begins from a visual cue, instead of a buzzer. It should not be that hard to do since everyone wears their range costume every day of the week. Even if the majority of your holster work is not done from concealment, I am sure that if you have to draw from concealment, there isn’t any way you will get a hand full of polo shirt over your gun. And if you do, you will not have any problems dealing with it.

When you think about facing a deadly threat, what is it that makes it deadly? For many shooters, it is usually a gun. You know, the classic man with a gun, out in the open, against the perfect backstop. Have you thought about having to shoot an unarmed man off of you while you are on your back because he is smashing your head against the ground and you are losing consciousness? Do you want the first time you have to do this to be for real? I mean you have trained to shoot after being knocked flat on your ass, and not just laying down and then start shooting…right?
Remember to get on those sights. Never mind the fact that over and over again in force on force training with simunitions and airsoft we find that at distances within seven yards you don’t have the space or the time to get the pistol to eye level.

After years of training and thousands of rounds of shooting with a two handed convulsive firing grip, you should not have any problem taking your support hand off the gun to block or evade a knife or tire iron, or even holding a loved one behind you, or for that matter feeling your way around cover.

Make sure you spend hundreds of hours practicing your reloads, and malfunctions with the threat 3 yards away, instead of taking the pistol and smashing his skull in with it.

OK, OK, enough with the sarcasm. In just the last year, between my work with military, police, and citizens, I have had approximately 1200 lab rats to learn from. Given the fact that I have absolutely no control over the personality, background, and physical characteristics of people who turn up in classes, here are the things that stand at least in my mind, as to what happens when people are stressed.

• Even though most people will go out of their way to have their back to the wall, under stress they will back pedal until they fall backwards on their ass or run into something. Small things like vehicles and trees. Upon busting their ass or running into something, they get this shocked look on their face for at least a few seconds before they recover…or in some cases quit.

• Even when aggressed by a man with a knife running at full speed, many people will stand still, feet planted, and draw into a perfect two handed firing grip, and dump an entire magazine towards the threat. This is 100% the byproduct of square range training where any movement off the line is prohibited.

• When shooters have both hands on the gun and are experiencing tunnel vision, they will move towards cover and stop thinking they are close to or behind it, only to realize they are several feet or yards away from it.

• Even at distances less than five yards, students who experience a malfunction will call a mental time out, and just stand there working on the problem as if the threat will wait until he is done. Many will just look at their pistol in disbelief.

• Even though I jokingly encourage them to do so, I have yet to have a student fire rounds into COM of a live threat during a spontaneous attack at 7-10 yards from another live human, and then intentionally transition to a head shot.

• While wearing headgear and being punched in the head with boxing gloves, students hands come up to protect their head in response to the shock and pain, not down to their gun. Often it seems as though they forget they are wearing a gun.

• During a spontaneous attack in low light conditions, I have yet to have a student simultaneously draw a light and a pistol. If they have a weapon dedicated light, I have yet to have one be able to turn the light on.

And I am sure that many are reading this thinking that I am reporting these findings because I am just not getting people who have had high end professional training. The truth is that people, who have the most gun training, even at the most prestigious schools whose names you would recognize, do no better or worse than their counterparts with little to no prior training. At least in the beginning, they are usually pretty pissed off about it too. Then they come to the realization that at least now they have the missing link, and know what they need to work on.

For those of you who have invested in a lifelong pursuit of excellence when it comes to mastering the pistol, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, but instead now concentrate on how to totally dominate the three seconds of hell that is the reality of a deadly force situation. Just keep in mind that there will be no pretty targets or trophies, just deposits in an account, that one day you will hopefully be able to draw on allowing you to come home to those who love you.
For those with little to know previous training, you are in luck, you can front load your training with the skills and reactions that will allow you to survive. Just don’t forget to do all the other traditional stuff, take your time, and build good habits. We also know that at altercations that take place farther away, the more marksmanship will be needed.

This and the subsequent “Too important to keep my mouth shut about it anymore” articles will be first posted on my blog, on my Facebook, and on all the forums I frequent. I look forward to conversations about my findings, as well as comments from those who have trained with me.

For anyone who doubts my findings, I would be happy to evidence them to in person you if possible.
Today may be your last training day, don’t waste it.- George

wow, nothing like having a mirror forced in front of you! I agree 100%. I've not done any training as of yet... mostly due to $$, but also because I'm leery of ending up with some tacticool instructor who doesn't know ****, and then I'll pick up bad habits.... right now I just think to myself shoot to neutralize the threat COM and hope it works out. now I know that that is not the way it should be, but....

 

[ztrtech]

All I need is a large space, something like a barn, VFW, fire hall or whatever. I bring everything to train with, just need a place to do it. I am easy to work with.- George

It sounds like the type of training I have been looking for. How many students do you need and allow in a training class? What do you charge for training not including the space to do it in?
Thanks for starting this post!

 

[mercop]

It sounds like the type of training I have been looking for. How many students do you need and allow in a training class? What do you charge for training not including the space to do it in?
Thanks for starting this post!

Details sent VIA PM

 

[mercop]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCwnUFsOZtE[/ame]

 

[ztrtech]

Details sent VIA PM

Thanks for the PM. I dont have enough post yet to respond to the PM but I will see what I can do on my end
ztrtech

 

[mercop]

Contact me at mercop27@gmail.com.- George

 

[Balinor]

GREAT POST!!!!!! I will work on adding some of the information into my own training.
Thank You for the reminders.

 

[redpitbull44]

I would be interested too. Somebody shoot me a PM with some price info please.

 

[mercop]

Most of the time, no matter what I am teaching it is $125 a day or $250 for the weekend including handouts, certificates, and representation in any departmental, criminal, or civil litigation that falls within the scope of the training received. Sound like a lawyer huh- George

 

[Johnny C]

I would like some training myself. 125$-250$ is do-able for me.

A year or so ago, I mentioned on INGO that I didnt KNOW if I could really shoot someone and I got slammed, told I was not respected and told to get some tampons.

I am pretty sure a lot of people on this site actually feel the same deep down. I want to KNOW I could drop the hammer if I have too, not wonder if I could.

Mindset...mindset...mindset.

Johnny C