In the 80’s I was asked to write a curriculum for training military police in situational awareness. I was asked to write it with a shooting buddy of mine. We did this and I notice it is still part of their curriculum today. Anyway, as we were writing and discussing situational awareness we talked about the mindset of shooting and defending yourself. Combat is a little different than personal defense. In combat sometimes the military just kills the enemy. In personal defense it is less “kill ‘em all” and more stop the threat. But putting yourself in a state of mind where you may have to use a weapon against another human being is important from the sense of dealing with the mental anguish that comes with such an act. But most of all, surviving a defensive event is imperative.
Being able to practice this type of defense is not very easy. Most of the civilian world does not use force-on-force training. If it is available it is usually in a more advanced portion of training. When I teach shooting, I teach it different from what I see as only focusing on safety and technical shooting. Don’t get me wrong, safety is the top of training. But a little more realistic training should follow. Thinking and mindset should be next. Technical gun handling and shooting is important because the more automatic from muscle memory your gun handling is, the more brain power can be used to do important things such as moving to cover or deciding if you need to shoot at all!
Sometimes I think that traditional training has been derived from competition or just plain technical shooting. Being able to hit the target is important but being able to survive an attack or a gunfight is equally important or even more important. You must be able to get around the fear, the tunnel vision, the anxiety, and the adrenalin rush, of a gunfight to be able to walk away from one.
In combat I had a few close quarter experiences. What they taught me is that doing the right thing is survival. Finding cover quickly, being able to reload and shoot while moving is something that is rarely taught. In the military we learn Shoot, Move, Communicate. This phrase describes the basic skills of a soldier in combat. It means to engage the enemy with accurate fire, maneuver to a better position, and maintain contact with your guys. As a civilian it can be adapted to imply the ability to defend yourself, get out of the situation, and call for help.
In a firefight it is very advantageous to think ahead. If you can consistently do this, you can win. Don’t think of this as a competition, it is a fight, possibly to the death. You need to be willing to do anything to win. It should not be an even match; you should do all you can to get the advantage. Sometimes a BIG advantage. When it comes to life or death, I will cheat, fight dirty, or do something against my code of ethics, if it means I will survive. Being the good guy will get you killed when confronted by evil. Evil doesn’t care about you or your family. Evil doesn’t care about laws. Evil is evil and often can be avoided. But occasionally evil attacks good. Good should be very, very good.
If you watch body cam footage from police, you’ll occasionally see major shooters. But what we see most of the time is people that are barely surviving the confrontation primarily because they suck less than their opponents.
There’s nothing wrong with drills, they help with the fundamentals of shooting and building muscle memory. But in a gunfight, very little of drills make a difference. Obviously, if you can shoot and manipulate your weapon well without a lot of thought then that is good. But to endlessly run drill after drill is a waste of time if that’s all you do. You will have great skills of shooting but have no idea how to think with a gun in your hand. The beginning of a shooting event does not start with an audible sound like shooting on a range. It starts with a visual signal. Being able to think with your gun is much more realistic. I’ve heard it described as problem solving at the speed of fight. Adapting to reality and making decisions and choices is so very different than shooting a drill.
There is a good example in a tragic event that is used in training law enforcement. Deputy Kyle Dinkheller was murdered in Georgia. If you go back and look at the training on Dinkheller, his co-workers thought he was the best shot in the police department. If they had to pick one person to win a gunfight, they would have picked Kyle. Watch the video and you will see that he did not handle that fight the way that he should have. We wanted the good guy to have won. So that would be a classic example that everybody is very familiar with. Somebody not being able to perform well the moment the balloon goes up. The Dinkheller murder is shown as an example of what not to do in officer survival training.
Technical skill is important. I don’t want to discount it. We have only so much brain capacity. We can only handle so much at once. So, in a very stressful situation you must be able to do things correctly from experience, muscle memory, or you will run into problems that can get you killed. A happy dose of both, the skill and the mindset, is the combination that you need. But the right kind of skill. Standing in a weaver stance, readjusting your grip, and then concentrating on your sight picture and trigger squeeze, is great on the range. But in an actual firefight I can’t emphasize enough how that range experience does not apply. What does apply is reloading, clearing a jam, and hitting your target. Getting off the “X” or getting to cover should be at the forefront of your mind. Thinking. The ONLY time you worry about stance and grip is on a range. But being able to do some things, like reloading, without thinking or looking are skills that will save your life. A high level of skill can free up the mind to think.
In another body-cam police video that shows the LEO in a gunfight. He tries several times to reload his auto and keeps indexing the magazine backward! Muscle memory and practice for him may have paid off. If he’s struggling with reloading, how can he be trying to maneuver to cover or a better angle of fire.
Evil is an interesting animal. Often, they have a loose plan. Basically, evil will do what has worked before. Surprising the unsuspecting civilian who can’t believe this is happening to them. Evil will have an OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) that they go through because it’s easy to just repeat. If the defender can get in evils OODA loop it will mess with evils mind.
There is a concept called the normalcy bias. Normalcy bias is the tendency to underestimate the likelihood or impact of a negative event. Normalcy bias prevents us from understanding the possibility or the seriousness of a crisis or a natural disaster. In other words, “I can’t believe this is happening to me.” You must fight the normalcy bias with training. Running scenarios in your mind or practicing them, will give your mind somewhere to go. Instead of “I can’t believe this is happening to me,” your mind is saying “I thought this would happen to me one day and I’m prepared.” Instead of denial of what is happening, you can be ready.
If your skill is strong, then that will help you to solve your shooting problem. Getting over the shock of reality is a big part of that problem and once that is under control the rest is easier.
Your personality figures into this equation but you can make some small changes and adjust to compensate if your personality doesn’t fit. Controlling emotion is something that can be actively practiced. If you panic and are fearful, things can be worse than they actually are. If you can be more subjective and handle that kind of stress, you can experience this kind of event and win. Win means stopping the threat or getting off the “X” and out of the situation, or help taking over. Emotional control is a big bonus. If your rational mind is in control, then it’s easier to control the problem. Your sub-conscious mind must have confidence in your rational mind. That would mean you are confident in your skill. There are several high-risk recreational activities that may help like racing, or sky diving. People that do these kinds of recreational activities have a different definition of how bad things can be. So, when the bad things come up, they are used to that kind of stimuli.
When it comes down to it if you have trigger and sight control, that would be enough to keep you on track with the shooting part. Pulling the trigger without effecting the sights is one of the most important skills to learn. It is the basics because there are other aspects.
Force on force helps you with mind maps to solve your problem. A quick draw is fine but if that draw is the only thing saving you there has been a lot missed before. Force on force will help you with everything in between.
There is no training that will teach everything you need to know. If you seek out diverse training, you may have to pick different parts of that training to come up with something realistic that will give you what you want and need. Force on force I think is the best but there is virtue in almost all training. Some say plinking doesn’t teach anything. I don’t agree. Even plinking teaches you the shot process that is needed in attaining skill. The problem is that many believe if they can hit a bull’s eye at 20 feet that is enough. It is not. Especially when that training is 3 or 4 times a year. Shooting is a perishing skill. I’ve done it a long time, but I can tell when I haven’t been to the range in a few weeks. It comes back fast but the more consistent your practice the more consistent the skill. If it’s shooting matches, dry-fire practice, a structured training, plinking, force-on-force events, mindset classes, pro training, or simulators, each of these things can be very effective in keeping you prepared and sharp.
Being ready mentally, knowing how to think in a stressful situation, and having the skill can carry you through most encounters you may find in your non-law enforcement, non-military lives. Most of you will never draw your weapon, but being ready should be your top priority.
Semper Paratus
Check 6
Burn
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