THE COMBAT TRIAD - REVISED
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Since 05-26-08

The Combat Triad has been a pillar of the Modern Technique since its inception by my late friend Jeff  Cooper.  This is made up of three equal parts involving Gunhandling, Marksmanship, and Mindset. Like anything else wrought by the hand (or mind) of man, innovations and advancements take place.  This triad is not immune.

While the trio is important, is unfortunately incomplete.  It is focused exclusively on shooting, and as we have learned, shooting ability is only a partial corner of the big picture needed for victory in combat.  A great shot will simply die simultaneously as the adversary if all there is to the issue is accurate shooting.  

Likewise gunhandling.  Gunhandling on the sterile and starched shooting range is a far different issue from gunhandling while fighting from the guard on your back, or running to cover while being shot at.  Or while evading an attacking knifeman.  To say that you will never face these issues if your mind set is correct (which is usually the fall back) is optimistic to the penultimate degree. 

Mindset is a term usually used to denote alertness and the willingness to kill.  Alertness is affected by many things and to say that a human being can maintain complete alertness at all times is simply not true.  I think we must be humble and admit that the only time we can walk on water is when its frozen.  All men get tired, sick, distracted and preoccupied.  Proponents of the Ultimate Mindset fail to note that their test will come not after hearing “shooter ready” at the range after a sound warm-up run, but after they hear “Yo homey” and the stop and rob late one night. 

Good guys’ gunfights will be reactive in nature.  They will often be reacting to an ambush rather than setting an ambush, so the mind set alertness thing will only take you so far. 

The willingness to shoot cannot be tested on the shooting range either as you are there to shoot and there is little to evaluate in terms of justification to use deadly force.  Neither will a shoothouse prepare you for such bloody things as, after all, a shoothouse is still populated by the same dead two-dimensional figures you shoot on the square range.  And to steal from Bruce Lee, “Targets don’t shoot back”. 

So while the original triad is not bad and still has a great degree of value, we must update it.  We can do this substituting individual components that not only include the original three, but emphasize their application in training, and ultimately on the street. 

The New Fighting Triad is made up of Range Work, Force On Force Drills, and Scenarios.

Range Work not only includes marksmanship and gunhandling, but it is a direct reflection of how things should be done in a street fight and not necessarily the most expeditious on a shooting range.  Range Work includes the basics, but must not stop there.  It must include things like True Stress Gunhandling, Shooting Through The Draw, Point Shooting as well as Sighted Shooting, and the all important concept of Adequate Marksmanship.  Range Work is not concerned with competitions or scores, but rather preparation to use the tool successfully in a fight against other equally or greater armed man or men.

Range Work is to our Fighting Triad what heavy bag drills are to the boxer.  However hard the champ hits the bag, it is irrelevant if he cannot connect with the adversary in the ring.  Likewise, shooting ability and accuracy are marginally interesting if they cannot be applied in the crucible of force on force.

Force on Force Drills are designed to test the gunfight.  They differ from scenarios in that the force on force drill has one or two expected outcomes and there is no role playing at all.  It begins at the decision to shoot and move on from there.

Force On Force Drills are not ego-satisfying like shooting a perfect score on a piece of paper and as such those whose focus in training is ego-gratification tend to shy away from force on force.  No one looks good doing force on force drills…not like they look in a perfect weaver on the range anyway.

Force on Force Drills can be run gun versus gun, gun versus knife, or even the addition of superior numbers. It is a true test of your fighting ability with a gun.  Few guys that go through a Force On force evolution will ever go back to traditional range training if they can help it.  What we do not see in force on force drills.

We do not see any stances weaver, isosceles or otherwise.  Nor do we see the range-style use of the sights.  We do see a great deal of shooting while running, point shooting, and shooting through the draw.  These are not set up drills, like the pepper poppers that only fall to a 45.  Rather we stand the guys 5 yards away and tell them there is going to be a gunfight.  Now GO!

This type of training teaches true stress gunhandling and adequate marksmanship.  There are those who say that you cannot shoot well while running, or that if you point shoot you will miss.  Yet we see guys getting hit with the Airsoft pellets routinely at the realistic distances we work at.  Perhaps I am missing something, but what I am not missing is the adversary.

The last point in our Fighting Triad is Scenario Work.  Scenario Work differs from Force On Force Drills in that there can be any outcome to the scenario.  No one knows what is going to happen.  There may be nothing happen at all.  You may draw your pistol and keep it hidden and then reholster without anyone knowing you drew.  Yet the scenario may also be sudden and violent like an active shooter at a school or a take-over robbery.

There is no right or wrong response in a scenario only the debriefing at the end which allows an immediate lesson learned by all in attendance.

The scenario may involve an event likely to happen to the private citizen, such as being approached on the street by a thug, finding yourself at the scene of an in-progress robbery, being targeted for robbery yourself, or witnessing a violent crime against another.  It may involve an active shooter at work or at school.  In any case it should be something likely.  Some may argue that what I have discussed is not likely, but I will counter that the typical shoothouse scenario (go hunt for the burglar in a strange house) is quite a foolish thing to do for the armed citizen.

The force on force scenario is far better than any shoothouse drill because no matter how scary you make a paper target look, it will not cuss you out, nor try to take you gun, nor will it stab you repeatedly if you make a mistake.  The role player in the scenario just may do all of these things…or he may just walk away when you offer a hard target.

Scenario work teaches mindset far better than any lecture or discussion can.  Rather than think about it, you do it and get you hands dirty and sometimes bloody doing it.

Range Work, Force On Force Drills, and Scenario Work.  This Fighting Triad will not only teach you the right things in the right order, but it will be hands on work and not theory.  It will prepare you to win the fight, and that is after all, the point of the entire exercise.

__________________
Gabe Suarez
Suarez International USA, Inc.
One Source Tactical
info@suarezinternational.com
Office 928-776-4492

Spaniard by Heritage
Cuban by Birth
Christian by Grace
American by Choice