The Need For Force On Force Training - Make Your Training Real

Since 06-30-08

WARRIOR TALK NEWS  JULY UPDATE #

by Richard Coplin - S.I. Staff Instructor

We have all trained and practiced on the square range. The fundamentals of marksmanship are second nature. We carry our pistols and know we are as prepared as possible for an assault of ill-intentioned miscreants. Or are we?

Square range drills and practice have their place, on the square range. Targets don't shoot back. Even if the range has turning targets it is still nothing like what an attack may be like in the real world.

No video simulator can replicate a real attack. No fierce looking paper target will get your adrenaline flowing. Only an attack will "simulate" an attack. Only a real, human aggressor will duplicate an actual assault, robbery or attempted murder.

Reality training needs reality. Anything less is simply not reality. Within the boundaries of not causing death or serious injury Force on Force training fulfills the requirements of reality based training like no other method can.

Gabe says you can read about swimming, look at videos of swimming and talk about swimming all you want but to really learn swimming you have to get into the pool. How about this? You can read about hitting a baseball, you can look at videos about batting and you can talk to people who have actually stepped up to the plate but until you have an opposing pitcher throwing his best fast balls and curves while you are trying to hit the ball, you haven't been up to bat.

Since most civilian encounters will be reactive rather than proactive in nature, you as the good guy will be the batter. The bad guy will choose when to throw and what to throw at you.. He will determines the situation. Initially you must react to it.

In Force on Force training you will be behind the reactionary curve or OODA loop. You will need to interrupt the bad guy's attack enough to make him reset his OODA loop while you gain the initiative.

All of this must happen in the first few seconds of an attack. One method of resetting the bad guy's OODA loop is movement off the X. If you vacate the position he has determined to be his best point of attack, he must change his angle of attack. In other words, he must reset his OODA loop and play catch-up.

Another method of resetting the bad guy's OODA loop is by getting the first hits on board. Any hit on your adversary, whether peripheral or CNS or somewhere in between, will have a ballistic effect, take him off his initial line of attack and force him into a reactive mode.

Ideally you should move and get the first hits. The Pekiti Take Off will get you off the X more explosively than you can imagine, until you have seen it and done it. Inside the waist band carry at the appendix is unbelievably quick to point in on target. Point shooting in all of its variations will allow you to get hits on board without taking time you simply do not have to get to your sights.

If this sounds complicated, it is not. It is instinctive. It is natural and it can be trained.

Will you receive a few Force on Force mementos? Sure. Will you fail and get shot? Absolutely, unless you are someone out of "The Matrix". Will you find out what works and what doesn't work? Yes you will. Ultimately, you will see training in a completely different way. You will look for what works well instead of what looks good. You will leave a Force on Force weekend with the absolute knowledge that you have tools to survive a deadly attack on the street.

Without ever stepping into the batter's box, you can never know what being at bat is really like. Gents and ladies, it is time to step into the batter's box. Batter Up!