AAR Hardwired Tactical Shooting (HiTS) Edged Weapons - 2013-10-26/27 - Houston, TX

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I apologize ahead of time for any vagueness, omissions, or mistakes in the AAR, as my notes are a bit incomplete, as the structure of the class did not give much time for note taking at times.

Learn simple and effective skills in this two day class necessary to protect you and your family with any Edged Weapon should you find yourself in an unfriendly situation or location. Take advantage of this extremely rare opportunity to learn from the experience and knowledge of a protective services professional from deep within the US Defense Intelligence community. Former federal employee (CIA), Protective Programs defensive tactics subject matter expert and world-class educator Steve Tarani steps outside “the Agency” to provide you with this vetted, unarmed, easy-to-follow advanced Edged Weapons training curriculum allowing you the opportunity to develop and utilize your instinctive reflexes to solve difficult threat engagement problems.

NO PRIOR TRAINING OR PREREQUISITES ARE NECESSARY. This is NOT martial arts. This is NOT “knife fighting.” This IS a professional Protective Services approach to doing what it takes to get yourself and your loved ones immediately out of trouble and to safety. This IS an opportunity for you to take home field-tested “bread and butter” techniques and proven defensive tactics gleaned from decades of professional experience.

Course Content: Access (where and how to carry) and rapid deployment of a fixed, folding or improvised blade at Contact Range, Do’s and Dont’s of utilizing a blade in an actual threat engagement, Protecting your exposure of lethal target areas, Real-world Scenarios (single/ multiple threats 360 approach), Managing the fateful Injury/ Distance liability gap, Unarmed attack-line defense and disarming, Hostage Escape Scenarios, Ground Recovery Options (how to use a blade to get back up on your feet after being knocked down by multiple attackers), Unarmed Defense versus a Machete, Stalemate Response Series, Mastering Force Vectors, Protective blade handling skills (“indexing”, “programming,” etc.), Handling multiple assailants and a rare training block on curved blades and other exotic edged weapons.

This is my second combatives-oriented course. I had previously taken a ShivWorks ECQC, along with various beginner and intermediate pistol courses. I used an H&K P30 Ring's Bluegun with a Surefire X400 zeroed at 25 yards, and IWB carried it using an RCS Phantom about the 0130 position. I also had a ShivWorks Clinch Pick trainer (PRC made) carried at a downward cant at the 1130, and a wave'd ZT 0561 in the left pocket, tip up, spine of the blade toward my centerline, using a Wilderness Tactical Ti Instructor Belt. The rest of my clothing was standard streetwear, t-shirt with relatively form-fitting jeans, with a pair of sneakers.

Steve Tarani was the primary instructor, with Darryl Bolke as the primary AI. Class started the first day at 0900; the class was held indoors at a Crossfit gym, so weather did not play any role in the course. There were approximately 15 students in the class, with several active LEOs and one AD military, while the rest were civilians, including several retired military members. Steve had all the students state their preferred name, occupation, and expectations for the course. Interestingly, many students talked about hoping to learn how to transition viewing a blade from being a tool to being a weapon. About half of the students had their own inert training guns; Blueguns were provided for the rest of the students, as were training knives. Also, there were a great number of Striders in the class, both fixed and folding.

Steve then went over the background of the course. The course originally started in 1989, as something as part of the POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) program in CA. After the success of the program in CA, the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) asked Steve to write policy for LEO blade use, which he obliged. Thus, the program has been thoroughly vetted on the LEO legal side of things, which Steve explained could be quite helpful from a liability POV. This program was later also modified to fit the needs of the intelligence community.

After we checked each other for live firearms (all operational firearms and loaded magazines were placed in a separate, locked room; live blades were allowed to be carried on person), we started out with stretches, getting ourselves limbered up, before going to working with the Blueguns on drawing. An interesting technique for drawing from concealment from the strong side that Steve showed us was the usage of both hands to clear a closed garment. Ideally, the strong hand would be right above the holstered gun. While slightly slower than a one handed clearance of a closed garment, the two handed method is far more reliable in clearing the garment in the first place. After establishing the master grip on the gun, the support hand should be in, so that it's not in front or dangling by the side; what that support hand is doing can vary, but it must be close in to prevent muzzling yourself or giving the opponent something to latch onto during the draw. The feet should be shoulders width apart, knees slightly bent, toes and knees forward, creating a stable platform. Also, Steve emphasized the importance of realizing that one is in a fight, and thinking in quarter second intervals, as a quarter second is generally the fastest a human being can react to any external stimuli.

We thus executed our first drill, in which we would start from the hands up position, essentially meaning nothing more than the fact that the hands should be above the belt line in this case. We would clear the garment/defeat the retention/etc. and establish a master grip. This was first done on verbal command; after a few reps, we then moved onto a visual cue.

We then attempted the same drill, but this time to retention. Steve and Darryl both drew up to about the pectoral area, with the gun canted somewhat outward, so that the slide would clear the body and not be obstructed, with both hands on the gun.

At this point, Steve went ahead and explained the difference between an event indicator and a threat indicator. An event indicator is an act or event that signifies the strong possibility of another event; for example, observing someone taking their foot off the brakes in a car while at a stop strongly suggests that they are about to start driving again. A threat indicator is a subset type of event indicators, such as an aggressive person reaching behind their back, which strongly suggest that they are about to produce a weapon, thus indicating a threat. Steve also pointed out that what qualified as a threat indicator varies from situation to situation; for example, in the USA, encroachment of personal space may be a mild threat indicator, while in many locales overseas, would be completely normal.

Steve then covered one of the basic terms of the course in preparation of the next drill: operator and role player. The operator is the person practicing the skill being currently taught, while the role player is an actor that facilitates the operator's learning, not only acting as the aggressor usually, but also making sure that the role player is using the correct techniques and such.
 

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The next drill was used to illustrate the difference between contact range and non-contact range, and how the scale of injuries applied to them; we simply used the lengths of our arms to find where the two ranges transitioned. At non-contact range, blades are essentially of little use, since they are almost always contact weapons. Throwing knives are exceedingly difficult to use and relatively easy to counter, as any changes in distance would throw off the number of rotations needed to impact tip first on the target. As Steve notes, once one is in contact range, the less distance one and the aggressor, the higher the scale of injuries one could suffer. The five points on the scale is: none (non-contact distance), minor (getting nicked on the hands or fingers), recoverable (slashes to the forearm), non-recoverable (deep wounds to the upper arm or chest), and fatal (cutting of the throat, slashing of the femoral, etc.).

Steve then stated that the optimal things to be able to control in order to stay at non-contact range was to be able to control one's range, mobility, and position. If one controlled all three things, then one controlled the fight. In an ideal situation, with a head-on attacker, one has three basic options. The first is to simply backpedal. This extends one's range, but does not really change one's position in relation to the aggressor, and has limited mobility. The second is to move laterally. Essentially the opposite of the backpedal, this changes one's position without changing one's range. The third option is a combination of the two: a 45° backpedal. Steve also went over the names of the positions in relation to the opponent that was used for the rest of the course: position 0 was right in front of the opponent; position 1 is a 45° offset; position 2 is a 90° offset; position 3 is directly behind the opponent (with the optimality of the positions going from low to high). These positions could be to the left or right of the opponent.

We then ran a drill to emphasize this, with the RP (role player) taking a frontal stab at the operator. It was noted that when retreating, one should generally commit to what course of action one was going to take next; for example, instead of being bladed to the opponent, one should be facing totally forward or totally backwards. While being bladed gives one the ability to both turn and run or fight on, it's not particularly suited to either one. Steve then went on to emphasize that such an act wouldn't necessarily be something he'd call "wrong", as he did not like the whole "right" and "wrong" terms, instead preferring to use the idea of the price tag for each act, urging us to look at each act and weigh the costs and benefits.

After that, Steve then went over the common grips. Hammer grip, which is simply wrapping your hand around the handle of the blade in a fist. Saber grip is like a hammer grip, but takes the thumb and places it on top of the blade/handle. The finger grip is where the index finger put on the flat side of the blade while gripping the handle. The hammer grip is the strongest, but has the least amount of dexterity, while the finger grip is the opposite; the saber grip is the compromise grip. One could then note that each grip could be oriented in three distinct ways: palm up, palm vertical, and palm down.

Now that the common grips had been explained, Steve then covered the standard positions of where one would hold the blade while attacking. Assuming the opponent is holding the knife in the right hand, having the knife above the right shoulder is the high open. The knife below the belt on the right side would be the low open. Having the knife above the left shoulder would be the high closed. Having the knife below the belt on the left side would be the low closed.

After covering the grips and blade positions, Steve then went over the six types of attacks, with drills being run with each one. The first was the basic slash, which could be described as simply being moving from one blade position to another, such as from high open to low closed. The second was the thrust (AKA, stab), in which one would drive the blade in a particular direction; the palm orientation was particularly important with this attack, and Steve had us practice all the different orientations to figure out which one each person preferred, and noted that this preference may change when going from the strong hand to the weak hand. After the thrust was the flick; the flick utilized the snapping of the wrist and the tip of the blade to gouge the target area, and is done using the finger grip. According to Steve, the general usage was to flick from low to high, so a flick toward the groin then the eyes was used. The next attack was the hack, which could be seen as a thrust, but with the added step of returning to the original position that the attack started in. The fourth attack was the fillet; in this, one would essentially embed the blade into a joint, then drag the blade away from one's self to the next joint, and then slash out. The standard fillet targets were from wrist to elbow, elbow to shoulder, buttocks to knee, and knee to ankle. Which target used is totally situationally dependent. The last attack was the coring: it is a thrust in which one's palm orientation changed, generally from palm up to palm down or vice versa.

I personally preferred palm down orientation for most stabs. I also found the flicks to be somewhat difficult to pull off, as I did not have the luxury of learning how to snap towels at other people in my teenage years.

The next topic were the seven lethal strike points. The first two were in the neck area, and was essentially the severing of the carotids. Starting with the skin on top of the fingers holding the blade in contact with the skin of the neck of the opponent, simply try to punch through to the other side of the neck. The next two (three and four) were the points under the clavical. There were several ways to attack three and four. The first, most obvious way is to simple come from above and stab behind the clavical; with the proper force and technique, one could also easily break the clavical, thus instantly incapacitating an arm. One could also "open the door", meaning, lifting the the arm and driving the blade through the armpit, or "close the door", which is pushing the arm forward and stabbing right under the armpit. Point five is between the belt buckle and the belly button; one would attempt to thrust hard enough to have the thumb touch the spine of the opponent, before shifting the weight down with the hips to draw the blade right through the crotch. Points six and seven are attacking the femorals: one cuts the quads from skin to skin, starting at the inside seam on the pants and then punching onto the outside. Drills illustrating each point was run with the training knives.

Steve then did a quick recap of everything covered before we broke for lunch at ~1230.
 

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During lunch, Steve stated that he would soon have his website up and running, most likely within a month. He also stated that in terms of unarmed combat, he saw Western boxing as being the best standing discipline if one was to just pick a whole system, while BJJ was incomparable for the ground.

After lunch ended at 1330, we again started with stretches. We then started out with draws with the training guns again, drawing on Steve as he walked down the line in order to have a clear target. We started out drawing on command, then drawing to a threat indicator. This was then repeated with partners, with the RP at non-contact distance. After the simple drawing drill, we then incorporated moving back 45°; if one was carrying on the strong side, Steve suggested thinking of the hand being attached to the foot moving back, so that the hand moves back to the gun at the same time the foot is moving backwards. Steve noted at this time that the latest statistic he was aware of stated that there was 2.8 attackers for every defender in most violent crime attacks, and how the minimum safe distance from a contact weapon from the draw had been moved from 21 feet (as that supposed perfect conditions for the defender) to around 35 feet to allow for realworld imperfections. At this time, Steve also noted that some of the students were still in range of a slash from the training knives even after moving backwards at the 45°; much of this could be negated by drawing into retention, maybe even throwing up a "big nose" (essentially a vertical elbow shield; putting the hand on the side of the head with the elbow facing out, thus forming the rough shape of a nose) as many people were going back to full extension right after the draw.

After practicing the drawing to retention while moving backwards, Steve then had us run a drill in which the RP would start closer and closer to the operator when attempting to get a good thrust into point five, to illustrate that once the distance between the two closes enough, no matter how fast the draw, the RP would be able to get into contact range and inflict damage with the blade. As Steve put it, this was the distance at which the gun could no longer solve the problem. At this point, simply retreating, drawing, or combining the two were not viable options. Steve stated that the ideas at this point would all stem from a saying his TMA masters were fond of: "make safe the weapon, make safe the body". The basic defense would be to shove the arm that was thrusting with the blade away from your centerline, while also thrusting back with the hips in the direction opposite to the side the opponent's arm to make more space between you and the opponent. One's hands should return as fast as possible after shoving the opponent's arm; Steve called it the "hot skillet", comparing it to how one would try to shove away a heated pan. After doing so, one could then retreat at the 45° while drawing and firing. Ideally, one should think of the "hot skillet" and establishing the master grip for the draw as being on the same speed as a double-tap cadence: as fast as possible, and one always follows the other. Whether one goes to the left or the right is dependent on environmental factors.

I had an issue where I over-exaggerated the thumb pectoral index for retention, ending up with the pinky above the nipple, and thus risking muzzling my own head while firing.

While the "hot skillet" maneuver worked well for low-line attacks, it was clearly not the best option for a high line attack. For a high line attack, there were three theoretically valid responses: evasion (simply attempting to dodge the attack), parrying (using the attacker's own momentum to help reposition the attack to miss), and blocking (utilizing the "big nose" vertical elbow shield). Of the three, blocking was considered by far the most reliable method, as evasion was extremely difficult, while parrying relied on a great deal of skill and timing. Of course, one could not simply block, as this is a purely defensive maneuver that would leave the opponent free to press on the attack. Thus, after blocking, or perhaps even during the block, one should mount a distraction. Steve shared the two he preferred. The first was driving the thumb on that side that wasn't blocking into the eye of the opponent, all the way in until the base of the thumb was in the eye socket and the rest of the fingers were gripped around the opponent's ear. The thumb could then break the orbitals while dragging the head forward. The other method was to use the four fingers of the hand on the side that wasn't blocking and try to drive some of them into the opponent's eyes, and then hooking downwards to pull the face down. However, any distraction could do, such as a punch to the face, a hammer fist, groin attack, etc., as long as the block was held up. We then practiced this, incorporating the backwards motion at 45° while drawing after the distraction was done.

We then recapped what had been shown in the afternoon, and then ended the training day at about 1630.

After the class officially ended, Darryl then went over the history and design of the knives he had input in, primarily going over the Strider DB, the Kiku Matsuda DB, and the new, unreleased Joe Watson HiTS knife.
 

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Class stated at approximately 0800 on TD2.

One again, we started with a check of live firearms before moving onto stretches. We then went over a quick recap of the distance issues, and ran a drill to re-emphasize it, where the RP (role player) attacked the operator with a knife from non-contact range, and the operator would then perform the 45° back pedal while drawing and putting rounds into the RP. This was then changed to contact range, with the RP utilizing a low-line attack, so that the operator could practice integrating the "hot skillet" shove into the 45° back pedal maneuver. Steve emphasized the need to bring the hands in quickly after the shove, in order to maximize the distance between the one and the opponent, and also to keep from muzzling one's self during the draw. He also stated that if need be, one hand could suffice in shoving the opponent's blade wielding hand away. After that, we then practiced defending against the high line attacks as taught yesterday: block, distract, make distance, draw.

After practicing the normal high line attack, Steve then had the operators backed up against the wall. Here, because the wall closed off retreating to the rear, the procedure changed to: block, distract, go out through one of the sides, turn and draw (or just run away), and shoot. As Steve put it, one is making a "bad guy sandwich", the bad guy being the filling, while the wall and the muzzle of one's gun are the two pieces of bread. Ideally, one should go through the side that is open, that is to say, does not have the blade wielding arm blocking it. However, this is not always possible, so one must make do.

After running the drill for that, Steve then had us distract in a way that would allow us to be more effective at moving the opponent out the way. When blocking, one should simultaneously attack with the non-blocking elbow, hitting the opponent's sternum; this can be easily done by having both elbows up when attacked (a double "big nose"), and merely turning the non-blocking elbow into the opponent. After that, one then drops the non-blocking arm's wrist down on the opponent's neck. Now, one is in the position to "drive" the opponent around; ideally, one should drive them right into the wall, using the hips to help turn them right in.

Steve then went over what he considered the last ditch defense: disarming. All disarms require one to control the opponent's thumb; ideally, one would have all four fingers wrapped around the fleshy pad right below the thumb, while one's thumb would be in the opponent's webbing between the thumb and fingers (with the same holding for the opponent's thumb in between the webbing of one's thumb and fingers). A quick drill was run to emphasize just how much control one had over someone else's hand with this position. Steve then showed us the three basic types of disarms: release (getting the opponent to release the blade), return (turning the blade so that it is used to attack the opponent while their hands are still on it), and retain (essentially stealing the opponent's blade for your own use).

To release, one first mounts a distraction (after blocking) while the non-distracting hand is used to tie up the knife wielding arm. After the distraction is mounted, use the hand that caused the distraction to control the thumb of the hand with the knife. Then, using the outer forearm of the arm that was not part of the distraction, push out against the flat of the blade while pulling the thumb controlling hand in, thus stripping the blade right through the thumb. This technique may very well cause injury to one's outer forearm, but this is seen as being much preferred over injury to the neck, or even the inside of the forearm, which is much more sensitive to damage, due to how the nerves and tendons are arranged in the arm.

To return, instead of using the distraction hand to control the opponent's thumb, one should use the other hand, the one that was tying up the wrist of the blade wielding arm. After that, the distraction hand comes down and "makes a sandwich", essentially it should be covering the bottom of the opponent's hand, with one's palm against the pommel of the knife. One could then turn the opponent's wrist and drive the blade straight back in.

To retain, one again uses the distraction hand to control the opponent's thumb. With the other arm, get the hard part of the forearm into the "v" of the opponent's wrist. Using the forearm as a fulcrum of sorts, push the opponents hand in. The hand should let go of the blade, and allow it to slight right into yours in a reverse grip. This act has the possibility of cutting the bottom of the distraction hand, depending on how high up on the blade the opponent was.

Steve had us practice each one as we learned them, and then all three at our choice, to try to determine which one we preferred the most. This was the one that we would be expected to practice and use. Most people preferred the return, then followed by the retain; almost no one chose the release.

Steve then jumped to what to do when backed up against the wall and faced with a high line attack, but this time with someone using a reverse grip attack. In this case, block as normal. After that, have the blocking hand go palm down, and slide it down as close as one can to the opponent's hand while still maintaining the grip. One would then do a large semicircle with that arm, so the bony top part of the wrist would be against the blade and push it right out of the opponent's hand. This was first practiced in the open, then actually against the wall.

After that, Steve then went into the folder component of the course. Steve explained how tip down carry was far less likely to accidentally deploy in your pocket; the down side is that it's slower than tip up carry to deploy, as one would have to reposition the handle. In terms of automatic blades, he sees them to be perfectly valid compared to standard folders, although he doesn't find their speed to be any faster than a practiced non-auto deployment, and also have the added legal issues around them. Something to consider when choosing where to place one's folder is the issue of co-location; having everything in one spot means that if that spot is denied access to you, you would be unable to access any of your tools. Steve suggested instead to put one's folder opposite to the side one carries their handgun.

When given enough time, Steve advocates the two handed opening of folders. This gives one a strong grip on the handle after deployment, and is very easy to have it so that the blade ends up in front of the body, tip up at the opponent's neck while the blade is facing COM, the weak hand behind, close to the body. This method works almost universally for folding blades, and is often faster than any one handed deployment. For closing, Steve has what he calls the "safe close": unlock the blade and fold just enough to keep the locking mechanism defeated, shift all fingers out of the way while turning the blade out, then closing away from the body. He stated that he has seen people cut themselves the most on the close. Steve then touched on the "wave" feature that some folders have; he noted that the traditional way of carrying a folder did not afford waved knives any real advantage, as the draw would have the blade facing backwards, meaning that any speed advantage in opening the blade is lost in the transition from getting the blade to the front of the body again for use. He also noted at this time that the reverse grip means a loss of range.

We did several reps of the two handed open and safe close. Then, we moved onto speed deployment, starting with a four step process (get master grip, draw, grip to open, open) and paring it down to a single step after running several rounds each time. Steve then had us guess how long most of us would take to deploy a blade, with most guesses at around 2.5-3 seconds. Steve then timed us individually twice for folder deployment speed; Essentially every single deployment was under 3 seconds, and well over half of the class had deployments under 1.5 seconds. Steve then had us consider if we were able to draw from concealment that fast.

The wave feature failed me once during the practice draws. I also found the deep carry clip to be difficult to draw from in jeans, an issue that I had already detected before, but have been unable to remedy due to a lack of aftermarket clips. My times were ~1.5 seconds and ~1.7 seconds.

We broke for lunch at this time, at ~1210.
 

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After lunch, we were informed that we did not need any training guns or blades of any kind for the rest of the class, as it would focus solely on the usage of the karambit, and we would all be provided trainers. Steve went over his history with the karambit, which largely stemmed from his time practicing FMA. He also went over the basic ideas behind the karambit, and how they differed against standard, non-ringed straight blades. For example, the karambit can very easily change distances, unliked standard blades. Also, one is limited to one slash per pass with a straight blade, while it is possible to do two with a karambit. The karambit has three possible grips; besides the standard blade up and blade down, there is also the extended position. Also, given the shape of the karambit and the ring, it is exceedingly difficult to disarm, which Steve illustrated by having us try to disarm each other's karambit.

Steve then went over the three basic grips of the karambit. The first one, the most powerful, is the blade tip up position, analogous to the forward grip on a regular blade. The traditional way of mounting the blade is to have the strong hand palm up, slip the karambit ring onto the pinky tip up, let the blade fall so that the handle lands in the palm, and then close the fingers from the pinky up in order. For the blade tip down, analogous to the reverse grip, have the palm down, pass the ring onto the index finger, let the blade hang, then turn the palm toward the body so that it makes contact with the handle, close the fingers from the pinky on up in order again. Ideally, for both positions, the elbow should then be about one fist length off the body, with the tip facing forward, wrist straight. For extended, start with the tip down grip, then simply punch out while letting the ring rotate around the finger, thus flipping the blade out.

We practiced our first deployment drill. We started in the extended position, slashed the perineum, ripped it coming back to the body while going into a tip down grip, then punched the tip out to the opponent's neck. At this point, it was noted that even the trainers could do a bit of damage, and Steve explained how these trainers were actually considered for adoption by FAM as a compliance/control tool, and that though official adoption never occurred, individual agents have used these trainers effectively in that roll.

Steve then showed us the optimal palm orientations for each position: position zero was best with palm down, position 1 was best with palm vertical, and position 2 with palm up. He had us practice all positions and palm orientations to illustrate that, and reminded us to attack with the blade, not the knuckles of the hand.

Steve then showed us another use of the extended position: gripping behind the neck. Instinctively, most people would pull back, meaning that this technique would have the opponent help disable themselves. After that, we practiced hitting the seven fatal point with the various grips.

After that, the drill we ran through had the RP point the finger of death (standing in for a straight blade forward thrust) while the operator was a position 0. Ideally, the operator would hook the arm and make a step toward position 1. After that, attack while moving to position 2. Finally, end up in position 3 with the hook at the RP's neck. We tried this will all three grips, utilizing low, medium, and high attacks throughout. Steve also noted to be careful of the non-hooked hand while moving, as it could also pose a threat.

We then actually broke out the straight blades, with the RP holding in their strong hand with a forward grip, doing a normal thrust to point 5. Regardless of curve in or curve out, move toward the outside. To disarm using the release method, replace the job of the weak hand with the blade, distract, control the opponent's thumb with the distracting hand, then strip the blade out with the karambit, then move the karambit back to the throat. With the RP holding the blade using the reverse grip in the strong hand attacking point 3 or 4, one would strip normally, but be using the karambit instead of a normal straight blade (this part is going off of memory; my notes seemed to have neglected this spot).

After drilling that, we then moved to the RP using the reverse grip in the weak hand attacking point 3 or 4. One would block with the strong side (which had the karambit), lock the blade into the RP's wrist using the curve, then draw the semicircle to strip the blade out. After practicing that alone, we then practiced all three defenses in a row, one after the other. Having of done that several times, we moved to the final drill of the day, using multiple attackers that each came in with one of the three attacks just practiced (this was done in groups of 4, 3 RPs to one operator), going in one by one. Ideally, one would want to move in a direction that would put the multiple opponents in a row, so that they would have to fight past each other to attack one.

Finally, the last thing Steve showed us was a possible move when faced with an opponent that had a holstered weapon. One would attempt to keep them from drawing by forcing their hand down so that the weapon can't clear the holster, then drop down and slash both of the hamstrings, severing the femorals. He stated that very few people would anticipate that, as most people are far more focused on defending their upper body.

Class ended at this time, with certificates being handed out, at approximately 1600.

About the class, one of the things that differentiated it from all previous classes I had taken was the lack of profanity used during the actual instruction periods (outside of those times, such as lunch, this did not hold). Darryl stated that this was one of HiTS's points of professionalism, and Steve noted that since much of his teaching is done for government work, there were certain standards he had to abide by. This lack of profanity made for various humorous euphemisms. Another interesting point was a distinct lack of speech disfluency on Steve's part; I attribute that to his excellent teaching skills. Like most of the previous classes taken, Steve also peppered the course with various anecdotes, some topical, others not so much, but all quite entertaining and none long enough to be felt that time was being wasted.

I did find myself disappointed by the lack of, for lack of a better term, validation of the techniques shown. While they all seemed sound in theory, and I have little doubt that Steve would be able to utilize them quite well, I found that the lack of full effort drills meant that the methods remain somewhat untested by me, as I have never executed them under pressure. Of course, this is an issue that would most likely exist with most edged weapons course, as unlike a firearms course, there is no real way to gauge the mount of damage that could have been done. Square range firearms courses may not illustrate a method's destructive ability, but there is at least some sets of metrics that could be used to identify things, such as time, accuracy, etc., while the same is far more difficult to say with edged weapons in general. This is hardly a fatal flaw, and I do not regret taking the course in any way, but it is something that bothered me at the end of the class.

Gear-wise, I found that I had to trade out my Clinch Pick trainer quite early in the course, as most of the techniques shown were for standard configuration knives. Darryl was kind enough to lend me a Buck Strider Tarani trainer for the remainder of the course.
 
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