Default.mp3
Established
I apologize ahead of time for any vagueness, omissions, or mistakes in the AAR, as my notes are a bit incomplete, as there was simply a deluge of information and I was often scrambling to catch up. My hastiness did not help my handwriting either, and I sadly could not decipher everything I had written.
This is my first formal combatives-oriented course. I have previously taken a Vickers Tactical Basic Handgun, Vickers Tactical Handgun I, a pistol-training.com Aim Fast, Hit Fast, and a F.A.S.T. Inc. Night Self Defense Handgun. I used an H&K P30LS with the Grayguns Reduced Reset Carry Perfection Package, with an X400 mounted with the DG-11 and zeroed for 7 yards, and IWB carried it using a RCS Phantom at about the 0130 position in condition 1. I also had two mag carriers, Cane & Derby Pardus SSLs, a Paul Moore BoB trainer blade carried at my 1100 with the handle angled upward toward the centerline at a 45°, and used a Wilderness Tactical Ti Instructor Belt. I purposely chose to wear what I would normally wear outside of work, besides the addition of a long sleeve Under Armour HeatGear shirt, which meant relatively form fitting jeans and T-shirts, along with low cut Chucks. While I did bring various other protective gear was recommended for the evolutions, such as a mouth guard, kneepads, gloves, etc., I chose to only utilize a cup as my extra protective equipment during the evolutions. I am 5'8", and approximately 140 lbs.
Craig Douglas (AKA SouthNarc) was the primary instructor, with Ferrell Munson as the primary AI, and Justin as a secondary AI. Class started the first day at 1810; weather was fairly hot and some what humid. There were 19 students at the start of the course; one was an LEO, two were trainers, while the rest were civilians, though several had security/law enforcement related jobs (two trainers and a bail enforcement agent). The three repeat students were all civilians. The vast majority of guns were Glocks, with a couple of M&Ps, an XD, and an H&K. With the exception of the LEO, who used some sort of Safariland with a hood, all students utilized holsters without retention, and close to half ran IWB appendix, with the rest going with strong side hip, with a mix of IWB and OWB.
We started out in the classroom, with everyone giving a quick bio of themselves. Craig gave his bio last, and stated that one of the things he realized over the years was that 70%-75% of his formal training was essentially useless in the field, while the vast majority of the training that actually was useful was still generally used in a different context than taught.
We then moved into talking about the criminal assault paradigm, which is to say, how criminals work. The key thing to remember is that most criminals are opportunists, which thus negates much of what standard training tends to be structured, as most adversarial training tends to occur with equal initiative and equal armament. Classic examples would be spars in TMA, in which two opponents start a set distance apart, both knowing the intent of the opponent, with relatively equal weapons. Various knife fighting classes or force on force scenarios operate much in the same manner. Obviously, this does not apply in the real world, where criminals generally operate with ambushes and misdirection. Ferrell and Craig role-played various scenarios to illustrate how a criminal might act, demonstrating how easy it is for them to have both the initiative and superior armament available.
Craig also noted that three core elements were often seen in these criminal assaults: very close range, multiple assailants, and presence of a weapon, yet the vast majority of training, especially in the past, never acknowledged these circumstances. The reasons for this are varied, including the lack of proper equipment, a lack of proper facilities, difficulties in finding instructors knowledgeable about this type of training, etc. Still, the most common reason is probably the simple fact that such training is often outside of people's comfort zone. Yet, as Craig says, being uncomfortable is a critical part of learning (he states that a 50% win rate is fairly standard in the class's evolutions and in actual fights on the streets); the bottom line was that one should train to overcome one's deficits.
Craig then demonstrated with Ferrell how vast majority of non-electronic human interaction, both malignant and benign, occur at arm's reach. This, of course, negates much most of the advantage of a concealed firearm. Still, every little bit of range counts, which Craig demonstrated with a simple drill: standing arms length away, try to touch his hand before his hand touches your stomach. The success rate was extremely low at arm's length, yet shot up to 100% when Craig moved a mere half a foot length backwards. This emphasized the need to have as much range as possible, no matter how small the extra distance might be. Range is maintained by situational awareness; unfortunately in today's world, many people fall prey to task fixation, which drastically decreases situational awareness, which in turn tends to draw in criminals.
Even with situational awareness, one must be able to identify the people who encroach upon your space. Normally, various factors come into play in to how close you might allow a person to you, such as age, gender, dress, race, demeanor, etc. However, Craig notes that these selection factors are hardly foolproof, and that for the average person just starting MUC, the easiest way is to have just two classifications: people you know, and people you don't know.
Once you have identified an encroacher as someone you don't know, the next step is to stop them from further encroaching upon you. However, there is a fine balance between simply keeping people at bay versus being confrontational. Craig starts out with a simple, polite request, e.g., "hey man, can you just stay there for me?". This gives people an opportunity to stop coming toward you without any kind of escalation. However, it's quite possible for people to ignore such requests for perfectly benign reasons, ranging from simply not hearing you to outright ignoring you due to them being in a state of panic; in the latter possibility, they may even seem quite threatening at first, as they would most likely be moving toward you in a very rapid fashion, which most people would associate with malicious intent. Craig then moves on to a command, generally in a much louder and authoritative tone, in order to jar people and make them actually understand what you're saying. If that fails, and you still have enough distance to still continue with verbal commands, profanity can be tried, although this risks confrontation. There are two key points to note for the usage of profanity. The first one is to keep from insulting the person; there is a large amount of difference in "back the fuck up" as opposed to "back up, motherfucker", in terms of how confrontational one is. The second point to remember is that profanity is an integral part of criminal cant, and its usage by someone who typical does not curse can easily become unconvincing and a sign of weakness; as Craig stated, if you're generally not one to curse, this is not the time to start.
Another key part of the verbal exchange is to think of it as a monologue rather than a dialogue. In order to process what the other party is saying, you would take away precious focus, which in turn slows your reactions. Craig likened this exchange as a tape of sorts that you should play when confronted, rather than try to think of something on the fly.
The ShivWorks Extreme Close Quarter Concepts (ECQC) course is a two and a half day (20 hours) block of instruction which focuses on a multi-disciplinary approach to building functional, combative handgun skills at zero to five feet. The course is designed to instill core concepts of seamless integration and provide the platform for aggressive problem solving during a life or death struggle. A heavy emphasis is placed upon commonality of body mechanics between skill sub-sets, which means that all combative software is reinforcing. Once the student’s skill sets are initially ingrained, the participant will be stress inoculated with force on force drills utilizing marking cartridges and protective equipment.
This is my first formal combatives-oriented course. I have previously taken a Vickers Tactical Basic Handgun, Vickers Tactical Handgun I, a pistol-training.com Aim Fast, Hit Fast, and a F.A.S.T. Inc. Night Self Defense Handgun. I used an H&K P30LS with the Grayguns Reduced Reset Carry Perfection Package, with an X400 mounted with the DG-11 and zeroed for 7 yards, and IWB carried it using a RCS Phantom at about the 0130 position in condition 1. I also had two mag carriers, Cane & Derby Pardus SSLs, a Paul Moore BoB trainer blade carried at my 1100 with the handle angled upward toward the centerline at a 45°, and used a Wilderness Tactical Ti Instructor Belt. I purposely chose to wear what I would normally wear outside of work, besides the addition of a long sleeve Under Armour HeatGear shirt, which meant relatively form fitting jeans and T-shirts, along with low cut Chucks. While I did bring various other protective gear was recommended for the evolutions, such as a mouth guard, kneepads, gloves, etc., I chose to only utilize a cup as my extra protective equipment during the evolutions. I am 5'8", and approximately 140 lbs.
Craig Douglas (AKA SouthNarc) was the primary instructor, with Ferrell Munson as the primary AI, and Justin as a secondary AI. Class started the first day at 1810; weather was fairly hot and some what humid. There were 19 students at the start of the course; one was an LEO, two were trainers, while the rest were civilians, though several had security/law enforcement related jobs (two trainers and a bail enforcement agent). The three repeat students were all civilians. The vast majority of guns were Glocks, with a couple of M&Ps, an XD, and an H&K. With the exception of the LEO, who used some sort of Safariland with a hood, all students utilized holsters without retention, and close to half ran IWB appendix, with the rest going with strong side hip, with a mix of IWB and OWB.
We started out in the classroom, with everyone giving a quick bio of themselves. Craig gave his bio last, and stated that one of the things he realized over the years was that 70%-75% of his formal training was essentially useless in the field, while the vast majority of the training that actually was useful was still generally used in a different context than taught.
We then moved into talking about the criminal assault paradigm, which is to say, how criminals work. The key thing to remember is that most criminals are opportunists, which thus negates much of what standard training tends to be structured, as most adversarial training tends to occur with equal initiative and equal armament. Classic examples would be spars in TMA, in which two opponents start a set distance apart, both knowing the intent of the opponent, with relatively equal weapons. Various knife fighting classes or force on force scenarios operate much in the same manner. Obviously, this does not apply in the real world, where criminals generally operate with ambushes and misdirection. Ferrell and Craig role-played various scenarios to illustrate how a criminal might act, demonstrating how easy it is for them to have both the initiative and superior armament available.
Craig also noted that three core elements were often seen in these criminal assaults: very close range, multiple assailants, and presence of a weapon, yet the vast majority of training, especially in the past, never acknowledged these circumstances. The reasons for this are varied, including the lack of proper equipment, a lack of proper facilities, difficulties in finding instructors knowledgeable about this type of training, etc. Still, the most common reason is probably the simple fact that such training is often outside of people's comfort zone. Yet, as Craig says, being uncomfortable is a critical part of learning (he states that a 50% win rate is fairly standard in the class's evolutions and in actual fights on the streets); the bottom line was that one should train to overcome one's deficits.
Craig then demonstrated with Ferrell how vast majority of non-electronic human interaction, both malignant and benign, occur at arm's reach. This, of course, negates much most of the advantage of a concealed firearm. Still, every little bit of range counts, which Craig demonstrated with a simple drill: standing arms length away, try to touch his hand before his hand touches your stomach. The success rate was extremely low at arm's length, yet shot up to 100% when Craig moved a mere half a foot length backwards. This emphasized the need to have as much range as possible, no matter how small the extra distance might be. Range is maintained by situational awareness; unfortunately in today's world, many people fall prey to task fixation, which drastically decreases situational awareness, which in turn tends to draw in criminals.
Even with situational awareness, one must be able to identify the people who encroach upon your space. Normally, various factors come into play in to how close you might allow a person to you, such as age, gender, dress, race, demeanor, etc. However, Craig notes that these selection factors are hardly foolproof, and that for the average person just starting MUC, the easiest way is to have just two classifications: people you know, and people you don't know.
Once you have identified an encroacher as someone you don't know, the next step is to stop them from further encroaching upon you. However, there is a fine balance between simply keeping people at bay versus being confrontational. Craig starts out with a simple, polite request, e.g., "hey man, can you just stay there for me?". This gives people an opportunity to stop coming toward you without any kind of escalation. However, it's quite possible for people to ignore such requests for perfectly benign reasons, ranging from simply not hearing you to outright ignoring you due to them being in a state of panic; in the latter possibility, they may even seem quite threatening at first, as they would most likely be moving toward you in a very rapid fashion, which most people would associate with malicious intent. Craig then moves on to a command, generally in a much louder and authoritative tone, in order to jar people and make them actually understand what you're saying. If that fails, and you still have enough distance to still continue with verbal commands, profanity can be tried, although this risks confrontation. There are two key points to note for the usage of profanity. The first one is to keep from insulting the person; there is a large amount of difference in "back the fuck up" as opposed to "back up, motherfucker", in terms of how confrontational one is. The second point to remember is that profanity is an integral part of criminal cant, and its usage by someone who typical does not curse can easily become unconvincing and a sign of weakness; as Craig stated, if you're generally not one to curse, this is not the time to start.
Another key part of the verbal exchange is to think of it as a monologue rather than a dialogue. In order to process what the other party is saying, you would take away precious focus, which in turn slows your reactions. Craig likened this exchange as a tape of sorts that you should play when confronted, rather than try to think of something on the fly.