ImBatman
I'm on a boat!
Close Contact Handgun 14-15 April w/ Immediate Action Combatives and Independence Training
Background- I'm including a background so you understand my frame of reference and what I'm coming into the class expecting, and have an idea of what hangups I have. Like most people I "grew up with guns", hunting and sport shooting. I joined the Navy in 2009, and have had the pleasure of shooting more than a few times under instruction of some squared away folks in the Navy. I've attended two previous training classes with Sentinel Concepts and aim for greater than monthly range visits. This was my first Force on Force exposure with sim guns as well.
Gear- I shot my EDC, Fauxland Special 001, a Glock 19 with RMR06, RCS Freya, S3F Barrel, TBRC Micro Comp, Overwatch Precision FALX, Gripforce Adapter, Surefire X300U, and finger grooves removed. Reloads were managed with RCS Copias, belt was Mean Gene Barbarian, and holster a Keroman V2 from CNC Holsters. The gun was fed 124 grain Speer Lawman and magazines were Magpul Glock PMAGs.
Expectations- I came into this class expecting to get punched in the face, knowing fully that I'm not a fighter. Combatives is a huge gap in my knowledge base and I wanted to start bridging that gap.
Training Day 1- The training day started at 6 PM at Megaton Gym, for lectures and the building blocks of Cecils approach to combatives and close contact skills. We covered backgrounds of instructors and introductions from classmates. In addition to Cecil and Glen we were introduced to the 2 additional assistant instructors who would be working with us for the next 2 days. The basics of verbals, pre-assault indicators and managing unknown contacts (a term stolen from Craig Douglas, who Glen and Cecil were quick to credit with a lot of the building blocks we learned) were interspersed with learning to work distances and getting realistic measures of how quickly distance can be covered by someone who wishes to do us harm. This directly tied into covering techniques to create distance, and how to gain compliance from an unknown verbally to let us maintain the kind of distance that we as good guys can use to our advantage.
Training Day 2- Class started at 0800 TD2 at Cowtown Range, we had the obligatory safety brief and expectations covered as we'd be introducing live guns into our work. We then went on to look at the realities of unsighted fire from multiple compressed ready positions and discussed why unsighted fire is preferable from a body mechanics standpoint, and necessary compromise to start bleeding from a bad guy while full extension and using the sights is not advantageous for stability and for long term winning the fight. We downed all guns and moved on to covering distance with a live opponent and blue guns, working from close retention with a variety of guards to full extension and back again. The need for stability is forced as we started adding in pushing and testing a persons ability to get set as they move. This also encouraged us to start working in our head the distances and speeds that require retraction/protection of the gun. The blue gun work escalated after lunch to working "thunderdome" encounters bringing MUC, distance management, weapon deployment and weapon use all into play. Peoples bias to get the gun into play quickly showed and multiple iterations of "nobody wins everybody gets shot" happened, however these were absolute learning moments as we looked at the need as a good guy to impede and stop the baddies access to a weapon while also getting good hits with your own. To close the day we finished with runs of force on force in a shoothouse and working from a car, replicating conditions people go through every day.
My Takeaway- I came into this class knowing I'm a shooter not a fighter, I left the class with a better understanding of how to leave the distances and conditions that are outside my strengths and get into a position to face shoot fuckers. Hands and body position were consistently the biggest indicators of hostile intent, and being able to read these were luckily something I didn't struggle with and it became easy to watch the RP'er shift to "I want to shoot someone" mode or enter the scenario with that mindset to begin with. Twitching hands every time were the giveaway they were going to go for the gun, and at that point it was time to start looking at how I could maximize my chances of winning the slugfest that was about to go down. After the third force on force rep I realized even at full extension I wasn't seeing my sights, but I was hitting above sixty percent at distances from 7 to 20 yards. I'm genuinely curious if I was just not focused on the sights, and how being an RMR shooter affected my memory of the sight picture. Plans are in place to keep better track of my hit ratio on the next FoF class I get, and to run a FoF class with an RMR'd gun to see if my perception of the sights change or if my hit ratio goes up. On one of my force on force evos I went to push the role player (staff) to build distance, attempting to gain compliance and get an opportunity to get the car between the two of us, This quickly backfired and ended with my gun jammed, a single round impacting the roleplayer in a his stomach and me off balance and about to get eaten. Getting comfortable with striking and other more aggressive actions to force compliance is going to be the next skillset I need, and this class was very good about acting as a primer for the other things a shooter needs to start working into. Glen and Cecil were very upfront that this is their entry level class and it is going to be up to the student to bring it home into their training regimen and continue growing their skillsets.
Complaints- All the good aside I have a few complaints regarding the training offered. Both days ran over significantly, and were slow to start. Glen struggled to find his tempo, and at times I found myself wanting him to shut up other students or wondering why we were doing quite as many reps of a drill as we were. What could have been demonstrations turned into multiple run evolutions for example. The bigger issue I had was with breaks and planning for day 2s events. As there were 4 cadre teaching they'd scheduled handing off primary teaching well, but forgotten to give us a break between working one instructors content and anothers and had us working on the range non-stop for nearly an hour. In Arizona, with 90+ degree heat and no wind, this could've ended badly. Even when multiple groups of us walked off the line to get water a break wasn't called. I wouldn't hesitate to train again with either Cecil or Glen, and I look forward to seeing further development in course curriculum and presentation.
Skills to Work- offhand strikes, pectoral index shooting, collapsing to retention, movement off axis, boundary management, and managing unknown contacts.
Background- I'm including a background so you understand my frame of reference and what I'm coming into the class expecting, and have an idea of what hangups I have. Like most people I "grew up with guns", hunting and sport shooting. I joined the Navy in 2009, and have had the pleasure of shooting more than a few times under instruction of some squared away folks in the Navy. I've attended two previous training classes with Sentinel Concepts and aim for greater than monthly range visits. This was my first Force on Force exposure with sim guns as well.
Gear- I shot my EDC, Fauxland Special 001, a Glock 19 with RMR06, RCS Freya, S3F Barrel, TBRC Micro Comp, Overwatch Precision FALX, Gripforce Adapter, Surefire X300U, and finger grooves removed. Reloads were managed with RCS Copias, belt was Mean Gene Barbarian, and holster a Keroman V2 from CNC Holsters. The gun was fed 124 grain Speer Lawman and magazines were Magpul Glock PMAGs.
Expectations- I came into this class expecting to get punched in the face, knowing fully that I'm not a fighter. Combatives is a huge gap in my knowledge base and I wanted to start bridging that gap.
Training Day 1- The training day started at 6 PM at Megaton Gym, for lectures and the building blocks of Cecils approach to combatives and close contact skills. We covered backgrounds of instructors and introductions from classmates. In addition to Cecil and Glen we were introduced to the 2 additional assistant instructors who would be working with us for the next 2 days. The basics of verbals, pre-assault indicators and managing unknown contacts (a term stolen from Craig Douglas, who Glen and Cecil were quick to credit with a lot of the building blocks we learned) were interspersed with learning to work distances and getting realistic measures of how quickly distance can be covered by someone who wishes to do us harm. This directly tied into covering techniques to create distance, and how to gain compliance from an unknown verbally to let us maintain the kind of distance that we as good guys can use to our advantage.
Training Day 2- Class started at 0800 TD2 at Cowtown Range, we had the obligatory safety brief and expectations covered as we'd be introducing live guns into our work. We then went on to look at the realities of unsighted fire from multiple compressed ready positions and discussed why unsighted fire is preferable from a body mechanics standpoint, and necessary compromise to start bleeding from a bad guy while full extension and using the sights is not advantageous for stability and for long term winning the fight. We downed all guns and moved on to covering distance with a live opponent and blue guns, working from close retention with a variety of guards to full extension and back again. The need for stability is forced as we started adding in pushing and testing a persons ability to get set as they move. This also encouraged us to start working in our head the distances and speeds that require retraction/protection of the gun. The blue gun work escalated after lunch to working "thunderdome" encounters bringing MUC, distance management, weapon deployment and weapon use all into play. Peoples bias to get the gun into play quickly showed and multiple iterations of "nobody wins everybody gets shot" happened, however these were absolute learning moments as we looked at the need as a good guy to impede and stop the baddies access to a weapon while also getting good hits with your own. To close the day we finished with runs of force on force in a shoothouse and working from a car, replicating conditions people go through every day.
My Takeaway- I came into this class knowing I'm a shooter not a fighter, I left the class with a better understanding of how to leave the distances and conditions that are outside my strengths and get into a position to face shoot fuckers. Hands and body position were consistently the biggest indicators of hostile intent, and being able to read these were luckily something I didn't struggle with and it became easy to watch the RP'er shift to "I want to shoot someone" mode or enter the scenario with that mindset to begin with. Twitching hands every time were the giveaway they were going to go for the gun, and at that point it was time to start looking at how I could maximize my chances of winning the slugfest that was about to go down. After the third force on force rep I realized even at full extension I wasn't seeing my sights, but I was hitting above sixty percent at distances from 7 to 20 yards. I'm genuinely curious if I was just not focused on the sights, and how being an RMR shooter affected my memory of the sight picture. Plans are in place to keep better track of my hit ratio on the next FoF class I get, and to run a FoF class with an RMR'd gun to see if my perception of the sights change or if my hit ratio goes up. On one of my force on force evos I went to push the role player (staff) to build distance, attempting to gain compliance and get an opportunity to get the car between the two of us, This quickly backfired and ended with my gun jammed, a single round impacting the roleplayer in a his stomach and me off balance and about to get eaten. Getting comfortable with striking and other more aggressive actions to force compliance is going to be the next skillset I need, and this class was very good about acting as a primer for the other things a shooter needs to start working into. Glen and Cecil were very upfront that this is their entry level class and it is going to be up to the student to bring it home into their training regimen and continue growing their skillsets.
Complaints- All the good aside I have a few complaints regarding the training offered. Both days ran over significantly, and were slow to start. Glen struggled to find his tempo, and at times I found myself wanting him to shut up other students or wondering why we were doing quite as many reps of a drill as we were. What could have been demonstrations turned into multiple run evolutions for example. The bigger issue I had was with breaks and planning for day 2s events. As there were 4 cadre teaching they'd scheduled handing off primary teaching well, but forgotten to give us a break between working one instructors content and anothers and had us working on the range non-stop for nearly an hour. In Arizona, with 90+ degree heat and no wind, this could've ended badly. Even when multiple groups of us walked off the line to get water a break wasn't called. I wouldn't hesitate to train again with either Cecil or Glen, and I look forward to seeing further development in course curriculum and presentation.
Skills to Work- offhand strikes, pectoral index shooting, collapsing to retention, movement off axis, boundary management, and managing unknown contacts.
