JimConway
Instructor
A friend, John Hearne posted this review on the 1911 forum, and I am posting it for your info.
Beaten, Batter, Bruised and Lovin’ It
I am just back from 1.5 days in Memphis, TN where I trained what must be the worst-case scenario for anyone who carries a gun. The courses were called Extreme Close Quarters Pistol (ECQ) and Practical Unarmed Combat (PUC) but it would be better served with the title of “Gutter Gunfighting.” I found these 1.5 days of training invaluable and after some time and Ibuprofen, would like another dose.
THE INSTRUCTOR
The instructor for this course prefers to remain anonymous, using the name “SouthNarc,” but his background does warrant some detail. SouthNarc spent 18 months in the bad parts of town buying drugs as part of a multi-jurisdictional task force. Prior to those 18 months, SouthNarc was a soldier, uniform patrol officer and a life long martial artist. As SouthNarc said, “what made me so good at buying dope, also made me likely to be assaulted.” Those assaults included numerous armed robberies including one in which a suspect fired a weapon in the process of a disarm as well as an assault that resulted in a skull fracture from a blunt object. (Lesson learned: “it sucks to fight for your life when you’re barely conscious.”)
Since these buys, and buys by other Narcs, were videotaped, SouthNarc spent a lot of time watching the tapes and trying to figure out what had happened. These tapes, combined with personal experiences give SouthNarc an understanding of criminal violence that few possess. This understanding of criminal violence is a cornerstone of the class and common criminal tactics are discussed and possible answers offered.
This understanding of criminal violence was matched with previous training that was shown to be very lacking. SouthNarc related that 80% of what he had been taught was useless and the remaining 20% wasn’t taught in the proper context. What SouthNarc has done is develop a multi-disciplinary approach to fighting at distances ranging from 0-5 feet. To paraphrase SouthNarc, “it’s a problem solving exercise” – its up to you to use strikes, guns, or knives to solve the problem.
[Note: This is the class as I remember it. I wasn’t able to take notes as the material moved quickly. There’s more than what I’m remembering]
SATURDAY MORNING
The morning of the first day was briefly spent in the classroom handling administrative details and the obligatory safety briefing. After that we headed to the range where we stayed for roughly 3.5 hours. The focus of the range time was to perfect a draw stroke that would be the foundation of SouthNarc’s system.
SouthNarc believes in the crawl, walk, run approach to teaching. We started every new skill very carefully and slowly developed our skills until we could perform them at full speed. Almost all of our firing sequences began with our foreheads touching the target, that’s how close this system is optimized for.
As noted above the focus of the live fire time was to perfect the “Number 2 of our draw stroke.” Specifically, we were taught how to index the weapon consistently so that we could fire while being assured that the muzzle wasn’t covering ourselves. Rather than offer nebulous generalities, SouthNarc has “codified” this position strictly. Once the position is understood, it is possible to fire amazingly tight groups using only the body index.
A secondary focus of the range session was to teach us when and how to extend or compress the weapon. SouthNarc preaches that the firing position is fluid or alive. There is no textbook answer, only what is dictated by the situation or specifically, the proximities involved.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
We broke for lunch and when we returned, we stripped off all our gear, searching one another to make sure no live weapons were in the training room.
The first focus of the afternoon, dealt with the recognition of pre-assault cues and how to handle them. SouthNarc discussed the need for situational awareness and how to handle people who closed with you including verbal escalation. SouthNarc also discussed how to maintain a 360 degree awareness without moving you head and taking your eyes off the principal threat. We practiced this progression and movements until we all understood them. SouthNarc explained and demonstrated the three most common pre-assault cues. We then took turns role-playing these cues for our partner. It was up to the partner to verbalize when they recognized a cue. At first, these weren’t always obvious but they soon became second nature.
The next block of instruction began to cover actually empty hand techniques. SouthNarc explained that criminals often strike with surprise and that our priorities became two fold – to not be knocked out and to not be knocked down. SouthNarc dismissed the traditional diagnostic approach to blocking a punch or other strike. Instead, he focused on a standard, non-diagnostic default position. SouthNarc made it clear that the default position wouldn’t stop you from being hit, only from being knocked out and/or knocked over. We practiced the default position at slow speed to build technique. Soon, we donned protective headgear and took turns attempting to strike the other person as they moved to the default position. Next, we began to work a response, an elbow strike, from the default position. As before we started slowly to build technique. This time, the attacker donned headgear and the “victim” moved to the default position and then delivered an elbow strike. Once this was learned, we added yet another follow-up strike to the system.
Soon, we moved to “in fight weapons access” a complex decision that sounds deceptively easy. In actuality, when to present the weapon is a critical decision and can only be accomplished when there is a clear opening. It becomes your responsibility to create and recognize the opening and then draw and fire from the #2 position. Premature deployment of the handgun is a huge mistake that rapidly degenerates into a wrestling match that goes ugly quickly. After the discussion of the task, we began to practice with other classmates. The bad guy would wear headgear and the good guy would work through the assault starting from the default position or earlier. We fought this way for some time and when we were beginning to “get it” it was time to end the day.
__________________
AKA John E. Hearne
"Shoot deliberately." - Wyatt Earp
A 9mm may expand but a 45 never shrinks.
www.dvctargets.com - Promoting realism and excellence in combative shooting.
Beaten, Batter, Bruised and Lovin’ It
I am just back from 1.5 days in Memphis, TN where I trained what must be the worst-case scenario for anyone who carries a gun. The courses were called Extreme Close Quarters Pistol (ECQ) and Practical Unarmed Combat (PUC) but it would be better served with the title of “Gutter Gunfighting.” I found these 1.5 days of training invaluable and after some time and Ibuprofen, would like another dose.
THE INSTRUCTOR
The instructor for this course prefers to remain anonymous, using the name “SouthNarc,” but his background does warrant some detail. SouthNarc spent 18 months in the bad parts of town buying drugs as part of a multi-jurisdictional task force. Prior to those 18 months, SouthNarc was a soldier, uniform patrol officer and a life long martial artist. As SouthNarc said, “what made me so good at buying dope, also made me likely to be assaulted.” Those assaults included numerous armed robberies including one in which a suspect fired a weapon in the process of a disarm as well as an assault that resulted in a skull fracture from a blunt object. (Lesson learned: “it sucks to fight for your life when you’re barely conscious.”)
Since these buys, and buys by other Narcs, were videotaped, SouthNarc spent a lot of time watching the tapes and trying to figure out what had happened. These tapes, combined with personal experiences give SouthNarc an understanding of criminal violence that few possess. This understanding of criminal violence is a cornerstone of the class and common criminal tactics are discussed and possible answers offered.
This understanding of criminal violence was matched with previous training that was shown to be very lacking. SouthNarc related that 80% of what he had been taught was useless and the remaining 20% wasn’t taught in the proper context. What SouthNarc has done is develop a multi-disciplinary approach to fighting at distances ranging from 0-5 feet. To paraphrase SouthNarc, “it’s a problem solving exercise” – its up to you to use strikes, guns, or knives to solve the problem.
[Note: This is the class as I remember it. I wasn’t able to take notes as the material moved quickly. There’s more than what I’m remembering]
SATURDAY MORNING
The morning of the first day was briefly spent in the classroom handling administrative details and the obligatory safety briefing. After that we headed to the range where we stayed for roughly 3.5 hours. The focus of the range time was to perfect a draw stroke that would be the foundation of SouthNarc’s system.
SouthNarc believes in the crawl, walk, run approach to teaching. We started every new skill very carefully and slowly developed our skills until we could perform them at full speed. Almost all of our firing sequences began with our foreheads touching the target, that’s how close this system is optimized for.
As noted above the focus of the live fire time was to perfect the “Number 2 of our draw stroke.” Specifically, we were taught how to index the weapon consistently so that we could fire while being assured that the muzzle wasn’t covering ourselves. Rather than offer nebulous generalities, SouthNarc has “codified” this position strictly. Once the position is understood, it is possible to fire amazingly tight groups using only the body index.
A secondary focus of the range session was to teach us when and how to extend or compress the weapon. SouthNarc preaches that the firing position is fluid or alive. There is no textbook answer, only what is dictated by the situation or specifically, the proximities involved.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
We broke for lunch and when we returned, we stripped off all our gear, searching one another to make sure no live weapons were in the training room.
The first focus of the afternoon, dealt with the recognition of pre-assault cues and how to handle them. SouthNarc discussed the need for situational awareness and how to handle people who closed with you including verbal escalation. SouthNarc also discussed how to maintain a 360 degree awareness without moving you head and taking your eyes off the principal threat. We practiced this progression and movements until we all understood them. SouthNarc explained and demonstrated the three most common pre-assault cues. We then took turns role-playing these cues for our partner. It was up to the partner to verbalize when they recognized a cue. At first, these weren’t always obvious but they soon became second nature.
The next block of instruction began to cover actually empty hand techniques. SouthNarc explained that criminals often strike with surprise and that our priorities became two fold – to not be knocked out and to not be knocked down. SouthNarc dismissed the traditional diagnostic approach to blocking a punch or other strike. Instead, he focused on a standard, non-diagnostic default position. SouthNarc made it clear that the default position wouldn’t stop you from being hit, only from being knocked out and/or knocked over. We practiced the default position at slow speed to build technique. Soon, we donned protective headgear and took turns attempting to strike the other person as they moved to the default position. Next, we began to work a response, an elbow strike, from the default position. As before we started slowly to build technique. This time, the attacker donned headgear and the “victim” moved to the default position and then delivered an elbow strike. Once this was learned, we added yet another follow-up strike to the system.
Soon, we moved to “in fight weapons access” a complex decision that sounds deceptively easy. In actuality, when to present the weapon is a critical decision and can only be accomplished when there is a clear opening. It becomes your responsibility to create and recognize the opening and then draw and fire from the #2 position. Premature deployment of the handgun is a huge mistake that rapidly degenerates into a wrestling match that goes ugly quickly. After the discussion of the task, we began to practice with other classmates. The bad guy would wear headgear and the good guy would work through the assault starting from the default position or earlier. We fought this way for some time and when we were beginning to “get it” it was time to end the day.
__________________
AKA John E. Hearne
"Shoot deliberately." - Wyatt Earp
A 9mm may expand but a 45 never shrinks.
www.dvctargets.com - Promoting realism and excellence in combative shooting.
