Gabriel Suarez
04-29-2019, 07:18 AM
I am sure some others will post their AAR but I wanted to add mine...a teacher's perspective, first. Brent Yamamoto and I taught this together.
Like most of my classes, this one was fully populated. We ranged from gulf war vets to retired ship's captains, and from SoCal surfer guys to spooky types who could not have their pics taken.
"If you carry a pistol, it is for self-defense...and you defend yourself by fighting well with it. Thus like it or not, you are gunfighters...and my goal...my only goal here is to make you better gunfighters". Truly, I think we did just that. Many people who carry guns equate gunfighting with gun-shooting. And while shooting a part (albeit a small one) of gunfighting, there is much more that is needed.
We discussed the proactive realm and how shooting and killing a bad guy is justified. No such thing as "self defense". There is attack and there is counter attack. And sometimes an attack is justified by the laws we live with. Examples given. But most of the training we conduct is for the reactive realm as this is more complicated. Those times when you are the attacked, not the attacker.
The process was discuss concepts and strategies, show the technical execution of those strategies, then drill them alone and with a partner with increasing degrees of pressure. We did something different this time in that we didn't have as many degrees of pressure and as many iterations of a given drill. Once everyone got it, we quickly moved to the next one. Once a block was understood, we memorialized it in solo drills using our templates of training (what we have begun to call the pistol katas*).
First block was simple. Counter attack against a projectile weapon attack. And the methodologies of changing the angle to your benefit to facilitate evasion of the gun muzzle and a swift counter attack. I will tell you that this stuff has been combat proven over and over. And it stands at a monument to why sport shooting and gunfighting are totally different animals with little in common.
Second block was like the first but for dealing with a contact weapon attack. Illustrated by two triangle diagrams touching in the center, we moved through the drills' template. Four lines of initial movement followed by secondary lines of evasion. And that followed by a quick after action scan and reload. The "Diagonal Lines" template made memorizing and understanding these lines easier. More on this later.
We added a block of training, which went very quickly, relating to an attack from behind. We explored various lines of movement and evasion when the attack comes from behind. Imagine turning to see what that sound was, and then realizing it is a pistol pointed at the back of your head. That was when the fight began. And then we added the "Watch Your Back" template of movement.
Finally we added something we have never taught before in this or any context. Using vertical displacement as a method of evasion and counterattack for situations where angular movement of any sort is compromised. Think narrow hallway, between cars in a parking lot, etc. This took sometime but when pressure tested, even with the compromises of environment, its value was evident. And then we taught the third template "Changing Levels" for the first time.
Yesterday evening sitting in the patio of Suarez HQ, Brent and I debriefed what we did and agreed that this is some ground breaking stuff. To see the students progress so rapidly in so many exercises so quickly is unprecedented. Few outside our group will get what we are doing, and invariably when it is publicized, the Elmer Fudds of the industry will denigrate it. But the guys that were there, and that will attend subsequent Suarez Force on Force classes (that will be "Template Based") will know and will have a confidence about their abilities to win the gunfight that no other training will provide.
*Brent and I discussed this Wednesday before the class and while the word Kata is easily understood by those with Karate training, it has some unwanted baggage outside that realm thanks to the fuckery of "Karate Kid" movies and the McDojos that infest the land. Moreover, Gunfighting - the name of this martial art - is a quintessential American fighting system and deserves its own terminology.
.
Like most of my classes, this one was fully populated. We ranged from gulf war vets to retired ship's captains, and from SoCal surfer guys to spooky types who could not have their pics taken.
"If you carry a pistol, it is for self-defense...and you defend yourself by fighting well with it. Thus like it or not, you are gunfighters...and my goal...my only goal here is to make you better gunfighters". Truly, I think we did just that. Many people who carry guns equate gunfighting with gun-shooting. And while shooting a part (albeit a small one) of gunfighting, there is much more that is needed.
We discussed the proactive realm and how shooting and killing a bad guy is justified. No such thing as "self defense". There is attack and there is counter attack. And sometimes an attack is justified by the laws we live with. Examples given. But most of the training we conduct is for the reactive realm as this is more complicated. Those times when you are the attacked, not the attacker.
The process was discuss concepts and strategies, show the technical execution of those strategies, then drill them alone and with a partner with increasing degrees of pressure. We did something different this time in that we didn't have as many degrees of pressure and as many iterations of a given drill. Once everyone got it, we quickly moved to the next one. Once a block was understood, we memorialized it in solo drills using our templates of training (what we have begun to call the pistol katas*).
First block was simple. Counter attack against a projectile weapon attack. And the methodologies of changing the angle to your benefit to facilitate evasion of the gun muzzle and a swift counter attack. I will tell you that this stuff has been combat proven over and over. And it stands at a monument to why sport shooting and gunfighting are totally different animals with little in common.
Second block was like the first but for dealing with a contact weapon attack. Illustrated by two triangle diagrams touching in the center, we moved through the drills' template. Four lines of initial movement followed by secondary lines of evasion. And that followed by a quick after action scan and reload. The "Diagonal Lines" template made memorizing and understanding these lines easier. More on this later.
We added a block of training, which went very quickly, relating to an attack from behind. We explored various lines of movement and evasion when the attack comes from behind. Imagine turning to see what that sound was, and then realizing it is a pistol pointed at the back of your head. That was when the fight began. And then we added the "Watch Your Back" template of movement.
Finally we added something we have never taught before in this or any context. Using vertical displacement as a method of evasion and counterattack for situations where angular movement of any sort is compromised. Think narrow hallway, between cars in a parking lot, etc. This took sometime but when pressure tested, even with the compromises of environment, its value was evident. And then we taught the third template "Changing Levels" for the first time.
Yesterday evening sitting in the patio of Suarez HQ, Brent and I debriefed what we did and agreed that this is some ground breaking stuff. To see the students progress so rapidly in so many exercises so quickly is unprecedented. Few outside our group will get what we are doing, and invariably when it is publicized, the Elmer Fudds of the industry will denigrate it. But the guys that were there, and that will attend subsequent Suarez Force on Force classes (that will be "Template Based") will know and will have a confidence about their abilities to win the gunfight that no other training will provide.
*Brent and I discussed this Wednesday before the class and while the word Kata is easily understood by those with Karate training, it has some unwanted baggage outside that realm thanks to the fuckery of "Karate Kid" movies and the McDojos that infest the land. Moreover, Gunfighting - the name of this martial art - is a quintessential American fighting system and deserves its own terminology.
.