Categories
Phillosoph

Look Out, Get Out, Strike Out!

Look Out: Defence Begins with Awareness

There is no defence without awareness. You must pay active attention to your surroundings.
You are not aware if you are gawping at your phone. Do not walk with a phone in your hand. Keep your phone in a pocket or pouch and only use it when stationary and safe.
Do not walk with your hands in your pockets!
Look where you are going and at the world around you.
Awareness is not just about spotting potential threats. You should be noting possible escape routes, resources or means of defence.
Awareness is more than just sight. Sounds and even scents may provide useful information. Pay more attention to these senses when visibility is restricted.
If you feel someone or something seems “off”, do not ignore this feeling. You may subconsciously be registering body language or other cues that you may be in danger.

Get Out: Defend Before Draw

If attacked, you must evade or redirect the attack before attempting to ready a weapon. Neutralise the attack, then draw and use your weapon.
If an enemy is within three body-lengths distance, you must prioritise defence and evasion over counter-attacking..
If you neglect this, your enemy may have time to wound or kill you, even if you have fatally wounded them. An attacker need not be armed. They may bury their thumbs in your eyes, knock you down and fatally stomp you, or use your own weapons against you. Treat any attack as though there may be a knife, even if you cannot see it.
If you have a weapon ready, combine your attack with an evasion.
If fired on from a distance, do not stand and return fire. Get out of sight, preferably behind hard-cover, before returning fire.
If fired on, get out of sight. Move location, crawling if necessary. Assess the situation and locate the enemy. Return fire, or escape, or manoeuvre, as you judge best.

Strike Out: Hit the Nearest Body Part

Several martial arts advocate “defanging the snake”: attacking the hand or arm holding a weapon.
An extension of this idea is to attack the nearest/most accessible body part.
While this seems obvious when using a weapon, this tactic may also be utilised when unarmed. Hit whatever you can.
Be aware that in addition to your hands, you have your elbows, knees, shoulders, feet and head to attack with. The nearest target may be a foot, leg, hip, shoulder, coccyx, or kidneys.
Lower targets are more easily and rapidly attacked with your feet and knees. Higher targets are better attacked with your upper body weapons. Use what is closest and fastest.
If there is a choice of targets, hit one. Hesitating while you decide which is the better target may result in your missing the opportunity to hit anything. Any attack that lands will have more effect than a more effective strike that misses.
Categories
Phillosoph

Crash Course in Rifle

A friend of mine was reading about the training of conscripts in Taiwan. He referenced some of the articles I have written about making training more relevant. These include my blog on the “Murray System” and the book that derived from it, my book “Crash Combat”.
Crash Combat is about unarmed and non-firearm combat. For a more generic training program, where would I start?
Probably, near the start, would be an introduction to practical use of the rifle, taught in several phases:

Introduction Phase

• Basic safety and orientation.
• Perceive, Recognize, Engage.
• Load, unload and clearing.
• Anatomy for shooters: The Lethal T, the belt-buckle aim and the armpit line.
No one goes past the introduction phase until the instructor is convinced all students are competent and mature in their handling of firearms and their behaviour on the range.

Phase One

This phase teaches shooting from behind cover, from various positions. It ingrains the habit of always using available cover, while teaching shooting posture fundamentals.
Firing from a squat position
Start with prone position and move on to other positions such as kneeling, sitting and squatting.
Key points:
• Fire around rather than over cover when possible.
• Keep low. Never be reluctant to get close to the dirt.
• Always use cover when possible.
• Use cover when reloading and clearing stoppages.
• What parts of a gun not to rest in contact with hard cover when firing.
• Includes section on correct techniques to use when firing from windows.
Phase one is conducted with half-silhouette targets of various sizes, engaged at relatively short ranges, such as 20 to 50 metres. Sights zeroed to 200 metres are used for all shooting.
Emphasis in this phase is on building the student’s confidence in their shooting while teaching good shooting postures and tactical positions.
There are no scores, shots being judged as either hits or misses. Reactive targets that make a noise, fall or flash a light when hit will prove useful.

Phase Two

Phases two is dry firing. It is effectively kata for guns, or tai chi with triggers.
As recommended by Elliot, students practice mounting their rifle to bring it smoothly up to firing position. This is practised in the various postures learnt in phase one.
Mounting is combined with tracking, breathing and trigger exercises:
• Tracking involves keeping a mounted weapon moving to pursue, swing through and lead a moving target.
• Breathing involves synchronizing the respiratory cycle with the moment of firing to minimize unintended movement of the weapon.
• Trigger exercise is developing a trigger “press” that causes minimum displacement of the barrel.

Phase Three

Phase three is Quick Kill training.
Airguns/airsoft guns with the sights removed are used to engage small thrown targets. This builds on the instinctive pointing and tracking skills developed in phase two. Phase three teaches effective engagement skills for situations when there is insufficient time to align sights or when sights are not visible.

Phase Four

Introduction to room-clearing techniques. The likelihood of operations in urban terrain means a familiarity with room clearing must become a fundamental skill-set of any firearm user.
• Shooting on the move and while sidestepping.
For safety, phase four may be practised with airsoft weapons.

Phase Five

Phase five is preceded by a short review of leading a target, and the effects, or lack of, of wind and elevation upon aim.
Phase five is a repeat of phase one, but the engagement range is increased up to 250m.
Students may be required to crawl to a firing position, or use other appropriate modes of tactical movement.
Target shooting, long-range shooting, volley fire and other fields can be taught later. Soldiers with an aptitude for these disciplines can be encouraged accordingly.
The five phases are designed to quickly produce riflemen that can respond quickly and accurately against threats that occur within likely engagement ranges and terrain.