16 Nov 09
Scenario-Based Training:
We just completed an Airsoft-enabled, Scenario-Based Training program in Addison, IL, at the wonderful Safe Direction facility. It was an eye-opener for all of us!
Students were veterans of several Defensive Handgun Programs, by us and other well-known instructors. All carry concealed regularly. No amateurs were present!
We used Airsoft pistols and rifles, and all students were thoroughly oriented on Airsoft at the beginning of the Program.
Here are important lessons students report over and over:
1) Keep your head up! Maintain continuous visual contact with all possible threats. Look all around. Notice details. Gawking at your gun seldom provides you with any useful information.
2) Stay in motion! We die in the gaps. Get off the "X!"
3) Use cover! Be ever-aware of objects that may be used for cover. Be able to become an extremely difficult/illusive target, instantly.
4) Develop an ability to rapidly size-up threatening situations. We may not like what we see, but we must have the personal courage to confront indisputable facts squarely.
5) Have a plan! You must have a tactical blueprint up on your screen all the time. You can't plan every detail, but you must have a general idea of what you're going to do and where/how you're going to start.
6) Be able to distinguish the significant from the insignificant! Most information is worthless. Don't expend attentive energy on what is not important. Quickly determine what is critical and start planning around it. Beware of decoys!
7) Don't panic! Move smoothly and with purpose. No wasted parts; no wasted motions! Control your breathing and stay one step ahead of developing situations. Use your sights; aim your shots!
8) Fight through speed-bumps. Running out of ammunition, stoppages, being wounded, et al. They're all just speed-bumps. Don't turn them into Mt Everest! Get over/around them quickly and move on.
9) Gain and maintain the offensive! Turn the table on your opponent(s) immediately. Once the initiative is seized, never give it up. Stay in control. One-by-one, eliminate his options.
10) Finish the fight! Outcomes are often determined by who gives up first. See the fight through to the end.
10) Don't hesitate, dither, nor stampede! (a) Smooth, (b) lethally potent, (c) coldly efficient, (d) surgically precise, and (e) ruthlessly incisive execution are the keys to victory.
Scenario-based training represents a wonderful opportunity to exercise all of the foregoing.
We're doing a lot of it these days!
/John
16 Nov 09
These additional comments from my friend in the Federal System:
"I visited a colleague at FBI headquarters in Washington DC a short time ago.
He had to come down from his office to the quarantined check-in area to meet me. He then instructed me to secure my weapons up in lockers provided. When I asked why, he told me that only FBI Special Agents were authorized to carry weapons in 'their' building. 'That's really curious,' said I, ' since my Agency's recruitment and training standards, in addition to our security clearance, vastly exceeds yours. So, our Agents, including me, are even more 'special' than yours!'
No reply, of course. I was then required to pass thru an airport-style magnetometer (operated by rent-a-cops) before being allowed into the building.
As a manager, how can one possibly justify such a stupid, demeaning, intelligence-insulting policy at a federal facility, when all us federal law-enforcement personnel routinely carry loaded firearms everywhere, daily, including on commercial aircraft!
The whole thing is so juvenile, it is difficult for me control my anger long enough to wrap my brain around it. It is even more difficult for the average American to understand how massacres of the unarmed (actually DISarmed, as most officers and NCOs would happily carry all the time if permitted) happen on military bases!"
Comment: My friend hesitates to say it, but I won't. The problem is that " managers" to whom he refers, including some generals and directors, are spineless worms, far more interested in promotion-groveling politics than in law enforcement, or even defending the Nation.
The entire Federal System, including the Military, needs fewer cowering atta-boys and more audacious heroes!
/John
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created on Monday November 16, 2009 23:59:1 MST