Defensive Shooting in Motion Drill

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. I wanna talk about shooting and moving. When we talk about skill development and good defensive firearm skills, and being efficient in terms of being able to stop someone from hurting us or someone that we want to protect, in the middle of a dynamic critical incident. Of course, we need to remember that the shooting skill and our ability to actually stop the threat is going to come from efficient use of the firearm. A lot of people want to combine shooting and moving under the idea that if we're moving we must be safer than if we're standing still. Well my opinion is, if our movement will make the event last longer than it needs to, then our movement isn't really making us safer. If the movement is going to shorten the event, in other words, if we're gonna be able to move behind cover and not be in danger anymore, or move out of a room and close the door behind us, well then of course that movement is making a safer. And that movement is probably going to be very rapid and very dramatic. And then of course we have the principle of lateral movement. When we recognize a threat, we move laterally while we're presenting the firearm to get off that line that the person was attacking us on. But too often, I see people training in a way that choreographs their foot motions, so that they're sidestepping, or maybe they've turned their body away from the threat and they're shuffling as they walk. And they're moving in a very slow choreographed controlled way, a way that works great on a big open flat square range area, but maybe wouldn't work so well under the chaos and unpredictability of a dynamic critical incident in a real world environment. Understanding that, makes me question the validity of a training practice that involves turning my body, drawing a pistol and being in a very upright position, and shooting as I walk. Well, while those three shots were combat accurate and were relatively efficient while I was moving, that speed and pace of motion, really isn't going to make me that much safer. I think I'm much better off to move while I present, and fire more efficiently. In other words, more rapidly. Getting combat accurate hits from a planted stationary position, takes less deviation control than shooting while moving. And of course, that's gonna be true for everyone. Now, while we might hear someone anecdotally say, "Oh I shoot better when I'm moving.", What I've noticed, is that people who are in difficult shooting situations like moving, or an extreme distance, or an extremely small target, or some other issue that causes the balance of speed and precision to get skewed, try harder and apply the fundamentals in a more specific way. So rather than deal with the behavioral issues and the choreography issues of slow movement while shooting, I want to look at when movement really will help us. Now, of course the Combat Focused Shooting Program is designed for critical incidents that happen beyond two arms reach. And when we're within two arms reach we have a different set of protocols from our extreme close quarters tactics concepts, that tells us it's probably better to try to stop the person from using their weapon against us, than it is for us to try to use a firearm to defend ourselves in that close quarters engagement. Now if I'm just beyond that two arms reach, there may be a time and place where rapid dynamic movement as I fire my first two, three, four, or five shots, as I try to stop the threat as efficiently as I can, will make me safer. Especially in the case of someone with a knife, or with some type of blunt object that is meaning to do us lethal harm, and they're very close to that two arms reach area as we prepare to deploy a firearm to defend ourselves. We're too far away to move in, but we may not be far enough away for them not to reach us with that lethal slash of a knife, or with a heavy blunt object to try to hurt us in a way that will keep us from being able to defend ourselves. And of course one of our principles is, the more frequently and realistically that we train, the better prepared we will be to actually recognize what it is we need to do in the midst of a dynamic critical incident. So when I practice this rapid motion offline, and this single handed dynamic shooting to start my response with a firearm during this close critical situation that is not within two arms reach, I want to be in that six, seven, eight, nine foot range. Once I get back to where I'm 10 feet, 11 feet, 12 feet away, I'm going to be better off just planting and shooting to stop the threat before they can get closer to me, or before they can have more time to use their firearm. But again, in this zone where I'm very close to two arms reach, I'm gonna move rapidly. Now, of course I can do this with a training partner, but as I'm out here on my own today, I'm gonna use my random start shot timer to not only help me determine when to begin this drill and when to start my movement in my response, but also to really take a look and make sure that I am moving fast. That I'm moving in a way that would actually protect me while doing combat efficient shooting, which is getting combat accurate shots. Let's take a look and see how this will work. I've made some marks here on the ground. Now of course, if I didn't have a dirt or clay training area, I might be able to put some spray paint down, or put some tape down if I'm in an indoor range. But I want to have some markers to let me know that my movement is actually meaningful. And of course, I want to know where my two arms reach situation was. If I was this close to the target, I'd be doing something different other than responding with my firearm, regardless of what the situation was. So beyond two arms reach, this is that gray zone where if this person had a knife and they could take two or three steps towards me while they were slashing, maybe even while I was doing good combat accurate shooting, that person may still get that slash in, and I want to get away from them. So I need to make sure I'm doing two things, first and foremost of course, I need to make sure that I'm remaining safe. And this is one of those situations where movement in this direction or in this direction, offline from that attack, will actually make me safer than standing here and simply returning fire. But I also want to stop the threat. And I can run all day; if this person's faster than I am, it's not gonna protect me from the threat, simply to move. That's why I have my firearm. That's why I've been practicing my defensive firearm skills. To be able to stop that person from being able to hurt me. So I've got my random start timer, and what I'm gonna do, is when the timer goes off, I'm not only going to start my lateral movement like I normally would, but as I extend and shoot I am going to continue to move to get to a point to where I've made a significant amount of movement, a significant change of position, to stop that person if they had a knife and they were coming towards me while I was shooting them. So two, to three, to four shots as I'm moving across this line, what's a reasonable time? Of course, everyone's distance that they can move in a short period of time is going to be different. Everybody's dexterity is going to be different. Everybody's idea of how fast they can move and shoot in this situation is gonna be different. Of course every critical incident is gonna be different, we don't know how many shots it's gonna take to stop the threat. I definitely want to do my two, three, four, or even five shots. I definitely want to move at least three to four feet. I want to move a significant distance. More than I would move under lateral movement conditions. And of course I'm going to be moving while I'm shooting. Well one thing that we can see very easily watching people move, is if they're going to be moving rapidly, it's going to be very hard to do that and remain balanced, with two hands on the gun. If we're an experienced shooter and we've been doing a lot of good shooting drills, and good efficient shooting, and hopefully some good one-handed shooting drills, we should be comfortable with our ability at a certain distance and at a certain pace, to take combat accurate shots with only one hand, and that's what we'll be doing. Because if we're going to move rapidly, we're gonna want this hand out for balance and not locked into the gun. Because ultimately we're not going to be able to move in a way that is rapid enough to really be protecting us, really be making a safer, if we're also trying to shoot two handed. If the balance of speed and precision requires two handed shooting, we need to plant and shoot. So as I move across these lines, under time, while shooting. I'm going to be able to look at my timer and say, "Okay, was what I did really making me safer than simply just doing lateral movement and stopping and shooting?". And of course that's gonna be different under a lot of different circumstances. But it's certainly reasonable to say that if you can move three, four, or five feet while taking three, four, or five shots, and do it all in less than three seconds, you're probably making a difference that could save you in the event of a dynamic critical incident that happens inside of this box. If it's taking you five, or six, or seven seconds to move three, or four, or five or 10 feet, you're probably not moving fast enough to really make a difference. Of course, we always want to make sure that the risk of what we're about to do is equal to, or better yet is exceeded significantly by, the benefit of that drill. This drill is very dynamic, and of course everybody's physicality is different. Everyone's coordination and balance is different. Start slow, understand the process. But remember, if you're going to shoot while moving, it should be when you're relatively close to the threat, and moving relatively quickly. As quickly as you can safely on a range, without endangering yourself or others. Keeping in mind the big picture rule, this is a live firearm and it can hurt or kill me, or someone else, if I use it negligently or maliciously. And it would be very negligent to move in an uncontrolled way on a range, with a live firearm while shooting. Let's take a look at how this will work. I'll stand by in a normal, standard, non-threatening position. I'll hit my random start timer. When the timer goes off, I'll go through a recognition phase, and then move rapidly past one of these two lines as I take my first few shots to try to stop the threat from hurting me. And of course I want to do my lateral movement, and do my reloads, just like I normally would in a dynamic critical incident training environment. So we had 1.4 seconds for two good combat accurate shots, and the second shot was fired as I crossed this line. That's the kind of performance that we're looking for. Is actually moving in a significant way to get offline from an attack while taking the first two, three, or four shots to respond to the threat appropriately. Three shots, 1.67 seconds, All of them are combat accurate. This is the kind of movement that could save me. And again, well less than a second and a half for two combat accurate shots while moving a significant difference. This is dramatically different than the kind of shooting and moving that you would see in extended distance, where the movement may or may not be helping me. This kind of movement would keep someone from slashing at me with a knife until I had significantly affected them to the point where they couldn't try to hurt me with a knife. Shooting and moving is an advanced personal defense skill. Understand the context of it. Start to train it safely. Go through the motions first. Work with your training partners to set up parameters that are both efficient and effective, but also safe, and actually prepare you to deal with a realistic situation where shooting and moving would help. Check out more videos just like this one, at the Personal Defense Network.