Dynamic Critical Incident Timeline

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. Let's talk about another aspect of the dynamic critical incident. That thing that we're actually training for once we've decided that the firearm is something that we use to defend ourselves and not a sporting implement. We're going to look at the dynamic critical incident timeline. Now, whenever we engage in a critical incident, whenever we're faced with a threat and we decide that we are going to act, we know that there's going to be a moment if we need to shoot when that fire arm is going to go off and the bullet is actually going to leave the muzzle.

On the dynamic critical incident timeline when we're talking about shooting, we refer to that as zero. That's going to be the moment that we can't take back, the bullet just came out of the muzzle and it's going to do whatever it's going to do based on the amount of deviation control and the appropriate skill that we applied when we pulled the trigger, as we pulled the trigger. When we back up from that, we have three, two, one as our standard response. When we're shooting at extension inside the combat focused shooting program, when we have the gun at full extension in and parallel to our line of sight, we train to extend, touch and press. The idea of extending, touching and pressing is the idea of making sure that we have a good fundamental body position or the best body position that we can fully extended out towards that threat, touching the trigger and pressing the trigger smoothly knowing that trigger control is the one important mechanical fundamental for defensive shooting that's always going to apply.

So we're in a situation where three, two, one, zero, the round comes out of the barrel, we don't know what's going to happen we hope it's going to be what we intended. Of course, we're not shooting with a hope in mind, we're shooting with the intent to do something that's going to make us or someone else safer. If we go back further on the dynamic critical incident timeline, let's say into a situation where we're coming from holster presentation. Well, now we've recognized the threat, we've gotten our grip, we've brought the firearm up, we've oriented towards the threat, and then we've extended, touched and pressed. So there's some overlap there, but we can see how the dynamic critical incident timeline gets significantly longer when we start from, instead of the ready position, a position where the firearm is in the holster, and we don't know what's going on.

If we were to look at another situation, perhaps presentation from concealment, we might have to add in another step. Of course, that other step is removing our concealment garment. And what we see is that some of these things overlap, but the angles may be a little bit different. So we're going to show some deviation and this is where we really start to see the importance of the dynamic critical incident timeline. When we get into a situation, as we get further away from this zero moment, we realize that there's going to be some deviation, there's going to be options.

The fewer options we have, the closer we are to zero, the better off we are. You know, we say that consistency inside of our training programs will increase our efficiency. One of the ways that we increase our consistency in the first place is by limiting options. What we want to be sure that when we look at the dynamic critical incident timeline concept, the closer we are to zero, the fewer options we have. We always want to be extended in and parallel with our line of sight, for example.

We wouldn't want to extend from the chest or extend from the hip in a way that's going to give us more options closer to the zero moment on the dynamic critical incident timeline. The further back we go we certainly realize that we are going to have more variables. Let's say we're in a situation where we need to have a verbal command inserted into our recognition and presentation process. So now we're much further back from that zero moment. We have the opportunity to recognize that we need our firearm, go to the ready position, tell somebody to stop doing what they're doing, or we may need to engage them with that firearm.

Put the knife down, move away from my daughter's door, whatever that verbal command is going to be. Clearly we have other variables here. We have other angles, we may have a gun coming out of a gun safe if we're inside of our home, as opposed to coming out of a holster. And that means the presentation, the grip into the ready position here is going to be a little different than it was when we went to the ready position here at this angle. Of course, it's going to be different from a strong side hip holster than it is from a pocket holster or from a shoulder holster.

So all of these little variables that start happening out here at this moment are important to acknowledge and also limit. If we can always carry strong side hip coming up this way and not have to worry about coming out of a shoulder holster, for example, we will have less variation in this area of our dynamic critical incident timeline. Getting back to that situation where the verbal command took place. Of course, once we recognize that we need to use the force, that this person is not going to stop their threat, that they're going to continue trying to get into our family members room with a weapon, or they turn to us and take that step. We recognize we need to do something about it and we're right back to extend, touch, press.

The more consistency we can have close to that zero moment, the better off we are and in all of these cases, we do have consistency. Maybe we're searching, maybe we're in a law enforcement capacity or a military capacity. Or we're in our home looking for our daughter, she's screaming, we're not sure where she is. We're going to keep that firearm depressed so that we're not randomly pointing it around. We've got our flashlight, we're looking for her, we're looking for that other family member.

Maybe we're searching for the exit from a situation that's gone bad in a public environment and we don't know where that exit is. Well, that movement is again going to cause them variation. But that variation is back here before we actually we recognize that we need to engage someone and extend, touch, press. What happens when we get closer? Are there times when we are going to deviate?

Are there times when we are going to have to have options closer to that zero moment? Absolutely. One of them would be retention shooting. When we get into a situation where we need to shoot at contact, a lot of the things are going to the same building up to the grip. But once we get that firearm out of the holster, notice that we're going to skip that extension.

We skipped the extension because someone is right on top of us. We get our grip, we come up, we orient, we're not going to extend, We're going to jump right to touch, press. And in this case, we'd have a deviation that's close to the zero moment closer than we normally would want, but it's obviously a dramatically different circumstance. If we're in contact with someone that we need to use lethal force against with a firearm, that's going to be very recognizable. When we recognize that situation, we're going to be able to have enough control to deviate from our dynamic critical incident timeline standard procedure.

Understanding the dynamic critical incident timeline helps you to understand whether or not it's appropriate, plausible or even reasonable to introduce another deviation. You wouldn't want to have 16 different ways to pull the trigger. You wouldn't want to say, well, sometimes it's all right to slap at the trigger, and sometimes I need to feel it before I press. That's not an appropriate training methodology and one of the ways to remind yourself of that is it's very close to the zero moment. However, if you're eight, nine, 10, 12 steps removed, if you're in your home and sometimes you have a gun that's locked in this safe and in another part of the room you have a gun that's locked at another safe, and there are two different types of safe.

Maybe one's a biometric, one has push buttons, maybe there's even a third safe that requires a combination, but it's not in an area that you're likely to be caught when a home intruder comes in or when an alarm goes off, those deviations are much more appropriate and much more reasonable. You can have those deviations because it's much further away from that zero moment of when the bullet is going to leave the muzzle. Dynamic critical incident timeline helps you understand deviation in your training and limiting options as a way to make yourself more efficient. Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.