knife quick draws Archives

“Interrupting the Quick Draw.” or, sometimes I’ve call “Gun Arm Grappling.” Martial, police and military material I have been working on for decades. When teaching this segment, I must cover as first prep, a review the Stop 6 problems. The gun (pistol and long gun) (also in the stick and knife course.)

Stop 1: The stand-off no contact, Showdown “collision”.
Stop 2: The Hands-On collision – fingers, hands, weapons grabbing.
Stop 3: The forearm collision.
Stop 4: The Frankenstein collision, hands ranging from biceps through neck grabs.
Stop 5: All the Bear Hugs collisions.
Stop 6: Groundfight collision.
Through the Stop 6, must-be-covered topics are:
* Identify situations.
* Identifying gun carriers.
* Identifying gun carry sites on the body.
* Identify reasons why guns and knives are drawn.
* Identify many physical tip-offs of quick draws.
* Identify your drawn decisions (see photo attached).
* Identify the elbow and-or hand position of common draws.
* use arm-elbow-hand-catch grappling of many draws.
* and more…

The draw process for you and your enemy starts at the carry site, through the draw on up to the presentation, and firing-use. The photo above describes the actual decision steps of a crime or war draw. Some people think it’s just “shoot-don’t shoot.” But life… situations and circumstances define the big picture.

-Sometimes, why are you there? Why can’t, didn’t you leave?
-Sometimes, why actually did you see fit to draw?
-Sometimes, weapon out, but should you lift and aim it?
-Sometimes, shoot-don’t shoot?
-Sometimes, stay or don’t stay? Wait-don’t wait?

All this and way more in my FORCE NECESSARY: GUN (and FN: Knife and FN: Stick course applications) course. My gun course is nothing but sims ammo combat scenarios. No live fire.

“Marksmanship aside, you are not really learning how to gunfight unless you are training versus moving, thinking people who are shooting back at you (with sims).” – Hock

See all the free, full hand, stick, knife, gun and FMA training films click here:

Drop it!
In police work we are told to never have anything in our gun
hand, in case we suddenly have to draw our pistols. But we
know that is impossible. Even when writing a simple traffic ticket, both hands are busy. Fortunately, citizens do not live by this advice, this constant edge, as they go about their daily business. But, dear citizen, what if…?

Much later, police trainers then passed around the idea, the realization, that when you drop your hand to pull your gun, you have to open your hand to grab your gun anyway. So, police, military or citizen, if you have something in your hand? Clip board. Grocery bag. Cup of coffee. Cheeseburger. You are going to open your hand anyway. You just have to learn to drop the item as your hand descends to your weapon carry site.

This actually takes a bit of “dropsy” practice. Practice while holding what you think you might hold, then drop and draw. Use live fire first, then switch to safe, simulated ammo of course versus a real live person, but you can make some live-fire reps on targets at the range first, (providing you are somewhere you can draw from a holster, as those no-draw, range rules are increasing. If restricted, all the more reason to at least do this with simulated ammo and dodge those cumbersome range rules.)

Oh, and when making an emergency call? Always use your off-hand to run the cell phone. (I have a simulated ammo scenario for that process too.)

Sometimes we discover that we can chunk the item at the bad guy’s face. But, that option is not always available due to time, space and situation. Lots of people ASSUME they know what their first or next confrontation will be like, and think that a good guy should always throw their hats, coffee, etc. at the bad guy before they draw. Such is an idea with a pre-emptive draw, maybe. It is very situational. But if the bad guy is drawing first, you are already behind the eight-ball of action-beats-reaction, and taking the step of tossing something first, then drawing makes things worse for you. Don’t believe me? Check it put with simulated ammo training.

(The Mexican Hat Toss is a “chunking” old-school classic. I learned this from old FBI agents who were taught to toss their mandatory fedoras at a suspect when appropriate. As the hat flew as a distraction, the pistol came out. They were never photographed doing this, nor was the method in any “public release,” to keep the trick a secret.)

So in your “Drop It” scenario training, have a holstered pistol on your carry site. Hold something in your gun hand. Drop, draw and shoot. Get the drop routine running in your head and hand.

Then it is vital to eventually, as quickly as possible, have a real person in front of you, doing something dangerous for you to properly draw your simulated ammo weapon for the right, justified and legal reasons, not a bell, not a whistle or timer, not flash cards, nor a paper target. A person! (One example of trouble? He crouches for a draw! Hand going to a primary, secondary or tertiary weapon carry site. Anyway, remember an opponent suddenly crouching is always a bad indication of trouble!). Learn, experiment and make a list as to what moves would cause you to legally draw.

Thus, the desperate need for more interactive, safe simulated ammo training. (Simunitions NOT needed here because why would you hurt your training partner 25 times with painful Sims, while he is trying to help you train! Safer methods and ammo required and smarter.)

Live fire is always half your training battle. The other training half is shooting moving, thinking people who want to shoot you, or who are in the act of shooting you with safe ammunition.

______________________

Hock’s email is HockHochheim@ForceNecessary.com

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