An open letter to the Ostriches

On Saturday we had a great class.  The day before, the tactical knives I ordered finally arrived (that story is a whole another blog in itself, but stay tuned for a product review of the CRKT Hissatsu).  I wanted to rig the hissatsu sheath onto my SWAT vest and work with the training knife before I presented the edged weapon training to the team.  In order to do this I had to stop by the police department and pick up my gear on the way to the Dojo.  At the police department one of the guys asked what I was doing there.  I explained the training I developed for that day.  He asked to see the knife.  This officer started touching the blade with his grubby fingers. (A big no no if you know anything about handling swords).  I warned him that the blade is very sharp and that I don’t want the oils from his fingers on the blade as that could cause imperfections.  A state trooper overheard the conversation and found it hard to imagine that I was training on a day off with edged weapons.  She asked me if I was obsessed with death.

 Remember that scene in “The Terminator” when someone knocks on his hotel room door?  Through the Terminators eyes you see a pop up screen of all the possible responses.  He scrolls down through them and chooses “Fuck you asshole”. 

Well, when this trooper asked me that question in a way that implied that anyone who would train without getting paid for it, or train in close quarters combat must have a mental disorder and be obsessed with death I had several responses pop up in my brain.  I scrolled down to;
Save your breath she doesn’t speak your language anyways. 

You see that trooper doesn’t speak professional, or warrior.  She speaks ostrich.

In case you failed 8^th grade biology an Ostrich is a large flightless bird famous for burying its head in the sand as a “survival mechanism”.  Ostriches say things like, “That will never happen here.”  “That will never happen to me”.  “I’m special”  “My 8 hours of PPCT training a year, and once a year firearms qualification will assure that I prevail."  "The bare minimum training will overcome the fact the I’m a 5’ 03” over weight out of shape female in a violent confrontation with a criminal.”  

Ostriches believe that if they can’t see violence or death, then violence and death can’t see them.  They tend to gloss over facts like more law enforcement officers were assassinated, not just died in service but were murdered in 2010 than in any other year in recent history.

Rory Miller writes about the Lizard brain.  The lizard brain believes in myth and ritual.  If burying your head in the sand so death can’t see you has prevented you from dying your lizard brain becomes convinced that burying your head in the sand is powerful magic that keeps death away.  It is very hard to change the lizard’s mind.  The lizard has been 100% successful with this technique throughout its life.  God help the little lizard that lives in the Ostrich’s brain when it finds out the hard way that death can see your ass hanging in the air while your head is buried in the sand.

Ostriches are mediocre at best.  They meet the minimum standards so as not to get fired.  But they do have their pride.  So as to not see themselves as mediocre they have to view anyone who strives for exceptionalism  as crazy, or obsessed with death.

"Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there, 80 are nothing but targets, and 9 are the real fighters and we are blessed to have them, for they the battle make. Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior, and he will bring the others home." -Heraclitus 500BC.

Ostriches in warrior professions seek out positions where the reality of death and violence are the least likely to bite them on the ass.  Thus, proving to their lizard brain that the magic of head burying still works.  You’ll see a lot of Ostriches in administration or day shifts making as little contact with public as possible.

So does Trooper Ostrich have a point?  I’m pissed that she thinks I’m obsessed with death then in the next sentence I write how my brain reacts in a similar fashion to a fictional killing machine J

So am I obsessed with death?

·         I have chosen a profession where I may be called upon to kill.

·         I train hard to be exceptional in the means of killing should the need arise.

“I’m the best there is at what I do.  Sometimes what I do isn’t very nice”

 – James (Logan) Howlett  AKA Wolverine

Ok, so I’m very good at not being very nice, does that make me obsessed with death?  It might. 

However, if anything I’d say I’m “obsessed” with life.

The Yagyu Shinkage Ryu (Yagyu family new shadow style - sexy right?) forms the basis of Aiki Kenjutsu and the “sacred geometry” I’ve blogged about before.  http://practicalbudo.blogspot.com/2010/10/sacred-geometry-or-grown-men-in-pajamas.html

Fundamental motions that have stood the test of time and are the foundation for everything I teach

The Yagyu were the Tokugawa shoguns’ personal instructors in swordsmanship. Arguably the best sword fighters (see also close quarter combat specialists) of their time. 

The motto of these masters was; Katsujinken Satsujinken

“The sword which kills is the sword which gives life.”

Or  more explicitly translated  in English as “The sword which cuts down evil is the sword which preserves life.”

So yes I may be obsessed with death.  But my obsession keeps my killing sword sharp and free of imperfections so that it can be used to give life.

So to all the Ostriches (10 / 100 that shouldn’t be in the profession and the 80 / 100 that are just targets / victims) I write this:

At 0500 you can be snug in your warm bed because the warrior the, 1 / 100, the 1%er will be up training on his / her own time.  You can work the day shifts avoiding interaction with the public (God forbid you come across a criminal) the 1 % will be working nights weekends, holidays and special assignments.  The 1 %er would prefer you to stay out of the way anyway.  Then on that day when your head is buried in the sand and the wolf is sneaking up to bite you on the ass  the 1%er will be there to tear it’s head off and bring you and the other 99% back home.  The 1%er may not talk to you.  Not because the 1%er thinks he / she is better than you (They know they are better than you) but because you don’t speak the same language.  As strange as the 1%er seems to you, you seem even stranger to him.  A 1%er simply can’t understand how anyone would not strive to be the best there is at what they do.  Much less anyone who has chosen a profession where their life, the life of their coworkers, and the lives of the people they have sworn to protect depends on your skill (on your obsession with death)  1%ers are elite but not elitist.  They don’t talk to you because you simply won’t understand what they have to say.  If you want to start a conversation with one, maybe start with thank you.

If instead of thank you, you try to justify your own mediocrity by demeaning the 1%.  If you ever dare criticize the 1% to make your weakness seem normal and the 1% freaks obsessed with death I’d remind you of the words of President Theodor Roosevelt

It’s not the critic that counts.  It’s not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.  Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.  Who strives valiantly.  Who errors , who comes up short again and again.  Who in the end knows the triumph of high achievement and at worst, if he fails at least he fails while daring greatly so his place will never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither defeat or victory.

Your welcome,

1%er

Train Hard – Train Real – Be Safe

"Hasta la vista - Baby"

Unintended consequences

If you are developing a drill, exercise, or scenario to train a specific objective (your goal) be sure that you are not also ingraining unwanted behaviors.

Ok, so what do I mean?  Remember SMAKED? Several Minutes of Ass Kicking Every Day.  The premise is that small habits repeated daily will ingrain quality combat responses under stress.  If that premise is true (which I have found it to be) then it is also true that small bad habits will be ingrained as well.

To illustrate this point a story.  For some reason I’m not sure of, I think it was because of a Batman movie, I got into the habit of twisting my hand on the steering wheel every time I pushed on the gas.  Like pretending my hand was what was making the car go faster (small habit repeated daily).  While cross training in Goju Ryu Karate we were working on mae geri (basic front thrust kick).  The form I was taught was to curl your toes back pushing the ball of your foot forward (striking with the ball of your foot) That motion is similar to pushing on the gas.  Guess what?  Every time I kicked I twisted my wrist for no reason.  Sensei came by and asked why I was doing that.  I asked doing what?  I didn’t even know I was doing it.  Sensei came by again later and told me to stop doing that.  I told him I understand what I’m supposed to do, I agree with it, but my hand keeps doing this with out my permission.  The next day, while driving I noticed the silly bat mobile stuff I was doing and bells went off.  I changed driving like that and after consciously training to keep my hand straight I could finally do it.  Point of the story is that small habits repeated daily will DEEPLY ingrain responses either good or bad.

So when you develop training you have to check your method for unintended consequences.  One of the most startling examples of this comes from Law Enforcement fire arms training.  Shooting is fun.  Cleaning up brass (spent casings) sucks.  So range officers would have students empty their brass into their hands and put the brass in their pockets.  Sadly it took too many dead cops with pockets full brass for law enforcement trainers to realize that lazy range habits were unintentionally training cops to fail in combat (see also die).

I see this in martial arts all the time.  Students are taught to kick with their hands at their side “for Balance”.  Then, at black belt level (if ever) after they have better balance they are finally taught to keep their head protected while they kick.  Like magically the habits they have ingrained from day one through several years until they are black belts will disappear and be instantly replaced by better habits.  Sadly I see a lot of black belts trained in this method get their head taken off in friendly sparring.  You can imagine what would happen in a violent real world encounter.

So before you introduce a training method make sure you have a clear overall training goal.  Then be sure every part of the drill helps to achieve that overall training goal.  Review your existing methods and search for flaws.  Don’t let lazy Dojo habits unintentionally train your students (and yourself) to fail in combat (see also die).

Train hard – train real – be safe

Reality Based Scenarios

The majority of Thursday’s SWAT training was reality based scenario training.  Scenario training can be a fantastic tool.  

 - "Josephus observes that the Romans 'do not wait for war to begin before handling their arms, nor do they sit idle in peacetime and take action only when the emergency comes – but as if born ready armed they never have a truce from training or wait for war to be declared. Their battle-drills are no different from the real thing; every man works as hard at his daily training as if he was on active service. That is why they stand up so easily to the strain of battle: no indiscipline dislodges them from their regular formation, no panic incapacitates them, no toil wears them out; so victory over men not so trained follows as a matter of course. It would not be far from the truth to call their drills bloodless battles, their battles bloody drills.'” Josephus, The Jewish War, 194-5 (III)

If you are going to incorporate scenario training into your repertoire (Train as Romans do) there are a couple things to consider. 

You want to make the training as real as can be safely done.  To do it right you will need to spend at least three hours of preparation  for every hour of training.  The first part of preparation is the development of the scenarios.  I like to start with a few clear training objectives and then work  from there.   What situation would illicit the response we are training for?  Situations the trainees are likely to face – train for what happens most and you can handle most of what happens.

It doesn’t make sense to have SWAT teams run women’s self defense - social violence to set up asocial violence(charm predator) drills.  Nor does it make sense to have suburban moms train high risk narcotic search warrant raids.  If the RBS training being sold to you has you doing commando raids and killing with your bare hands the instructor is playing of the fears of the insecure and offering fantasy fulfillment for profit. (See Marc’s blog the super bowl of violence) That’s not training that’s fantasy role playing.  If you are playing make believe with a scenario that will most likely never happen whether it be commando tactics or a light saber battle with an ork, they are both equally just LARP (live action role playing or dungeons and dragons)

 Develop a core of good scenarios you can adapt to specific training (change as circumstances / logistics / students dictate).  Writing scenarios can be very difficult.  If you were good at writing stories you would probably be getting paid to write stories.  I’m a pretty creative guy but like most good Operators I cheat.  I take calls I’ve been on or situations other teams have encountered that could have ended better and use those as the basis of the scenario.  I also take the “Law and Order” approach.  No I don’t make lame watered down copies if something that was good 15 years agoJ.  I steal scenarios from the headlines.  Truth is better than fiction.

LOGISTICS!  So everything so far has basically been creative writing.  Reality based scenario (RBS) training is like a play.  In order to turn your story  in to a production you will need:

Location – stage

Role Player – actors

Equipment – props

Safety Officer – Director

Trainees – Audience (well an interactive audience like video game players)

Location:  You can modify your regular training location (Dojo) for scenario training.  You can use folding chairs and card tables to create bars, restaurants, living rooms, bed rooms etc.  You can use the Dojo parking lot and the trainee’s own cars for a variety of different scenarios.  If you are just starting with scenario training this is a good a way to start.  Public parks are also excellent and free training locations and also incorporate environmental training (so try to do this once every season both day and night ).  That way your students can work fundamentals against random problems in all weather, terrain and light conditions.

 After you have done dojo scenarios, environmental training, and have gained experience in running scenarios you may want to go off site.  Contact a local business (bar, hotel, warehouse, ect…)or a realtor may have an abandoned property you can use.  This kind of training is fun and very productive but it is also the most difficult to set up.  Even SWAT teams, Police Departments, and Fire Departments have trouble setting this up and are constantly looking for new “cop friendly” locations to train.

[Side note anyone reading this in the greater Minneapolis / St. Paul metropolitan area who has a location I can use for training please contact me]

If you do find a location

Have a waiver signed by all holding you and the property owner free of liability for any injuries

Go through the property with the owner.  Detail what you would like to do and make sure that is cool with the owner.  This is also why it’s important to have your scenarios developed beforehand.  When you walk through with the owner, you can also “scout” the location for training.  What I mean by that is you can figure out how to use the location to illicit the training effects you want.  You don’t want the first time you see the location to be 1 minute before the scenarios starts (the 1^st time the trainees see it).  It’s hard to scare someone with a haunted house if you don’t set it up ahead of time.  Also on your scout make sure the property is safe to train in.  Check for exposed nails, broken glass, rotten floors, mold etc.

Only do those things you agreed to do with the owner.  Example if you said you were going to use airsoft but use sims and leave paint on the walls or break stuff you look like an asshole, have to pay for damages, and will likely never be able to use that location again.  Always leaving the training site cleaner than you found it.  Also always send a thank you letter on official letter head worthy of display to the owner after training.  Develop good relationships with people who are willing to let you train on their property.

If any of your training can be seen by the public have signs up that read something like attention/ warning (name of school / organization ) training in progress please stay back.  This way you get free advertising for your school, and don’t have people calling the police on you.  Speaking of…

Notify the police.   Call your local non emergency number.  Tell them that on this day, at this time, you will be conducting self defense training.  Tell them you are posting signs to prevent 911 calls and invite your local PD to attend and watch.

Along those lines, be sure any training weapons you use are clearly and easily distinguishable from the real deal.  Law enforcement industry standard is training weapons are blue or red (neon works too).  Everything else about your training weapons should be as real as possible, as close to the weapons you actually carry as possible.  So if you don't carry weapons on a regular basis you have to solve the scenario with out them.  What good does it do to learn combat handgun tactics if you never carry a hand gun? 

Role Players:

In my opinion Role Players can really make or break RBS training.  I am very blessed that a have a crew of highly trained  (brown belt or higher in Aikido / Jujutsu and One On One Control Tactics Instructors)smart (doctors, engineers, scientists) and dedicated (they put up with me J and the high standards I keep)role players.  They have been working with me and my SWAT team for 5 years and I couldn’t do a lot of things I do without them.  They are the ideal.  I will explain why quality role players are so valued with examples of how “bad” role players can ruin all the hard work it takes to set up scenario training.

At Skills (the Minnesota version of a Police Academy) the last exercise before graduation was a big scenario.  The flaw was that the role players(bad guys) were students from the skills class in Hibbing MN.  The role players weren’t interested in training to make the Mankato class better future cops they wanted to “win the scenario”  You ever play cops and robbers or GIJoe as a kid? (If kids played those games today they would be put into therapy for being violent J )  Remember the kid that when he was shot he would never die?  He would call “force fields “ or claim you missed.  That sucked then and it still sucks if allowed to flourish in scenario training.   During that final scenario I dragged a downed Officer to safety.  Minutes later a student from Hibbing told me I was dead and the scenario was over for me.  I asked her how I was dead.  She said that she was hiding in this (impossible) place and shot me (from 30 yards).  My point being that it is very unlikely even in the ridiculous scenario we were training that one of the bank robbers would have not only to gotten through the perimeter unseen, but crept all the way over there andsneaked into her hidey hole.  Also with no sims or airsoft you are basically just pointing your fingers and yelling bang.  Ok whatever, so what did I learn from the scenario?  That if a gun is ever fired in my general direction I will automatically die?  That I should always leave wounded officers down to bleed out in the street?  You see how bad role players and bad preparation can ruin scenario training?  Role players need to know that they win not by beating the trainees per say but PLAYING THEIR ROLE.  Role players win by getting the training response the trainer is working for.  That’s not to say the role players should go easy on the trainees or not to “kill” them when they make a mistake.  However, role players who are just playing cops and robbers have a very detrimental effect on training.  So trainers have to have clear goals, objectives, specific directions, and even specific dialog for the role players.  Otherwise they will just add lib into ridiculous LARP.  Recruit and cultivate role players you can trust to do the job.

Are you starting to see how difficult running scenarios can be?  Like anything in life anything worth doing is worth doing well.  If you can’t get outside role players (people who are not training and their only job is to help train the trainees) you can rotate trainees and role players.  For example in scenario 1 students a,b, are training student c is playing the role of (insert whatever bad guy you are training against).  Take C into the location away from a and b.  Tell him what you are trying to achieve and exactly what you want him to do.  Make sure he understands, make him repeat it back to you. 

This also allows C to see the scenario through “predator eyes”.  Knowing how you would kill you in a given situation helps you learn how to prevent that from happening

When you rotate through make sure you have a different scenario for c so he doesn’t have an unfair advantage.  Also it is fun to head fake c.  His scenario can be just like the one he was the role player for.  Get him thinking it’s going to go the same way.  Then Bam!, throw something totally different at him.  Cabot is very good at that last bit.  Mike and I are the training coordinators for the team so we come up with the scenarios.  We are also team leaders who need to practice running the team and making tactical decision under pressure and adapting to the scenarios.  Cabot is very good at tweaking scenarios I developed to “mess with” me when it’s my turn in the saddle.  The industry accepted term for that is “goat fucking”.  Used in a sentence  - Wow, Cabot really goat fucked me putting that guy under the bleachers.  Goat fucking = good training, which brings me to my second point.  Goat fucking is a two way street be prepared for it and don’t punish it. 

Whether you’re training SWAT Operators or your Dojo students you want them to be creative, unconventional, and spontaneous under pressure.  Encourage these traits don’t punish them.  If you set up this intense scenario full of peril and danger and the team or your student listens to the brief and goes through a different door or somehow does something you didn’t account for and smokes all your role players because they were set up for something else you as a trainer just got goat fucked.  You can use goat roped if you find fuck offensive.  Remember goat fuck = good training.  Don’t get pissed , don’t stop them , encourage them, learn from them.  At the debrief congratulate them go through the scenario then do it again.  On the second rep you can force them to face the scenario the way you have planned.  For example if you had an ambush set up on the front door and they went through the window, on the second rep you can say that was great but the window doesn’t exists anymore.  You are like the architect in the matrix or more recently inception.  You dictate the reality in reality based scenario training.  Just be honest with the trainees (and don’t compete against them) Hey going through the window is a great idea, however I set the scenario to train a specific skill set.  In order to do that I need you to go through the front door.  So whatever you can come up with to solve this besides going through the front door Murphy came up and pooched it so now go through the front door.   At the debrief you can discuss all the not front door approaches they thought of after you discuss what happened in the front door scenario.

Real life examples of the trainer competing against the trainees, and one of the most outstanding Goat Fucks I’ve ever witnessed.  Ottertail County Minnesota summer 1999.  The training was for Police, SWAT, and EMT for a large incident.  The role players were local National Guard (much more interested in “beating the cops” then helping the cops learn anything).  Administration who set up the cross training wanted to pit the SWAT team vs. his buddies in the Guard in an open field search / gun fight.  The admin had the deck stacked way in favor of the guard.  The SWAT commander knowing that this was going to be a competition to make him look bad as opposed to training contacted a different guard unit and called in air support.  He had tape on the top of his team leader’s helmets so the helicopter could designate friendlies from unfriendlies in the thick brush.  Needless to say SWAT knowing exactly where the bad guys were mopped up very quickly.  Admin wasn’t impressed by quick tactical improvising they called it cheating and were pouty.  That was my first exposure to SWAT training and I’ve been hooked ever since .

OK I went a little off topic there with nostalgia but remember experience is the best teacher of all – back on topic.

Keep your role players involved, treat them well.  Nothing is worse than taking off of work or otherwise rearranging your schedule to help you friend, swat team, dojo, sit around for seven hours being ignored by the operators being used for 5 minutes then sent home without so much as a thank you.  Unless of course you get hurt.  If you are going hands on at speed you need to have protective equipment, and common sense on the part of the trainees.  Which leads to…

Equipment:

Again – Training Weapons make sure they are easily distinguishable from the real thing. 

Protective equipment, red man suit, sparring gear, mats

Safety Vests – Bright neon traffic vests to distinguish safety officers from role players and trainees

“Scripts” – lesson plans with clear objectives of what you want to accomplish and exactly what the role players are supposed to do to help accomplish that

Waivers

Pens

Tupper wear / boxes – it’s nice to keep all this stuff in easy to carry / organize storage boxes.  Especially when you’re tired from 8 hours of training and you can’t go home until everything is cleaned up.

Safety Officers

Run the scenario

Safety check – check all trainees, roleplayers, everyone involved for “live” weapons.  Have many redundant searches / checks.  Repeat on everyone every time they leave the training area.

Scene security – Separate from the trainer.  Provides security for the scenario and keeps passerby’s from walking through or calling the cops

Witness  -roleplayer safety.  These safety officers are in the location to watch and offer feed back in the debrief.  They are also there to protect the role players (trainees will be revved up and may use more force that is safe) and to end the scenario if it becomes unsafe or when the training objective is achieved.    

Debrief

This is where the majority of learning will occur.  After the scenario go through the entire thing in chronological order.  Then review went well.  After that address what didn’t go well.  What went wrong, what else could have been done.  If you had to do it over again what would you do.  Peer review – get feedback from all the trainees the roleplayers and the safety officers.

Eliminate the negatives from training.  You never want to leave the trainee with a fail, or death in the scenario.  You are training their mind to fail or die.  If they did something that you don’t want them to do in the field you can “Ground hog’s day”.  After the debrief have the trainees run the same scenario again and find a way to win (no Kobiashi Maru scenarios).  Debrief the pros and cons of the changes made.  Usually going home alive is a pretty big pro.

Another way to incorporate scenarios while eliminating negatives is:

Scenarios 1^st as skills assessment.  If you do the scenarios first and trainees die / fail you can use the debrief to preview the skills you will be teaching to prevent that outcome.  Their performance will give you an indication of their skill level and what needs to be worked on.

After scenarios work on those specific skills

End the day with the same scenario plus the new skills you taught them.  If you are worth your snuff as an Instructor those skills you taught them better get them through the scenario.

Summary:

Be prepared to put a lot of prep time in

Use situations you’ve been in or crime stories from the news to develop scenarios

Recruit and cultivate roleplayers you trust

Keep it simple and safe

Train like Romans train

SMACKED UP

Six years ago or so a former Chief of mine wanted to implement a new policy he labeled SMOTED or Six Minutes Of Training Every Day.  As you know I’m all about training so I was interested to hear what this SMOTED was all about.  Unfortunately it wasn’t so much about tactics or quality policing.  It was more about your Sgt. reading you one chapter of the policy manual every day.  A concept this Chief learned at a management (notice I didn’t say LEADERSHIP) class.  After your Sgt. read you the policy you had to sign a sheet stating that you were “SMOTED”.  That way if in the course of fighting crime the Chief decided you violated policy in any way it would be easier to take disciplinary action against you.  That’s not training, that’s not leadership, and it was a kick in the balls to moral.  So I started SMAKED.  Several Minutes Of Ass Kicking Every Day.  One topic a week trained for 10 – 15 minutes at roll call or shift change.  Control Tactics, Reloads, Malfunction Drills, these kind of things. 

Recently Jonny Figgis asked me:

“With regard to repetitions, you have only eight hours a year to train your guys and you have to make sure they are functional by the time you finish with them. You’ve probably heard the old martial saying “It takes 10,000 repetitions to master a technique but 100,000 to own it.” What’s your opinion on this given your limited time to train people who will no doubt have to use it at some stage in the year. Is the idea of thousands upon thousands of repetitions to be able to use something in the real world a crock of shit?”

Well yes and no.  I think that 100,000 rep line is used by a lot of Dojos who want students to continue to pay year after year in arts that take 20 years to gain proficiency.  If we took that approach in the Military and Law Enforcement communities all rookies would be 40 years old (training from 20-40) before they hit the streets.

However, teaching a few simple, natural , gross motor techniques that work for most situations, with as many reps as possible, in as close to actual conditions as possible has been a proven training method since the Romans (training is bloodless war, war is bloody training)

So let’s do some math to help me make my point

8 hours training per year

- 1 hour lunch

- 1 hour for breaks

= 6 hours or 360 minutes

Let’s say you work an average 3 shifts per week

X 52 weeks in a year = 156

X 10 minutes of SMAKED = 1,560 (roughly 3 x as much training)

Also training for several minutes every day is better for long term mastery of a skill than cramming 8 hours, never studying again for a year then cramming for another 8 hours.

OK so how is this useful for readers that aren’t cops or commandos?  Develop for yourself simple training drills that reinforce quality mechanics of what ever skills you want to master.  Do these drills 10 – 15 minutes every day, no matter what.  You will be amazed at the results. 

Example – the greatest shooters in the world spend exponentially more time doing dry firing drills than they do actually shooting on the range.

If you do this already please leave a comment with the drills you do, and maybe a brief explanation of how you do them.  If you don’t and want to start leave a comment with questions and information on the skill you wish to improve.

Remember the world is your Dojo, always be training.

Marine stabbed in the back on Black Friday

http://www2.wjbf.com/news/2010/nov/30/local-marine-stabbed-during-toys-tots-speaks-out-ar-1148874/

Shoplifting suspect stabs Marine, police say

A Marine collecting Toys for Tots donations at Augusta's Best Buy was stabbed in the back Friday while helping to subdue a shoplifting suspect.

Cpl. Phillip Duggan tried to stop a fleeing suspect at Best Buy.

Fellow Marines identified the injured man as Cpl. Phillip Duggan, 24, who spent part of Black Friday recuperating at Eisenhower Army Medical Center with injuries that were not life-threatening.

Tracey Attaway, 39, of Waynesboro, Ga., was jailed and charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a knife in the commission of a crime.

Orvin Smith, a sales manager at Best Buy, said the incident occurred about 1:15 p.m. when a man was seen on surveillance videos placing a laptop under his jacket. Store staff asked Attaway to return the merchandise, and the situation began to escalate.

"He was really irate. A whole lot of energy. ... he finally let go of the laptop, ran out the front door, knocked one of my employees down and pulled out a knife so he could make sure he could get out the front door," Smith said.

Outside the door were four Marines and seven volunteers collecting donations for Toys for Tots.
"(Duggan) clotheslined him, and after that he kind up got up and started swinging a knife around," Smith said.
Gunnery Sgt. Robert Richie said Attaway "came over the top and got (Duggan) in the back."
Attaway ran again but didn't get far before Richie, several other Marines and members of the store's loss-prevention team tackled him in the parking lot and held him until deputies arrived.
Gunnery Sgt. Sherry Barrera, who also serves as the Toys for Tots coordinator, opted to close operations for the day.
"When a Marine gets injured, we just shut it down, go to the hospital, make sure he's OK and make sure he gets proper treatment," she said.
Barrera said Duggan joined the unit about three months ago. Although she has had the opportunity to drill with Duggan only a few times, she said she had heard wonderful things about him.
"My boss, who has served with him before, did say he was an outstanding Marine," Barrera said.
According to Richmond County authorities, Attaway also tried to steal two digital cameras, an Xbox game, a PS3 game and a PS3 game controller with a combined value of $1,365.

A couple lessons we can learn from this story.  Again before I start, as I have writen in other blogs I'm not second guessing or critizing the Marine.  I'm just using this story to illistarte some basic principles we can all benifit from (So our Marine's stitches won't be for nothing)

This scenario sounds like every brown belts wet dream.  In the right place at the right time with Righteous Indignation you pull your best spinning round kick.  Knock the knife out of the criminal's hand see his eyes widen in terror of your supreme skills.  Kiss the girl and ride off into the sunset.  Sadly that only happens in Hollywood and in the imagination of the uninformed or inexperienced.

Here are some ways you can stop a violent criminal in the real world and not get stabbed
Call 911 get professionals (see also carry guns) involved as quickly as possible
Be a good witness
 Note
   Height
   Weight
   Race
   Sex
   Clothing

If you feel you must do more
Follow at a safe distance
  Note
    Direction of travel
    Vehicle
    Make
    Modle
    License Plate

Get all this information to the professionals as soon as possible.  Stay on line with dispatch.  You just became a great source of real time intelligence (you are a recon scout Yo Joe!!!!)  Recon does not directly engage the enemy.  They call in the artillary to blow the hell out of the enemy.

Edged weapons defense
Ok severel topics to study here

Awareness - Threat assesment scanning
According to the article Attaway brandished the knife and was threatening employees inside the store before our Marine ever saw him.
Note
  Hands - is he holding a weapon should part of every threat assesment scan.  Very helpful for tatical decision making.

If you do see the knife is it worth your life to stop this guy?  Even a short pocket knife to the kidney can bleed you out in seconds.

If you haven't followed the previous advice and you engage a fleeing criminal armed with a knife
Use a tool you're not an ape - (Thanks Marc)
Folding chair
Broom
Any improvised weapon that provides distance amd can absorb damage from the blade.  Keep him at bay, delay him until professionals with guns can show up.

If your still not listening to me and your intent on your brown belt wet dream of disarming a knife weilding criminal with your bare hands, end violence quickly - IT HAS TO BE OVER IN 3 MOTIONS OR LESS- if you don't have the skills, competence, and confidence to do that.  Then don't do it
You have do disable the attacker not the knife.  Something along the lines of;
Motion 1 - Get off line
Motion 2 - Destroy balance
if you are really good, mation 1 and 2 happen in just one motion
Motion 3 Smash to ground or otherwise disable attacker

It much easier to take a knife away from a broken arm or an unconsous criminal.

Now you may be asking your self why a trained Marine didn't follow my advice, which leads me to my Brazilian JuJitsu (BJJ) taught to the Military rant.

Let me start by saying that I like BJJ.  It is a fantastic sport.  I also enjoy wrestling.  The difference is no wrestling coach ever advertised wrestling as the be all end all answer to every self defense situation.  You see examples of BJJ instructors teaching women rape prevention by throwing themselves on their back and putting their legs in the air.  Now I've never raped anyone but it would seem to me that getting a woman on her back with her legs in the air is the goal of the rapist rather than a deteriant.

As examples of the all purpose efficacy of BJJ these instructors use the UFC, and more recently that BJJ is being taught to the US military.  What they refuse to see (or admit even if they do see) is that 90% of BJJ will get you killed in close quarters combat.  So why is BJJ being taught to our troops?

1) A generation of fat soft spoiled kids who have never been in a contact sport let alone a fight.  BJJ like high school wrestling is a fantastic way to get into shape and to help develop character

2) Social violence ritual combat is genetically designed NOT to be life threatening.  You have 100’s of late teen early 20 something males all in close proximity to each other pumping with hormones and the vigor of youth.  On top of that powder keg are you going to throw the match of effective close quarter combatives ( see also maiming and killing the enemy in 3 motions or less)?  BJJ allows these young men to play dominance games and establish a pecking order with out injuringing each other.

Effective close quarter combatives look nothing like BJJ.  If you are interested in CQB check out the writing of W. E. Fairbairn, and Rex Applegate.  Guess what their 2nd rule of close quarter combat  is

 - DON'T GO TO THE GROUND WITH THEM!!!!!!! -

Granted if you find yourself on the ground you better know what to do.  BJJ can be fantastic for that.  Just remember in the world there are no rules or time limits.  You don't have time to lesiuerly set up a joint lock or choke.  If you find yourself on the ground get up as quickly as possible.

So, God bless the Marines.  God bless a man willing to stand up and do what he believed was right.  Lets be inspired by his example.  And lets learn from this incident in case we ever find ourselves in the right place at the right time.

Train hard - Train real - Stay safe 

After Thanksgiving blog

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. George S. Patton

That’s just what I did last Tuesday with the Police Department.  I have made revisions to the basic control tactics class I teach to my police department to reflect the training I have received from Steve Jimerfield, Marc MacYoung, and Rory Miller.  My goal was to take a more principle based individualistic approach to training.  Making the officers better operators instead of trying to make them carbon copies of me.

The class followed this basic format:

Classroom

·         State Statutes governing use of force

·         Department use of force policy

·         Ethics – your capacity for violence

·         Physical and psychological effects of combat stress.

Taser refresher practical

8 points of motion (taisabaki)

Escort / Control

Standing cuffing

Takedowns

Ground control / cuffing

Striking

Counter Ambush

Weapon Retention

Ground Fighting

The morning was spent with fundamentals which can be applied to many situations and simple gross motor skill techniques proven to work in the field for over 30 years.  The afternoon was primarily spent taking those basic fundamental motions and crafting them into individual counter ambush responses.  I wanted to take a principle based rather than prescriptive approach.  Prescriptive is very much like traditional martial arts training.  If they throw a hook with their right hand you do this block (that block is the prescription for that punch) if they throw a left jab you do that block.  That forces you to teach many different blocks for every different possible attack.  Forces students to try to mimic exactly their instructor / sensei instead of moving / fighting the way that suits them best.  Principle based allows for greater retention in less time.  I only get 8 hours a year to work with these guys I have to give them the most bang for the buck.

The principles I insisted on were:

Move (Enter, Open, Circular, Lateral – Choose the one that works best for you)

·         Improve your position

·         Worsen their position

Protect from damage

·         Protect Head

·         Protect Low – groin / ribs

o   All at same time

Allow For Follow Up

·         Control

·         Takedown

·         Transition to higher level of force / weapon

Sounds familiar right?  Time to stress test the fundamentals.  I had the students pair off.   Group A was instructed to attack their partner any way they would like / could imagine from the front.  Group B was instructed not to get hit, then to take their partner to the ground for cuffing.

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

Wow, I couldn’t have been happier with the results.  Officers would avoid / block whatever came at them, get caught up with or ahead of the attacker in the ooda process then do the takedowns we worked in the morning.  Or guys like Ben (one of my Black Belts and a One On One Control Tactics Instructor himself) put on an Aikido clinic.  I think he pulled sankajo from every possible attack.  Everyone passed the stress test with flying colors and solid fundamental techniques.  They looked fantastic, very professional, the best I’ve ever seen them perform.  They were being their best, not being their best imitation of me.

Some of the feedback / course evaluations validated this training method.  One Officer stated (others chimed in / agreed) that he felt so confident in the training he almost hopes someone tries something on him.  The one course evaluation that stuck out read: This is a great class and improves every year.  This is the best the class has ever been.

So in this Thanksgiving weekend post I am very thankful to Steve, Marc, and Rory for helping me bring my game to a new level.  I hope I can do the same for those I train and those of you who read this blog.  I am especially thankful for all of you as well.

Train Hard – Train Real – Stay Safe  

Lessons learned from recent SWAT training

In many recent posts I have discussed developing an Operator mindset, and my utter distain for posers who sell nonsense tactical training to wannabes.  SWAT training Thursday was very productive.  Many of the topics I have been blogging about recently either came up organically or were intended to specifically be trained.  So I thought I would share some of some the concepts we worked on.  Feel free to adapt these ideas to your own needs and incorporate them into your training.

Note:  for operational security specifics will be omitted and some concepts will be left purposefully vague.   The basic concepts however are more important anyway.

The class room portion of training started with a presentation by Cabot Welchlin (more on him in future posts) on the Terror in Mumbai.

The discussion that followed revolved around our general preparedness.  Then transitioned to specific threats.

Besides Bret Favre’s weiner, what has Minnesota been in the news for recently?

Cops getting shot in the head

 http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/minnesota/deputy-chris-dewey-dies-mahnomen-aug-9-2010

http://www.startribune.com/local/57649332.html

http://www.startribune.com/local/92963249.html

If not for the shooting in Washington State, we would be leading the nation.

Minnesota has also been making the news for events in our Somali community.

Recently in the Twin Cities metro area over 200 young Somali men (either volunteered or were forced) were sent to Africa to go to war, for jihad.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-18-somalis_N.htm

Now potentially combat trained war hardened Somali men have formed gangs in Minnesota and are running national prostitution rings.  Forcing teenage girls into “the life”

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101108/NEWS03/101108017/29-suspected-Somali-gang-members-indicted-in-sex-trafficking-ring-that-included-Nashville

After arrests were made the Somali gang leaders were enraged that Law Enforcement would dare arrest them.  Not because they were innocent but they were pissed that Law Enforcement wasn’t afraid of them.  They made statements that they need to start killing cops so they will be respected.

Remember this it will come up again later

I was the next presenter for the classroom portion of training.  My presentation was on weapon retention, offensive edged weapons, and edged weapons defense.

I started the presentation with a quote I paraphrased from Rory Miller’s “Violence - a writer’s guide”

It takes years to learn how to fight with a knife.  I can, and later this morning will teach you how to ruthlessly and efficiently end a life with an edged weapon.

It takes a certain mindset to end another life.  If you are on an elite tactical response team you need to have this mindset.  It is a prerequisite of the job.

A fighter wants to fight.  For lack of a better term for someone who has developed a mindset capable of ending another life – a Killer just wants to get a job done

A killer will beat a fighter every time. 

A killer with the discipline to train is a god of war

Then I got into the how’s and why’s.  Mike Dugas a Kick ass team leader who is also a tactical medic helped me present an anatomy lesson for the where’s.

When I present this class there is a contact wound power point presentation I like to use as a transition between offensive edged weapons use and defense against an edged weapon.  The power point is full of photos of corpses created from edged weapons.  I use this to illustrate how easily it can be done.  And make the point of how easily it can be done to us.   During this a slide of some flayed fingers labeled defensive wounds came up.  Cabot made the statement “you will always get cut in a knife fight”

If you know me, or have read /trained with Marc MacYoung you can imagine this started quite a debate.  It went something along the lines of:

 I humbly disagree.  You know how pissed you get when someone uses the phrase weak hand or reactionary hand as opposed to other shooting hand in reference to shooting?  (Cabot was the team’s primary firearms instructor for years, he is best known for two catch phrases: other shooting hand, and if you can see it you can shoot it) You get so pissed because those phrases subconsciouncly train you to be a bad shot with one hand.  We use the term other shooting hand because I am just as good with both and will not expect performance to drop just because I’m not shooting with the hand I write with.  Saying you will always get cut in a knife fight besides being blatantly wrong also trains your brain that if / when you encounter a knife in combat you will be injured.  I will not allow that.   Cabot and I had some playful back and fourth until we defined our terms.  Cabot was taught at the Minnesota Kali group that when you have a knife and fight another man with a knife both of you are going to get cut.  I agree, but that is not knife fighting that is dueling and hell yeah your going to get cut, then go to jail or the morgue.  I am not talking about dueling, I am talking an Operator about being attacked with a knife.  One of two things should happen.  1 there is room and time to shoot and you end the threat, 2 there is not.  If there is not when threat attacks Operators will be behind the threat and the threat will be bouncing off the ground before anyone even noticed there was a knife. (Over in 3, thanks Marc) Cabot agreed.

Point illustrated to me is what “knife experts” are teaching the public will, get them cut, killed, arrested, or some combination of the above.  Think about it critically.  You are attacked by a knife, what makes more sense to draw your own knife, plant your feet in front of the attacker and duel him or get somewhere he can’t cut you and end the fight?

A killer will beat a fighter every time.  

The next classroom topic was Officer Rescue.  The discussion lead to Operator self care.  If you get shot you are not a victim you are still an Operator.  Drag yourself to cover, get that tourniquet on, and kill that fucker that shot you.

If you don’t die right away you will be fine.  Your injury will not kill you shock will.  You can fight off shock with purpose.  I suggest getting pissed “mad dog mean” as the Outlaw Josey Wales once said, and focus on killing that fucker that shot you.

Josey Wales: Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is.

That is why it is so important when we train with sims or airsoft, that if you do get shot you fight through that and end the threat.  That way you are training your brain that bullets don’t kill you.  If God forbid you do get shot your brain will reference this training and regard it as no big deal.  If however in training if you get zipped and you stop and yell ouch and think,”oh drat I’m finished” you are training your brain that bullets kill you instantly.  This will cause you to go into shock if ever shot in the field.

After that it was off to the mat room to put my money where my mouth is.  I started the team with some basic strikes.  Then how those same motions are used for take downs.  The team was looking good.  Then only Operator having some issues was because his partner was resisting very hard.  I brought the team together and made the point that any asshole can resist when he knows exactly the technique his partner is going to do.  SWAT works because of surprise, speed, and violence of action.  So do these techniques.  That worked for awhile…  I started working those same strike / take down motions for weapon retention.  Again the team was looking good.  A different Operator who was high speed before was having some issues now was because he was stuck training with “Resisty”

So I brought the team in again.  I said that just like quitting when you get hit with sims teaches you to die.  Resisting your partner because you know exactly what he is going to do is training his brain to lose in actual conflict.  In conflict losing = death to him and the team.  Good martial art / close quarter combatives techniques will kill or maim your opponent.  If we trained “at speed” injuries would be inevitable or we would have to train in techniques that are proven not to injure (see also proven not work).  Why would Operators practice techniques proven not to work?  In order to work Operational techniques without killing each other something artificial has to be introduced.  When we trained strikes, we used striking shields so we didn’t knock each other out.  In order to work these take downs we have to practice at a slower speed, and without resistance.  If you resist one or both of you will get hurt.   We transitioned to using basic motions as defense against unseen edged weapons.  I look over and my “Resisty” is on the mat wrestling with his partner.  Note; we were not working ground fighting.  So I watch the next rep.  “Resisty’s” partner is sick of getting beat up so instead of doing SWAT tactics he resorts to patrol felony stop (STOP) being the operative term which will get the team killed on an operation.

Like Popeye once said, “I’ve taken all I can takes and I can’ takes no more!”

The following tirade went something like:

Why the fuck am I having this discussion for the 3^rd time, was I somehow unfucking clear the first two times?

Your nonsense has forced your partner to do tactics that will get us all killed.  Stop fucking around.  Your partner is supposed to go through you so the rest of the team can get in and clear the house.  If he stops and clogs we all die.

So I made “Resisty” play the role of the bad guy, his partner on point, and 5 guys stacked behind him.  His partner did the technique right.  “Resisty” was knocked on his ass and the 3^rd operator saw he had a knife and ended the threat.  That’s what I’m talkn ‘bout!!!  We repeated that drill over and over to help further instill confidence.

Later many Operators came up to me and thanked me.  They said “the dressing down” needed to be done, and wished it would have been done earlier (like years ago).  Also after lunch “Resisty” came up to me and apologized.  He said he believes in and respects the training so we are all good.  Thing is I was never mad at “Resisty”.  I found I can be aggressive without being emotional.  Very important in my line of work.  As I was yelling at “Resisty” I could feel the effects of adrenalization as they were happening to me.  I have felt them many times before and recognize them.  The funny part is I kinda like them.  There is a distinct buzz.  There is a reason for the term adrenalin junky.  As I was discussing my training philosophy with “Resisty” I wasn’t getting mad I was getting aggressive.  It’s hard to put into words but there is a distinct difference.  Mad is better than afraid but you make a lot of stupid mistakes when you’re mad.  Aggressive is a whole other animal.  I wasn’t yelling because I was mad I was yelling because I’m kind a loud guy to start with and adrenalin makes me louder.  During the confrontation and throughout the afternoon I felt great, excited, alive.  About 3 o’clock the parasympathetic backlash hit me and I really wanted a nap.  But I’m a professional so I finished the range training J

Training point - if you don’t recognize the effects of adrenalin on your mind and body they can be very scary.  It is important to incorporate methods of inducing stress hormones into your training.  You don’t want the first time you or your students experience them to be in an actual conflict, verbal or otherwise. 

At lunch because I work hard to maintain my Operator mindset and because I may have been a little hyper vigilant due to the adrenalin.  I sat facing the door (a hard seat to get when dinning with other Operators – My fellas must trust me) and played the threat assessment game as we ate.  Cabot made a creepy mmmmmmyummy type moan.  I asked him if he was enjoying his pasta or if in the course of his threat assessment scanning he happened to notice the two hotties that came in the door.  He assured me it was the pasta, but I have my doubts.

After lunch we were on the range.  Cabot had us do a specific drill he has been developing.  I won’t give it away here but it’s kind of like Danielsan painting the fence.  It seems ridiculous at the time and you don’t realize you learned something until after it is over

The moral of the story / drill is that there are people who want to murder cops.  The only way to go out in the public safely is to maintain awareness (Yellow) and actively asses everyone in a 50’ radius. (I guess I passed lunch, also I knew he was checking out those hotties) 

Training point - Even Operators need to be reminded to be Operators all the time.  Even Operators need to actively develop / maintain Operator mindset.

I went home snuggled the kids and crashed.  Woke up and went to the Dojo.  Enjoyed a cigar with Lise and reflected on the day (those thoughts became this blog).

 OK so that was a day in the life of your favorite Operator.  I hope you read some things that will enhance your own training