Firearms Combatives & Retention – June 1, 2013
Flashlight Combatives – June 2, 2013
Flashlight Combatives – June 2, 2013
Firearms Combatives & Retention – June 1, 2013
Since day one of me carrying a loaded firearm in public I have wanted to take a class that focuses on keeping my gun mine. It took me a few years, but now I have. The statistics that I have seen indicate that the majority of gun fights happen at very close range where your gun could easily be grabbed. Do you have a strategy on how to retain it?
After student and instructor introductions we all recited a personal pledge that Shay had put together. This lead into a great discussion of his philosophy and what he teaches. We talked about the fact that the most likely things to kill you are… you. According to the CDC, homicide falls in at #15 and the top four are all affected by life choices and genetics. He talked about the importance of getting medical training and part of the pledge was living a life worth defending. Next up was his discussion on mindset, being a harder target, and most of all NOT QUITTING!
He proceeded to talk about firearm safety and that even though we wouldn’t be using any real guns in his training, we where to respect all of those rules. He also appointed a primary and secondary medical person for that class and talked about our safety plan.
After we all removed any weapons we went through a thorough pat down including being wanded to make sure no one inadvertently introduces a live weapon to class. Shay intentionally does this after lunch so that no one can accidently re-introduce a weapon upon commencing.
Shay started teaching his preferred stance that was simple, yet lended itself to being mobile on a stable platform. He went on to teach how to move in different directions in this stance. Next up was combatives where he taught a number of ways to use a gun as a striking weapon which happen to mirror certain self-defense moves. After this, we were taught different ways of retaining our gun while it was in the holster and when in our hands. Each time he introduced something new, we would partner up and practice what we were just taught.
Last but not least, the testing phase! Here we would fight two rounds against someone dressed in a protective F.I.S.T. suit. This person wasn’t there to beat the crap out of you, but to make sure they provided enough resistance for you to see how these techniques worked. We started off in a position where the “attacker” was grabbing onto your gun and you had to retain it. Imagine the fight of your life where you had to retain your gun and quitting was not an option!
Flashlight Combatives – June 2, 2013
Still sore from Saturday, I was eager to start this class. Much of the beginning covered similar material because they are two independent classes with no pre-requisite. I did not mind because each time I picked up on something different. He did talk about different flashlights and what features he liked or disliked. Then briefly covered a history of flashlights, different techniques and some pros and cons. He told us what his favored one was and taught us from there.
He taught proper hand position for both hands. We moved on to learning strikes with both the flashlight hand and the empty hand as well as combinations with both hands. We learned the proper use of light when striking and attacking our adversary. Shay also taught a defensive position and used boxing gloves to help illustrate how this position worked.
Next, Shay taught proper scan with a flashlight and how to be able to look around corners and not blind ourselves. He also discussed and demonstrated how to effectively use a flashlight against someone approaching you. He had a technique where he correlated them to the different Cooper color codes.
Once again, it was time to go two rounds against the person dressed in the F.I.S.T. suit! This time started off with me in the stance taught with hands in the proper position. Each round was more exhausting than the last, but each time I learned.
Lessons Learned
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