Using the 21 foot drill as a tool

[mercop]

What I teach for open hand vs knife is Spontaneous Attack Survival. By control group for the techniques was that it had to work for corrections officers and taught in four hours. We pressure test it against stun guns. Small ones that mimic the size of a the edged weapon you will face in the street.

The 800 elephant in the room when it comes to edged weapons is that it does not matter how good you are with a pistol or using a knife. Your response to an edged weapon attack is going to be open handed for two reasons-

You will probably not see the weapon and you will not have time to deploy your own weapon. As commented on previously attempting to deploy your own weapon at close distances causes task fixation and takes your strong hand out of your defense.

When people do train open hand vs knives they too often only work on defending against a single hard attack, not the cyclic powerful attacks they will actually face. You have got to move to the outside, attack the head, elbows, and knees until they are no longer a threat.- George

 

[AXE835]

Thanks for the refresher, good write-up mercop. +1 for you. We go over edged weapon attacks once a year during inservice training.

 

[mercop]

I would be happy to bring my Spontaneous Attack Survival for Le to your agency

 

[Johnny C]

Ok, so this is probally going to sound stupid, but I was envisioning being attacked by a knifer and was wondering...If I had my gun out and dropped onto my back, I could still shoot him, but keep him from my vitals using my feet?
I would rathr shoot him through my own foot than take a knife stab while shooting him.

Does side stepping really work? Folks can twist , you know, and life aint a video game.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[011101110111]

Ok, so this is probally going to sound stupid, but I was envisioning being attacked by a knifer and was wondering...If I had my gun out and dropped onto my back, I could still shoot him, but keep him from my vitals using my feet?
I would rathr shoot him through my own foot than take a knife stab while shooting him.

Does side stepping really work? Folks can twist , you know, and life aint a video game.

Any thoughts on this?

One place you do not want to be in this situation is on the ground, if you can help it. First, you don't know if he (the perp) has buddies and it limits your fighting options, especially if you're not a good ground fighter. I'm a good ground fighter and even I would avoid it out on the street. Even if you can dominate the opponent, you may land on broken glass, a rock, discarded needles or who knows what.

I think the best option would be to turn and run the other way. This will provide several benefits:

1) It demonstrates your intention to avoid the confrontation, especially to witnesses and/or nearby video cameras.

2) It will gain valuable distance, which may be enough for you to employ passive weapons (such as pepper spray) or draw your sidearm should it come to that, as you will not be able to run forever. Distance is your friend.

3) You may be fast enough or have more stamina than the perp or may not be worth chasing after and you may actually avoid the confrontation, which would be the optimal solution.

 

[mercop]

A few years back a very well known instructor wrote a magazine article where he showed falling on your back as a defense. Just had to shake my head. Your neck and chest may be defensible but what about your Achilles tendon and hamstring, or even your femoral artery? Not to mention that most people don't know how to fall correctly. Flat on your back is about worst position to end up in much less put yourself in.

We do teach you how to fall to your side if you cannot avoid it, and then draw your pistol and use the same technique for using default targeting on your attacker. - George

 

[GunSlinger]

Great write up George. This is training I will practice.

 

[mercop]

Just got done doing a Total Officer Survival Class in Cleveland OH for 22 in-service police officers. We did many drills and scenarios but here is the most telling. First we did the 21 foot drill. The good guy had a Glock 17 airsoft in a level II duty rig. The bad guy had a Blue Rings Box cutter. They were exactly 21 feet apart. While standing behind the good guy I would drop my arm provoking the bad guy to charge in an attempt to cut the good gun.

During the first run the majority of officers moved drew their gun, got two hands on the gun, and moved quickly backward or to their right. This resulted in many of them falling backwards or running into things. Some were cut, some were not, what saved many was the ability to "run away".

The problem is that we would seldom have this amount of room to move. SO I changed conditions, told them they could not move back or right at all, and had to shoot one handed. The drill was done on a sidewalk that was approximately 3 feet wide. They were instructed to try to move to the left as little as possible. They were also told to use their week hand to defend/parry the knife attack. Oh, one last change of conditions we drooped the distance to 15 feet. Here were the results-

Most officers were able to avoid getting cut, those that were cut suffered cuts to the outside of their weak side arm or back of the hand. They ALL put rounds center mass. One bad guy was shot in the face at very close distance.

One thing that was the same at 21 and 15 feet was that no officers reported seeing their sights. That was obvious because there was never enough time to get their gun to eye level.

So putting rounds COM against an attacking target and then aiming for the head seems to be again more range than reality.- George