I spent Monday and Tuesday with Brownie getting trained in any number of self-defense methods - QK, EU/ED, movement, multiple threats, zippers, QK with a rifle, and HTH.
The training was great. Much of the training focuses on close encounters, not all of it but a good portion of it. That fit perfectly into my needs. I’ve had tons of training at some of the best known schools in the nation. They are excellent training, but most of their focus is from 9 feet (3 yards) and longer ranges. They do cover toe-to-toe but there’s not a lot of it, more accurately not enough of it. CQ is very important because most gunfights happen at close range, somewhere between 3 feet to 20 feet and some longer, but most in that range. So Brownie’s techniques that deal with up close fill a void that most schools don’t give quite enough attention to.
The overall strategy is simple – get the first hit and follow that by rapid fire hits and keep shooting until the threat is eliminated – and don’t get shot in the process. There’s an old saying that some famous guy said that goes something like, “Speed is fine, accuracy is final” or something like that. After this training, I’m not so sure that’s accurate (no pun intended). First let me define accuracy as it applies to this training. Accuracy is simply a hit on the torso – as fast as you can, followed by more hits. The principle here is that a BG cannot shoot accurately, if at all, if he’s being continuously be hit in the torso. Of course, COM hits are preferred, but torso hits should work it means you’re keeping the assailant in a defensive, reactive mode, and you are hurting him. And guys, 5 shots is borderline for one assailant. What we are trying to accomplish is to keep the BG from shooting us until incapacitation occurs.
One thing that bothers me immensely about SD shooting discussions is the failure to recognize and acknowledge that one shot will likely not incapacitate an attacker. One hit may cause him to react, but it not keep him from returning fire. After all, now he’s in the fight or flight mode. If he fights, he’ll likely start shooting if for nothing else to stop you from shooting him. It is pointless to swap shots with an attacker. You might as well turn and run – you’d get hit less. So I found the shoot first followed by rapid follow-up hits right down my alley. So not only will you see how, but why as well.
If you train with Brownie, get the HTH too. His HTH techniques are simple, fast, effective, and devastating. The HTH techniques end the confrontation fast. That gives you all kinds of options. If you’re facing two threats you can deal with one, and take on the second in any number of ways, with or without going to your gun. You can control and use one threat as a shield from the second threat. These are simple techniques that work and you can use without putting in years of training and practice. The powerful thing is that while the methods deal with empty hands, knifes, etc., they use essentially the same techniques so you’re not learning a different thing for every different scenarios.
Now, my disclaimer, not for the training, but for those of us that have practiced and do practice a solid shooting technique. I am very fortunate that I learned proper sighted shooting techniques from the start. As you practice, you just get better. But, with practice the techniques ingrain and are difficult to change. I train with my sights and at 9 feet and greater, I will use my sights. Up close, I now have the option of any number of techniques I learned from Brownie plus a few I’ve learned at other schools. Brownie’s methods work and they are fast for up close encounters. But, and I’m probably gonna start a war here, but I don’t believe properly done sighted fire is any slower than point shooting IF we’re talking about shooting from an extended position. Let me relate a little incident that happened Monday.
We had been training at 15 feet with QK, starting slow and gradually speeding up. I was doing fine with it. Then Brownie said, “OK, let’s try it full speed – FIRE!” I fired 18 shots about as fast as I could pull the trigger. I had no idea where the shots went. When I finished, Brownie said, “OK, Ron, try it this time without using the sights.” I hung my head because I knew what had just happened. When I went to full speed, trained instincts took over. I aligned the front sight as I extended, as soon as I was at extension, the shot broke – no sighting, the sighting was already done. I was firing I guess as fast as I could pull the trigger, following the sight through recoil and subconsciously shooting in rhythm as I had practiced so many times before. The guy standing beside me said, “Well, I wondered how you were getting such a tight group without using the sights.”
I said that to say this. If you’ve practiced one technique enough, it becomes instinctive. If you began with proper technique, it is fast and accurate and accuracy can be modified via speed and speed modified by sight picture alignment and dwell time.
So if you use your sight(s) instinctively via training and you use the right technique, it isn’t slow. But the up close stuff Brownie teaches is simply faster and I can prove it.
Thanks Brownie – great training.
The training was great. Much of the training focuses on close encounters, not all of it but a good portion of it. That fit perfectly into my needs. I’ve had tons of training at some of the best known schools in the nation. They are excellent training, but most of their focus is from 9 feet (3 yards) and longer ranges. They do cover toe-to-toe but there’s not a lot of it, more accurately not enough of it. CQ is very important because most gunfights happen at close range, somewhere between 3 feet to 20 feet and some longer, but most in that range. So Brownie’s techniques that deal with up close fill a void that most schools don’t give quite enough attention to.
The overall strategy is simple – get the first hit and follow that by rapid fire hits and keep shooting until the threat is eliminated – and don’t get shot in the process. There’s an old saying that some famous guy said that goes something like, “Speed is fine, accuracy is final” or something like that. After this training, I’m not so sure that’s accurate (no pun intended). First let me define accuracy as it applies to this training. Accuracy is simply a hit on the torso – as fast as you can, followed by more hits. The principle here is that a BG cannot shoot accurately, if at all, if he’s being continuously be hit in the torso. Of course, COM hits are preferred, but torso hits should work it means you’re keeping the assailant in a defensive, reactive mode, and you are hurting him. And guys, 5 shots is borderline for one assailant. What we are trying to accomplish is to keep the BG from shooting us until incapacitation occurs.
One thing that bothers me immensely about SD shooting discussions is the failure to recognize and acknowledge that one shot will likely not incapacitate an attacker. One hit may cause him to react, but it not keep him from returning fire. After all, now he’s in the fight or flight mode. If he fights, he’ll likely start shooting if for nothing else to stop you from shooting him. It is pointless to swap shots with an attacker. You might as well turn and run – you’d get hit less. So I found the shoot first followed by rapid follow-up hits right down my alley. So not only will you see how, but why as well.
If you train with Brownie, get the HTH too. His HTH techniques are simple, fast, effective, and devastating. The HTH techniques end the confrontation fast. That gives you all kinds of options. If you’re facing two threats you can deal with one, and take on the second in any number of ways, with or without going to your gun. You can control and use one threat as a shield from the second threat. These are simple techniques that work and you can use without putting in years of training and practice. The powerful thing is that while the methods deal with empty hands, knifes, etc., they use essentially the same techniques so you’re not learning a different thing for every different scenarios.
Now, my disclaimer, not for the training, but for those of us that have practiced and do practice a solid shooting technique. I am very fortunate that I learned proper sighted shooting techniques from the start. As you practice, you just get better. But, with practice the techniques ingrain and are difficult to change. I train with my sights and at 9 feet and greater, I will use my sights. Up close, I now have the option of any number of techniques I learned from Brownie plus a few I’ve learned at other schools. Brownie’s methods work and they are fast for up close encounters. But, and I’m probably gonna start a war here, but I don’t believe properly done sighted fire is any slower than point shooting IF we’re talking about shooting from an extended position. Let me relate a little incident that happened Monday.
We had been training at 15 feet with QK, starting slow and gradually speeding up. I was doing fine with it. Then Brownie said, “OK, let’s try it full speed – FIRE!” I fired 18 shots about as fast as I could pull the trigger. I had no idea where the shots went. When I finished, Brownie said, “OK, Ron, try it this time without using the sights.” I hung my head because I knew what had just happened. When I went to full speed, trained instincts took over. I aligned the front sight as I extended, as soon as I was at extension, the shot broke – no sighting, the sighting was already done. I was firing I guess as fast as I could pull the trigger, following the sight through recoil and subconsciously shooting in rhythm as I had practiced so many times before. The guy standing beside me said, “Well, I wondered how you were getting such a tight group without using the sights.”
I said that to say this. If you’ve practiced one technique enough, it becomes instinctive. If you began with proper technique, it is fast and accurate and accuracy can be modified via speed and speed modified by sight picture alignment and dwell time.
So if you use your sight(s) instinctively via training and you use the right technique, it isn’t slow. But the up close stuff Brownie teaches is simply faster and I can prove it.
Thanks Brownie – great training.