I took a CCW-focused combatives class, here's what I learned

Class: Extreme Close Quarters Concepts (ECQC) Instructor: Craig Douglas of Shivworks Location: The Range at Austin (Austin, TX) I took this class in July of 2018 and I’ve wanted to do a proper after-action ever since, but only if I could do it justice. I hope that’s what I’ve done here. My entire concept of how to defensively employ a pistol was changed dramatically. The class centers around clinch fighting in a weapons-based environment. Here’s a clip:http://bit.ly/2RPVub4 is this “Craig Douglas” guy anyway?Craig is a retired police officer with extensive SWAT and undercover narcotics experience. (On this occasion he was joined by Jeff Gonzales, former SEAL and owner of Trident Concepts; and Cliff Byerly, former Force Recon and LAPD and owner of Hill Country Combatives.) Craig has gotten himself into all kinds of trouble buying dope from the kind of people who sell dope, which has meant altercations in vehicles, hotel rooms, and other tight spaces. What he found is that you can get away with a lot when you have ample space between you and a threat, but at gun-grabbing range things get a lot more challenging and traditional solutions may not work.After a couple of years of studying this problem by essentially running Fight Club using training Glocks with marking cartridges well outside of the manufacturer’s recommendations, some best practices emerged. Replicating those findings and learning to use them for self defense what this class is about.Summary of the curriculumActively look for and manage the approach of unknown people, especially the wrong type.If the above fails and you are assaulted, either strike to create space and time to escape, or cover and dive in to control limbs. Pick one. Don’t fuck around in between.If diving in, use a limited set of wrestling techniques to achieve the dominant position needed to manage the threat, THEN go to weapons if necessary.What did I learn?Prior to this class I had an unrealistic view of my own capability. I spent an excessive amount of time on things I was already good enough at while neglecting essential skills.That false sense of competence was nurtured by the unrealistic force on force training I had received. Scenarios had been deliberately constructed to maintain a stand off distance for Simunition cartridges and discourage interpersonal contact, to limit liability. In that context, where 3 yards is the closest any two role players might get to one another, you can get away with a lot. Once contact is permitted the whole game changes in ways you might not anticipate. Something as simple as drawing your gun becomes a complex and sometimes insurmountable task on its own. I discovered that a base of wrestling skill is the key to being successful at close-range gunfighting.For a longer and better treatment on that important concept, watch this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTwH-PS9ydMManaging Unknown ContactsThe first day of ECQC is a short Friday evening largely spent on lecture concerning general, pre-fighting self defense strategy. The Criminal Assault Paradigm and Managing Unknown Contacts are covered. In public, we need to be engrossed in the work of knowing who is around us and managing their distance to us. No staring at cell phones or other types of task fixation; head up. Profile the people around you and halt the approach of unsavory strangers as far back as is feasible. Rather than go through this aspect in detail I’ll let Craig speak for himself:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwCtu79iMDsEntangled gunfightingThis is where things get more complicated and the bulk of class time is spent. I understood Craig’s methodology to map roughly to this sequence:CoveringControlling limbsEscape/tie upTransition to a weapon if necessary/shoot from retentionEverything taught was validated through full-contact force on force evolutions with protective gear and Glock T guns with marking cartridges. If you haven’t done something like that before, you want to.Covering, a non-diagnostic approachIf you’ve ever tried to block punches outside of a pre-arranged drill, you know it’s hard to do reliably at speed. Craig recommends that we leave blocking to the kung fu masters and instead adopt what he calls a non-diagnostic approach. What that means is that we don’t need to try to recognize the direction an attack is coming from and formulate the correct block before it lands. Instead, we can use the generically applicable approach of covering:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTgiXxjo8XgControlling limbsMy strategy prior to the class was essentially draw gun, fire gun. That plan fell apart really quickly under physical pressure from live opponents. It’s trivially easy for someone to foul your draw, at which point it’s not “your” gun anymore, it’s “the” gun and you have to negotiate a disagreement as to who gets to hold it. To make matters worse, they may have a blade and be able to use it even faster than your incredible Instagram-worthy draw.So before we attempt to draw a gun, we have to deal with the reality that our opponent has their own limbs and potentially their own weapons, and prevent them from taking us down or knocking us out or killing us in the fraction of a second it takes to employ the stuff in our waistband.http://bit.ly/2CN3MGu addition to the general principles of staying conscious, upright, and on the inside, Craig advocates the following hooks and ties as simple methods of negotiating an entanglement on our way to an escape or tie-up:http://bit.ly/2RRVjMw upThe goal of the above limb controlling techniques is to get us to a point where we’ve controlled the opponent’s aggression well enough to escape and get to a weapon if need be. The duck under and the arm drag are Craig’s preferred solutions for escaping the entanglement. He demonstrates them here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pj9B2wwqiIWhether transitioning to the pistol on your feet during the escape or shooting your opponent on the ground, you’ll need to be effective at shooting from retention.Shooting from retentionMost shooters (myself included prior to this class) really only practice shooting at full extension. There are two main problems with this. The first is somewhat obvious: Standing in front of your opponent within arm’s reach and holding your gun out where they can grab in order to shoot them is not the course of wisdom.The second reason is more subtle. Something Craig has noticed over years of running entangled sim fights is that people have a tendency to “float the gun” while entangled. What that means is that in the middle of a tangle of limbs where using sights isn’t an option, people tend to just sort of point the gun at where they believe the threat to be and pull the trigger. This is a bad idea. People are universally terrible at shooting this way and likely to miss their target from a foot away or even shoot themselves by accident. It’s also susceptible to the same gun grab problem discussed above.Craig recommends what he calls a “thumb-pectoral index” to shoot close-up targets accurately without using the sights, exposing the gun to easy grabs, or shooting yourself. To see Craig teach the topic in detail and demonstrate one of the drills performed in class, watch this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqnaoI11YpAConcluding thoughtsI’ve logged triple-digit training hours with different instructors and this is easily my favorite course so far. I signed up for this class expecting my world to be expanded, but I hadn’t anticipated the degree to which that would be true.I had experienced force on force classes before but we weren’t even allowed to get close to each other, which I now realize is complete bullshit. One of my epiphanies after running through some scenarios was that you might not even have the justification to draw a firearm until you’re already entangled with someone. From that perspective, I would consider the material covered in ECQC to form the basis of realistic self defense in a weapons-based environment.Some have mentioned hesitation signing up for the class, worrying that they’re not operator enough. Craig does a good job of matching people appropriately for the evolutions. You will be challenged just far enough beyond what you can handle in order to progress. I highly recommend this class whether it’s your first formal instruction or you’re more experienced.For myself, my challenge is to de-prioritize the gunplay and take conditioning and BJJ seriously until my next ECQC. via /r/CCW http://bit.ly/2MBpkdE