luzyfuerza
Member
Proper use of cover is a fundamental skill. We are often taught to:
1) Stand back from cover (don't "hug it"),
2) Change the positions relative to cover from which we engage targets (if we first engage from high right, the next time should be something like low left), and to
3) Move!
These three principles are basic. Even drills as simple and widely practiced as the IDPA classifier are based on these principles.
Most of us by now have seen this video, which appears to show the murder of a police officer by a rifle-wielding assailant last night in Dallas:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1306452/WARNING-GRAPHIC-Gunman-shoots-police-officer-Dallas-street.html
The police officer appears to have hugged his cover, and to have only looked around his cover from the high-right position. He appears to have been pretty much stationary once he was behind the concrete pillar. By contrast, the assailant moves constantly, and was able to maneuver to the side of the concrete pillar opposite from where the officer last engaged him.
It is a horrible thing to see a recording of a human being who is injured or killed at the hands of evil. We all mourn with the family of this injured or dead officer.
What can we learn from it?
Because many of us most commonly practice engaging paper targets that do not move, we sometimes only use the first two principles of the use of cover that I mentioned above. These are sufficient, I suppose, for dealing with a stationary target that isn't shooting back.
However, most real threats start moving when bullets start to fly. Some will shoot back. If they are going to move, then we must, too, even if it means leaving good cover, or moving to a position that our bodies may not go to easily (e.g. moving from standing to kneeling), or shooting from a less comfortable position (e.g. from the support hand side of cover). I believe that we have to practice these actions in order to be better able to use them for real, should such a horrible situation arise.
I'm looking for suggestions here.
How do you train in the use of cover? What drills and scenarios do you use?
I personally have a tendency to freeze in place and try to cognitively reason things out when confronted by a threat. How do you train your minds to avoid the tendency to freeze in place and to act quickly when confronted with a threat?
Are there other principles of the use of cover that you believe are also fundamental?
Please, lets focus on use of cover in this thread. We can discuss body armor/failure to stop, and rifle versus pistol elsewhere.
1) Stand back from cover (don't "hug it"),
2) Change the positions relative to cover from which we engage targets (if we first engage from high right, the next time should be something like low left), and to
3) Move!
These three principles are basic. Even drills as simple and widely practiced as the IDPA classifier are based on these principles.
Most of us by now have seen this video, which appears to show the murder of a police officer by a rifle-wielding assailant last night in Dallas:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1306452/WARNING-GRAPHIC-Gunman-shoots-police-officer-Dallas-street.html
The police officer appears to have hugged his cover, and to have only looked around his cover from the high-right position. He appears to have been pretty much stationary once he was behind the concrete pillar. By contrast, the assailant moves constantly, and was able to maneuver to the side of the concrete pillar opposite from where the officer last engaged him.
It is a horrible thing to see a recording of a human being who is injured or killed at the hands of evil. We all mourn with the family of this injured or dead officer.
What can we learn from it?
Because many of us most commonly practice engaging paper targets that do not move, we sometimes only use the first two principles of the use of cover that I mentioned above. These are sufficient, I suppose, for dealing with a stationary target that isn't shooting back.
However, most real threats start moving when bullets start to fly. Some will shoot back. If they are going to move, then we must, too, even if it means leaving good cover, or moving to a position that our bodies may not go to easily (e.g. moving from standing to kneeling), or shooting from a less comfortable position (e.g. from the support hand side of cover). I believe that we have to practice these actions in order to be better able to use them for real, should such a horrible situation arise.
I'm looking for suggestions here.
How do you train in the use of cover? What drills and scenarios do you use?
I personally have a tendency to freeze in place and try to cognitively reason things out when confronted by a threat. How do you train your minds to avoid the tendency to freeze in place and to act quickly when confronted with a threat?
Are there other principles of the use of cover that you believe are also fundamental?
Please, lets focus on use of cover in this thread. We can discuss body armor/failure to stop, and rifle versus pistol elsewhere.
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