Gabe Suarez
member
- Joined
- May 4, 2003
- Messages
- 30
Gents,
For your reading enjoyment. This is from a new book I'm working on. No specific title as of yet (although I have some in mind).
EXTREMELY CLOSE QUARTERS SHOOTING
Back in the early eighties, and up until the nineties, the Speed Rock, and derivatives of it were taught in shooting academies around the world. Much of the close quarters shooting question went largely unanswered. In fact, one “state-of-the-art†academy stopped their training at 3 yards. That’s as close as they trained. Period.
For those of you unfamiliar with this now-obsolete technique, I won’t get too far into it other than it had the shooter quickly “rock†the pistol out of the holster and fire as he rolled his weight backwards onto his heels.
There were other derivatives of this method, but all called for the shooter to almost throw himself back away from the target/adversary as he fired (in apparent frightful desperation). All of them were (are) extremely defensive and ground-giving (as in retreat) in nature.
I was an advocate and practitioner of the Speed Rock. I drilled it so much that I was able to speed rock a target (that is two shots) in less than 1 second! (.83). But only a fool stops learning.
Looking at it from the better-trained and more experienced perspective of today, any technique that places you in an unbalanced position. Or one which is excessively defensive in nature places you in a horrible position in relation to the adversary, giving you little option for follow up. Such methods are only viable against an unmoving, non-aggressive paper target on the square range. When we first began drilling with force on force and integrated combatives, the speed rock proved to be “stone ageâ€.
When I was developing the curriculum for Close Range Gunfighting, I was tempted to come up with a more graphic name. One that was examined and dropped was "In Your Face Gunfighting". A comical name perhaps, but descriptive of the situations that many armed private citizens find themselves in daily. Citizens become involved in gunfights because their adversaries either select them as victims, or because they have lapsed in their attentiveness and walked in on a crime in progress.
We begin this study with the understanding that avoidance strategies have failed. Now is not the time to debate anything, the only option left is to attack. There are several points to consider.
1). Extreme and overwhelming force and violence are the key to winning the fight…or at the very least being able to escape it after it begins. You will not win a fight by hiding or getting shot in the back.
2). You must move. The man who plants his feet, will find the rest of himself planted soon there after. Move. This is not hard. Picture the often seen situation at a range where a neophyte turns with a gun in hand to ask the instructor a question. Everyone moves out of he way of the muzzle. Moving is natural. Standing still is not. Use nature to your advantage and move. If you move first and then shoot, or if you shoot as you move, or whatever, it matters not as long as you do both and practice it often.
3). With #1 in mind, be generous with your ammunition. Remember that the man (men) in front of you is trying to kill you or your important ones. Have no pity for them. Forget about shooting twice; shoot them to the ground.
4). Nobody that I know has ever been robbed or kidnapped, or raped from across the street. These events are often close. Real close. Bad breath distance. Here, you will not use a Weaver, Isosceles, or IPSC stance. Here you will smash your adversary in the face with your fist and shoot the heck out of him with your pistol indexed against your ribcage. Then either run right over him with gunfire and hiking boots and escape, or break contact at a rearward angle while firing and escape. Ugly business, but no one said gunfights were pretty.
5). Be fight focussed not gun focussed. If you run out of ammo, or experience a stoppage, smash him in his mouth or throat with the pistol and finish the fight. If the gun stops, close and strike hard, then break contact. You can drill this on the range with a Slide Locked Gun. On recognizing the stoppage, execute a Muzzle Thrust (making a loud aggressive and warlike sound as you do so), Drop-Back to an angle, fix the problem with the gun and fire several shots.
6). You must know the time to go to guns, and the time to use your fists. Trying to outdraw a drawn gun (while carrying concealed not in a bikini rig with a special gun) will not bring success. Using your hands to foul the adversary’s draw, or make him think about his crushed nose, while you get your own gun out is the formula for success.
Close Range Gunfighting is ugly, close, dangerous, in-your-face, sudden death, business that is best avoided, but if cannot be avoided it must be jumped into with disregard for everything except pure animal violence as expressed through the muzzle of a pistol.
***
For your reading enjoyment. This is from a new book I'm working on. No specific title as of yet (although I have some in mind).
EXTREMELY CLOSE QUARTERS SHOOTING
Back in the early eighties, and up until the nineties, the Speed Rock, and derivatives of it were taught in shooting academies around the world. Much of the close quarters shooting question went largely unanswered. In fact, one “state-of-the-art†academy stopped their training at 3 yards. That’s as close as they trained. Period.
For those of you unfamiliar with this now-obsolete technique, I won’t get too far into it other than it had the shooter quickly “rock†the pistol out of the holster and fire as he rolled his weight backwards onto his heels.
There were other derivatives of this method, but all called for the shooter to almost throw himself back away from the target/adversary as he fired (in apparent frightful desperation). All of them were (are) extremely defensive and ground-giving (as in retreat) in nature.
I was an advocate and practitioner of the Speed Rock. I drilled it so much that I was able to speed rock a target (that is two shots) in less than 1 second! (.83). But only a fool stops learning.
Looking at it from the better-trained and more experienced perspective of today, any technique that places you in an unbalanced position. Or one which is excessively defensive in nature places you in a horrible position in relation to the adversary, giving you little option for follow up. Such methods are only viable against an unmoving, non-aggressive paper target on the square range. When we first began drilling with force on force and integrated combatives, the speed rock proved to be “stone ageâ€.
When I was developing the curriculum for Close Range Gunfighting, I was tempted to come up with a more graphic name. One that was examined and dropped was "In Your Face Gunfighting". A comical name perhaps, but descriptive of the situations that many armed private citizens find themselves in daily. Citizens become involved in gunfights because their adversaries either select them as victims, or because they have lapsed in their attentiveness and walked in on a crime in progress.
We begin this study with the understanding that avoidance strategies have failed. Now is not the time to debate anything, the only option left is to attack. There are several points to consider.
1). Extreme and overwhelming force and violence are the key to winning the fight…or at the very least being able to escape it after it begins. You will not win a fight by hiding or getting shot in the back.
2). You must move. The man who plants his feet, will find the rest of himself planted soon there after. Move. This is not hard. Picture the often seen situation at a range where a neophyte turns with a gun in hand to ask the instructor a question. Everyone moves out of he way of the muzzle. Moving is natural. Standing still is not. Use nature to your advantage and move. If you move first and then shoot, or if you shoot as you move, or whatever, it matters not as long as you do both and practice it often.
3). With #1 in mind, be generous with your ammunition. Remember that the man (men) in front of you is trying to kill you or your important ones. Have no pity for them. Forget about shooting twice; shoot them to the ground.
4). Nobody that I know has ever been robbed or kidnapped, or raped from across the street. These events are often close. Real close. Bad breath distance. Here, you will not use a Weaver, Isosceles, or IPSC stance. Here you will smash your adversary in the face with your fist and shoot the heck out of him with your pistol indexed against your ribcage. Then either run right over him with gunfire and hiking boots and escape, or break contact at a rearward angle while firing and escape. Ugly business, but no one said gunfights were pretty.
5). Be fight focussed not gun focussed. If you run out of ammo, or experience a stoppage, smash him in his mouth or throat with the pistol and finish the fight. If the gun stops, close and strike hard, then break contact. You can drill this on the range with a Slide Locked Gun. On recognizing the stoppage, execute a Muzzle Thrust (making a loud aggressive and warlike sound as you do so), Drop-Back to an angle, fix the problem with the gun and fire several shots.
6). You must know the time to go to guns, and the time to use your fists. Trying to outdraw a drawn gun (while carrying concealed not in a bikini rig with a special gun) will not bring success. Using your hands to foul the adversary’s draw, or make him think about his crushed nose, while you get your own gun out is the formula for success.
Close Range Gunfighting is ugly, close, dangerous, in-your-face, sudden death, business that is best avoided, but if cannot be avoided it must be jumped into with disregard for everything except pure animal violence as expressed through the muzzle of a pistol.
***
and get the 