I thought I'd start a new thread since we seem to have hijacked Steve's thread on which class to take first.
Paintball, Airsoft, Laser Tag and other games aren't training
This might upset some hardcorps gamers here but I believe it to be true. The tools of those games can be used to make training more realistic but if you play those games and think that you are trainging to survive an armed encounter, you are kidding yourself. None of these games is realistic enough to simulate combat. they can't be or they wouldn't be games. Competitors will do things they couldn't get by with in combat in the free play atmosphere on the paintball field or in the airsoft match because the limitations of the simulator and the rules of the game allow them to. In many cases, concealment becomes cover. Players can use the relatively slow velocity of paintballs and airsoft pellets to expose themsleves for a longer period of time then they could with live ammunition or lasers. MILES (Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System) as used by the military is probably the best tactical engagement simulator out there. But even it has a lot of limitations and requires good observer/controllers to get the maximum training value out of it's use.
So how do I train with my paintball/airsoft gun?
Don't despair, you can use these tools to conduct meaningful, realistic training. The first step is to forget about winning and losing. Playing armed hide and seek in the abandoned house on the back 40 of the family farm is training, but is it meaningful training? I would have to say that for most of us here it wouldn't be meaningful training. But there is a way to make it meaningful training.
The first thing you have to do is sit down and write out a list of all the little things you have to do to safely clear the abandoned farm house. At the top of the page, make two columns. One for the individual skills needed and one for the group or collective skills. You will need to train on the individual skills first, because you can't begin to function as a team, even a two man one, without everyone being up to speed on the individual skills needed to accomplish the task. Lets say, just for the purpose of this discussion that you are going to train a two person team to clear the farmhouse. What individual and collective tasks will you have to be proficient on to accomplish this? (This list is not all inclusive, but an example.)
INDIVIDUAL TASKS
Paintball, Airsoft, Laser Tag and other games aren't training
This might upset some hardcorps gamers here but I believe it to be true. The tools of those games can be used to make training more realistic but if you play those games and think that you are trainging to survive an armed encounter, you are kidding yourself. None of these games is realistic enough to simulate combat. they can't be or they wouldn't be games. Competitors will do things they couldn't get by with in combat in the free play atmosphere on the paintball field or in the airsoft match because the limitations of the simulator and the rules of the game allow them to. In many cases, concealment becomes cover. Players can use the relatively slow velocity of paintballs and airsoft pellets to expose themsleves for a longer period of time then they could with live ammunition or lasers. MILES (Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System) as used by the military is probably the best tactical engagement simulator out there. But even it has a lot of limitations and requires good observer/controllers to get the maximum training value out of it's use.
So how do I train with my paintball/airsoft gun?
Don't despair, you can use these tools to conduct meaningful, realistic training. The first step is to forget about winning and losing. Playing armed hide and seek in the abandoned house on the back 40 of the family farm is training, but is it meaningful training? I would have to say that for most of us here it wouldn't be meaningful training. But there is a way to make it meaningful training.
The first thing you have to do is sit down and write out a list of all the little things you have to do to safely clear the abandoned farm house. At the top of the page, make two columns. One for the individual skills needed and one for the group or collective skills. You will need to train on the individual skills first, because you can't begin to function as a team, even a two man one, without everyone being up to speed on the individual skills needed to accomplish the task. Lets say, just for the purpose of this discussion that you are going to train a two person team to clear the farmhouse. What individual and collective tasks will you have to be proficient on to accomplish this? (This list is not all inclusive, but an example.)
INDIVIDUAL TASKS
- weapon ready positions (low, high, indoor ready)
- tactical movement
- pie a corner
- use white light
- target ID (IFF)
- communications techniques
- search and scan techniques
[/list=1]
Collective Tasks
- Move as a team member
- enter a room
- clear a room
- engage a threat
[/list=1]
Now that you've decided what you need to train on, you need to decide how to train. Start at crawling speed. Sit down and have a thorough discussion of the task and how to perform it. Demonstrate the task for the student. First at full speed, then in a step by step, by the numbers mode. Allow the students to ask questions, repeat the demonstration as necessary. Now get them on their feet and start them performing the task, at crawl speed. Critique each step and make sure your student performs it correctly before moving on to the next step. After they master all the steps, pick up the speed. Once your student can perform the task to standard at full speed, you are ready to try the task in a force on force role. Choose the person who will assist you by being the bad guy very carefully. This person must be disciplined and understand that his/her sole role is that of a training aid. Just a tool, like the airsoft guns you are using. They aren't to add anything to the scenario. No sneaking up behind or hiding in the opposite corner and popping the student in the back of the head. They aren't ready for that yet. the OPFOR must be able to observe everything from his unique perspective and be able to articulate what he observed during the review of the exercise without interjecting emotion or his own opinions. After each itereation of the exercise, conduct an after action review. This is accomplished by the instructor moderating the reveiw. Have the student state the mission and then have the OPFOR state his. Then ask each side what happened, step by step. You'll find that the student will teach himself and you will only have to keep things on track or make minor corrections. The student also will retain these lessons better then if you just stood there and told him what he did wrong. Guide the AAR through leading questions to bring out points they miss. Then go back and repeat the scenarion. Remember train, assess, retrain. Once you have performed all of the individual and collective tasks to standard, you are ready to go free play. This is a slow process. It has to be, the topic is too important to take lightly. If you have a class of ten, expect to spend the better part of three days working up to the free play armed game of tag you started out wanting to do. The free play exercise needs to be controlled the same way the smaller ones were. It's only free play in the sense that the OPFOR can choose their own positions and make their own plans. They still must have the proper guidance about using techniques that may work with paint or airsoft but would be inappropriate for live ammunition.
You can have a lot of fun with this, but don't lose sight of the fact that you're training, not gaming.
Jeff
edited to correct numerous typos
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