How to Plan and Conduct Force on Force Training
Force on Force training, everyone talks about it being necessary. Military and law enforcement agencies use it, but it’s a pretty rare training event in the civilian self-defense community. There are all kinds of reasons for this but that’s not the focus of this thread. In this thread we are going to discuss how to conduct your own force on force training and have it be a meaningful training event.
Force on Force training is not a freeplay exercise. It’s planned the same way as any other training event. Pick specific skills and abilities you want the students to develop. Design the training to cover the skills and scenarios that will have the student use those skills. FoF is ideal to train on decision making and unlike other training it combines mental skills with physical skills. You can train on everything from shooting skills i.e. Shooting while moving at a target that is also moving, use of cover and concealment to judgement skills i.e. shoot/don’t shoot, advance into a problem or disengage, how to deal with the post shooting and engagement actions (such as the arrival of the police), you’re limited only by your imagination and the constraints imposed by your firearm simulator.
One of the big “problems” people say they have with force on force training is access to a realistic firearms simulator. You don’t need the latest Simunitions equipment. You can conduct meaningful force on force training using readily available simulators. Paint ball guns and airsoft guns are available to just about everyone. You simply have to plan your scenarios so that they allow you to use whatever engagement simulator you use in the most realistic way possible. Don’t expect to engage an opponent at 25 yards with an airsoft gun. Don’t expect to use a paintball gun from the holster. Make sure all role players are triple checked against having any non-approved ‘weapons’ or possible improvised weapons. Clearly state the rules on hand to hand engagement. Total eye protection is mandatory.
Once you have selected your firearm simulator, you need to select your role players. The role players are critical to a successful training event. If your training scenario calls for them role players should include innocent bystanders as well as a criminal's accomplices. They need to understand their purpose is to facilitate learning. They are not there to show off their gun fighting skills or “win” the engagement. They are a training aid. Role players who don’t accept that this is their part to play will ruin the training event as it will degenerate into a bunch of adults playing cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers. While this might be fun, it’s playing, not training. The instructor active role players need to be tightly scripted and at least one should be a non-participant observer/referee who can stop the action.
You’ve picked a scenario you want to train on, you’ve selected an engagement simulator and picked and briefed your role players. You went to the training location and conducted the training. Now what?
Before the start of the actual exercise, tell the students that this is not the place for ego. You may not be successful and look silly or ‘die’. NO Whining, accept the critiques as a learning experience. Similarly, the staff should not mock the students. Misbehavior is not to be tolerated but should be dealt with professionally.
Immediately upon completion of the training event comes the most important part of the training; The After Action Review. This is where the learning happens. I recommend doing the AAR on site. It helps to be right there where the “fight” happened. Have everyone sit down, get some water and cool down. For the staff, some of the scenarios and actions might trigger a stress reaction or emotional response, be prepared to calmly talk someone down and not mock someone if this happens.
Start the AAR by reviewing what the scenario was, i.e. “You were in line to check out at the convenience store when you noticed the man at the front of the line was holding a gun on the cashier. You are an armed private citizen with no obligation to act, resolve the situation without getting shot.”
Then ask the role player who was the armed robber to state what his part was: “My goal was to get the money out of the cash register and make my escape shooting anyone I had to.”
Then ask the other role players what their part was. Once everyone has explained their role have the person who started the action speak. Ask questions of the role players to bring out the information, i.e. “What did you see the armed citizen do that made you take the action you took?” The idea is to get the participants explaining what they saw and why they reacted the way they did, this is where the learning happens. If you videoed the encounter (and there is no reason not to considering almost everyone has a decent video recorder in his pocket these days) this is a good time to look at the video, fast forward to the part that the participant is describing run through it in slow motion as many times as necessary. Your job as facilitator is to lead the discussion so that the participants bring up the lessons learned on their own.
There it is a short primer on planning and conducting force on force training. It’s not hard. It just takes planning and discipline. These same principles apply to a two man scenario up to large military exercises.
I’d like to thank Kleanbore, GEM and hso for their assistance with this post.
Force on Force training, everyone talks about it being necessary. Military and law enforcement agencies use it, but it’s a pretty rare training event in the civilian self-defense community. There are all kinds of reasons for this but that’s not the focus of this thread. In this thread we are going to discuss how to conduct your own force on force training and have it be a meaningful training event.
Force on Force training is not a freeplay exercise. It’s planned the same way as any other training event. Pick specific skills and abilities you want the students to develop. Design the training to cover the skills and scenarios that will have the student use those skills. FoF is ideal to train on decision making and unlike other training it combines mental skills with physical skills. You can train on everything from shooting skills i.e. Shooting while moving at a target that is also moving, use of cover and concealment to judgement skills i.e. shoot/don’t shoot, advance into a problem or disengage, how to deal with the post shooting and engagement actions (such as the arrival of the police), you’re limited only by your imagination and the constraints imposed by your firearm simulator.
One of the big “problems” people say they have with force on force training is access to a realistic firearms simulator. You don’t need the latest Simunitions equipment. You can conduct meaningful force on force training using readily available simulators. Paint ball guns and airsoft guns are available to just about everyone. You simply have to plan your scenarios so that they allow you to use whatever engagement simulator you use in the most realistic way possible. Don’t expect to engage an opponent at 25 yards with an airsoft gun. Don’t expect to use a paintball gun from the holster. Make sure all role players are triple checked against having any non-approved ‘weapons’ or possible improvised weapons. Clearly state the rules on hand to hand engagement. Total eye protection is mandatory.
Once you have selected your firearm simulator, you need to select your role players. The role players are critical to a successful training event. If your training scenario calls for them role players should include innocent bystanders as well as a criminal's accomplices. They need to understand their purpose is to facilitate learning. They are not there to show off their gun fighting skills or “win” the engagement. They are a training aid. Role players who don’t accept that this is their part to play will ruin the training event as it will degenerate into a bunch of adults playing cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers. While this might be fun, it’s playing, not training. The instructor active role players need to be tightly scripted and at least one should be a non-participant observer/referee who can stop the action.
You’ve picked a scenario you want to train on, you’ve selected an engagement simulator and picked and briefed your role players. You went to the training location and conducted the training. Now what?
Before the start of the actual exercise, tell the students that this is not the place for ego. You may not be successful and look silly or ‘die’. NO Whining, accept the critiques as a learning experience. Similarly, the staff should not mock the students. Misbehavior is not to be tolerated but should be dealt with professionally.
Immediately upon completion of the training event comes the most important part of the training; The After Action Review. This is where the learning happens. I recommend doing the AAR on site. It helps to be right there where the “fight” happened. Have everyone sit down, get some water and cool down. For the staff, some of the scenarios and actions might trigger a stress reaction or emotional response, be prepared to calmly talk someone down and not mock someone if this happens.
Start the AAR by reviewing what the scenario was, i.e. “You were in line to check out at the convenience store when you noticed the man at the front of the line was holding a gun on the cashier. You are an armed private citizen with no obligation to act, resolve the situation without getting shot.”
Then ask the role player who was the armed robber to state what his part was: “My goal was to get the money out of the cash register and make my escape shooting anyone I had to.”
Then ask the other role players what their part was. Once everyone has explained their role have the person who started the action speak. Ask questions of the role players to bring out the information, i.e. “What did you see the armed citizen do that made you take the action you took?” The idea is to get the participants explaining what they saw and why they reacted the way they did, this is where the learning happens. If you videoed the encounter (and there is no reason not to considering almost everyone has a decent video recorder in his pocket these days) this is a good time to look at the video, fast forward to the part that the participant is describing run through it in slow motion as many times as necessary. Your job as facilitator is to lead the discussion so that the participants bring up the lessons learned on their own.
There it is a short primer on planning and conducting force on force training. It’s not hard. It just takes planning and discipline. These same principles apply to a two man scenario up to large military exercises.
I’d like to thank Kleanbore, GEM and hso for their assistance with this post.
