TRAINING BEYOND THE LIMITS!

By Russ Adler 

When talking about limits, one thinks of boundaries or “the extreme”, but when putting training into this perspective, professionals are constantly pushing the extreme and breaking boundaries; getting outside of the box if you will.  But are they really?

The first and foremost concern regarding any type of training is safety.  Whether it is cost mitigation regarding equipment, or injury and/or death prevention regarding personnel, all training tasks are infused with guidelines, rules and safety considerations.  While many of the safety protocols are necessary, some of them are not and others mainly disguised as tactics issues are downright ridiculous.

Before I go any further, I should mention that from 1988 until this writing (May 2008) I have conducted advanced tactical training both in law enforcement and military settings with and for over 1000 personnel.  Outside of a few strained and pulled muscles, only one major injury occurred and that was a broken arm during a hand-to-hand combatives instructor course.  Out of those numbers, I have witnessed only three accidental / negligent discharges (none of which presented an issue as the weapons were pointed in safe directions – in all three cases though the shooters were politely separated from their weapons and escorted to the spectator area of the training).  While the three AD/NDs could have easily turned to tragedy, they didn’t, and with the numbers of personnel we’re discussing here, I’d say those are good odds.

Let’s get back to the tactics vs. safety issue.  At a recent course that I conducted at a military installation, we had a briefing by a military liaison who gave us the dos and don’ts regarding the firearms portion of the training, mainly with regard to shooting while moving and how close we could shoot the steel targets that I brought.  The steel target guidelines were a little bit extreme for my liking but tolerable, but the movement issue was a different story.  Forward and lateral movements were ok, but movement to the rear was not.

The original reason for no shooting while moving backwards was, “because we don’t do it that way” coming from a Special Forces veteran with recent time downrange.  He continued by saying that if he had to move backwards, he would just turn around (facing away from the threat) and go while his partner covered him and if it was a building/entry scenario, they NEVER go backwards.  I can see the turning and running in a counterambush scenario in a maneuver such as an Australian peel, but sometimes in an urban scenario whether it is indoors or not, shooting while moving backwards might be a good tactic to have in your tactical toolbox (I can list quite few scenarios [military, law enforcement and personal defense] where one might need it off the top of my head right now, but I’ll let you think about a few yourselves). 

The next reason that was given for no shooting while moving backwards was because “range control” does not allow it.  Due to conflicting reasons given in the same statement, I asked why for clarification and the answer came back, “I think it’s for safety reasons, someone might trip because they can’t see behind them”.  While I’ve seen people trip while walking forward, sideways, backward, with weapons, without weapons, while shooting, etc., I decided to let it go.

Later, while speaking to one of the other SF guys in the class who is in the same unit as the one who was giving the reasons, I asked him for some clarification on the issue and the reply was to the extent that “they don’t teach it at the schools that we go to so we don’t train that way”.  And the truth shall set you FREE!

So there it is.  Another sacred cow argument over tactics and an arbitrary “safety rule” is set in stone preventing real outside of the box, realistic and practical training that not only can, but WILL save lives downrange.

Now that is small example of an entire pandemic that is gripping not only our military, but law enforcement administrators as well into creating an unacceptable level of mediocrity in our training that will only decrease our men and women in uniforms chances of survival during a violent encounter.  Luckily there are private ranges and trainers that are not bound by the red-tape bureaucratic machine and still push the training envelope.  It’s just a matter of getting the right people to observe the right type of training and bring it back to those who need to utilize this type of training in their everyday lives.

In closing, I would like to say that the soldiers that I referred to in the conversations are stand up guys and real world operators that I have the utmost respect for hands down.  They are bound by their team unity and train at levels that most would only dream of and do so because those tactics and methodologies work for them.  My point is that there is usually more than one way to solve a problem and you must choose the one that works best for you but don’t rule something out because it’s not something that you do on a regular basis.  Remember the Murphy’s Law that says something to the effect of, “If it’s stupid but works, it aint stupid.”?

Until Next Time … Take Care and Stay Aware!