Immediate Action Combatives

ShivWorks ECQC 04/19/2013-04/21/2013
http://shivworks.com/
Flagstaff, Arizona
Hosted by Independence Training
http://www.independencetraining.com/

Day 1- 04/19/2013 4 hours
Meet and intro. If you do not know of Craig and his history he is a former LEO with heavy Undercover and high impact/high risk work. We then went around the room and each gave a brief “who we are and what we hope from the class” intro.
Explanation of the reasons behind the course and the “why” of several of the techniques.

MUC- Managing Unknown Contacts
· Verbal
· Movement
· Hands
Basically a “how to” develop your own system of what do you say, how do you move, and what you do with your hands.
We did some drills with an encroaching individual. Several teaching moments developed out of this for us to learn as a group from individual actions.

Non-Compliance-
If it cannot be handled verbally and with movement…consider initiating contact.
· Position, Posture, Pressure
· Drill of the eye strike
· Drill of “default position”
· Drill of “posture”- First Blood of the class from the “Mountain Goat” Drill

Indicators- Things people do before striking. (Amazingly when you look for this it is VERY evident and easy to predict) We drilled on this trying to spot the cues during MUC.
· Grooming
· Loading
· Picking
· Target Look
2 Goals of MUC- Stay Conscious, Stay Mobile
End of Class

Day 2- 04/20/2013 8 Hours
Safety brief including expectations and assignments.
· Baseline- We all shot on demand for the instructors to see and evaluate everyone’s current technique and skill base.
· Draw stroke. Craig teaches a 4 position similar to what most any shooter will be familiar with. The difference is the use of tactile positioning throughout the draw.
· Shooting from the 2 (second position). Think of using a high tang grip with thumb extended. Indexing your thumb, gun and hand on your pectoral. This is very effective and consistent
· Lunch- After lunch ALL weapons removed and verified. Sim guns and safety gear brought out. Safety brief and limits, expectations laid out.
· Some basic grappling and control techniques we had discussed the previous day are reviewed and practiced. (Always rotating to new partners)
· Basic movement and shooting from the ground practiced.
· Drill 1 on 1- Person one is armed and on the deck, person 2 is standing. On command fight until told to stop.* Reverse positions and repeat. Everyone participated.
End of Class

After clean-up we went out to dinner as a group. Good times with good stories. To try and give an idea of the impact of all this…I spent about 30 minutes trying to find a way to get out of the next day. Not out of fear or injury per se, but I so far had to question and apply almost every lesson I had learned in my life about weapons and violence (along with my own gut-check) and I had major doubts in myself. Thankfully between realizing this opportunity was too good to pass for any reason (real or imagined) and the next morning I was ready to go for the final day.

Day 3- 0/21/2013 8.5 hours
· Back on the firing line. Working shooting through all positions while utilizing defensive use of support hand or movement.
· Draw and shooting from non-standard positions and/or environments. The drills were all challenging mentally as application in the real world is stressed throughout this course. (My motivation was not “My training buddy/target is doing x”, but a mindset of “someone is coming to hurt or take my family.” The stress was as real as simulation can make it .)
· Final Shooting Drill.- Put all live fire drills together into one.
· Lunch- After lunch ALL weapons removed and verified again. Sim guns and safety gear brought out.
· Additional grappling/ground movements covered.
· Drill 2 on 1- Person 1 is armed, person 2 is not. Person 1 has to MUC, with an additional Person 3 (unarmed) entering into the drill at a random time. This is “role-playing” intensive with no script or teams. Some of it was funny, intense and some downright scary. Each person rotated through each position in the drill.
· Weapons retention lecture and drill. How do you maintain control of your weapon, or take theirs was covered. Again drill and rotate to a new training partner.
· Drill 1 on 1- Both armed guns drawn. Person 1 on ground, person 2 kneeling over in a side posture. You have the grip of your gun in your strong hand and the slide of your opponent’s gun in your support hand. On command fight until told to stop. Reverse positions and repeat. Everyone participated.
End of Instruction.
Range clean up.
Informal AAR from each student and instructors.
End of Class

My personal take on the ECQC Class.
Anyone who carries a gun regularly, for personal or professional reasons, should take this class. I am an advocate of training in general, but Craig’s take and class components will force you to at least re-evaluate if not question and change a lot of what you think you know. The class is very well laid out and staged in a way that you build off each lesson/drill and it becomes noticeable and valuable as each stage progresses. While there is no “one thing” I learned, and no epiphany that re-writes personal defense. There are many little lessons I learned however. Some lessons were about technique or position, some about gear or how you carry that gear; most of all the class was about me. This class will teach you more about your actual skillset and mindset than any other I have seen. This is not a “beginning” class, and after taking it I can say it is definitely not a final class. I was extremely lucky to be in this particular class, everyone that was there had a singular goal…to improve. Everyone to a man overcame something, and we all learned several things. Some of what I took away:
· Zombieland was right- “Cardio, Cardio, Cardio”
· The “Total Carry System” works outside of theory. (https://www.facebook.com/notes/tcb-fire … 4488446038 )
· If you say I can’t, you’re right. Hard work is worth every part of it.
· Train multiple techniques, the world is full of variable situations.
The experience is summarized best by quoting Craig’s closing lesson-
“Training should be bloodless battles, and battles should be bloody training”- Roman Proverb

This class, and several of those in attendance, has changed my life…for the better. I am humbled and honored to have been a part of it.

*This was a personal high/low point for me. I have been in fights both competitive and “street” before. I do not know if it was the helmet, my imagination or what…but I panicked. Tried to work through this and failed a second time. This was handled professionally and as an instructional point which really impressed me. Later in the class I can only assume Craig noticed this was wearing on me, as we had an odd number of participants I was called in for another round. Somehow hew either knew before I did I had worked through it, or that I would. While my focus was not on “winning” but simply completing the match I was able to overcome both failure and panic. The encouragement and opportunity to overcome was worth the class fees and time alone.