CQT Classes...

Been awhile. And I’m not even going to talk about my shooting, other than to say the DoubleTap Championship WOULD have been fun had it been 30 degrees warmer. In other news, my shooting is better, but my reloading is much, much worse. Went to a class with Manny Bragg, and learned lots, which hopefully will start to show in increased shooting ability over the next several months.

On to the real topic---I’m teaching a CQT class this Saturday, and what has been interesting is that when I posted on my Facebook that I was doing so, more than one person (in various ways) offered to come and help me teach it.

While I appreciate the offers, I wonder why they think they are qualified? (Of course, some people probably are wondering why I think I’m qualified.) The class I’m going to teach is armed civilian self-defense at close quarters. This isn’t room-clearing, battle tactics, or teamwork training---this is arms-length defense tactics and practice versus single/multiple/armed attackers. So I wonder what kinds of training these other people have had?

I was also interested to find out that a local firearms trainer has gone to a training class of his own, and now that he is back, is going to teach a force-on-force class for students. I’ve been to one of his classes, and while I like the guy (and he is certainly a good shooter), his grasp of hand-to-hand defensive tactics is very similar to most of what I’ve seen from shooters---which is minimal, and slanted based on whatever training class they attended last. So force-on-force from him should be interesting—will it be good scenario-based self-defense training, or will it be law-enforcement distance shooting tactics? Two very different things…one of which will cause people to break the first rule of self-defense.

Anyway---several months back I told my shooter students we were going to do the non-range portion of a CQT course, to include both practice drills, and later force-on-force scenarios. Several of them got interested, so I put together a short, 3-hour curriculum to work on. (We will do the range portion later. Quite frankly, since most CQT shootings are at 3 feet or less, while it is important to get range time, practicing dry-fire is actually more useful, particularly when done safely with a partner.)

So what important things should my students get out of this? That’s the real question, isn’t it? At close range, what circumstances will result in a lethal force response? Large disparity of force, weapons, or multiple attackers. (Or combinations thereof.) So---CQT for civilian self-defense needs to deal with how to keep yourself safe under those conditions. Oddly enough, going for the gun is almost always NOT what you should do first. Matter of fact, sometimes going for the gun means you lose control of the situation, and you get dead.

First rule of self-defense: Don’t get dead. Don't break the first rule of self-defense.

So this is always what interests me when I see other firearms instructors teaching “CQT” courses. Often (granted, I’ve only seen a small sample of instructors) the response is movement and draw/engage. The problem is, force-on-force training that mimics reality will show you right away that for many SD cases, this doesn’t work. (Many other CQT courses are designed after military CQB, and close-quarter battle tactics is a completely different animal. Interesting stuff, but really not the same.)

We will do some movement/draw/engage practice. After all, given 10 feet and some awareness, as long as the person isn’t already on the run at you with a weapon, you can (given practice) move back and offline, draw, and engage your attacker in sufficient safety to make it a viable choice.

But really, civilian CQT isn’t about 10 feet---it is about 3-5 feet, and that is a whole ‘nother situation. Starting to move back and putting your hands down to draw (or even keeping one up to guard your head) as an initial reaction to an attack is just a good way to make sure you are beaten before your gun gets out. Worse yet, if you get the gun halfway out and then get dropped, they’ll know you have a gun—and they’ll have access to it.

This is a SD class, not a “gun” class. We use tools, sure. But the weapon is the mind, and the mind should be telling you that you need to create space (both in distance and in time) so you can access and use your tools. If that space isn’t there, you have to make it—so CQT courses should show how to stop attackers, how to redirect attacks, and how to jam movement to give you that time and space. Without it---you break the first rule of self-defense.

Don’t get dead.