ShivWorks ECQC

[cobb]

I am getting too old for this stuff.

I attended a class over the Labor Day weekend called Extreme Close Quarter Concepts hosted by the Rice County Sheriff Department.
A link to the training.
http://shivworks.com/

Here is a youtube link that shows a bit of the class role playing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPO3h2bTe9w

There are also some videos taken on day three of our class, I may put them up on my Facebook page when I have them.

The class covered the following.

Day One (4 hours):
- Criminal Assault Paradigm
- Unequal Initiative Events
- Managing Unknown Contacts
- Practical Unarmed Combat or In-Extremis Knife modules
Day Two (8 hours)
- Introduction to the components of the Combative Drawstroke
- Building the #2 position in live-fire
- Firing throughout the horizontal line of presentation
- Off-hand fending positions
- Default position
- Basic empty hand blows
- Theory of in-fight weapon access
- Grounded basics
Day Three (8 hours):
- Challenging the potential attacker
- Preemptive weapon access
- Multiple attackers
- Negotiating the F.U.T.
- ECQ Handgun retention in holster
- ECQ handgun retention out of holster
- Handgun recovery
- Handgun striking

This is by far the most physical class I have ever taken. The attached video show one short similar scenario that we went through, you do these several times and maybe 3 times back to back. Very exhausting for me and everyone, even those 25 years younger than I were pretty well spent and sore at the end of the day. This, as the video shows, is full contact and things just don't usually go as you plan.

After day 2 both arms basically looked the same, the left side of my chest was also similarly bruised. I also have 6 welts on my chest, a couple on my arms and side ribs from Simunitions hits. My wife commented that my wrists are swollen and I have several other tender spots that don't show bruising, but sure are sore from contact, such as my left thigh, I assume from as kick during role playing. And of course I have a stiff neck and basically ache a bit all over.

A few had blood drawn, I did during the car jack scenario.

Everyone did the carjack scenario twice, once as the victim/driver and the other as the attacker inside a vehicle. I got my head bloodied when I played the attacker, my protective helmet came off and we ended up fighting in the back seat of the Impala. Should have took a picture when it happened, I had blood running down my forehead to the bridge of my nose, so it looked worse that it was. The inside the car scenario was my favorite and the 2 attackers and you being the victim was the one I liked least, 2 bodies beating you and trying to take your weapon away sucks.

Weapon retention/break away and the opponent weapon take away was an eye opener. Sometimes it can be done much easier than some may think and other times you just can's get the needed angle to lever the handgun loose because you are full contact and struggling.

There was some good shooting tactics taught on the range such as firing from a weapon retention stance, basically firing while protecting and maintaining weapon control. The video shows what many do, the victim maybe drew his handgun at the wrong time and ended up losing control of it. You have to create distance from the attacker if at all possible before drawing, but of course, much easier said than done.

Now was it worth it, yes. If an LEO, I think it should be mandatory, the force on force with actual fighting on the ground and keeping control or bringing a weapon into action was very practical, I mean I don't know how much closer it could be in training. As a civilian, I think some of the contact drills were a bit off base because of how they were set up from a civilian standpoint. But again when things really go bad, which very well may happen when in a fight to survive, these scenarios do give a person perspective. At the end of day two I was a bit frustrated, but looking back, that is how I should have felt. When attending other classes everything was planned, demonstration or drills where done to show a person how to do them. But in those classes everything worked, they may be designed that way to teach and build confidence. But your attacker is not going to do what you think, or even what is rational and all those perfectly practiced drill will probably just not work. Should a person still take these courses, sure they should, it helps a person learn the basics that are needed. But this ECQC course or similar full contact course will really open their eyes and maybe understand what is more likely. It will be unpredicted, unrehearsed, in the dirt, tight quarters, full contact and not a static face-to-face drill.

So if you want some training to maybe help you survive an attack. Me at 56, I may be just getting a bit too old to be doing this type of fighting on purpose. But now 24 hours after the course is over and I am moving kinda slow, I might just check out another similar course. For those of you that are thinking on taking this course or one similar, I have one suggestion for you. Work your cardio to prepare, get your stamina up, the taught techniques will work over an opponents strength, but you have to go the distance to survive.

[selurcspi]

And you payed for this abuse?

[cobb]

And you payed for this abuse?

Yep.

But I got a lot more real defensive training out of this course compared when I went to other courses like Front Site. I am not knocking Front Site, it was a fun 4 day course, I learned a lot at that time and I graduated. Same as when I submitted a resume and got accepted to train at Blackwater, which is now U. S. Training Center. Learned some there, but not the street grappling that I learned last weekend in the ECQC course. So I wanted to step it up a bit to what I think is more real and did pay to get beat on, many times by LEO's.

Others have asked me why. The best comparison I can maybe make is a basketball player. That player can go on the court and practice his layups, his hook shots and other skills and get very proficient in them. But when he has to go against an opponent on the court that is in his face, pushing, blocking, tipping his shots, disturbing his practiced maneuvers, that player may not be able to do what he "statically" practiced.

So yep, I payed for last weekends abuse and took a lot of practical away from it.

[rtk]

Cobb,

Good review, it looked to be very good "hands on" training! Hope you heal soon.

RTK

[TTS]

He has some great training, I have never had the chance to train with him directly but have seen his principals in action.

[cobb]

And there are those that will not carry a round in the chamber for safety reasons.

Go through this type of training and a person will learn that they may not even get their hand on their gun to draw, let alone chamber a round. If they have the skills to create the needed distance during the initial attack to draw, that is even a maybe. But to think that a person can even chamber a round when under a real attack would be almost impossible.

Now don't even get me going on open carry verses concealed. I am willing to bet that most, not all, but most that do open carry have no clue as to how effectively employ any type of weapon retention. Again this class did teach weapon retention and it did work for me in one fight over my gun. But many in class did not employ the simple retention technique when under attack, pushed their handgun out as they learned in other training and had their handgun taken from them. But no, an open carry advocate would never have been caught off guard in an attack, they are always at 100% situation awareness.

Now this may help explain why I am sore and bruised.

[Evo]

Man I was so close to taking this course but had some previous commitments. I wish I could of taken it.

I am sure you learned a lot. It is awesome to have an Instructor of his caliber come up and hold a class here. I will not miss another.

[GNCAaron]

Here's my AAR of the class.

Bottom line up front: Everyone who carries a gun should take this class (or one similar to it).

Craig (the instructor) is a veteran police officer from an urban area down south. He spent a significant amount of time performing undercover assignments, and didn't always have the luxury of a duty belt full of teeth. He is a lifelong student of many types of martial arts, and has integrated that skill set into the use of a defensive handgun, when approptiate. He has been there and done that on a variety of occasions, and has a unique perspective on how fights occur - an experienced one.

This isn't really a shooting class. Only 6-7 hours of the class were spent shooting; the other 15-16 hours were spent grappling with training partners and running through scenarios with sim guns. The shooting portion of the class was focused on building a firing position from retention. We talked about the propper way to draw a pistol - clearing the cover garment, raising the pistol up the torso while keeping the base of the thumb and base of the palm in contact with the ribs, and coming to rest at the natrual limit of movement with the elbow pointed to the rear and the pistol pointed at a downward angle. We talked about when we should fire from this position, versus when we should punch out to full extention or somewhere in between (based on proximity of the threat and whether or not they can grab the gun). We also talked about what to do with the weak hand and arm while firing from retention, both from concerns of safety as well as aggression. We talked about different types of post shooting scans, as well the importance of keeping our feet moving if we aren't shooting (reloading, clearing malfunction, etc). We shot from contact to about 10 yards.

But like I said, the shooting portion only accounted for about 1/3 of the class. The first block of combatives focused on common ways attacks occur, and got our feet wet with what to do if one does occur. We went over pre-assault cues, which include an aggressor shifting his weight, looking around for threats and exits, bringing his hands up near his face, as well as moving his hands down toward his waist near his weapons. We also talked about how quickly and assault can occur. Action beats reaction by about 3/4 of a second, and if we're caught off guard, the best first thing to do is bring our arms up to protect our head and face. We also talked about how people will try to get close before they strike, and we went over some polite, yet authoritative ways to get most people to stop. Then, if they don't stop, Craig went over how to move laterally and go hands-on, and that's were the real meat of the class began.

Once in contact, we practiced trapping each other in various arm locks, as well as various escapes which allow us to move away and access a tool. It all starts by protecting our head, and going from there. We went over way too many traps and escapes to cover here, but suffice to say, Craig has an answer to any type of hands-on aggression, and he taught us as much as he could in the weekend we had.

The second block of combatives introduced the sim guns, and we broke off into teams of three and practiced what we had learned the day prior. More grappling and arm bars and escapes, but with the addition of a sim gun which we used if we could access it. Most of us had a 50 percent success rate through the entire weekend during these types of activities, with success being "winning" in one way or another, and failing being shot or trapped in a headlock or similar. The conclusion of the second block of combatives was a one on one scenario that started with us on our back and our assailant coming down on top of us. The big lesson from that drill was the gun can only save you if you can get to it; sometimes there simply is no time to get it out, and if you do, the bad guy might grab it as well.

The third block of combatives started with a two on one scenario which started as realisticaly as possible. The good guy would be on the street (on the mat) and an unknown (bad guy) would come up and engage in conversation. Now in real life, we don't go around being dicks telling everyone who comes up to us to piss off, so we couldn't do that here either. We would inevitably have a short conversation about something, and when the good guy was mid sentence, the bad guy would pounce and the fight was on. Then, at Craig's discretion, the second bad guy would enter the scene and pile on. It was a humbling experience for everyone involved. A 200 pound athlete is still outweighed by two smaller 170 pound men by 140 pounds, and it showed every time. After that drill, we talked about weapon take-aways, and we finished with the car jacking drill described above by Cobb (pleasure meeting you by the way).

In summary, this was the best combatives class I've ever taken, and that includes everything I learned in my police acadamy during college. Marksmanship is basic. Fighting is dynamic. Mindset and tactics are often ignored during defensive handgun classes, and this class was a big healthy dose of both. This class taught me that being able to fight effectively with a handgun is kind of like having a three legged stool, and the stool is most stable if all three legs are equally long. One leg is marksmanship, and we all enjoy working on that one. Another leg is mindset and tactics, and we get that by learning from men and women who are warriors. The third leg is fitness, and admittadly, this is an area in which I need to improve. ShivWorks ECQC is not just a great class, or a fun class....it is an important class. I highly reccomend it.