24 May 12

“One serious difficulty in planning the fight against Americans is this: On our side, we carefully, meticulously read their manuals. Curiously, they don’t! Nor, apparently, do they feel any particular obligation to follow their own doctrine!”

From a German officer’s notebook

Comments on movement:

From a friend and Instructor/correspondent:

“I recently interviewed a permanent penitentiary resident, a violent felon. While expressing his thoughts/opinions on the Art of gun-fighting, he started laughing about a segment he saw on a television program relating to guns. The TV instructor demonstrated moving in a tight, figure-eight pattern while reloading. My ‘felon-friend’ thought it hilarious.

When I asked him why, he replied, ‘That’s training to cop-rules, not street-folk. Cops are the ones who worry about where their bullets go, shooting accurate and all. If it were me, I would just shoot a bunch in his direction, and I would hit him someplace. I don’t care!’

They don’t think as we do! And, all too often, we create our doctrine based on our rules, not theirs.”

I’ve no doubt that the foregoing is true, but we really have no choice, do we? Do you know of any citizen or police association who complains about police being “too accurate?”

And, this felon’s arrogant bravado with regard to his self-described “spray-and-pray” technique is more an expression of wishful thinking than fact. We’ve seen many students “spraying-and-praying” at aggressively animated targets, and, more often than not, the affair ends with an untouched target and the student sheepishly holding an empty pistol. Conversely, shooting at a stationary target, via any technique, will unfailingly generate a significantly higher hit-percentage.

From another correspondent:

“I am studying Russian Martial Arts. Sometimes, students are directed to ‘march in-place,’ even with exaggerated steps, during drills where the student is being attacked. This is to counter the natural tendency to stand immobilized in one place, and to remind students to be in continuous motion.”

I don’t claim a great deal of martial-arts acumen, but I see the logic here. As Bob Hudson reminded us, it is easier to tweak/redirect movement already in progress than it is to persuade a frozen statue to precipitously become animated!

/John