3 Aug 98, Monday, 5:34PM

More from Africa:

When dealing with guys like the SA special forces, you get to see very clearly if the
techniques that you teach will work on the street. After going through the
normal firearms training, I then put them through “hell week” where I test
their new found skills in force on force training with Simunition. These
guys REALLY go for each other.

Lessons:
1) Move as you draw !!!! Likewise, move as you mount your longarm.

2) When drawing your weapon, you must draw to the “retention” position at
ALL times during your presentation. As we all know it takes a hell of a lot
of repetitions to make something a habit and if we draw to retention
position for close quarter emergencies and then differently for targets that are
further away, your ultimate presentation will be the one you practiced most. If you
draw as you would for a further target at CQB range, you will end up
disarmed and DEAD !! Stick to one that will work in ANY situation and stay
ALIVE!!

3) I now teach students when loading the firearm, to insert the magazine,
run the slide hard, and IMMEDIATELY do a chamber check BEFORE holstering. I
do not want an empty gun in the holster at ANY time and if a round was not
chambered during this sequence, I want him to correct this before
holstering an EMPTY gun. Now he can swap magazines or top of his mag at his
leisure.

4) Shooting from cover with a flashlight at night is indeed difficult and I
have now included these drills in my defensive pistol classes. We have to
practice the things we are NOT good at !!

5) At close quarters, you may need to take the attacker on with empty
hands FIRST, then go for your pistol. I have been playing with two “new”
techniques, the blow to the solar plexis and the two-handed punch to the
heart and upper chest area. More on this at a later stage, but basically if
you want to stop a determined attacker, you need to STUN him and both these
techniques do this just fine !! You need to create time and distance so
that you can draw your weapon.

6) Shooting at specific parts of the body of you attacker does NOT work !!
Lots of “instructors” say “Shoot him in the pelvis if he attacks you with
a knife” Well, bullshit !!! I have put several guys in force-on-force
scenarios in this situation without them knowing what was going to happen. Shots to heads and pelvises inevitably missed. In close-attack circumstances, there is just no time to shoot at specific “targets” on the body. If you are lucky or quick enough, ANY hit on the body must suffice until you can get distance, get your gun in a two- hand hold, AIM, and
deliver accurate shots to his upper chest.