The Tactical Edge – January

Point Shooting vs Aimed Shooting

Everybody knows how to point.  You use your index finger to designate something that you want someone else to notice.  Children learn it as young as six months of age.  It’s not taught to them, but rather they instinctively develop it. Children use it to designate the cookie jar to mommy when they want a cookie.  Or they use it to designate a puppy across the street that they want their brother to see.  We learned how to do it in early childhood and use it most of our lifetime.  Point shooting uses the same process only for a different reason.  When you’re holding a firearm correctly, the barrel of that firearm is a natural extension of your index or trigger finger.  In point shooting, you would use the barrel of the gun to align yourself with the target you’re trying to hit.  You can do this using both one-handed and two-handed grips and any of the stances that we have described previously.  That’s a very simple description of point shooting.  Now you ask why would I do this? There are a couple of different reasons.  One reason is that you’re out having fun and just plinking.  It’s easier than taking the time to form a sight picture and sight alignment.  The other reason is probably the most important one.  It can save your life!  I bet that got your attention.  Point shooting is used in self-defense when you absolutely have no time to spare.  It’s you or them and the first one to shoot is usually the survivor.  Point shooting may be used at distances up to 7 yards or 21 feet.  Distances further than that allow you time to use your sights and proper sight alignment.  At close quarters, it is the fastest way to reduce an immediate threat. 

Point shooting — also known as threat-focused shooting, instinctive aiming, and instinctive shooting — is a method of shooting a firearm quickly and accurately that does not rely on the use of the sights in close quarters, life-threatening situations where there is the greatest chance of being killed. 

Point shooting is also a technique used by trained marksmen to improve general accuracy when using a firearm.  By developing a feel for a given weapon such as a pistol, the shooter can become so accustomed to the weapon's weight and where it is aimed that they can remain relatively accurate without the need to focus on the sights of the gun to aim.  By continuously practicing with a weapon, a shooter can develop a subconscious coordination between their eyes, hands, and brain, utilizing a natural human sense known as proprioception to aid in the proper and accurate use of a weapon to the point that they can fire said weapon by "instinct".  The closer a threat is to you, the more accurate you will be one point shooting.  It is not as accurate as sight shooting and should not be used at distances greater than 7 yards or 21 feet. A statistic, that I remember from my police training, states that most shootings in the United States take place in under 9 feet distance.  Point shooting can be very fast and accurate at that distance. 

Point shooting is taught by most police departments in the United States along with all branches of our military.  It is also taught to the military in many other countries.  Point shooting is also a key component of the Israeli Krav Maga self-defense system which is taught to our Special Forces and Seal Teams as well as Special Forces Units belonging to many of our allies.  Instinct or point shooting with a handgun has been taught at most police academies worldwide since the 1980s.  Point shooting can be accomplished using both handguns and rifles, but for our purposes here, we will be strictly referring to handgun shooting.  The theory works equally well in both cases.  Our training is primarily for home defense and concealed carry and a rifle is not really suitable nor very concealable.  Going back to my police training, point shooting was critical to reducing immediate threat at close quarters.  It was even a part of our quarterly firearm qualifications.  The very first stage of our qualification consisted of drawing your firearm from your holster and firing two rounds at a target distance of 9 feet in under two seconds.  That didn’t allow very much time for a aiming using the sights.  This was repeated three times and consisted of 10% of your qualification score.  I think this was typical of most police departments around the country. 

Point shooting has been taught in the military and various police and government agencies since the early 1900s.  It has been improved upon over time until what we have today.  Point shooting can be done from the hip, mid chest hold or with arms fully extended using either a one hand or a two handhold.  It is something that requires practice to develop skill and should be a part of all regular shooting techniques.  Col.  Jeff Cooper developed the modern shooting technique incorporating point shooting in a method known as Flash Sight Picture.  The Flash Sight Picture is a method of allowing the cognitive faculties of the shooter to align the target and the sights without the delay involved in the conscious alignment of sights.  Point shooting will get the job done but it is not as accurate as Cooper’s method.   During a gunfight, waiting to align the sights is too slow.  However, more accuracy than point shooting is required to hit one's assailant reliably.  It is physically impossible for the human eye to focus simultaneously on the rear sight (nearest to one's eye), the front sight (farther away from one's eye), and the relatively distant target at the same time.  The muscles of the eye adjust to focus sight on one specific distance optimally at any one instant, so 3 different distances mean the shooter's focus must hunt (muscular physical adjustments) between all three points of mental concentration.  The greatest adjustment of focus (relatively more ocular muscle contraction) is required to view shorter distances, such as the gun's rear sight.  In the modern technique, the shooter is taught to focus on the front sight of the pistol and align it against the target, ignoring the rear sight for quicker aiming and minimal physical requirements. This prevents the focus of the eye from hunting between rear sight, front sight and target, wasting vital time in refocusing. 

The technique is called 'flash' sight picture because the cognition is best able to perform this function when the target and front sight are presented quickly as a single image, in a 'flash', as if the shooter had just turned around to face a threat appearing from close by.  The shooter's vision can "see" the rear sight, even if the focus is on the front sight.  This is enough for the cognition to make an alignment.  With the flash sight picture, the front sight and a rapidly presented image of the target are used to align the pistol.  This is faster and offers more chance of hitting the target than point shooting from the hip.

The cognitive functions of the brain align objects in the hand with distant objects at great speed.  This ability of human cognition can be used to align the pistol with the target.  Colonel Cooper discovered this specific ability and named it the "Flash Sight Picture". 

Human cognition can perceive a "Flash Sight Picture" at a speed faster than conscious awareness.  This facility was discovered during World War II experiments with rapid recognition of aircraft silhouettes.  Experimentation was continued after the war and branched into subliminal advertising in the 1960s, where images were flashed onto cinema screens for a duration too short for the viewer to notice, yet for cognition to have observed the image nonetheless. 

Use of the Flash Sight Picture requires a rapid acquisition of the front sight in order to allow the brain to perform its calculations.  This focus on the front sight is one of the main themes Colonel Cooper impressed upon students of the modern technique to clear their minds when shooting during a confrontation.  The emphasis for students of the modern technique on the word "front sight" was so great, that a shooting school and a shooting magazine were named after this phrase. 

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Robin Brown popularized Pistol Quick Kill. With Pistol Quick Kill, the pistol is gripped and pointed at a target much like a person would point their finger.  "When you point, you naturally do not attempt to sight or aim your finger.  It will be somewhat below your eye level in your peripheral vision, perhaps 2-4 inches below eye level. " The same applies when pointing a gun at a target.  Just as with pointing their finger, the user will ". . . see the end of the barrel and/or front sight while looking at the target. . . You have not looked at the gun or front sight, just the target. "  With Quick Kill, the focus is always on the target, never having to adjust one's gaze or focus even remotely on the near object [the gun or sights]. 

To shoot quickly and accurately at close distances, you need different aiming techniques - which is where flash sight picture and point shooting techniques excel.  Point shooting is relatively simple, as the shooter uses the point of aim rather than sights to bring the firearm on target.  The idea is getting on target and hitting it as quickly as possible.  Point shooting is taught as a close-quarters shooting technique, especially to police departments and military forces around the world.  William Fairbairn, quite possibly the baddest man who ever lived, used the technique and taught it while serving in the Shanghai police and later to British and Allied forces during World War II.  He and Eric Sykes extolled the technique in their book "Shoot To Live," considered one of the authoritative texts on defensive shooting along with the works of Jeff Cooper and Rex Applegate, who likewise taught point shooting.  

There are two dominant point shooting techniques, both of which focus on a digit of the shooting hand to control the aim of the pistol.  In either case, a pistol should be aligned with the forearm - essentially, a handgun should be like an extension of the arm.  The easiest technique is a standard grip in the pistol.  In this technique, control over the gun is asserted by the thumb on the shooting hand in concert with the wrist, either holding in place or manipulating the pistol to the left or right.  The other technique is to lay the index finger of the shooting hand on the pistol above the trigger guard.  The trigger is pulled with the middle finger.  The index finger, in this instance, adjusts the point of aim in lieu of the the thumb and wrist.  Either technique can be used with the non-shooting hand supporting the handgun, or one-handed if necessary.  In essence, the shooter brings the firearm to bear on the target, covers the target with the muzzle and fires.  For more precision, the pistol can be moved with either the thumb or index finger guiding.  Present the pistol, aim and fire. It's that simple.  Practice until you can reliably hit.  Start slow, and at close distances - ten to fifteen feet at most.  Repeat until proficiency is gained. Once you've gotten good enough at it, add it to your rotation of shooting drills.

One of the reasons for the success in point shooting endeavors has to do with the body under stress, namely in combat conditions.  Under stress, peripheral vision contracts, leading to "tunnel vision. " Point shooting, under these conditions, is easier to perform than other pistol shooting techniques.  Most experts would caution, though, that point shooting is primarily for close quarters.  In distances inside about four yards, point shooters can get on target and hit faster.  However, the flash sight picture technique reigns supreme at moderate distances, hence why front sight shooters can hit at moderate distances much better than point shooters.  At longer distances, aimed fire is going to yield more accurate results. 

Well, that’s all about point shooting in a nutshell.  It is something you should make part of your ordinary shooting routine.  As in any other shooting technique, practice will make for muscle memory.  The use of muscle memory equates to speed and in a life-and-death instance, speed equates to winner. In a gunfight, the loser doesn’t walk away embarrassed.  He usually doesn’t walk away! Pass this on to all your shooting friends. 

Well that wraps up this month’s issue of the blog.  We hope you’re reading it, enjoying it, and most of all benefiting from it.  If you have comments, please send them to us.  We love to get email.  In the meantime, keep your gun clean and your powder dry and take someone to the shooting range or training class with you.

The Tactical Edge – December

The Fundamentals of Pistol Shooting – Part 2

Before we start with this presentation, we need to apologize for the lateness of this posting.  Our writer and webmaster was out with a bad case of the flu for an extended period of time.  This month we are going to cover trigger control, trigger manipulation, trigger press, breathing, follow through, and recovery.

Trigger Control (also known as trigger management)

In either double action or single action mode, trigger control is defined as steady pressure exerted on the trigger straight to the rear to release the hammer and fire the weapon and immediately allowing the trigger to return, so the weapon can be fired again. Descriptive term here is a press and not a squeeze. Note the trigger finger continually maintains contact with the trigger.  When pressing the trigger, the shooter should use the tip of the index finger, with the trigger centered in the middle of the pad on the last joint of the finger. The trigger should cross the finger approximately halfway between the tip of the finger and the first joint. This should be accomplished by utilizing a smooth movement isolating the trigger finger only. All other fingers must remain still during the trigger press. Another important part of trigger control is trigger reset. Once the trigger has been fired, slowly release pressure on the trigger until an audible click is heard and felt. At this point, the shooter need not release any more pressure on the trigger to fire again. This maintains a proper sight alignment and sight picture more easily.

Trigger Press (or trigger manipulation)

This is defined as applying steady pressure directly rearward in such a fashion so as to not disturb the sight alignment or sight picture before the round fires. It doesn’t matter if you do it fast or slow. Always remember that you press or pull a trigger; you never squeeze or jerk the trigger. The trigger press consists of three parts: the slack, the press, and the follow through.

1. Slack—The shooter must first take up the slack at the beginning of the trigger movement by applying slight pressure to the trigger. The trigger will move slightly to the rear until the internal parts of the trigger mechanism come into full contact with each other, and the “softness” in the tip of the finger is eliminated.

2. Press—The trigger is then in the press portion of its movement, which is when the internal parts of the weapon are being disengaged from each other to allow the hammer to fall. The pressure should be a smooth, constant, and even pressure, applied straight to the rear so that the sights are not misaligned at the instant the hammer falls. Once the hammer begins to fall, the follow through portion of trigger control begins.

3. Follow Through—Follow through is the continued steady pressure applied to the trigger until the trigger reaches its most rearward point of travel. If the shooter does not continue to apply the constant, even pressure during follow through, it is possible that the impact of the round could move on the target, thus spoiling an otherwise good shot.

Breathing

Breathing has very little to do with action style shooting — most important in action shooting is that you breathe to reduce your stress and focus on the task. Precision shooting requires a little more. The old military BRASS-F — Breathe, Relax, Aim, Stop, Squeeze, Follow-through — is a great way to remember this. Holding your breath at any time is bad for performance. Oxygen deprivation can affect your most delicate organs in as little as four seconds and that certainly includes your eyes.

In order to maintain body movement, your breath must be held while firing a shot. “Before each shot take a breath, let enough air out so you are comfortable; hold the remaining breath while firing the shot. If you hold your breath for more than 8 seconds muscle tremors may start. The breathing process provides the body with oxygen and eliminates waste elements from the blood. Correct breathing while shooting is essential to proper body functions. A complete respiratory cycle last for 4-5 seconds (inhaling and exhaling) and between each cycle, there is a pause of 2-3 seconds.

Follow Through

This is one of the most important and least adhered to steps. Follow through means maintaining all of the fundamentals through the break of the round. Staying with the sights and following them into recoil. Follow through is easiest when you have a solid platform, good grip, and an understanding of the importance of sight alignment and sight picture. During follow through, the shooter needs to ask themselves these two questions:  Do I need to take another shot and if I do, will I hit my target? With proper follow-through you will still be able to make this shot because you will still have proper sight picture and sight alignment.

Recovery

Recovery is what you do after the shooting is over. Breathing, scanning your environment and returning to sling or your holster are part of it. Working manual safeties may also be a part of recovery. This fundamental can save your life or someone else's as it is about situational awareness. Know your environment and the potential threat it might present to you. This even includes those around you at the local shooting range.

These last two blogs have been an oversimplified discussion of the fundamentals of shooting. This will get you started on the road to becoming a good shooter but we highly recommend that you locate a good instructor and work on the details and the finesse of becoming an advanced shooter. Accurate shooting is a skill that is learned through practice and repetition. The more you do, the better you become as long as what you are practicing is the correct method.

Well that wraps up this month’s issue of the blog. We hope you’re reading it, enjoying it, and most of all benefiting from it. If you have comments, please send them to us. We love to get email. In the meantime, keep your gun clean and your powder dry and take someone to the shooting range or training class with you.

The Tactical Edge – November

The Fundamentals of Pistol Shooting – Part 1

This month on the blog, we are going to talk about the fundamentals of pistol shooting. Depending on who you talk to, there are anywhere from 5 to 10 different fundamentals that are required to shoot your pistol and hit your designated target. The main differences are how they break down the individual parts. We are going to try to group them as simply as we can and make it understandable. To be a good shooter, you will have to apply all these principles together. We can’t pick out just one principal and tell you that if you concentrate on that one, you’ll be an expert shot. It doesn’t work that way.

Here are the fundamentals that you will need to know as we see them. Knowing these principles is half the battle. Putting them into consistent practice over time is the other half of the battle. The more you practice the better you get. One thought here though, the more you practice a bed technique, the worse it will get. The best way to develop great technique is to find a good instructor and let him or her work with you. They are able to see the small things that affect your shooting and fine tune them. If you’re not able to find a good instructor, then find someone who you think is a really accurate shooter. Watch them over time and see what they’re doing differently from you. It’s not the best way, but it’s definitely better than continually doing the wrong thing and expecting to get better. In the following discussions, we will be talking about strong hand versus weak hand and strong side versus weak side. Your strong hand/side is your dominant side. Your weak hand/side is your other side. If you are right-handed then right is your dominant side.

STANCE 

This includes all positions from standing to kneeling to prone. This is your major support and shooting platform and creates the conditions for maximum control and accuracy. The main principle here is to have a balanced and sturdy position from which to shoot. For the purposes of this discussion, I’m going to primarily talk about stance as it applies to standing and shooting. For the standing position, there are different stances that can be used. The main ones are the isosceles or FBI stance and the Weaver or modified Weaver stance. In the isosceles stance the shooter stands with feet shoulder width apart, shoulders squared off with the target and weight slightly forward on the balls of the feet. The head should be high with the chin pointing at the target with the ears in front of the shoulders and the shoulders in front of the hips. The important point here is to be comfortable. In the Weaver and modified Weaver stances, the shooter stands off at an angle from the target with the weak side forward and the strong side back. The amount of angle in the stance depends on the shooters height, weight, build, and flexibility. This will vary greatly among individuals, but the goal is to achieve a balanced and comfortable stance. The strong arm is held straight while the weak arm is bent and pulling back on the strong hand that is gripping the gun. This modified Weaver stance gives the best support based on overall balance. The reason for this is because one foot is forward while one is back and still maintaining shoulder width. Done properly, the shooter should be able to withstand a slight push in any direction without losing their balance. With the other shooting positions such as kneeling, prone, or any awkward position, the goal is to be as solid and stable as possible.

GRIP

The weapon should be placed in the hands so a straight line is formed with the barrel of the weapon and the forearm of the shooter. The webbing of the hand should be fully under the tang of the back strap with thumb forward toward the target. The index finger should remain outside of the trigger guard until ready to shoot and the remaining fingers should firmly grip the weapon. The weak side fingers should be wrapped around the strong hand with the wrists close together. The supporting hand heel should be in contact with the exposed portion of the weapon grip. Thumb should rest on top of the other with fingers over fingers and thumb over thumb. Both thumbs should be pointing at the target. 

The amount of strength used in the grip should only be enough to control the weapon during firing. Excessive grip strength will cause your hand to shake and ruin your aim point. Imagine that you are shaking hands with an important person that you just met. You want to use enough strength to show respect, but you don’t want to bruise the person’s hand. That same amount of strength will easily control your weapon unless you are using really powerful ammunition.

Grip is acquired in the holster prior to draw and presentation. The webbing of the shooting hand must be in the top of the tang on the back strap and no higher. If you are too high the slide will bite your hand. If you are too low with your grip, you allow the gun to move more with recoil making sight recovery and follow-on shots more difficult and time-consuming. High grip will reduce muzzle rise and lead to faster recoil recovery.

DRAW / PRESENTATION

The idea behind this fundamental is to get the weapon into the plane of vision between your eyes and the target as quickly, smoothly and efficiently as possible. Individual equipment can affect the efficiency of the draw depending on your holster and other retention devices used for security. The draw or presentation of the weapon from the holster to the aim point should be in one smooth and continuous movement with your weak hand meeting your strong hand grip at some point between your chest and your point of aim. A smooth and continuous movement from holster to aim point will give you the fastest and most accurate shot. Jerky movements will tend to cause your aim point to be off.

SIGHT ALIGNMENT

Simply defined, sight alignment is the front sight viewed through the rear sight with them equally spaced and even across the top. The top of the front sight is even with the top of the rear sight and there is an equal amount of space separating the front sight post from the sides of the rear sight notch. In order for the bullet to hit the center of the target, the shooter must aim the pistol and give the barrel a definite direction relative to the target. In theory, accurate aiming is achieved when the shooter places, in exact alignment, the rear sight with the top and sides of the front sight and holds them in alignment in the aiming area. When aiming, the front sight is positioned in the middle of the rear sight notch with an equal light space on each side. The horizontal top surface of the front sight is on the same level as the top horizontal surface of the rear sight notch. It is necessary to be acutely aware of the relationship of the rear sight to the clearly defined front sight. Normal vision is such that the rear sight of the pistol will be as nearly in focus as the front sight. Some shooters may be able to see only the notch of the rear sight in sharp focus; the outer extremities may become slightly blurred. It should look like this: The top of the front sight is even with the top of the rear sight and there is an equal amount of space separating the front sight post from the sides of the rear sight notch.

SIGHT PICTURE 

Properly aligned sights mean nothing if you don’t know how to place them on a target. Sight picture is the placement of the sights on the target while maintaining proper sight alignment.

Sight picture is the relationship of the target, the front and rear sights and the eye. Emphasis here is on the front sight. Inside combat distance, 7 yards and closer, if the front sight is on the target, the target will be hit when the weapon is fired. In combat shooting, this is the most important fundamental. The eye can only focus on one object at a time. It cannot keep the rear sight, the front sight and the target in focus simultaneously. The shooter must concentrate on the front sight. You must focus on the front sight while keeping good sight alignment. When properly done, the target should be blurry, the rear sight should be blurry, and the front sight should be sharp. When you pull the trigger you do not want to disrupt this sight alignment.

That is all were going to cover this month on the blog. We will cover the remaining fundamentals in next month’s blog. The next issue of the blog will go over trigger control, trigger manipulation, trigger press, breathing, follow through, and recovery. It sounds like an awful lot to learn but it’s actually only one smooth and efficient motion. Once you have it down pat, that little red circle in the middle of the target will cease to exist.

Well that wraps up this month’s issue of the blog. We hope you’re reading it, enjoying it, and most of all benefiting from it. If you have comments, please send them to us. We love to get email. In the meantime, keep your gun clean and your powder dry and take someone to the shooting range or training class with you. Have a great Thanksgiving holiday.

        

The Tactical Edge - October

Situational Awareness, Part 2

Last month on the blog, we talked about your need to be aware of your surroundings to be aware of potential risks, so that you could take steps to avoid them. This is called situational awareness. It can keep you from an unplanned visit to the local emergency room, or in an extreme circumstance, save your life. I think this is important enough that I’m going to give you the complete definition again. Your goal will be to understand it and then to practice it.

Situational awareness: the basic definition is the ability to scan the environment and sense danger, challenges and opportunities, while maintaining the ability to conduct normal activities. In other words, to pay attention to your surroundings while not appearing to be paying attention. It is simply knowing what’s going on around you. The late Col. Jeff Cooper developed a color code for situational awareness and states of readiness.

Last month we started with Col. Jeff Cooper’s color codes and how they are used to define awareness. The colors are white, yellow, orange, and red. We covered the colors white and yellow and what they mean. If you’re not sure of your understanding, go back to last month’s blog and read it again.

This month we are going to continue on and cover the colors orange and red and develop the specific skills to improve your awareness. Before we go into the orange and red situations, we need to talk a little bit more about color yellow and what you’re trying to perceive in this mode. While you are relaxed and attentive in yellow mode, you need to be looking for possible specific threats. To do this, you need to develop a baseline of what you should expect to see in what you are observing. Once you have that baseline in your mind, things that are not normal will tend to stand out. The things that are not normal are your potential threats. Those are called the anomalies in your observations.

Establish a Baseline Wherever You Go. Every environment and person has a baseline. A baseline is what’s “normal” in a given situation, and it will differ from person to person and environment to environment. For example, the baseline at a small coffee shop will usually entail people reading a book or working on their computer or speaking in hushed tones with their friends. The baseline at a rock concert would be loud music and people looking at the stage while either jumping up and down to the music or swaying their bodies to the beat. That would be normal.

According to Patrick Van Horne, situational awareness expert, and instructor of the Marine Combat Profiling system “Anomalies are things that either do not happen and should, or that do happen and shouldn’t.” Anomalies are what direct our attention as we take in our surroundings and what we need to focus on to achieve situational awareness. To establish your baseline for what is normal, ask yourself these questions:

Baseline questions: what’s going on here? What’s the general mood of the place? What’s the normal activity I should expect to see here? How do most people behave here most of the time?

Anomaly question: What would cause someone or something to stand out in this situation?

Once you have a situation with an anomaly, you would escalate your awareness up to Condition orange. Now you have to determine if this is unusual or a potential threat.

ORANGE

You enter Condition Orange when you identify a possible, specific threat. Something isn’t quite right and has your attention. Your goal isn’t to take action while in Condition Orange. Rather, it is to become extra vigilant so you can determine if a possible danger is in fact a threat that needs a response. Maybe you smell smoke, or perhaps you identify a person in the water who may be drowning, or maybe the guy walking towards you in a dark side-street is acting funny. In all of those situations, you’d want to be in Condition Orange.

While in Condition Orange, you should be formulating an attack plan on what you’ll do if you verify the threat, e.g., “If there’s a fire, I’ll call 911,” or  “If he’s drowning, I’ll jump in and rescue him,” or “If he pulls out a gun, I’ll pull mine and shoot.”

When you’re in Condition Orange, stress levels will increase, as will your heart rate. However, you shouldn’t experience any cognitive or motor deterioration.

Staying in Condition Orange’s increased vigilance level on a regular basis isn’t recommended as it can be mentally and physically taxing. If you verify that a possible threat isn’t a threat, you should immediately drop back down into Condition Yellow’s relaxed alert. However, if you confirm that something or someone is indeed a threat, you should immediately move to…Condition Red.

RED

At this time you have verified that your anomaly is a threat. now it’s time to implement the action plan you developed while in Condition Orange. When you’re in Condition Red, your mind and body are primed for action. Adrenaline is pumping through your veins and your heart rate is up to between 115 and 145 beats per minute. Studies have shown this to be the optimal level for tactical and survival scenarios. Complex motor skills, visual reaction times, and cognitive reaction times are at their peak.

While complex motor skills and visual and cognitive reaction times are at their best in Condition Red, fine motor skills deteriorate. You cannot continue in condition red indefinitely. The stress on your body and mind will deteriorate if action is not taken. That will put you into another color called condition GRAY. This is a condition that you do not want to find yourself in. When you reach this point, you have basically failed to act or react quickly.

GRAY

Condition Gray wasn’t part of Cooper’s original color system, but after analyzing years of research, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and his colleagues added it. When you reach Condition Gray, your heart rate rises above the optimal range of 115-145 BPM and goes up to 145-175 BPM. Consequently, mental and physical performance begins to suffer dramatically and puts the fighter at risk of being injured or killed.

Tunnel vision and loss of depth perception is common, which means a fighter may miss additional threats in the vicinity. Tunnel vision also often causes fighters to “not see” innocent third-party bystanders in a fight. This phenomenon is a big reason why most firearms trainers these days instruct students to get in the habit of scanning their environment after they neutralize a threat. The simple act of looking side-to-side can help disrupt tunnel vision.

Auditory exclusion is another common symptom of Condition Gray. Fighters who’ve experienced auditory exclusion report not hearing their partner’s gun fire, even though the gun was going off right next to him. However, they’ll often remember hearing shouts from their partner.

Complex motor skills, like gun manipulation or non-armed combatives, begin to suffer in Condition Gray. Gross motor skills, like running, jumping, pulling, and pushing are still at optimal levels.

One possible and positive symptom you may experience in Condition Gray is “bullet time”– a mental phenomenon in which everything around you appears to be moving in slow motion, a la The Matrix. Bullet time can give a fighter more clarity and help him react. In his study on deadly force encounters, Dr. Alexis Artwohl surveyed police officers who had experienced deadly force encounters and found that nearly 62% of them experienced slow-motion time.

It’s called “Condition Gray” because Grossman believes more research needs to be done on arousal levels where the heart reaches 145-175 BPM.  Grossman notes in his book On Combat  that while most untrained men will begin to experience the mental and physical deterioration outlined above, some fighters are still able to perform at optimal levels in Condition Gray. Research indicates that with proper training and stress inoculation, fighters can properly and safely “push the envelope” of Condition Red into the elevated heart rates of Condition Gray. If you’re still at this point and you haven’t resolved the threat, then you move on to the next color which is BLACK.

BLACK

Condition Black wasn’t part of Cooper’s original system either, but was added by the U.S. Marine Corps. When you reach Condition Black, your heart is beating faster than 175 BPM. At this level of arousal, a fighter  — even a well-trained one — experiences catastrophic breakdown of mental and physical performance. In other words, bend over and kiss your butt goodbye.

Always remember that awareness and avoidance are the best self-defense strategies. Awareness of your environment, attacker rituals and your instinct comprise the majority of self-defense. Your first line of self-defense against a violent situation is to avoid it. Trust your instincts and do not hesitate. If you cannot avoid the situation, then mentally prepare, have a plan and execute with full conviction and purpose. Make Jason Bourne proud!

Hopefully, you have read and reread this post and understand it sufficiently enough that you never get to condition Black. All you have to do is scan your environment, look for the anomalies, decide what to do with them and as that wholesome southern comedian always says: “Git ‘er done!”

Well that wraps up this month’s issue of the blog. We hope you’re reading it, enjoying it, and most of all benefiting from it. If you have comments, please send them to us. We love to get email. In the meantime, keep your gun clean and your powder dry and take someone to the shooting range or training class with you.