IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS: Force-on-Force training for civilians… Photos and Story

(GunNews) – How do the professionals prepare themselves to better handle the body’s reactions when faced with stress, fear and potential violence – the tremors, rapid heartbeat, anxiety?  “There’s only one way,” experts say.  “And that’s force-on-force training.”

Here in Central Illinois, GSL Defense Training kicked off their second year offering this new training program for civilians in early April.  Timber Pointe Outdoor Center, the picturesque Easter Seals Camp on Lake Bloomington, provided a fabulous venue for sixteen students to learn how to identify and avoid potential trouble and if necessary, to overcome a violent attack.

Proven modern training
Until the last few years, this force-on-force (FoF) coursework was only available to the police and military.

Why is FoF training so cutting edge?  Force Science Institute summarizes scientific research that shows:

• FoF scenarios where aggressors or role-players can shoot at trainees generally stimulates strong physiological stress reactions in the trainees.
• It exposes how shooting accuracy is likely to suffer.
• It strongly motivates participants to take training seriously and to adopt good tactics on their own volition.

Researchers concluded that FoF handgun practice is “a potent training tool to prepare armed officers for performance in a stressful real-life environment.”

Today, similar opportunities are at last available to civilians from a handful of schools nationwide.  And just as this training helps police officers’ performance, so too can civilian-world scenarios help everyday gun owners navigate tense, real-life encounters.

The first time students find themselves in a scenario, they often exhibit clumsiness, shaking and nervousness that is normal in a body alarm situation.  Then the adrenaline kicks in.  Of course, trainees also suffer “pain penalties” for errors in tactics or judgement, reinforcing the learning process.

The guns used at Critical Threat Management are hot Airsoft guns.  They don’t have the bite of the Simunitions guns used by law enforcement, but those little Airsoft pellets still travel at 450-550 feet per second.  They hurt enough to get the point across.

Training days

Training day one starts with introductions of the dozen plus instructors, all of whom have extensive training.  Then come the safety brief and rules.  No weapons of any kind and everyone gets frisked twice.  Gear gets issued.  There’s a crash course in presentation of the firearms from concealment, then a discussion of moving off the “X”, the Tueller Drill and an exercise where the instructors will attempt to panhandle or “mug” the students.  The goal is to get the students to move off the “X”, to communicate and to keep their heads on a swivel as bad guys often travel in pairs or more.

Then the moment everyone almost dreads:  the scenarios.  Some can be navigated without shooting, while at least one is akin to the Kobayashi Maru from Star Trek fame, where the best case is to get out with your life, leaving your wallet and pride behind.    Students better understand their own baseline of knowledge, skills and abilities early on as coaching is minimal.  Seven scenarios later,  Chick-Fil-A showed up with hot sandwiches and a great lunch.

After lunch, students got a lecture on advanced situational awareness.  Local Krav Maga instructor Bill Martin banished any  post-lunch drowsiness with two hours of empty-hand combatives, Krav Maga style.  Then there’s a lecture on the judicious use of deadly force and another on mindset.

Training day two kicked off with discussions on asymmetrical tactics, violent criminal actors and a review of the good and the bad of Saturday scenarios – including photographic evidence showing things students didn’t even realize they had done (or not done).

Using real guns, students practiced some real, life-saving skills and shooting tactics.  For some, these are new, and for others, a good review.  Then everyone headed to the live-fire range to shoot about 150 rounds to practice those skills.

After lunch, everyone got frisked twice again and then after another lecture on reasons not to use deadly force if it can be avoided, it was back out to sample another seven scenarios.  Some were similar to day one’s, while others entirely different.  Each were designed with specific goals in mind.

Everyone saw a profound difference between day one and day two performance.  Tactics, avoidance and de-escalation skills saw vastly improvement.  Students enjoyed far more satisfactory conclusions to the scenarios, while learning from constructive criticism from instructors present.

From there, everyone retired to do group exercises in “the restaurant”.  When commotions began, students (wisely) sought the exits, taking along their loved ones (real, or assigned) to avoid a confrontation.

When it was all over, a de-briefing of the students turned emotional as some scenarios proved a little too realistic for some, bringing back bad memories of personal experiences.

In the end, students – and role-players as well – had all learned valuable, potentially life-saving skills to identify and avoid trouble, and how to deal with it if it can’t be avoided.  You can’t get this sort of learning on a square range shooting at paper targets.