If an offender is running toward you in a headlong attack, your compelling impulse may be to back up as fast as you can as you try to draw your gun. But he can run forward faster than you can backpedal. Plus, after a couple of steps under stress, you are likely to stumble and fall, dangerously magnifying your disadvantage.
Here’s a drill you can practice with one or more partners to imprint a safer response. It’s called the Tactical T developed by Ron Borsch, manager/trainer at the Southeast Area Regional Law Enforcement Training Academy in Bedford, OH:
Set up two tables, parallel to and about three or four feet in front of a solid wall. The tables should be about four feet apart to create a passageway between them.
Shuffle a deck of playing cards and divide it, with one-half placed face down near the front inside corner of each table.
On the side-walls, (or outside far end of tables), place a large red cardboard on one side, and a black cardboard on the other.
As the target officer, stand between the tables, with your back toward the rear wall and wearing your duty belt (NO live ammunition, gun empty, proven safe, Orange Safety nylon cord, about 3/16th inch in diameter by 18 inches long, inserted through the barrel and magazine well extending out both ends as to increasingly ensure that the weapon is not, and cannot, be loaded accidentally).
Your partner, role-playing an assailant, faces you about 20 feet away, normal stance, NOT appearing ready to charge. He holds a training weapon--knife, club, brick, gun, etc.--behind his leg, out of your view, or he is unarmed, having selected “personal weapons” (feet, fists, elbows, etc.) as his force options.
You initiate the drill by drawing the top card from the pile that’s on your gun-hand side. The minute you lift the card, make a balking movement, break eye contact with the assailant, either to look at the drawn card or because of some distraction, he lets out a blood-curdling “kamikaze” yell to heighten your stress, and charges toward you.
You’ll need to take just a step or two back to clear the table. “Just a step or two back seems hard-wired in people, so the drill accommodates that instinct,” Borsch claims. “That’s different from backpedaling, where you tend to lean back to get momentum going, you lean too far and you lose you balance very quickly.”
If you’ve drawn a black card, move laterally to the designated black wall as soon as possible, as you un-holster your sidearm. If the card’s red, move to the designated red wall.
If you attempt any continued movement backward, you’ll slam into the wall behind you, reminding you that lateral movement--out of the suspect’s path--is your safest option in these circumstances. It forces your assailant to process your change of location and redirect his attack, thereby creating lag time that you can take advantage of. “Even a little lateral movement helps,” Borsch explains, “because it throws the assailant off.”
If you believe deadly force is justified, dry fire as many times as possible until your attacker reaches the rear wall. For safety, the attacker is not permitted to turn.
As you repeat the drill, your assailant should advance his start point about two feet closer to you each time until you are at the four feet mark when the directive card is drawn. For safety, a large protective training pad should be held by the attacker for distances of six feet and closer.
As you and your partner switch roles so that you each experience being a target at a variety of distances and closing speeds, you’ll realize that “there are certain circumstances and distances where the threat is best handled with empty-hand countermeasures. You won’t even have time to draw your sidearm,” Borsch says. Ideally at these distances the attacker should wear safety gear that permits you to make a full-force physical response, otherwise the empty hand countermeasures, focusing on the attackers eyes and throat, can be a separate training module.
Borsch suggests that the light level in the training room be gradually lowered so that eventually you and the assailant are operating in near-darkness, to better simulate reality. He also advises that you practice lateral movement on your own at home to minimize the risk of tripping as you move to the side.
In Borsch’s opinion, the Tactical T helps enhance your survival odds in five important ways:
By practicing decision-making under stress (when you have to determine whether the card you’ve drawn tells you to move left or right), you improve your reaction time.
Through practice, you reinforce the value of moving laterally. In studies at his academy, Borsch has documented that officers trying to move backward are at least 17-25% slower than they are advancing in the adversary role. Plus, they run “a huge risk of stumbling and falling. We had to discontinue the retreat timing at our academy due to the risk of a falling injury in one training.”
You learn how skilled you really are with your equipment under stress. Can you, for example, draw and fire as fast as you think you can? (Due to the foreknowledge in this reality-based simulation, anything even close to a tie is really a loss for the officer).
You will discover just what reactionary gap you need, at your skill level, in order to draw your firearm defensively.
By realizing the value of learning and using effective empty-hand control techniques (when the assault is too close-quarters for you to initially move in any direction), you can break the common shortcoming of being over-invested in your gun.
“Many officers don’t understand the dynamics of speed and distance that are involved with an attack until they experience the real thing, or the Tactical T simulation,” Borsch explains. “In their imaginations, at least, they feel they can rely on only one response strategy to a deadly force threat--to simply draw and shoot.
“With that attitude, they may find themselves at a fatal disadvantage in a real confrontation. In fact, I’ve seen one officer during this exercise fall to the floor in a fetal position when he couldn’t get his gun out. What would have happened to him if this had been a real attack?”
“You can’t put yourself in a box by thinking in advance that you know how an attack will come to you. A fight is not always how we think it is going to be. It will be as it is. You have to anticipate and prepare for the unimaginable.”
Tactical T Drill Diagram:
