Principles and Strategies

Principles

 A principle is a law or rule that has to be, or usually is to be followed, or can be desirably followed, or is an inevitable consequence of something, such as the laws of nature or the way that a device is constructed. In our case we are talking about principles that apply to violence.

Some examples of principles that apply to violence are:

•  Violence is an essential survival tool

•  Cause-State is you doing violence to your assailant. Every act of violence begins in the Cause- State.  Whoever causes the first effect stands the best chance of winning the violent encounter. In the cause-state if you are able to produce an effect you will be acting as the stimulus in the violence.  Action always is preferable to reaction.

• Effect-State is the assailant's specific response to serious injury.  The human body reacts in specific ways to injury. For example if a man is kicked in the groin, rupturing his testicles, he doubles over and extends his chin.  In the Effect-State you get the assailant to react to stimulus.

Violence is caused by the application of injury, penetration, and rotation.
        -  Injury is serious debilitating trauma
        - Penetration is striking sufficiently hard to reach a vulnerable part of the
            body
        - Rotation refers to the follow-through in striking.
Two conditions must be present to be successful in the Cause-State.  They are:
        - Intent - Intent is a single focused desire to inflict serious injury
        - Targeting - Targeting is striking at the precise point on the human body                       
            that is susceptible to serious injury.

The principles of the Cause-State are:
        -  Injure your assailant
        - Strike now
        - Continue causing injury until the assailant is reduced to a           
    nonfunctional state i.e. incapacitation, unconsciousness, or death.

The principle of the Effect-State is animals move away from negative stimuli. There are elements common to all reactions.
        - The head and hands will move towards the injury
        - Strikes to either side of the spine rotate the body in the direction of the
             strike
        - Strikes above the solar plexus bend the body backward
        - Strikes below the solar plexus bend it forward

Learning Template

A useful template for learning what to do when faced with a felonious assault where you might be killed or seriously injured is the following:  "Situations dictate Strategies, Strategies Dictate Tactics, and Tactics Dictate Techniques." This approach  was developed by Roger Phillips and is explained in great detail in his book, Point Shooting Progressions

This book is highly recommended and is a must read for anyone who wants to learn point shooting.  Roger also has authored two DVD's on Point Shooting.  These DVD's are worth purchasing as well.

Situations
Situations refer to the context of a felonious assault. A felonious assault should be thought of as a "fight for your life." Some of the items that are pertinent to  understanding the situation are:

• Time of the assault, 
• Place where the assault happens, 
• Amount of light available during the assault, 
• Weather conditions
• Type of criminal doing the assault
• Type of weapon being used by the criminal
• Distance from the criminal to the person being assaulted
• Age and physical size of the person doing the assault
• Your age, size, and physical abilities
• Number of persons involved in the assault
• Proximity of loved ones to the person being assaulted
• Whether the person being assaulted is armed
• Whether the person being assaulted can be proactive or must be reactive

Strategies
Strategies refer to the responses that are hard-wired into our DNA.  These include freeze, flight, fight, posture, and submission.  While each response can have value in specific situations the ones that can benefit from reality-based training are flight and fight.  In our courses the use of a flight strategy will be developed by teaching students how to recognize and use flight strategies (movement) that are appropriate to specific situations.  Our students will be asked to identify situations where each of our hard-wired responses are appropriate and to understand how to employ different strategies in a smooth fashion.  Fight  strategies will be taught as well.

Tactics
Tactics define the specific ways that a given strategy is implemented.  For example, if your strategy is flight then thought needs to be given to the direction of the flight (movement)  along with which movement techniques are most appropriate to implement the movement.  If the strategy is fight, then what shooting or other techniques are appropriate to use in the situation.. Within a given strategy, the tactics must be flexible enough to be adapted to fit  changing situations.

Techniques
Techniques are the specific skills that the person has available for use.  Since no two situations are likely to be exactly the same, it follows that having a limited set of shooting or movement techniques available for use is not the best way to go. Techniques should never dictate your response.   In our classes we teach techniques as a continuum. Learning techniques this way  provides the maximum flexibility for adapting a technique as the situation changes which is likely to happen in an assault.  For example, the type of shooting that will work at contact distances is not appropriate to use at 25 yards.  As the distance changes so must the ability to employ a shooting technique that is appropriate to the distance.  If you have trained only to use your sights what happens when there is not enough light to see your sights even though you can still see your assailant? The same for movement techniques.  A movement technique that will cause an assailant to miss you at 3 feet is not likely to be as effective if the assailant is 50 feet away from you.  In the latter case, if available it may be best to move to cover.

New Shooting Range

JB Training LLC is pleased to announce our association with Oakwell Armory located in Kingsland, GA.  This company has an excellent outdoor range that is open to the public for very reasonable prices. The facility is located just north of the Florida/Georgia line off of US 17.  Their address is 103 Scrubby Bluff Road Kingsland, GA 31548 and their phone number is 912 729 7606.


We will be conducting training classes at this facility for persons located in South East Georgia and North East Florida.  More information on Oakwell Armory can be found on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/oakwellarmory

It appears that we will be able to conduct the full range of courses we offer at this facility.  The classroom is currently small but it is air conditioned and  heated.  The maximum class size will be six persons at present.

Private Lessons - One-on-One Instruction

JB Training LLC offers private lessons. Why would you want to take a private lesson.

First you may want to learn specific tactics or shooting techniques and you do not wish to take a formal class with other students to do this. The big advantage of a private lesson is you get to specify what subjects you want to learn and how long you want to devote to your private lesson.

Second, you will have the undivided attention of our Chief Instructor who will guide you through your instruction. You will move through the instruction at your own pace and be able to change the direction of the training if you so desire. Our Chief Instructor is very experienced and is capable of teaching anything that is found in all of our courses.

Proactive versus Reactive gunfights

Proactive - Being proactive in an assault situation means you have the ability to anticipate the assault and to take actions before the assault has taken place.  This allows you to be  able to anticipate what the criminal who is assaulting you is going to do before he or she does it..  If this is the case you may be able to preempt their actions or at least cause them to have to react to your actions.  The person in a gunfight who is able to be proactive has greatly increased their chances of winning that fight.  Being aware of your surroundings is taught as one of the best ways to be proactive. Often you can trust your instincts that may warn you if something does not seem to be "right."  Learn not to ignore these warnings.

Reactive - Being reactive in an assault means you are in the position of having to react to what is happening in the assault.  In most cases you will be at a disadvantage. Always being in a reactive mode greatly reduces your chances of surviving a gunfight. 

A lot of self defense instructors seem to assume that you will be able to be proactive when you are being assaulted.  If you are carrying a concealed firearm this is not likely to be the case as you are not allowed to brandish your firearm simply because you think an assault might happen.  Legally, you must be in fear of death or great bodily harm before you can use deadly force.  Drawing your gun in a situation where the conditions of ABILITY, OPPORTUNITY, AND JEOPARDY are not present can result in criminal charges being placed against you.  

JB Training LLC and other companies we have trained with teach if you can be proactive then that is the best possible situation.  However, the number of times a concealed carry person can be proactive is actually quiet limited.  We cover those situations in our classes.

To handle the most likely types of assaults we teach techniques that are designed to work in reactive situations.  These techniques are designed to turn the tables on your attackers and let you regain the initiative.  You become proactive and your assailant must become reactive.

For example, if the person assaulting you has a gun pointed at you this is a reactive situation.  In reality criminals look for situations where you will be placed into a reactive situation.  Trying to draw your gun when someone has a gun pointed at you  is a pretty poor strategy as you are not likely to be able to get your gun out before your assailant has shot you multiple times.

A way to convert this situation from  reactive to proactive is to perform a dynamic movement while drawing your pistol or performing some other action that causes your assailant to have to react to what you are doing.  Your movement will cause your assailant to have to react to your movement thereby gaining a tactical advantage for you.  His reaction lag time can be used to buy you the time needed to take a proactive action such as getting your gun into action and delivering combat accurate shots on him. When the assailant is very close other close combat actions may be more appropriate.  The gun should not be your only option. 

If your instructor does not understand the vital differences between being proactive and reactive you are not likely to be learning the skills and techniques needed to prevail in a deadly assault situation.  Knowing how to turn a reactive situation into a proactive one can be the difference between life and death.

Female Shooter Requirements

Female shooters seeking training should give consideration to the background of the person who will do their training.  In a previous post I mentioned that there are four training models being employed by various trainers, namely law enforcement, military, competition, and self defense.

Personally, I do not believe an instructor who uses a training model based on a law enforcement or military training model will provide the best learning experience for a female shooter who is planning on using her firearm for self defense. For the most part these models assume a shooter will be proactive when engaging a threat.  Their assumptions concerning rules of engagement and backup availability do not apply to many self defense situations. 

A trainer using the competition model will teach shooting techniques that are target shooting based. In these classes the students will learn good shooting techniques that will enable them to shoot tight groups in paper targets.

In my opinion instructors who operate with the self defense model will be the ones most likely to provide a female shooter with the training they need to employ a pistol for self defense.   They will deal with all aspects of the fight since an assault that involves firearms is really a gunfight.There are many aspects of an assault that are specific to a female who is being attacked and the instructor should be aware of these factors and cover them in their classes.  Take a look at my Self Defense Shooting for Zero to 25 Feet to see a course that provides training in the close distances where assaults are most likely to occur.  This also is the distance where a home invasion engagement  is likely to occur.

I recommend that a prospective student ask their instructor what experience they have in training female students.  One initial way to determine this is to see if the trainer offers women only classes.  While this is not an absolute guarantee that the training experience will meet female shooter needs,  it at least suggests that the trainer has had to come to grips with factors that make a female shooter different from a male shooter.

JB Training LLC offers female only classes and has trained many female students.  If necessary we can call on female assistant instructors to assist us in our classes.  

One of the most outstanding web sites that deals with the subject of a female shooter is
http://corneredcat.com/TOC.aspx

This material has been developed by Kathy Jackson who is a well known female in the shooting world.  

I highly recommend female students access and read this material as it will answer a lot of questions.

Notes on the Springfield XD's Failure to Fire issues

Some of my favorite guns both to shoot and to carry are Springfield XD's.
However, because I teach and practice dynamic movement and drawing and shooting on the move it was possible for me to end up with the XD in my hand with a less than perfect grip.  This meant the grip safety was not depressed enough to let the XD fire without taking the time to shift the grip in my hand. Of course shifting the grip to engage the grip saftey would only happen when I realized the gun was not going to go bang.  Once I had an FTF it meant some action needed to be taken to get the pistol to fire.  Tap/Rack is not the cure for this type of FTF. 

Needless to say this is not a situation I wanted if I was trying to use my XD to defend myself.

Thanks to members of the Suarez International Warrior Talk  forum I found a product that was developed to provide a cure for this problem.  Springer Precision LLC www.springerpresision.com makes a replacement enhanced grip safety that fits XD's and XDm's

I purchased two of the enhanced grip safeties and installed them on an XD9 and an XD9C.  I am happy to report that it is now possible to grip either XD with a grip that is far from perfect and still get the grip safety to depress.

With this product installed I am now confident that my XD's will no longer produce FTF's when I need them to fire under less than perfect conditions.

This problem is most likely to be encountered by persons who have hands that are on the small side.  It also only occurred during periods of dynamic movement and drawing while moving.  Most persons who shoot an XD are not likely to experience an FTF due to the grip safety.  

Selection of an Instructor

One of the important questions you should ask when considering spending your money on training is what type of instructor should I choose so I will be provided with the type of instruction that will be most valuable to me.

Stephen Wenger has a web page on this subject that you might want to consider reading before making that decision.  The page can be found at  http://www.spw-duf.info/instructor.html.

Stephen identifies four basic models for shooting instruction.

1. Self Defense Model - Suarez International and Massod Ayoob's  LFI  courses are examples of two companies who use this model.
2. Law Enforcement model - Most instructors who teach using this model have a law enforcement background. The rules of engagement and tactics that apply to law enforcement offer are not generally useful for a civilian person who has a CCW and expects to use their handgun for self defense. 
3. Military model - Instructors who use this model will have a military background or SWAT background and teach the tactics and techniques useful for those types of situations.
4. Competition model - Instructors who teach with this model will tend to emphasize their competition credentials, especially in IDPA and/or IPSC or other forms of competition shooting.  They tend to be excellent target shooters and often excel in competitions.  Most NRA courses tend to fall into this category

The training offered by JB Training LLC is based on the self defense model as we believe this model offers the best instruction for a person who may have to use a handgun to defend themselves.  The tactics and techniques we teach are designed for a person who carries or may carry a pistol or who wishes to protect themselves in their home using a pistol. 

Good Sources for Information on Point Shooting

As you can see from the training courses I have taken  I think point shooting is an important part of the shooting continuum. The shooting method to be used to defend yourself  is dependent upon the situation with the distance to the threat, lighting conditions, weather, and whether other persons are being defended.  While point shooting is not the only shooting skill one should have it may be one of the most important skills to possess for self defense.  In these cases assaults often happen at close ranges and often in poor light. 

That being said if you cannot take my courses that will teach you the shooting continuum there are a number of sources of good information on the point shooting portion of that continuum. However, nothing beats training with an instructor who can teach and demonstrate skills across the shooting continuum.

Roger Phillips - Roger is a Suarez International instructor  that I have trained with multiple times.  Roger has published one book and two CD's.  The book is entitled POINT SHOOTING PROGRESSIONS. The DVD's are entitled INTRODUCTION TO POINT SHOOTING and POINT SHOOTING PROGRESSIONS.  I have copies of all three and highly recommend them.  If you have nothing else in your library these should be there.  They can be found at :
http://www.onesourcetactical.com/dvdsbyrogerphillips.aspx

Your point shooting library also might contain the following which explain the origins of point shooting. Fairbain and Sykes are credited with publication of the first material on this subject and they taught it and used it extensively in their careers.  Col. Rex Applegate learned point shooting from them and taught it to the OSS during WWII.

Point Shooting
Battle-Proven Methods Of Combat Handgunning
with an Introduction by Col. Rex Applegate
Shooting For Keeps
Point Shooting For Close-Quarter Combat
with Colonel Rex Applegate
Bullseyes Don't Shoot Back
The Complete Textbook Of Point Shooting For Close Quarters Combat
by Colonel Rex Applegate and Michael D Janich
Shoot Him to the Ground
Tactical Point Shooting For The 21st Century
with Matthew Temkin - Matthew trained with Applegate and offers some undated thoughts on improving the original works.

All of the above can be found at Paladin Press.

Another good site with lots of good information is available from Stephen Wenger. His site can be found at
http://www.spw-duf.info/site.html.  A specific section on point shooting is found at
http://www.spw-duf.info/point.html

Roger Phillips recommendations on training

I have trained with Roger Phillips and consider him to be an outstanding instructor. If you get a chance I recommend you train with him.   The following is his advice on how to select your training.  QUOTE FROM ROGER PHILLIPS

Individual Prioritization

“There are no short cuts; there is only the individual priority of what you need and when you need it.”

It is my opinion that learning, training, and practicing, is a never ending process. What we have is a huge self defense puzzle and we should be looking to acquire pieces to that puzzle in a manner that reflects a prioritization of what we need and when we need it. This can be a very difficult decision making process because from our very first course, we realize that we know so very little. Even for guys like me that have been hunting and shooting my whole life, my first course only let me know how little that I really knew.

As we look to prioritize, we need to look at our situation. What is our mission, goal, threat level, occupation, life style, responsibility, and mindset.

What so many people do not understand is that you do not have to be an LEO or soldier to have a high threat level. I have met a number of guys from a number of different walks of life that can articulate a very substantial threat level. This is usually from their occupation, but it can also be from their life style (where they live) and responsibility (protection of self or a loved one that is being stalked.)

I have trained with a number of guys that have made the decision to train with me, to learn combat shooting fundamentals before they learned marksmanship fundamentals. Many of these guys do not have the time to get to the advanced levels of combat shooting through the marksmanship path. They recognize the fact that that path would take too long and not give them what they need "right now." They recognize that the marksmanship path does not take the physiological response of the reactive gunfight into consideration. Most of all they realize that the chances of a reactive encounter is much more likely, to their specific situation, than a proactive encounter. They also understand that they do still need to acquire the marksmanship skill sets. But, they want to have the time to make that fine motor skill happen, all the while having their "most likely" situations covered in a very effective and efficient manner.

This type of thinking, for these guys, is very good to see. When I first started training (due to a high threat level occupation) I did not have the resources that are available now. There was virtually one path and that path was slow and inefficient. That training was all about reprogramming your natural instincts, abilities, and reactions out of you, replacing them with condition responses that did not take the typical physiological responses of the fight or flight response into consideration.

All I know is that I am very happy and lucky to be in the position to give these guys an option that is far superior to the options that I had.

The guys that taught me this stuff took a lot of heat bringing it back from the dead. They did it for one reason "to make sure that you went home at the end of the day." That is the bottom line and IMHO they have succeeded in their efforts.

It is my opinion that nobody is in the position to direct a student on which priorities he needs to be learning, but the student himself.

The question then arises, how do you help prepare yourself for the best decisions possible? IMHO an honest and realistic threat assessment must be made. This means that we must educate ourselves to the threat level that we face on a daily basis. This edification can be a very large job encompassing a number of different factors and elements. As we do this we must be careful about becoming too extreme in our thinking, we must avoid the "tinfoil hat" paranoia. As we come up with our well researched, honest, realistic, and non paranoid threat assessment, we begin to get a picture of what we need and when we need it.

Just as an example, here is a very quick list of priorities that would seem to make sense to me, inside of my very personal situation.

Mindset; Know the enemy, know the pre attack indicators, know yourself, know the laws, have your line firmly drawn in the sand, eliminate or mitigate concerns that may make you hesitate. "He who hesitates, dies!" Get your mind right!

Home Defense; Develop a multilayered approach to home security. Become competent in quality home defense weapon systems that handle your personal situation the best. Rifle, shotgun, or handgun each tool has its place where it shines. Foster knowledge and competence in tactics. Develop the knowledge that "hunting" "clearing" or "searching" as a lone home owner is extremely risky undertaking. Prioritize securing the loved ones, taking up a fortified position, staying under the cloak of darkness, and laying in wait to engage from a proactive position.

Conceal Carry; Being away from home can put you in some of the very worse of positions. I consider the concealed carry skill sets as some of our most important due to the high possibility of starting the fight from behind in the reactionary curve and working through a low light situation. Get the very best training that you can find for these situations. It is my opinion that the hand to hand skill sets, integrated with the draw stroke from concealment, coupled with dynamic movement, and point shooting skill sets are the absolute core to self defense with a handgun.

SHTF Situations; Katrina, Rodney King, Watts, etc has proven to us that things can go very wrong.....very quickly! Emergency preparedness is a must. Training, such as we see in the Suarez International Rifle courses and the High Risk Operator course, become obviously necessary skill sets.

This is just a real quick example of honest and common sense approach to an individuals list of priorities.

There is a certain realization, about the amount of time that most of us can dedicate to one aspect of the fight. Once we look at the context of "the fight" it becomes very clear that we can not just be specialists. We must be well rounded, we must be versatile. This does not allow us to focus on being "the best" on any one thing. Most of us are working stiffs, with families, responsibilities, and other interests. We do the best that we can do, within our busy lives, to be the best that we can be at defending our loved ones and ourselves. We must come up with a way to cover as much of the "most likely" as we can.

If we keep an open mind, if we develop an "inclusive" attitude, we can easily pick and choose common sense concepts that take care of the "most likely" at an efficient and effective level. To reach this efficient and effective level we must make compromises. These compromises need to be geared to the individual prioritization. A prioritization concept that may never allow for the individual to reach the level of the best shooters in the world……but may make him the very best that he can be within the specifics of his very personal situation.

__________________
http://fightfocusedconcepts.com/home

Situations dictate strategy, strategy dictates tactics, and tactics dictate techniques......techniques should not dictate anything.

"There are no short cuts, there is only the individuals priority of what they need and when they need it."

"The biggest factor inside of the situation is YOU! Who are you? What are your strengths, what are your weaknesses? What is the perfect fighting system built around your very personal situation?"

---

Last edited by Roger Phillips : Yesterday at 11:10 AM.

What about my own training?

If you will check out my resume you will see that I devote considerable time and money to developing and maintaining my own skills.

I believe continued training is a lifelong activity that must be continually updated to ensure that my skills  available to me if they are needed for dealing with a violent encounter. Advanced training is an excellent way to test your skills.

In addition, taking additional training exposes me to other instructors and to new content. If I find a teaching technique that I have found useful in helping me learn the material being taught, I make an effort to include those techniques in my own teaching.

When I find additional information that would be useful in my courses I have the flexibility to change my courses to include the new or improved information. I never make the mistake of believing that I know everything there is to know about the complex subject of preparing to face asocial criminal violence.

I also value feedback from my students and have made changes in course content based on such feedback. Part of my obligation as an instructor is to meet student needs and expectations.

How does JB Training provide Reality-based training?

Many shooting schools will teach you how to shoot. Some of them will teach you to shoot under conditions of stress. We do this as well but we also take you to the next level.

We have four specific courses that provide as much realism as possible without using real ammunition. Our three Force-on-Force courses provide you with an opportunity to face real people who are armed and will be trying to shoot, stab, or club you. They may shoot first sometimes and usually shoot back. They move and are trying to keep from getting shot themselves. In many of the drills and exercises you will start out in a reactive mode, rather than a proactive mode. When you are being assaulted that is how the engagement is likely to begin.Training with live ammunition on a flat range does not provide this experience. 

The guns we use in our Force-on-Force course are Air soft semi-automatic pistols that shoot 6MM plastic pellets. These pistols are realistic in size, weight and function. The pellets sting when they hit you. For safety sake we provide full face masks to protect the face, ears and neck from being hit.The pellets sting when they hit your clothing so you will know you are being hit. 

One more realism based course is our Shoot/No shoot video scenario course. In this course you will use a real pistol equipped with a laser insert that fires a laser beam when the trigger is pulled. You face a screen where video images are projected. You will see a variety of situations that you might be faced with in your life. Some of them require you to draw your pistol, issue commands and perhaps pull the trigger. Other scenarios are no shoot situations in which the use of lethal force would not be appropriate. Debriefings after each scenario will help the student understand their actions and what other courses of action were available to you. Many police departments now provide this type of training to their officers.

What is the value of a laser installed on your handgun?

I use lasers in my courses. A fair question is what is the value of using this type of pistol mounted tool.

Some people have installed lasers on their handguns. I have them on some of the guns I carry as well. The lasers have several advantages.
1. They are excellent dry fire tools as they provide visual feedback on where the pistol is pointing.
2. Pistol mounted lasers allow me to make shots when my eyes are not close to the pistol. As long as I can see the laser dot I am confident I know where the bullet will strike when I shoot.
3. Some people believe that a laser dot placed on the assailant will strike fear in the assailant.

What about their disadvantages.
1. They run on batteries. Murphy's law says if something can fail it will do so at the worst possible time. Consequently, I only train with my laser to make shots that I would not be able to make otherwise. I do not train myself to rely on the laser.
2. They can become a crutch if that is how you train yourself to shoot. If you rely on the laser what happens if you cannot see the dot? Strong sunlight can obscure some laser dots. You may find yourself searching for the dot when you should be shooting.
3. A laser beam leads straight back to your gun. You may be exposing your position when it was not necessary to do so. In conditions of low light you may have the laser dot on one bad guy but you are showing his accomplices exactly where you are so they can shoot you.

Why you need to be able to point shoot.!

My first course is entitled Defensive Shooting for Zero to 21 Feet.

At this range it is not necessary to use the sights on a pistol to achieve combat accuracy. Combat accuracy is defined as putting all of the rounds into the person assaulting you.

Point shooting is a technique that can be used to achieve combat accuracy at distance ranging from contact to between 25 to 30 feet. Even more important is the fact that most gunfights and assaults occur within these ranges. In particular the type of shooting needed for a home invasion is likely to be point shooting.

When I teach point shooting it is taught as part of a shooting continuum. What this means is the type of shooting technique that is to be used changes as the distance increases or the situation changes. Therefore my students will learn to make combat accurate shots using one hand and two hands. The handgun positions will range from being held at hip level to just below eye level. They will also learn the distances and situations where the  use of the pistol sights is necessary. This is specific to each individual. They also will learn when point shooting is not an appropriate technique to use.

Point shooting is fast, efficient, and effective. It relies on instincts we all have. It works well under conditions of extreme stress and does not require hundreds of hours to learn or extensive practice to maintain this skill. Students who have never shot a gun before seem to pick up point shooting faster than students who have extensive shooting experiences.

Asocial violence

The presence of asocial violence in the world is a good reason to carry a concealed carry firearm.

When a criminal uses asocial violence his objective is to kill or maim the person being assaulted. The person using asocial violence has no moral restrictions and has no regard for the life of the person being assaulted. If asocial violence is being used against you all of your options are reduced to a simple equation. Kill or be killed.

Much of the violence in the world is of the anti-social type. This type of violence is meant to dominant a person but it generally is not intended to kill or maim the victim. It is usually not appropriate to use lethal force to respond to anti-social violence.

When I teach students to use a defensive handgun, the threat of asocial violence is what I train them to deal with. Their options other than resistance have been removed and they must be prepared to respond with lethal force to stop the assault.

HexSites - Why do I prefer them over other sights?

I have HexSites on some of my pistols. Why did I do this?

There are a number of advantages that the HexSites have over standard sights which have their origin in the target shooting and competition world.

1. Hexagonal design in the rear sight. See the picture of the rear sight above. The hexagonal design provides 16 points of alignment for the eye. This design allows the eye to easily center the rear sight on the front sight. A circle or peep sight has no points of reference for the eye to use to center the rear sight. A circle or peep sight is at a disadvantage when using a pistol.
2. Threat focus - Standard target sighting systems require the shooter to focus on the front sight while keeping the rear sight and threat out of focus. With the HexSite, the focus is on the threat. The design permits the HexSite to be focused on the threat. This takes full advantage of the eye's desire to focus on the threat, not on the front sight.
3. By focusing on the threat the HexSite is much easier to use for someone who has eye accommodation problems. Those persons who are near sighted find the HexSite will work well for them.
4. Cross dominant shooters. Since the HexSite relies on a threat focus, the cross dominant shooter does not need to adjust their head to shoot a pistol with a HexSite.
5. Ability to shoot with both eyes open. Often a shooter who uses conventional target sights must close the non-dominant eye to shoot effectively. This is not the case with the HexSite. I am cross dominant so I am well aware of this issue.  FYI, I DO NOT AGREE with those instructors who try to convert the dominate eye of a person they are training.  If you want to hear more from me on this subject get in contact with me. 

In my opinion the only sighting system that competes with a HexSite is a red dot system such as those now being used by our armed forces.  Several companies now make red dot sights that are designed to fit on pistols.  Jpoint and Trijicon RMR LED are examples of this technology.
http://www.eabco.com/jpoint01.html
http://www.onesourcetactical.com/millpistolslidetoaccepttrijiconrmrsight-2.aspx http://www.onesourcetactical.com/millpistolslidetoaccepttrijiconrmrsight-2.aspx

Reality-based training

When you take a look at the resume on my website you will notice that I have taken courses from a variety of training organizations. Without a doubt I learned something from each of them. Each course I have taken has helped me prepare to teach others the material I have learned. In my courses you will receive a selection of material that represents the best information that was taught to me.

Suarez International training has had the most influence on me. I subscribe to their realism-based training philosophy and strive to convey that philosophy to my students.

I believe reality-based handgun training is the best training for people who are considering using their handgun for self defense. Unlike traditional training, reality-based training only teaches those strategies, tactics, and techniques that are most likely to be successful when used in a real-life confrontation.