Street Encounter Skills and Tactics: FPF/John Murphy
Street Encounter Skills and Tactics
By John Murphy/FPF Training
I have been working as an apprentice with Justified Defensive Concepts, AI-ing and coaching shooters, doing so has taken nearly all of my time away from my own typically heavy class attendance. I am being extremely selective of my time away from my apprenticeship responsibilities, and have only attended three courses as a student so far this season; ECQC with Greg Ellifritz/Active Response Training, Performance Pistol two-day Advanced Fundamentals with Ashton Ray and Tim Chandler of 360 Performance Shooting, (where it was apparent that my skills had deteriorated a bit), and this past weekend spent with John Murphy/FPF Training in his excellent Street Encounter Skills and Tactics course.
I met Murph several years ago over BBQ with my mentors, we all frequent a joint in Culpepper, VA, post class when we teach there. I had previously shot with him in a Low Light course in 2022 as a fellow student; his skill level stood out, even though he admitted he was a bit rusty on LL techniques, it didnt show. That class featured a difficult ending exercise that only a few of us passed, John and an active federal agent both shot the correct course of fire, not engaging an on-scene LEO target. I was the only student who chose to not engage, calling Blue, ducking back into cover, minding my own business, also passing the exercise.
I got an email from John previous to the course informing me he had a slot open. I checked schedule, seeing JDC didnt have a class scheduled that weekend, I promptly registered. I was sent approximately 5 hours of YouTube videos with instruction to view them before class, as this would cut down on lecture time and provide for more hands-on learning. I read a couple of class reviews where students hinted, they had not viewed the material ahead of time, this would be a huge disservice to yourself and the other class members as it was all very relevant and informative.
I left Salem about 5 am for a 0900 class start time on Saturday. The class opened with a very thorough medical brief and evacuation plan, moved on to weapons safety, all students would rope primary guns, remove all ammo, knives, and other tools; No shooting on the first day. Each student was issued a medical leg wrap carrier with a CAT Tourniquet and an Israeli Pressure Bandage, a solid but abbreviated stop the bleed course was taught, each medical device demonstrated and then the students applied the TQ and pressure bandage to themselves under the watchful eyes of instructors. Medical would come up often, but more on that later.
While John was the lead, his AI was a squared away and charming Gunnery Sargent Monique or Mo for short, during breaks we compared training we had attended, she was knowledgeable and competent, very friendly and a joy to have on the range. The course was attended by eight students varying from having a couple of classes to frequent flying high-level performers, and several instructors attending as students, (the best teachers are always students first, and forever). Shooting levels and knowledge varied, but there were no issues with anyone falling behind or not grasping material. John and Mo worked well as a team, if a student had an issue that was relevant to the course it was addressed to the class for all to learn, if it was something effecting the one student only, Mo would coach them and catch them up. Two of the eight attending were females, which is common now in open enrollment courses. I am happy to see women attending self-rescue courses.
After Stop the Bleed we went right into less lethal, each student was issued two inert POM canisters and one live OC agent POM dispenser, we were instructed to stow the live agent and carry one inert trainer concealed and put the other in our leg carrier for use as the first one was exhausted. Murph taught several ways to deploy OC both overt and covert draws and applications, students then practiced applying inert OC to the targets on the target line. We then started working roll play with Murph as the aggressor, a portion of the contacts were aggressive and deserving of OC, some threats backed down, others were benign, normal daily contacts. This was the classs first experience managing unknown contacts, that would continue to develop in both complexity and response options over the remainder of the course.
When I said medical would come back up, here is where it did: In Murphs distinctive Marine Voice and Tone he called Assess Injury, students started with their head and neck performing a blood sweep, glancing at their hands after each area was swept over for fluids. Murph announced: Spurting Blood, Left Thigh, students self-applied the TQ. Murph then chose a student and played the role of a 911 operator as they made that call. We would go on to role play many 911 calls and interactions with operators and responding LEO/Services over the weekend, as well as many more injury assessments, which built in complexity.
Guns were roped, students were swept for ammo/weapons and sent to the firing line. A solid lecture on distance in a fight was given, the range was not set up with typical yardage markers, it was set at one arms length, three strides, one car width, one car length, one truck length, two parked cars length; this gives students a real-world representation of distance which would be very important going forward, because it was broken down into time for an aggressive threat to cover that distance and make contact. Some dry fire was done here to gauge the students abilities and find any safety concerns, draws from concealment, muzzle aversion techniques, (SUL, Low/High, Compressed, Temple Index, etc.), all under the watchful eyes of the cadre, any deficiencies were addressed and coached to correction.
To finish the day off we ran some MUC scenarios, some went as far as making the 911 call, and dealing with responding officers, others just stopped as the threat was ended, again every day contacts were mixed in well, many needed nothing more than a Im sorry, I cant help you, have a nice day.. Some of us took off to enjoy BBQ and rest for the next day.
Sunday: We opened with live fire basics, 5 round groups at 5 yards, 3 targets, then 1 shot on 1 precision targets from concealment. We then brought out the shot timer to record time to first shot from concealment for each students average. (This would be important going forward against a threat who had the drop on you, knowing how long it would take to make a shot). It would be necessary to create some type of opening or interruption in their OODA Loop to get a solution to draw or act. Those openings were taught starting with verbal integration, feigned compliance, movement, distraction, etc.
We partnered up and ran off of visual ques, using a red/green laser, red for threat that hasnt reached a lethal response, green was lethal threat. We worked some drills to provide visual ques. Murph had me demonstrate with him a mirror drill. We would stand side by side in either a hands by side, interview posture, arms crossed, or fighting stance, one person would initiate a draw and explode laterally, moving a few steps and engage the target, the other person would respond the same as soon as they perceived that move to weapon.
The drill that really gave many students fits, Rupert. Rupert is an anatomically correct target from the waist up, down it is a wheeled cart attached to ropes and pulleys that can charge you at human sprinting speed. John voiced for Rupert as students faced him in role play. When Rupert charged, many students that had been shooting adequately on a square range got peripheral hits or missed entirely from close range. The added stress of an active charge opened eyes for sure.
I found this class especially beneficial as a dive into street crime, how predators use verbal skills to close distance and distract/confuse their prey. Starting with the videos and continuing into both days many examples of actual criminal behavior layered onto what we were learning. The skills were first explained, demonstrated, then the students performed them. After success the next lesson was layered on to what had been learned previously. John Murphy was masterful at only pushing a student to their edge of performance, ensuring positive learning. You could see scenarios were tweaked for less experienced or more experienced students so that everyone was challenged and pushed. That is the sign of an instructor that has both mastered the material and mastered teaching it to a variety of skillsets and personalities.
Firearms were mostly Glocks and S&W M&Ps, one HK VP9. Probably half of the students ran AIWB, the other half IWB, with one Enigma System. I ran a G47/RMR both days from a Tenicore Velo AIWB, Dale Fricke horizontal AIWB carrier for the extra mag; S&B 124g FMJ, I would estimate I ran 300 rounds, but I shoot fast and tend to run 3-5 round strings. After two, two-day courses over successive weekends my speed and accuracy were back where it should have been for this course.
I highly recommend John Murphy as an instructor, far too few training outfits are teaching this type of real-world criminality response, and too many students are skipping learning to deal with predatory street crime, instead choosing high round count run and gun, tactical courses instead of developing verbal and mental skills to dominate what they are most likely going to face day to day. Not that there is anything wrong with that type of class, it has its place, but dont skip out on things like this. I was impressed and have already signed up for a vehicle course with FPF later this year.
