Side-Stepping When Firing, Reloading, etc.: valid tactic?

[GardoneVT]

When I encountered a would be attacker in a parking lot, I was between my own vehicle and someone else's. I had about 13" of space between the vehicles , and zero room to move back or forward. I had to turn sideways to fit.

Sidestepping anywhere would be impossible- door mirrors, natch.My options were slide awkwardly to the left, or the other direction.

IMO, an instructor should focus on the concept of movement, and not a one size fits all specific movement.

[Dagga Boy]

One of my mentors said that tactics are sort of universal and there is not much difference in what happens in a room, or a tank battle. It is all about out maneuvering and out-thinking your opponent based on terrain and the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing forces. There will be times when holding position is best, times when advancing is a good thing, times when retreat and withdrawal makes sense, times when a flanking maneuver wins the day, and times when offsetting a line of attack is valid. The key is to know what to use and when. It is what makes some guys a Gen. Guderian, and some General Flavigny. It is why I believe that you should practice not only shooting stationary, but also on the move in multiple directions, in multiple degrees of control, and multiple responses to attacks instead of simply moving off line every single time you draw.

[Mr_White]

One of my mentors said that tactics are sort of universal and there is not much difference in what happens in a room, or a tank battle. It is all about out maneuvering and out-thinking your opponent based on terrain and the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing forces. There will be times when holding position is best, times when advancing is a good thing, times when retreat and withdrawal makes sense, times when a flanking maneuver wins the day, and times when offsetting a line of attack is valid. The key is to know what to use and when. It is what makes some guys a Gen. Guderian, and some General Flavigny. It is why I believe that you should practice not only shooting stationary, but also on the move in multiple directions, in multiple degrees of control, and multiple responses to attacks instead of simply moving off line every single time you draw.

What a reasonable post. Totally agree!

[The Dreaming Tree]

Excellent points, all.

I agree that if the point is to break the ingrained cycle of DRAW >> FIRE >> RELOAD >> FIRE every time a drill is performed, then the movement works. However, to me, it seems this has gone the way of the Search and Assess: instead of actually meaning something, it is simply an action to be parroted before your instructor yells at you. Drills aren't designed to actually put the S&A to use, just to show you can turn your head, which is unlikely to break the "tunnel-vision" as it is intended.

I haven't taken any course that teaches the movement technique, so I am likely missing information and presentation, but it seems to simply be a ritual. DRAW, skip left, FIRE, skip right, RELOAD, skip left, etc, etc. It shouldn't be a simple dance routine, but that's how it appears to be.

[41magfan]

Personally, I think pre-programmed movements have little - if any – relevant value because they don’t resemble what you’ll do in a real circumstance. Your ability, need and willingness to move in a real-life situation will be based on the environment and the circumstances at hand so movement being taught as a tactic should be stimulus directed. This is a tedious exercise to conduct on a square range with a multitude of participants; that's why it isn't done much even by those that can appreciate its value.

[EMC]

In prepping for deployment they talked about a couple things regarding reaction to contact, immediate action drills which were meant to be preprogrammed, and the simple concept of "get out of the kill zone". It seems to me you would want to pre-program several dynamic movements your subconscious could fall back on rather than just one. Tough to decide on this issue.

[TheTrevor]

If a break in the action affords you the time to take a step to perform a reload, why not keep stepping (as in run!)? Isn't the goal of a reload to get the weapon charged as rapidly as possible, or are we to engrain the foot movement of side-stepping during reload? Curious to know how other's feel.

If I'm at the other end of the aisle from a BG in a stop-and-rob (he's at the registers, I'm back by the cold drinks) I am absolutely going to sidestep behind the Fritos to reload. That's 2 seconds where I'm moving and partly covered during which I'm less likely to be hit.

[Dagga Boy]

If I'm at the other end of the aisle from a BG in a stop-and-rob (he's at the registers, I'm back by the cold drinks) I am absolutely going to sidestep behind the Fritos to reload. That's 2 seconds where I'm moving and partly covered during which I'm less likely to be hit.

Not to pick on you, as I hear this stuff a lot. Honestly, you may hide behind the Fritos peeing yourself, you may stand your ground and deliver rounds on target like a boss, or you may run shooting over your shoulder. The key is you really don't know what you would absolutely do. I applaud the pre planning and thinking about it as this helps, BUT, outside of a few Hardwired skill sets that you can over learn, tactics is not nor should be one of them. Tactics are VERY fluid and something that takes a lot of dedicated work to be able to read a situation, especially under stress.

[BN]

The side step is part of the latest Ohio peace officer qualifications.

The side step slows my draw way down.

[TheTrevor]

Not to pick on you, as I hear this stuff a lot. Honestly, you may hide behind the Fritos peeing yourself, you may stand your ground and deliver rounds on target like a boss, or you may run shooting over your shoulder. The key is you really don't know what you would absolutely do. I applaud the pre planning and thinking about it as this helps, BUT, outside of a few Hardwired skill sets that you can over learn, tactics is not nor should be one of them. Tactics are VERY fluid and something that takes a lot of dedicated work to be able to read a situation, especially under stress.

I'll endeavor not to take that personally.

In my particular case, despite not being a hardened door-kicker or a professional trigger-puller, I nonetheless have had some modest experience with life-or-death situations. As a result, I do have a solid understanding of how I react in such. I've experienced tachypsychia every single time, so that's a given. I advance aggressively towards the emergency, if appropriate, or take other action if that is what's needed. I assume command of other folks who are also present and have no hesitation to issue instructions to them in command voice.

I also know that I am unlikely to do anything that's not in a direct line between me and the threat/emergency unless I've thought about it and tried it out ahead of time. I am capable of adding to the set of things I can do under stress, though. I don't blindly go for my knife if I'm carrying a gun, despite years of carrying and training with only a blade before adding a gun to the response options.

I'm sure your experienced opinion is applicable to folks who have never had to deal with the real thing, right kittening now, even once let alone multiple times. Would you maintain that it's equally true of folks who have faced that kind of stress several times and prevailed?