Poor situational awareness, 2 bad guys and "Where's my gun?"

[part-time shooter]

I picked up the PUC and Handgun 1 when I found a few Shivworks videos posted on youtube from one of SN's posts. I learned quite a bit from the 2-4 minute "bites" in those videos so I figured the DVDs would be even better and I was correct. The DVDs are full of useful information, I'd recommend the PUC video over the handgun video as I think the informaiton is far more useful to the average person, who is probably completely unaware that this information exists. I learned more from that 90 minutes than I ever did from any other training resource on the use of a handgun, which never comes up in the PUC video, it's all unarmed. His handgun video is all about how to use the gun up close and personal, something you can't practice at an indoor range but after seeing how it needs to be done and why it's something that needs to be practiced. One of the biggest lessons you'll learn from the handgun video is that the gun you carry for protection may be your biggest liability in a real fight if you don't know how and when to use it.

The PUC DVD on how to handle unknown contacts, what to look for, how to read intentions (which you can't), how and where to move, and what to say and what not to say is far more useful information to have if you've never been exposed to it. I hadn't. He only demonstrates 4 techniques in the video towards the end on what to do when all of the previous fails and you get attacked and those 4 techniques displace all I ever learned studying seveal different martial arts. Those taught me how to spare, not fight, against trained and aware opponents, which is absolutely useless under these circumstances. He keeps it very simple and explains the why of everything.

Both DVDs are well worth the money. It's only ~$40 each and that barely covers a movie and dinner for two around here, the PUC DVD is also extremely valuable for your wife or daughter(s). SN is no big he-man warrior type, he's presenting to "everyone" not just an LEO or "gun person" audience. The DVDs are not million dollar productions but they are well done and his "back alley" backdrop keeps what he's presenting in context and his style of presentation only adds to his credibility.

[Dagga Boy]

For what its worth.....Southnarcs stuff is outstanding. Luckily, I have had the chance to spend some time with Southnarc in the past. While we are "size opposite" and worked in totally different parts of the country, doing completely different details in L/E, we have both come up with the exact same teaching ideas based on dealing with real bad guys for a lot of years (and being honest enough to learn from ours/ and others mistakes). If you are serious about how to deal with bad guys, you will pay attention to the folks who put a ton of time in with dealing with real bad guys.

This brings up a training issue in general. You want to cut down your shot to shot times, clean up your draws, and improve your accuracy, you go to guys who spend a metric ton of time doing that with an established background (that tends to be obvious on the range if they know WTF they are talking about).

The problem in the world of "self defense" training is there are a ton of folks teaching it who have no clue about dealing with real predatory animals. For those of us who spend a lot of time in the "shooting based" martial arts, the best guys out there tend to have at least a decade or two (or three) devoted to dealing full time with human predatory animals (and not behind a desk), before they start sharing that information and start training based on their knowledge. It is why guys like Scott Reitz, Pat Rogers, Southnarc, Bill Murphy, Mark Fricke, Erick Gelhaus, Rob Haught, and others are excellent training resources. They know how to apply the use firearms with the realities of dealing with criminals based on doing it as a primary job their entire adult lives, before throwing out a training shingle (on the Mil side,Ken Hackathorn, Larry Vickers, Paul Howe, Pat MacNamarra, Jason Falla, Super Dave Harrington, Kyle Lamb, Jim Smith, Ken Good, Jeff Gonzales, and others are a good bet). The guys who have been failures, strap hangers, very part timers in micro agencies, etc. can often speak the lingo but really have no concept of what they are talking about. A good analogy for those of you with solid competition credentials would be the guys who have won the "Lower Westside Nowhereville IDPA championships" having the same clout as the guys who are winning multi discipline national matches year after year. Like the same folks in the gunfight training world, they might know something, but it is wholly based on theory and listening to others and not based on their own first hand experience.

The nice thing about Southnarc is that he is one of the elites of this business who has "done", can perform, and can teach. You can find plenty of folks with experience, skills, and an ability to teach....but very few with all three. Guys with two are a great resource, guys with all three are gold.