On November 21-23, 2014 I attended the course Concealed Carry Combatives. Here are my thoughts on the experience.
Course Objective/Background: to teach physical combatives in the event of a surprise ambush/attack prior to drawing your concealed weapon. In the ideal scenario, we are so situationally aware that we are able to draw our weapon and preempt a life threatening assault on ourselves or others. However, this course assumes the worst; you are physically ambushed by an attack and do not have time or space to draw from concealment. You must then fight the assailant effectively to create distance and opportunity so that you may use your concealed weapon. This is NOT a shooting course. This is a how to survive an attack and position yourself so that you CAN shoot.
Here is a link to the course description.
https://www.regonline.com/builder/si...ventID=1609821
Instructors: Tony Blauer of SPEAR combatives (San Diego) and Jeff Gonzales of Trident Concepts. Both are highly accomplished instructors with notable achievements. Mr Blauer comes from a civilian background and has developed his system of empty hand combat arising from the natural human flinch response. Mr Gonzales is a former Navy Seal who is well known for his high standards in firearm training and combatives. Please research them as I am only scratching the surface of their qualifications.
Location: Conroe, facilities of the host Conroe Sheriffs Department
Attendees: 19-21 people. All male except one. Most were active LEO or former LEO/Military. Civilians require a CHL to register and attend. I am estimating age ranges between mid 20's to late 50's or early 60's. Myself, I am a health care worker with no former LE/military background.
Cost: $750 for early registration and $999 for regular registration.
Equipment: concealed carry holster, training knife (whatever your EDC gear is, bring it). Training folder knives were available for those who did not have one. Pistols were safety checked and empty during the drills and many had inert blue guns or SIRT pistols
My gear consisted of: JM Custom kydex appendix carry holster, SIRT pistol, Surefire defender flashlight, and a training fixed blade.
Concepts/Skills Learned: Cycle of fear, picking up on precontact cues, Hick's law, In-action vs inaction, Biomechanics of arm and body strength, Use of leverage, Effect of eye focus on projected strength, How to use the instinctive flinch response as a defensive/offensive combat technique, Open versus closed hand strikes, Key pressure areas, How to disarm knife and pistol at close range, How to create opportunities to transition to your weapon, Modifying your pistol grip and body position during close combat (ie arm's length or closer). Weapon retention. This is just a small sampling of what we learned.
Safety was a high priority in this course: All attendees were safety checked at the beginning of each day and after anyone left the building for any reason. We were checked to ensure that our pistol was safely cleared, that our knives were dull training blades, and that we did not carry live ammo into the building.
Day 1 Friday 7 pm-9pm: Lecture format. Tony Blauer presented his thoughts on the flinch response and cycle of fear. The talk did not just have personal anecdotes but included many examples of real life situations. Mr Blauer elaborated on the anatomy of street fights: emphasizing that very few deploy complex maneuvers and dojo techniques. The majority of street attacks are furiously fast and violent, leaving little room for fancy moves.
Day 2 Saturday 9 AM -3 PM: physical combat drills. Mr Blauer and Gonzales alternated in demonstrating maneuvers with attendees and then we paired up and went at it. Within a pair, one person played the BG and tried to bearhug, headlock, attack the other. The defendant (GG) would use the SPEAR system to defend and go on the offensive. We switched roles and partners several times to mix it up.
Day 3 Sunday 9AM-3pm: more combatives, but focusing more on drawing your pistol from concealment during the fight. I discovered that one handed draws while fighting off your attacker with the other hand is quite tricky. We were encouraged to thumb sweep our cover garment (rather than fist grab) as a more reliable maneuver. After practicing pistol draws, we then practiced drawing practice blades from our support side and weapon retention of both our blades and pistols while our partner (bad guy) was grabbing for it. We ended the last day with a debriefing by Jeff Gonzales and everyone shared thoughts about what they learned.
Both instructors circled the room during drills to fine tune our moves and give personal feedback. If a glaring error was observed, then the entire class was educated. What I liked was the emphasis on not making the moves rote or mechanical. We were reminded constantly to vary the attacks, the weapon grabs, the body positions, etc so that our partners could react spontaneously so that reactions were not memorized or patterned. A key emphasis was on being a good “bad guy.” You wanted to move, talk, and intimidate your partner. The more effective one was at being the BG, the more realistic the drill sessions.
Eureka Moments: I am 5'6" and weigh 130 lbs. Although I am fit, I am not muscular and have no grappling skills at all. Nevertheless, I was able to effectively defend against much stronger and larger attendees by using the biomechanics and leverage taught in this course. This was also the first time I trained at all in edged weapons and pistol retention skills. For some attendees, the strenuous physical combat drills revealed the limitations of their EDC gear. Guns and holsters fell out, holster placement made access difficult in some positions, etc. Opening a folder blade was quite tricky, especially under stress. I now see the value of a fixed blade on the support side and a folder on the strong side.
Conclusion: I highly, highly recommend this course. It is pricey but the lessons are priceless. The skills I learned were simple but effective applications of leverage and the flinch response. You do NOT need any former training in MA or wrestling to grasp and deploy these techniques. The simplicity of the SPEAR system is its strength. It gave me confidence that I can resist a much larger/stronger opponent. The course fills the gap that I have always felt was missing as a CHL citizen. I am comfortable drawing my handgun from concealment. I feel that I can deliver my shots accurately and effectively if needed (I am not an expert shooter, just competent). The gap I had was how to reach my gun at all if I was suddenly ambushed or caught off guard. After this course, I now have a bridge to transition that gap.
Mr Blauer and Gonzales were great teachers. They were hilarious and worked well together. Mr Blauer took the lead on teaching the flinch combat response and Mr Gonzales taught its application to weapon deployment and retention. Both taught effectively and had synergy. I got a sense that both genuinely cared about teaching us the tools that would optimize our safety. In other words, they were there not just for the tuition but to help the good guys survive. The fact that more than half of the attendees were active LEO or former LEO/military, and that the remainder were CHL citizens gave me great comfort. Having their perspectives were also enlightening.
Who should attend: EVERYONE. I almost feel that this course is even more important than accumulating more firearm training. This course is a must if you carry concealed. I think it is especially relevant for people who do not have much muscle mass or size. If you do not think you need this course then you do not know what street combat is like.
Who should not attend: if you are a sensitive, politically correct person, then you may be offended. The ample profanity may offend some but I felt it created the right mood for the course. If you are not fit, then you will not maximize your learning. There were several attendees who had to sit out of the drills because of sprained shoulders or muscles. I was still sore a week later.
TNguyen
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by caleb
