So Mr. AAR guy is now presented with the challenge of writing an AAR for ECQC. That isn't going to be easy. Due to time constraints and the effort involved with trying to wrestle what I took away from the course into words, I'm not going to attempt to make one comprehensive AAR post. Instead, I'm going to focus on a few major themes and talk about each of them and invite the other participants in the class to add their thoughts on those topics as well.
The Coursework:
At the end of day 2.5 having been through all of the drills, all of the training evolutions, and having listened to all the lecture portions of the course I came to the conclusion that ECQC had to be one of the most well-engineered, well-choreographed, well-executed, and sophisticated courses of instruction I've ever encountered. I don't limit that to simply instruction I've encountered in firearms training. I've had the opportunity to take classes with SME's in a number of different disciplines ranging from pieces of software to psychology and even forensic science, and the ECQC program is one of the most effective means of transferring the benefit of a great deal of study and experience into a group of students within a short time span that I've ever encountered.
It's simply impossible to be conscious during this course and not walk away with several pieces of information that change your perspective on interpersonal violence. By "change" I do not merely mean mental acknowledgement of a piece of information's value, but rather the sort of knowledge that anchors deep and weaves into the fabric of your entire world view and that will influence your actions and reactions from that point forward.
The ECQC course blends easily digestible lessons in street smarts with practical instruction in combatives, the integration of weapons into combatives and street survival, and ultimately practical application of all principles taught in the class at speed under the stress of violent opposition. You're going to hear the instructor tell you what works, you're going to drill it a bit, and then you're going to try and use it against one or more opponents who are going to try their best to impose their will upon you. Somewhere in that process you're going to figure some stuff out.
If you're a gun guy, you'll figure out that there are plenty of violent problems your gun won't solve. If you've always got a plan, you'll figure out that plans typically last right up until you take the first hit. If you've got lots of aggression and no skill, you'll figure out that aggression doesn't matter much when a dude has you side-mounted and is shooting you in the crotch with your own pistol. If you've got lots of aggression and lots of skill, you'll figure out that if you don't learn how dial back the hate that things can end just as badly for you as if you were unskilled and passive. If you think that a fellow student doesn't look intimidating, you'll figure out that what he may lack in obvious physical strength he more than makes up for with incredible resolve to twist somebody into a knot and feed them their own gun and you'll probably start thinking pretty hard about how much you can really tell about a person before you've seen them under real stress.
If you showed up at this course and didn't fire a single shot or participate in a single drill, you'd still walk away having seen things that will stir questions in the places people don't like to talk about at parties.
There's a lot of random noise out there in the training world, but the ECQC coursework is like a laser beam: An intense, focused, precisely directed beam of energy that projects out of the instructor and bores into your brain until an indelible imprint has been left on your DNA.
...and you know what's really messed up about that? I'm not being dramatic. Ask the people who were there.
The Instructor:
The instructor for the course deserves special recognition on many fronts:
- For pulling together a multi-disciplinary program that rethinks much of conventional wisdom in several of those disciplines to fill a void where most fear to tread
- For honing and refining that program into a finely tuned weapon of mass instruction that literally anyone can learn from as long as they have a pulse
- For conducting that program with such a deft touch that every student regardless of prior training, skill, athletic ability, or natural talent finds themselves facing their limits without causing any permanent damage
- For structuring the program in a manner that keeps potential risks to an absolute miniumum while ensuring that people absolutely will feel pain and panic
- For promoting an environment where people are helping one another to succeed even as they are trying with all their might to violently impose their will on an opponent
- For eschewing the practice of giving the people what they want in favor of insisting on providing people with what he thinks they need
- For asking intelligent questions and trying to experimentally validate the answers rather than trying to beat people into submission with stone tablets
I've watched lots of instructors teach (or try to, in some unfortunate instances) lots of different things, but rarely do you find someone who is as effective in the goal as Craig, AKA "SouthNarc". I tend to be a student of the art of teaching, and as a result I often spot subtleties that others may miss about how a particular course or drill is structured and how it leads to the desired end state. With ECQC I could go on for hours peeling the layers of the course's presentation like an onion. From safety to stress inoculation, participating in ECQC is participating in a master class of how to imprint important information to students. This clearly wasn't his first rodeo.
At dinner after day 1.5, a student noted that one of the things he liked about Craig was that Craig took the time to explain the "why" behind what he was teaching. I told the student that the primary reason for that was Craig actually understands the "why" with more depth than most. This ain't stuff he got from a powerpoint. It's stuff that's been forged with blood and sweat over a long period with lots of data, lots of experimentation, and lots of frustration. One can disagree with some of the conclusions or some of the applications if they want, but the bottom line is that the end result holds up...and if you've got a better idea all you need to do is put on the FIST helmet, hop in ThunderDome and prove it.
Craig is a realist and has limits. He acknowledges them...but the zone where he's teaching is definitely the road less traveled and as far as I can tell nobody has a better map or is better able to guide people around it.