till Valhalla ????

[revchuck38]

On scanning, Karl Rehn will have an assistant stand behind the firing line with large cards reading "head", "body", "left" and "right". After engaging the target in front of you, you scan, see which cards the assistant has randomly picked wherever he has chosen to move, and engage the target to your left/right in the head/body. It does a pretty good job of making you see instead of just moving your head.

[Chain]

Rob Pincus does something similar in that he wants you to notice something specific and unique each time. During the demo of what he's talking about, after one string of fire he'll have his hands on his hips, another time he'll have his arms crossed. And intermittently after that, he'll ask students to say what they saw: "Saw a fellow student in a green shirt and a ball cap" "Saw a bird fly from one branch to another" etc.

[BobM]

On scanning, Karl Rehn will have an assistant stand behind the firing line with large cards reading "head", "body", "left" and "right". After engaging the target in front of you, you scan, see which cards the assistant has randomly picked wherever he has chosen to move, and engage the target to your left/right in the head/body. It does a pretty good job of making you see instead of just moving your head.

I’ve done that in the past. I’ll probably work that into next years sessions.

[John Hearne]

On scanning, Karl Rehn will have an assistant stand behind the firing line with large cards reading "head", "body", "left" and "right". After engaging the target in front of you, you scan, see which cards the assistant has randomly picked wherever he has chosen to move, and engage the target to your left/right in the head/body. It does a pretty good job of making you see instead of just moving your head.

The only thing better and more fun is to make the threat indicators they are scanning for appear and disappear quickly. It will drive everyone crazy on the line when one or two people are shooting based on info they received but others did not. Getting people to make an independent decision to shoot or not is an underappreciated and taught aspect of self-defense.

[DacoRoman]

I don't think people are ridiculing an actual scan. People are largely, and for good reason, ridiculing the theatrics of just shaking your head side to side and thinking you've scanned. "The scan" can be trained if you actually see things at a conscious level while doing it. The range theatrics only provide a false sense of accomplishing something.

Would anyone argue that dry fire is bad? Would anyone argue that just sloppily going through the motions while distracted is actually "dry fire" in the context of practice? That's the difference under discussion between range theatrics and a conscious scan.

Well said and I totally agree. I guess even though this seems quite obvious, especially for members of this forum, repeating this basic information is always useful as a reminder to all. Perhaps it should be taught not as a “scan” per se but as a directive: avoid target fixation after servicing it or not, and regain situational awareness ASAP after hyper focusing on any individual or particular threats.

[Lester Polfus]

The only thing better and more fun is to make the threat indicators they are scanning for appear and disappear quickly. It will drive everyone crazy on the line when one or two people are shooting based on info they received but others did not. Getting people to make an independent decision to shoot or not is an underappreciated and taught aspect of self-defense.

My agency was really big on this. The only thing worse than having one officer dump a mag into a dude who was holding his wallet was having three or four officers do a mag dump, because all the other guys were shooting.

[BWT]

Sure, but I'd (again) ask that if (the generic) you want moderator attention for something that you actually contact a moderator by (properly) tagging one, or sending a PM, or more preferably using the report post button. Any of those things will work out a lot better than assuming that I will read every word of every post on the entire forum in a timely manner.

I understand and apologize - I almost reported it but I figured there was probably more credible things to report than my edit of a post and letting the 60 minute edit time frame lapse.

I'll handle it better in the future - thank you for your diligent work here.

[DacoRoman]

It's become fashionable to ridicule the scan, but I think there's value in it. Mainly to break tunnel vision.

I learned the full effects of tunnel vision during one particularly unpleasant situation. I could clearly see a guy in front of me attempting to punch me in the face while I tried to counter. I couldn't see his buddies, but I knew they were extremely close because I could feel their punches on my face. Trying to defend myself from three of them, while looking through the narrow tube of tunnel vision, was quite a challenge.

I'll add it wasn't my first rodeo, but it was the first time I'd noticed true tunnel vision.

I seldom scan at the range, but I incorporate it into my shadow boxing routine.

I still do the “scan” all the time even with dry fire but I do it in a deliberate fashion and think of it as regaining situational awareness with my head on a swivel, sort of like a fighter pilot would do or something like that. I used to do paintball years ago and got smoked a few times from blind spots esp. when I was target fixating. Keeping my head on a swivel definitely mitigated that. I logically suspect that this type of problem would be a lot worse in a real life or death situation such as a gun battle given how visual and auditory exclusion would exponentially compound the loss of situational awareness.

But regarding your speaking of fisticuffs and tunnel vision I totally get what you mean. It reminds me of the last real fight I was in, decades ago when I was in my early 20’s. I was attacked by a dude and I too experienced tunnel vision. Luckily he didn’t go for a takedown as my ground game was nil, instead he pushed me hard and quickly closed the distance fast to in-fighting range and tried to hit me. I knocked him out with a solid roundhouse after a few of his punches sort of deflected off my frontal lateral forehead along my hairline as I bobbed with my chin tucked in. I suspect he didn’t know what he was doing and didn’t know how to properly strike at that close of a range. But I didn’t even feel like I was getting hit at the time, they felt more like airy brushes along my head. I felt them later, with a bit of bruising. I also didn’t really see him, although I was looking at what would have been his sternal area. He was more like a mass or a blob whose presence I felt in front of me. I also got serious auditory exclusion, even though we were in front of a live band blaring loudly, it was sheer silence in my head and I was having crystal clear thoughts. I think the band’s name was “Spider Baby” . I definitely experienced tachpsychia as well.
But as you describe and suggest if his buddies would have attacked me I would have had no clue about it, until I would have been knocked out or taken down probably.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I scan for actual relevant information...by which I mean that any time I finish a string of fire I look around to make sure nobody around me is doing something dangerous, like walked around behind me waving a malfed up pistol around or wandered on to the range to set up targets or something.

There's enough practical information I feel like I should refresh after pulling back my focus from the target that I don't get why people do the exaggerated head shake stuff. Man, I just look around to see if I'm about to get accidentally shot or asked questions by someone who walked up behind me or something.

Or if I'm shooting in a group I look to see if everyone else shot better than me, or understood the drill better and put two rounds in the head instead of ten in the direction or whatever.

Sent from my BND-L24 using Tapatalk

[jetfire]

On scanning, Karl Rehn will have an assistant stand behind the firing line with large cards reading "head", "body", "left" and "right". After engaging the target in front of you, you scan, see which cards the assistant has randomly picked wherever he has chosen to move, and engage the target to your left/right in the head/body. It does a pretty good job of making you see instead of just moving your head.

I have never taught a class that you would describe as tactical, but even so I'll occasionally get people who "scan" after strings. I tell them that if they're scanning, they better be actually looking for something. At some point during the day's shooting, I'll stand behind them with a training knife in my hand and find out if they see me or not.

I have had one student see me.