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It's high noon,
the street is empty as two gunfighters step into the center lane and face off
just three paces between them. The sidewalks are lined with curious spectators
hiding behind anything that offers cover, hearts pounding, eyes watering, palms
sweating and mouths dry. One gunfighter wearing white and the other is dressed
in black. Which one has the fastest draw and the surest shot? Who is going to
win this contest of mortal combat? The one in white representing all things
good? Or the one dressed in black representing all things evil? Ah hell, this
one is easy, it's a no brainer……the guy in black is going to
win…..we all know if it's black, it's got to be tactical and tactical is
good…..right?
Last month we talked about
Action -vs- Reaction, how Fast is Fast. Now this month, we need a little
balance! Sorry folks, this is fighting emulating life, or is it life emulating
fighting? Well anyway the balance we need often comes in controversy, all rules
having exceptions, and nothing from the outside in, equals anything from the
inside out! It's the Ying and Yang. Equal and opposites. For every time there
is a need for you to be fast, there is a time you need to be slow….there's
only two tricks to this, first have the skills to be fast and slow, and then be
able to guess which one to be, when it's time!
So although our training is packed with rules
and exceptions to those rules, let's lay out some rules for understanding.
Understand that tactics or tactical is a way of doing something better. Often
times this may mean faster. Your perfect economy of motion draw, faster than
lighting, is a good example of being tactical. Why? Because it is more
efficient, faster, more accurate than other methods. Accomplishing the same
task, better and sooner, makes it a tactic. But a tactical skill does not
happen on it's own. Your lightening fast draw does not occur unless you decide
to do it. Every tactic should have a trigger. You have to have made a decision
when to use the tactic and which tactic is used. Having a trigger, something
that demands your decision to employ a tactic (skill) improves your decision
making process (time). Using "triggers" is making a plan. If he does this, I
will do that. Now your decision is made, but your action awaits the event that
triggers the action of your previous decision. This is a simple example of a
plan and usually combat is not simple, but a complex engagement of many plans
and many actions.
Your plans and actions
combine to form a strategy. Understand, a strategy is a plan how you will
conduct battle, conduct a business, live your life, or provide for your death.
Strategies come in multilayered complex forms or simple basic forms and all
degrees of forms in between. Strategies are opposite in nature to tactics
because they involve more time to develop, study, learn, acquire, test, and
adopt. Tactics very seldom involve options where strategies are riddled with
options, exceptions to the rules, multipurpose and multidirectional
alternatives and both anticipated and unforeseen complications.
Strategies come in all sizes from huge plans
for defense of our country used by the United States Air Force by the Strategic
Air Command, or the battle plan used by the Commander of Coalition Forces in
Iraq, to the business plan used by GM, Ford and Chrysler, to the plan used for
your little league this coming fall season. Huge strategies are made up of very
smaller strategy parts, right down to each and every individual. Like wise,
every combatant should have a plan of battle……a strategy. Whether
they fight as a team and follow a group strategy or as an individual all on
their own. Most successful warriors develop a strategy. If his strategy is
good, he has a better chance of growing old and becoming an instructor. If it's
poor, he has a better chance of falling at the sword of the warrior with the
better plan!
Although tactics normally are
fast in nature and strategies are normally time intensive, they blend together
to compliment and enhance each other. One feeds off the other. You might be the
fastest draw in the west, if you can't make a decision when to draw, being the
fastest, still may not be enough for you to prevail. On the other hand you may
be the fastest thinker in the world dedicated to details, but still drop dead
in the street because you didn't practice your economy of motion!
The success of your strategy will depend on
the tactics you have acquired. Your tactics may be of little use if your
strategy is week. More simply, strategy is the thinking part, tactics are the
doing part. Better warriors hone both parts and train them to work in unison.
I have a strategy about CQB, that's Close
Quarters Battle. You know arms distance. If my opponent is a big guy, and just
about everyone else in the world seems to be bigger than me, he will have the
advantage of size, weight and length. His leverage will be superior to mine.
Not much I can do about that, I stopped growing when I was 12 years old! But I
can try to force him into a tight arena where he can't effectively deploy his
leverage. So, I like to get even closer than arms length and then wiggle my way
around him. That's not a sure way of winning a fight, it's a strategy, a plan,
that I like because it has worked for me in the past. When I was young and
doing that bar hopping thing, there was always a fight to get into. When ever I
got into a fight with a long arm and gave him his distance like you see in the
movies, I ended up eating knuckles with "Lights Out" printed across them!
When I got in close really fast I seemed to
do a lot better. I was inside their leverage. I moved fast enough to avoid the
bear hug and worked from their sides, off the line of their attack. I refer to
it as elevator fighting or closet stroking.
Another strategy I use, when fired on, is to
return fire. That may not sound very fancy, but there are a lot of teachers out
there taking a different approach. They say, get behind cover, then fire back,
or fire while going to cover. I'm not saying they are wrong, it's what they
believe to be the best plan for them. I developed my "return fire" strategy
from ambushes, both those I got caught in, and those I caught the other guy in.
If you are caught in an ambush, the only way out is to shoot your way through
it. You can't go back, because the nature of an ambush is to get you cut off
and boxed in. You can't go to cover, because there is no cover! If it's a good
ambush you are caught in, the reality is your dead, you may as well go out in a
blaze of glory. If it's a poor ambush, your best chance is to shoot back and
move fast through it, out of the kill zone and create your own kill zone in the
process.
So, from my real life and death
experience, I take the attitude that what is good for me is even better for
them….they shoot at me I shoot at them, right now, multiple times and get
on the move. This often was followed by advancing, again from my training and
experience we didn't like the withdraw thing. That doesn't mean I would never
jump to cover first or always advance first. Remember what my grand pappy said,
"never say never". But, it is my strategy to shoot first and overwhelm unless
there are other situational awareness's that would dictate otherwise.
Another example of one of my strategies is to
have a back-up or spare, "two-is-one and one-is-none". The reality of equipment
failure should be planned for, and I like planning ahead, so my strategy is to
have on me a spare or have it close-by depending on the situation and specific
gear. It's not always practical to carry two or three of everything, but each
person develops their own faith in selected equipment based on their past
experiences. I'm fortunate enough to have a spare eye, a spare arm and hand,
and a spare leg and foot, why not carry a spare light, spare mag, spare
weapon?
Most fights aren't instantaneous,
rather they develop rapidly from no-threat to lethal threat, so I have a
strategy of awareness and talking……communicating. I think I have been
pretty successful in civilian life because through awareness I have avoided
many situations and others I have wiggled out of using communications.
Immediately "going-to-guns" isn't the answer to all fights. The reality
dictates it should be the last resort which leaves us with a lot of room for
avoidance and talking our way out of trouble. To back-up this strategy of
communications, I add to it, while talking, preparing for things to turn sour
and be ready for "going-to-guns" if I need it.
I have a strategy for dealing with society
after a lethal conflict if necessary…..that is the law and possible civil
suit…..but this is my secret strategy, you should develop a plan now if
you haven't already done so.
My strategy when
getting hurt or injured is to, if at all possible, keep on going. At least for
a little while. I once caught some rock shrapnel from a full-auto burst. Just
another asshole with an AK-47! I kept on going. It was immediately apparent I
could see even though my face hurt and later I wiped the blood off. Even later
I got around to checking out the damage. In the mean time I hunted the little
bastard down and took care of business. Once I sawed my thumb off. Your right
that wasn't vary smart! Actually it did smart a bit! I finished sawing my wood
and then checked out what was missing and got patched up. The point is when you
are in a adverse situation, your ability to continue the fight is more
important at the time than your weakness from the injury. If your in a fight
and you get your leg shot off, you don't have to stop and analyze the injury,
you will know instantaneously when you try to run to cover. The clue will be
that short stump not supporting your weight! Go to the ground while fighting
and role if you have to. If you live there will be time later to collect up
your body parts. If you do live it will most likely be because you continued
the fight. If you don't live, well…..we'll split your gear.
When I enter a room of people I am
immediately sizing them all up. It's my strategy to surround myself with
strength, so I try to recognize those I think will stand, those that will run,
and those I may have to fight. In other words, the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good guys are those that seem they may have the will to defend. The bad are
those that may be the ones starting the trouble. The ugly are the point men.
That's infantry talk for "expendable". On patrol, the point man used to get
killed first quite often, so you didn't want your brightest fighter in a
position of extermination. No, instead you put the duffess on point! At any
random gathering you usually have a few "the good", even fewer or no "the bad",
and a bunch of "the ugly". "the ugly" also makes pretty good cover if you can
get a couple of them lined up between you and the shooter!
One of your strategies may be as simple as
the Boy Scouts motto, "Always Prepared". Or, it may be as complex as the Bill
of Rights. As you start to develop your personal combatant strategies, you will
probably find it convenient and expedient to steal some strategies from others
to get you started. That's permissible as long as you understand when you
steal, there are no warranties or liability implied. You have to continually
develop your own plans. Usually it involves hard work. It involves a lot of
thinking. You have to develop a plan, a set of strategies in preparation for
something you hope doesn't happen and something you hope never tests you. It's
my recommendation that you seldom accept anything for face value, not from me,
not from anyone, not even from yourself.
Do
your research and think things out. Listen and learn. Never grab onto a
strategy that sounds cool, put it away for a rainy day and never review it.
Constantly question, modify, improve and above all remain flexible. Understand
there is no one strategy or one tactic that addresses all situations or even
the same situation the second time around. So prepare with various strategies
to address various situations keeping in mind the most effective strategies are
usually the simplest. The KISS theory comes to mind…..Keep It Simple,
Stupid……
It's interesting, although
disconcerting, to watch and read about some of the super master tacticians of
the modern art of battle. They have fine tuned their art of fighting to a razor
sharp edge of perfection of movement and logic. They are by all definitions
athletes that perform with exact precision from many repetitions of
chorographic rehearsals. They are serious in their study and quest for
perfection and expect all students to follow in their quest. They have the
counter move to every opponents attack. Their speed and fluid actions are
envied by even the most advanced robots. They can out shoot, out disarm, out
maneuver and out win over any adversity they demonstrate. And, they are easy to
identify.
They live the life of perfecting
their art. It consumes their every existence. They expend the majority of their
day working on the moves, the timing, the detail of their tactics until they
reach pure perfection and are not shy in explaining how their method is far
superior to anyone else's. Their system of defense can be demonstrated
repeatedly, on command, at the range or in the dojo. They insist their answer
is better than other answers, that their answer is the only real answer. I
commend and even admire their dedication and commitment. However, I live in the
real world, no at the range or in the dojo.
Years back I found myself almost falling into
their trap. I must admit I found it envious watching some of these
perfectionist perform their art and attempting to make each of their students
fit the same mold. There were no exceptions to their rules and everyone could
do it, because if they didn't they wouldn't survive a fight! Some of these guys
I have watched are so fast and precise in their reactions they left out the
"thinking" part of their combat. Because perhaps they had been in one or two
fights, or had heard about others in fights, they super developed a solution
for the one problem they faced and proceeded to suggest it would solve all
dilemmas! In their quest to perfect one small solution, they forgot the fluid
nature of battle, the unpredictable and often illogical actions of our
opponents. On the range or in the dojo, these super perfected tactics work with
amazingly accurate results. But on the street, on the field of battle, many of
warrior has fallen because they rushed to victory! Not because their tactics
were bad, but often because their strategy was poor or nonexistent. They were
masters of doing, but poor at thinking what to do and when to do it.
I once watched a kid flank an opponent which
was embedded in a spider hole. The kid moved with amazing agility through the
brush and over rocks and overwhelmed his opponent in a lightening fast charge.
He then caught one in the back of the head to fall dead on top of his opponent.
I was alarmed and dismayed when he started his charge because I wanted him to
wait for his partner, his six. He didn't wait and he didn't think. The opponent
in the spider hole had a six in another spider hole about 30 yards to his rear
who had laid silent. Well, the opponents six was not very good at protecting
him but he was very good at revenge and we lost another good warrior. He rushed
into a situation using his speed of movement, agility to maneuver around
obstacles while utilizing the little cover he had and turned the attack back on
his opponent. It worked! But the trade off was a wash…..one bad guy dead,
one good guy dead. This kid had a Tactical Meltdown….If he would have
waited for his partner, the results may have been different.
There is a time to rush in, a time to rush
out, and a time to hold. Tactics don't make our decisions, thinking makes our
decisions. How well we think goes a long way toward our victory. Strategies
will go a long way toward improving our speed of decisions and our accuracy of
decisions.
Some of the tactical masters I
have seen, have gone on to mature their art with a mix of flexible logic,
experience and wisdom. They have my utmost respect and admiration. For whatever
reason, they learned one tactic or one strategy does not win in all situations.
That planning and developing for the unexpected will broaden their ability to
successfully address adversity.
There was an
instructor in the valley a few years ago who wrote and published a book on the
AR-15. It was a "how-to" handle and use this little carbine. It was a good book
with illustrations and descriptive text. It isn't the only book available
covering the fundamentals of using the AR-15, but it had a very interesting
title, "Some of the Answers, Urban Carbine". Most of the stuff in his book
comes right out of the Gun Site training doctrine, where the author received
most of his training, and provides good information on basics and fundamentals.
Impressive to me is how the book starts, right on the front cover, as part of
the title, "Some of the Answers". What a great title because it set the tone of
expectation and reality from the very start. In contrast, how many books do you
have or have read where either on the front page, in the introduction, or in
the review you read words like these, "everything you need to know", "the
complete book of", "survive a fight using", "the author is an expert"?
When we start our fight training, we need to
concentrate and perfect our fundamental skills. There is no question about
that, else we short change our progress. We need to listen and learn from
others until we master those basics, and often return to review them. As we
progress we need to start putting those skills in our bag of tactical tricks
and start thinking, planning and strategizing how we will use them. In our rush
to perfect our "doing" skills, we must not forget to train our thinking skills.
Just like we started our skills in slow motion until we mastered the mechanical
elements, we must slow our thinking until we master the logic. Just as in our
training curve of the mechanical tactics, we continually add speed as we
progress our ability, so we progressively increase our speed of thinking.
Great thinkers have a few common attributes.
They seldom accept anything at face value. They question almost everything.
They research the subject matter. They rehearse alternatives. They are their
worse critic. Great thinkers are usually inquisitive in nature. They always
want to know more, always open to a different angle or thought. But great
thinkers don't always make great warriors. Now, here is the controversy, the
contradiction……It's not likely you can over think during planning and
developing your strategies, but I positively believe you can over think
decisions during battle. So, we are right back to that "balance" thing.
One of the attributes of a great warrior is
"decisiveness". The ability to make a decision, and quickly. In battle we
seldom have the luxury of unlimited time. We usually do not have all day to
make a decision, often we don't even have all of a minute. Often in battle it
will prove more important that we make a "decision" now, realizing our decision
may not be perfect, but will probably be better than leaving our destiny to the
hands of our enemy! You have heard me say this hundreds of times, "trust your
training". It's a short for trust your knowledge, your ability, your skills,
your strategies and go with it.
So how fast
is fast when thinking? Well, only you know that, for you. We all think at
different speeds at different times. When I was training as a pilot, my
instructors used to constantly harp about staying ahead of the airplane. Flying
is one small part physical skills and one large part thinking ability. When you
start private pilot training, they strap you in a puddle jumper, a trainer type
aircraft, what they refer to as low performance and forgiving of mistakes.
These airplanes are easy to climb, easy to descend, difficult to stall and
basically easy to fly. As you progress in your flight training, many pilots
step up to higher performance type aircraft that are much faster at climbing,
descending, stalling and if you are behind the curve, much faster at crashing.
If a pilot progresses to a higher performance aircraft than his ability has
increased, he's in big trouble, and he knows it. But if he makes slow increases
allowing his skills and abilities to progress with the small steps in increased
performance of the aircraft, he safely achieves the ability to improve his
pilot-in-command capabilities. Similar is that of warrior training. You will
know when the world is spinning faster than you can keep up. In training we
should constantly push the curve, but don't shove the curve. You know that old
saying your dad used so often when you were a teenager that by the time you
were 18 you were sick of, "you got to walk, before you can run". It's amazing
how smart our dad's turned out to be.
Balance
your training…..give your skills time to develop…..devote effort and
energy to both mind and body to balance your abilities. Question anything
labeled "have to", or "must have" and hold no man as an icon of perfection. And
don't forget your heart for it is the core of valor……follow your
instincts and constantly push your capabilities to greater heights of
accomplishment……
Now I know you are
all dieing to know how the gunfight turned out…..well your probably going
to be disappointed. The good guy in white, although only 18 years old, was a
master of strategy. Before this showdown he had read everything he could find
on the tactical guy in black. He had also talked with everyone he could find
who knew the guy in black. He learned so much about the guy dressed in black,
he knew more about him than the tactical guy knew about himself. The guy in
white was studying his enemy. And through this study he realized there was a
big problem. The guy in white discovered that the guy in black was a 38 year
old veteran of many gunfights and Indian wars. He realized the guy in black was
at least as fast and sure of a shot as he was, and maybe even faster and surer.
There was no way he could beat the guy in black at a hands down, high noon
street shoot off! There was only one thing he could do, develop a strategy to
give him an edge, an advantage, and in doing so the guy in white developed a
plan!
At the strike of high noon, the guy in
white declared he was unarmed! Now every one knows the code of the west is not
to gun down an unarmed man (we know that from the Hollywood movies!), so the
tactical guy in black had to hold his fire. But, the guy in white also had his
honor to defend, so they both agreed to meet, in this same street, at the same
time on the same day, twenty years from now, both with guns, no excuses!
So, the guy in white didn't win the battle
today, but he also didn't lose either. He issued a promissory note which
carried with it a multitude of advantages giving him the edge over the guy in
black. In twenty years, there are odds that the guy in black will have a heart
attack, develop cancer or get hit by a Mack truck, in which case he forfeits
the fight and the guy in white wins by default. Of course the guy in white
could get killed in the mean time, but then he isn't going to care much about
missing the impending fight, now is he! There's a good chance, the way this
country is building, the street will not even be there in twenty years! And
above all, in twenty years, the tactical guy in black will be 58 years old with
deteriorated joints, weak muscles and failing eye sight. In twenty years, the
guy in white will be 38 with years of gunfight experience and in his fighting
prime! So you say you still want to know how this fable ends? Tune in 20 years
from today and we will all find out!....... |