It's true that defensive tactics and firearms were taught separately for many years. They started to come together a bit when an emphasis on weapon retention techniques was taught, and have developed into a much tighter integration since then.Skiprr wrote:I'm coming in late, but I believe that it's also worth mentioning that these same operatives have, for at least three decades, also trained in systems that directly integrate firearms handling, blade use, and empty-hand combatives techniques. That's partly the spec-ops-type nature of their roles. That's something that's ocurring more now in this country among LEOs and civilians, and I think's it's partly because of so many trained military operators returning to take civilian and police jobs over the course of the past decade. Prior to the early-90s or so, I believe it was fairly rare for a police department to fully integrate small arms and martial arts; they typically treated them as two separate things. Excaliber will certainly know better than I.Excaliber wrote:The folks I referred to used their empty chamber technique at all distances, from contact on out. They insist it's essential to prevent ND's.
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It should be kept in mind that most of the pistol engagements for these military folks are offensive - as in eliminating an assigned target . However, their doctrine does not vary whether the application is offensive or defensive.
But the short of it is that, at close distances and all else being equal, I'd rather face someone trained with a pistol but not hand-to-hand combatives, than someone who is trained integrating both skills...even if I may disagree with the efficiency of certain aspects of the training. Another aside is that Excaliber mentioned the racking of the slide with the pistol held parallel to the ground; also worth observing is that this takes place with both hands meeting close to the center of the chest, not with the offhand reaching over to the gun-side. So there is ECQ application planned into the application.
Back to our regularly scheduled program.
Skiprr is correct that the technique I referred to earlier employs a slide rack close to and centered in front of the chest, which takes much less movement and is significantly faster than one which requires reaching over the slide. It's also done as a gross motor movement with a "cup" of the hand rather than with a thumb-and-forefinger "slingshot" technique.
