Snarlbuckle
07-26-2010, 03:14 PM
Tactics
Main Entry: tacˇtics
Pronunciation: \ˈtak-tiks\
Function: noun plural but singular or plural in construction
Etymology: New Latin tactica, plural, from Greek taktika, from neuter plural of taktikos of order, of tactics, fit for arranging, from tassein to arrange, place in battle formation
Date: 1626
1 a : the science and art of disposing and maneuvering forces in combat b : the art or skill of employing available means to accomplish an end
2 : a system or mode of procedure
3 : the study of the grammatical relations within a language including morphology and syntax
This post is for those of you who want to learn more about how to train yourself and build skills that may help you deal with shooting situations in the unfortunate event that they occur in your presence. It is a long post, so bear with me.
I'll start off by stating that I am not some special ops badass, I'm not a pro target shooter, and honestly I usually don't care about 'tactical' anything most of the time. But at one point I was all but a celebrity at my local paintball field. I had earned it by using good fieldcraft, training, and practice. I call that software. Later on, I joined a college paintball team and performed quite well until I ran out of funds to continue. On multiple occasions, U.S. Marines were impressed with my performance and urged me to join up "We could use someone like you" they said. I've been hit enough times with paintballs to know better than to get shot at with real bullets.
Here is a story that illustrates most of what I will cover in this article. If you follow the steps I outline later, you'll be able to do the same thing on the paintball field and you will be much better equipped to handle threats in real life than you would otherwise.
It was the middle of a game of paintball. I was equipped with my usual pump gun and 12 rounds of ammo, while everyone else had a semi-auto painting machine with 200+ rounds in the hopper and another few hundred on their body as well as a massive and heavy CO2 tank on their guns. At the start of the match I had run fast and low halfway down the field, directly to cover on the left sideline. I had used cover as much as I could to minimize my exposure to the other team's field of fire. I slid in behind the big inflatable barrier that was my cover and I crouched down as low as I could go, making myself a small target and hiding on the front line as much as I could. I knew that a few other players would come to my cover, so I wanted to have the jump on them. I kept my marker aimed at the edge of the cover, and as soon as someone popped his head around to look, *pop* he got one to the mask and he was out. Not a minute later, the same thing happened again.
I quickly, quietly, moved up a bit to the next inflatable cover, trying to get behind the front line. Not surprsiginly, an opponent liked that spot too and I heard him *tromp tromp tromp* moving to the same cover I was at, but on the opposite side. I gave the cover a good shove, which according to field rules indicated that he was out without having to shoot him at point blank range. Knowing that he was out, I got up a bit and blitzed down the sideline toward the back of the field. The player I had just eliminated started unloading at me. So, I threw a zig in my path, pointed my marker at him with one hand while running, and *pop* hit him in the throat. Ouch. He took a knee and kept firing, knowing that he was out. I threw a zag in my path, chambered another round, pointed the marker again at him one handed while running, and *pop* got him in the other knee. I kept on running, and he finally got me once in the calf. I threw my hands up and shouted "out" like I'm supposed to. I was at the very back of enemy territory, so I walked out of the field using the same exit he did. I just looked at him, wondering what he had to say for himself, knowing that I had eliminated him three times before he had even hit me once. His words went something like "Man, you got me in the throat and the knee! That hurt!" Then he saw that I was using a pump and that had been horribly beaten despite having a huge firepower advantage. He threw a huge fit, to which I simply smiled. Software trumps hardware every time. In this post, I'll go over some things you can practice to learn some of the skills demonstrated in the story.
Here's the disclaimer: Paintball is a very safe sport, and it is intended for fun. Its purpose isn't to simulate war, instead it is more like a game of tag using 'markers' which resemble small arms. Statistically, it is safer than running as long as you keep your mask on at all times.
"What about airsoft?" I've never played airsoft, so I can't comment on it here.
Start out by going on a paintball outing with no experience. Bring your son, some friends, or some co-workers and have a fun day. You'll get shot a lot, and you'll see that your skills aren't exactly perfect. That's normal. It gives you something to improve on. Go to amazon and buy yourself a copy of "Gun-fu: The Martial Art of Paintball" by Terry Adams.
The book goes over a lot of basic ways to program yourself and build some software of your own, and gives you some examples of software you can put into use right away.
Mind programming tip #1 - Dry fire at home
On multiple occasions, I was able to fire off a single shot one handed to my rear while running to cover under heavy fire and still hit my target while not being hit myself. People thought I had come out of the matrix or something. What's the trick? Natural Point of Aim. You can practice this at home very easily, but don't ever forget to unload your firearm don't ever point it at anything you don't want to destroy. Don't forget to confirm your backstop either. To practice, first unload and safety check your firearm twice. Make sure you are in a safe area of the house like a basement or garage, and practice pointing the firearm at any safe target in the room that you see. Do not aim, point. Once you are pointing at your target, check to see that your grip is ideal and look down your sights to see what you are actually aimed at. Do this every other day for a few months in your spare time and your natural point of aim will be very close to where your gun is actually aimed. Ideally if you ever have to use your gun you will want to be looking down the sights, but that isn't always possible, so you need to have your natural point of aim down pat. You should literally be able to do this in your sleep. Do you really think you can get into a proper weaver stance in bed at 2:00 am?
Mind programming #2 Dodging paintballs
The next step is to learn how not to get shot. The best way to learn this is to get shot at. Make another appointment to go out to the paintball field. This time, whether or not you own a paintball gun, use a rental. Preferably a pump. In fact, the best thing you can do if they allow it is to not have any equipment besides your mask. Practice running as fast as you can between cover, and staying low while you do it. Someone will be shooting at you, so imagine his field of view and try to stay in the spots he can't see. When running for cover, this often means not running directly for the cover, but for your shooter's blind spots. The faster and lower you run, the harder it is for them to hit you. Bust out running as fast and low as you can, and you'll be near impossible to hit. If you want to go a little further, get some durable pants and practice sliding in behind cover. Imagine it like you're playing baseball and you want to slide into a base, except that you need to land behind your cover ready to pop up and use whatever weapon system you have with you.
Mind programming #3 Become a ghost
Try to sneak up on your opponents and give them a tap on the back with your hand to show them that they are out. Try different ways of walking to find the most silent and quickest method. Done properly, you will be a ghost on the field. They won't be able to hit you when you are moving, and you'll appear out of nowhere. At home or at the grocery store, you can practice walking silently to try and sneak up on your wife or other family members. I can't tell you how often people gasp and say "oh, you scared me" simply because I walk quietly and they don't expect me to be wherever I am. Imagine how much more surprised a home intruder would be when you silently show up out of nowhere with a 12 gauge.
Mind programming #4 Visualize success
If you visualize yourself executing the proper moves with perfect form and completing a task perfectly, your mind learns a little bit from it. Do that over and over for various tasks, and your body starts to follow suit. Of course, you still have to physically practice, but this simple act of visualization can make your practice much more useful. Visualize yourself succeeding often, and your body will work to make it a reality.
Mind programming #5 Learn to hide
Being hidden has a long list of advantages. Find yourself a full length mirror, and place it at the far end of a hallway. Alternatively, you can turn off the lights in a hallway and put a giant source of light at the far end. Find something to use as simulated cover and place it at the opposite end of the hallway. Practice hiding behind it. If you are using the light method, how much of your body is being hit by light coming directly from the source at the other end? If you are using the mirror, peek out a bit and look for bits of your body that aren't behind cover. Move around a bit to ensure that your whole body is behind cover. Once you think you have that down pat, try popping out quickly with your weapon system of choice and point at the mirror or light at the end of the hallway (again, make sure it is unloaded and safety check it twice). How quickly can you get out of your cover, point at your target, and get back in? when you get back in, are you still completely behind cover or are there parts exposed? Practice this at different locations in your house, especially around corners. You should be able to pop out and be on target before your potential target realizes you are there. Do it SAFELY! Preferably when nobody is home! Safety check your weapon system AGAIN! Keep your finger off the trigger! Confirm your backstop at every corner!
Don't stop with just this, continue training with qualified instructors wherever you can find them. This is just a collection of techniques I've used effectively in situations that very loosely resemble small arms combat. If you go through all of these steps, you won't just be wandering in the dark if and when the time comes that you actually have a need to use one of your firearms. You may just learn something useful, and it may just save your life.
If any of you have criticisms or other tips to share, please make a post. We can all learn from collaboration.
Main Entry: tacˇtics
Pronunciation: \ˈtak-tiks\
Function: noun plural but singular or plural in construction
Etymology: New Latin tactica, plural, from Greek taktika, from neuter plural of taktikos of order, of tactics, fit for arranging, from tassein to arrange, place in battle formation
Date: 1626
1 a : the science and art of disposing and maneuvering forces in combat b : the art or skill of employing available means to accomplish an end
2 : a system or mode of procedure
3 : the study of the grammatical relations within a language including morphology and syntax
This post is for those of you who want to learn more about how to train yourself and build skills that may help you deal with shooting situations in the unfortunate event that they occur in your presence. It is a long post, so bear with me.
I'll start off by stating that I am not some special ops badass, I'm not a pro target shooter, and honestly I usually don't care about 'tactical' anything most of the time. But at one point I was all but a celebrity at my local paintball field. I had earned it by using good fieldcraft, training, and practice. I call that software. Later on, I joined a college paintball team and performed quite well until I ran out of funds to continue. On multiple occasions, U.S. Marines were impressed with my performance and urged me to join up "We could use someone like you" they said. I've been hit enough times with paintballs to know better than to get shot at with real bullets.
Here is a story that illustrates most of what I will cover in this article. If you follow the steps I outline later, you'll be able to do the same thing on the paintball field and you will be much better equipped to handle threats in real life than you would otherwise.
It was the middle of a game of paintball. I was equipped with my usual pump gun and 12 rounds of ammo, while everyone else had a semi-auto painting machine with 200+ rounds in the hopper and another few hundred on their body as well as a massive and heavy CO2 tank on their guns. At the start of the match I had run fast and low halfway down the field, directly to cover on the left sideline. I had used cover as much as I could to minimize my exposure to the other team's field of fire. I slid in behind the big inflatable barrier that was my cover and I crouched down as low as I could go, making myself a small target and hiding on the front line as much as I could. I knew that a few other players would come to my cover, so I wanted to have the jump on them. I kept my marker aimed at the edge of the cover, and as soon as someone popped his head around to look, *pop* he got one to the mask and he was out. Not a minute later, the same thing happened again.
I quickly, quietly, moved up a bit to the next inflatable cover, trying to get behind the front line. Not surprsiginly, an opponent liked that spot too and I heard him *tromp tromp tromp* moving to the same cover I was at, but on the opposite side. I gave the cover a good shove, which according to field rules indicated that he was out without having to shoot him at point blank range. Knowing that he was out, I got up a bit and blitzed down the sideline toward the back of the field. The player I had just eliminated started unloading at me. So, I threw a zig in my path, pointed my marker at him with one hand while running, and *pop* hit him in the throat. Ouch. He took a knee and kept firing, knowing that he was out. I threw a zag in my path, chambered another round, pointed the marker again at him one handed while running, and *pop* got him in the other knee. I kept on running, and he finally got me once in the calf. I threw my hands up and shouted "out" like I'm supposed to. I was at the very back of enemy territory, so I walked out of the field using the same exit he did. I just looked at him, wondering what he had to say for himself, knowing that I had eliminated him three times before he had even hit me once. His words went something like "Man, you got me in the throat and the knee! That hurt!" Then he saw that I was using a pump and that had been horribly beaten despite having a huge firepower advantage. He threw a huge fit, to which I simply smiled. Software trumps hardware every time. In this post, I'll go over some things you can practice to learn some of the skills demonstrated in the story.
Here's the disclaimer: Paintball is a very safe sport, and it is intended for fun. Its purpose isn't to simulate war, instead it is more like a game of tag using 'markers' which resemble small arms. Statistically, it is safer than running as long as you keep your mask on at all times.
"What about airsoft?" I've never played airsoft, so I can't comment on it here.
Start out by going on a paintball outing with no experience. Bring your son, some friends, or some co-workers and have a fun day. You'll get shot a lot, and you'll see that your skills aren't exactly perfect. That's normal. It gives you something to improve on. Go to amazon and buy yourself a copy of "Gun-fu: The Martial Art of Paintball" by Terry Adams.
The book goes over a lot of basic ways to program yourself and build some software of your own, and gives you some examples of software you can put into use right away.
Mind programming tip #1 - Dry fire at home
On multiple occasions, I was able to fire off a single shot one handed to my rear while running to cover under heavy fire and still hit my target while not being hit myself. People thought I had come out of the matrix or something. What's the trick? Natural Point of Aim. You can practice this at home very easily, but don't ever forget to unload your firearm don't ever point it at anything you don't want to destroy. Don't forget to confirm your backstop either. To practice, first unload and safety check your firearm twice. Make sure you are in a safe area of the house like a basement or garage, and practice pointing the firearm at any safe target in the room that you see. Do not aim, point. Once you are pointing at your target, check to see that your grip is ideal and look down your sights to see what you are actually aimed at. Do this every other day for a few months in your spare time and your natural point of aim will be very close to where your gun is actually aimed. Ideally if you ever have to use your gun you will want to be looking down the sights, but that isn't always possible, so you need to have your natural point of aim down pat. You should literally be able to do this in your sleep. Do you really think you can get into a proper weaver stance in bed at 2:00 am?
Mind programming #2 Dodging paintballs
The next step is to learn how not to get shot. The best way to learn this is to get shot at. Make another appointment to go out to the paintball field. This time, whether or not you own a paintball gun, use a rental. Preferably a pump. In fact, the best thing you can do if they allow it is to not have any equipment besides your mask. Practice running as fast as you can between cover, and staying low while you do it. Someone will be shooting at you, so imagine his field of view and try to stay in the spots he can't see. When running for cover, this often means not running directly for the cover, but for your shooter's blind spots. The faster and lower you run, the harder it is for them to hit you. Bust out running as fast and low as you can, and you'll be near impossible to hit. If you want to go a little further, get some durable pants and practice sliding in behind cover. Imagine it like you're playing baseball and you want to slide into a base, except that you need to land behind your cover ready to pop up and use whatever weapon system you have with you.
Mind programming #3 Become a ghost
Try to sneak up on your opponents and give them a tap on the back with your hand to show them that they are out. Try different ways of walking to find the most silent and quickest method. Done properly, you will be a ghost on the field. They won't be able to hit you when you are moving, and you'll appear out of nowhere. At home or at the grocery store, you can practice walking silently to try and sneak up on your wife or other family members. I can't tell you how often people gasp and say "oh, you scared me" simply because I walk quietly and they don't expect me to be wherever I am. Imagine how much more surprised a home intruder would be when you silently show up out of nowhere with a 12 gauge.
Mind programming #4 Visualize success
If you visualize yourself executing the proper moves with perfect form and completing a task perfectly, your mind learns a little bit from it. Do that over and over for various tasks, and your body starts to follow suit. Of course, you still have to physically practice, but this simple act of visualization can make your practice much more useful. Visualize yourself succeeding often, and your body will work to make it a reality.
Mind programming #5 Learn to hide
Being hidden has a long list of advantages. Find yourself a full length mirror, and place it at the far end of a hallway. Alternatively, you can turn off the lights in a hallway and put a giant source of light at the far end. Find something to use as simulated cover and place it at the opposite end of the hallway. Practice hiding behind it. If you are using the light method, how much of your body is being hit by light coming directly from the source at the other end? If you are using the mirror, peek out a bit and look for bits of your body that aren't behind cover. Move around a bit to ensure that your whole body is behind cover. Once you think you have that down pat, try popping out quickly with your weapon system of choice and point at the mirror or light at the end of the hallway (again, make sure it is unloaded and safety check it twice). How quickly can you get out of your cover, point at your target, and get back in? when you get back in, are you still completely behind cover or are there parts exposed? Practice this at different locations in your house, especially around corners. You should be able to pop out and be on target before your potential target realizes you are there. Do it SAFELY! Preferably when nobody is home! Safety check your weapon system AGAIN! Keep your finger off the trigger! Confirm your backstop at every corner!
Don't stop with just this, continue training with qualified instructors wherever you can find them. This is just a collection of techniques I've used effectively in situations that very loosely resemble small arms combat. If you go through all of these steps, you won't just be wandering in the dark if and when the time comes that you actually have a need to use one of your firearms. You may just learn something useful, and it may just save your life.
If any of you have criticisms or other tips to share, please make a post. We can all learn from collaboration.