V.I.P.A Tactical Training

How often do you train on improvising your skills, never, sometimes or all of the time?

One size doesn't fit all, your body type, mental disposition, technical capability, knowledge and the tactical situation on the ground will dictate how you employ what you have learned.The tactical situation on the ground has the capicity to change at an alarming rate and your ability to respond and if need be improvise, has to be equal to these changes if not faster. Being able to read the on-going situation in combat is a skill that needs to be learned.

We cannot train for every eventuality as there are just so many variables that we may need to deal with, there are though some areas that we can cover that will help us sharpen our responses allowing us time to improvise. One way is to bastardize what we know, once we have perfected our techniques we need to bastardize them, this in reality is un-perfecting them. When we improvise we are not talking about using an incorrect technique, rather we are using the correct technique in a totally different way it was meant to be used.

Lets take drawing a pistol from a holster as an example:
The body mechanics for drawing the pistol from a hip holster begins the same but from the weapon clearing the holster the body mechanics change totally for both firing positions.
 

What tactical situations would require you to go from the above position to choosing either the normal barrel up firing position to improvising into the barrel horizontal gangsta style firing position?

Here we are talking about the tactical situation and not really concerned with sight alignment as such. Practicing in slow time in staged tactical situations is a great way to obtain the tactical mind-set required for improvisation so we are not leaving everything to guess work or chance.

Stay Dangerous

Rock

Do you have an overall combat philosophy and if you do is yours fixed or adaptable?

Your combat philosophy, will dictate your strategies which in turn will dictate your tactics which in turn will dictate your techniques must be adaptable, our lives are in constant motion and any form of combat is always in a fluid state, constantly changing, if you cannot adapt to these changes either instantly while in combat or beforehand when you have time to plan for future events however near or far down your timeline they may be then you may end up having a very bad day.

As I have said in the past everything we do, everything we wear, everything we use kit wise has to be combat effective. We deployed for the 1991 Gulf War one Monday morning, the Friday befor with no idea we were being deployed we embarked on a week long exercise, off the wagons and into waist deep snow, everyone packed and ready for the cold wet winter environment, one day into the exercise we were recalled told to go home, see our families, get back kit re-packed ready to move out to the Gulf. Straight off  the plane, briefed, orientated and onto ops, combat effectiveness still needed to be maintained within these environments without compromising the integrity of the units combat philosophy regardless of how we were feeling.

Belize Central America.14 hour flight on a Tri-Star kitted up. We landed, personal kit went into a trailer, we went straight into the jungle, it put down two months worth of rain in one day, torrents of water running past us up to our thighs, lost two stone in weight and have never sweated or stunk so much in my life. You still have to deal with your combat effectiveness, there should be no compromises in any situation, it's your life we are talking about.

My job today is as an executive protection operator. Two years ago near the end of my off rotation it was -25 degrees at night and -15 at mid-day, there I am lying in a trench at home well into the minuses fixing a frozen burst water pipe. That week I looked the michelin man,wearing so many clothes and heavy jackets and still finding it difficult to get warm and move around, never mind
having to be mentally and physically ready to be effective if I found myself in a combat situation. Two days later I am back at work, it is now 40 degrees and I am in Rio, Brazil with journeys into the countryside and a possible trip up the Amazon to contemplate. Once again off the plane and straight onto ops after a 14 hour flight, not only needing to be combat effective if required but more
importantly being switched on and aware of my surroundings while dealing with fatigue and a total weather shock to the body.

It does not matter what your actuality is, your combat philosophy has to fit what you do but also has to be able to adapt to any situation you may find yourself in. Environments change, enemies change, threats change, you change, so don't be too fixed in your ways. As a famous man once said 'Be like water'

Stay Dangerous

Rock