V.I.P.A Tactical Training

For all those who have not yet purchased the book - Meditations of a Modern Warrior, here is one of the chapters to wet your appetite.

This chapter of the book is a bit like a questionnaire, lots of questions for you to answer and ponder.

We all train to defend ourselves, but how many of you train to defend or protect other members of your family? From parents protecting children, each other or as working as a team where one parent is protecting and one parent is escaping with the child or children, to the nanny or Au Pair protecting their employers children.

Third party defence is harder than it seems, not only do you need to be armed with the physical skills but what you also need are set drills.

Of course before we get to the latter stages, awareness and common sense must come into play.

Here are a few examples of everyday activities. I want you to answer the questions honestly either as A) Never B) Sometimes or C) Always

1. You are getting into your car or putting your child into the protective seat. Do you look around you as you are doing this?

A) Never B) Sometimes C) Always

2.While you are out with your children in the park, how often do you let them get more than 5 metres away from you?

A) Never B) Sometimes C) Always

3. While in a busy shopping area, how often do you let your children get more than 1 metre away from you?

A) Never B) Sometimes C) Always

4. How often when your child was / is in a pram did you move more than 3 metres away?

A) Never B) Sometimes C) Always

5. You take your child to school or your partner to work and pick them up later. How often do you let them walk from the car into school / work and back again without escorting them or watching them arrive safely?

On quiet days A) Never B) Sometimes C) Always
On busy days A) Never B) Sometimes C) Always

Do you know who is around you?

I am sure you can come up with more situations in your everyday life where your children or partner might be at risk.

For those of you who constantly train in the hard and soft skills I can hear you saying to yourself 'But there are too many variables to answer A, B, or C and in a sense you are correct, but only insofar that I have just put these thoughts in your head.
 
How many actually do what you say on a subconscious level and act on it every single time you leave home? By this I mean you do not need to be prompted (as above) to be switched on. If you do great, if you don't maybe you will now.

Now let us look at some basic awareness skills.

Do you check:
Outside, before you leave the building you are in when possible?
The immediate vicinity of your car?
The inside of your car before you get in?
The entranceway to your house on arrival?
Train platforms / bus stops before getting on or off?

Could you do any of the above and more while carrying children, bags, pushing prams, when your tired, when it's dark, raining, your arguing with your partner?

Could you keep calm enough to give your partner or older child instructions while defending them from a crazed attacker, would they even listen to you?

Could you get someone out of your car or stop them from getting in your car to hurt your family?

Have you ever done any physical scenario  training with family members, have you ever practiced defending your child or partner while having to use a pram?

What should your partner be doing while you are defending them? are the children old enough to run, when should they run and where?

What should you, your partner and your child do if one of them is grabbed?

What tactics should you use on buses, underground, in busy environments, in narrow allyways?

The list, like individual self - protection is endless and only your experiences and knowledge of violent attacks and how they happen can help you in your training to combat them.

The chances of anything happening to you or your family are very slim, but you can cut those slim chances down even further.

Stay Dangerous

Rock

Strange title you may think, but with regards to the civilian protecting themselves and the close protection operator (in whatever role), advancing to ambush is exactly what you are doing at any time you are mobile, on foot or in a vehicle.

We have two kinds of ambush that we are going to advance into:
1. The expected amush
2. The unexpected ambush

Close Protection Operator

The expected ambush
Another Strange term, how, you may ask can you expect an ambush? well the answer is really simple if you are aware. 
For the protection operator this can come in two forms.
Firstly they may be forewarned. This could be in the form of a written death threat and phone calls to the principal informing him he will be killed, we now know at some point there may be an attack on our principal. In the business and celebrity world these people have to conduct their work as usual without many interuption, we know they may be attacked, we have been told so but they still must go about their work to stay in their line of business. We now have a situation where we know we are going to be attacked, we expect an ambush, we need to be as ready as possible.

If and when it happens, because we expected it, are ready for it we can negate the freeze effect and not only advance but fight through (get offf the X).

The Unexpected Ambush
If we conduct our close protecton operations every day without being informed of a death threat, it doesn't mean there is't one. That is why we still protect the principal. Remember I said 'Just because nothing is going on, doesn't mean nothing is going on'. We must always expect an attack, choke points, vulnerable areas, em-bus and de-bus all present opportunities for attack.

For the PSD operator on convoy routes or escorting VIPs in high risk environments attacks can come daily without any warning, all unexpected ambushes, all must be expected. 

 Expect the ambush, expect the unexpected and respond correctly.

The Civilian

Do you know how approach corners, do you know how to read shadows? if not,

YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE AMBUSHED

In most cases for the civilian you are not going to be told you are going to be attacked, for those unaware who have been attacked it is like it came out of the blue, it didn't you were ambushed.

Anytime you are mobile you are vulnerable to being attacked and if you are not aware the ambush is easy, leaving or entering you house or car, walking down the street at any time of the day or night, just about anywhere you can think of then an ambush can happen.

So don't make it  easy for them, stay awake. The ambush is where the freeze sets in and it could be game over as it is hard to recover from this situation.

Learn not only the physical and mental applications of self - protection but learn the personal security side as well.

As those from a military background well know, if an ambush is set correctly then there should be no survivors. Give yourself a fighting chance by always expecting an ambush. Read the local papers, see how crimes were committed and learn from someones elses mistake.

ADVANCE TO AMBUSH

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?