Down and dirty - Tactical advantage: tips and training on tactics, guns and equipments

Once you have developed a training regiment that reflects the needed skills you feel are important, it's time to define any other specialty areas that may be important to your self-defense while using a handgun. Many people spend extra range time developing weak-hand firing skills. While I agree this is useful, the facts are that under life and death stress, few people actually use their weak or non-dominant hand to fire their handgun. Yes is does happen, but not nearly as often as most people assume. So, train with both your weak and strong hand, but don't waste a great deal of amino doing it, unless your ammo is free. Learn the mechanics of one-hand shooting, and do a few drills when range time permits.

One area that is often not addressed properly is the basic skills of "ground fighting" with your sidearm. Simply put, what do you do when you have been knocked to the ground, or take a topple when you trip over an obstacle? Can you access your sidearm and put it into action from the ground? You should try drawing your sidearm while on your back or stomach.

You can practice these skills at home on the floor with an empty weapon. Make sure regardless of how you land on the deck, you can move to access your handgun and present it to the threat. I recommend you practice this at home before going to the range for live-fire. A key issue is if you are struck or shoved to the ground, that you land in such a manner that you can still fight. If your head hits the pavement, you may be "knocked unconscious or be temporarily dazed. If knocked back--or you find yourself falling backwards--be sure and tuck your chin to your chest to minimize the chance your cranium will get its bell rung.

When falling forward, try to roll your torso to land on your arm and shoulder. Trying to stiff-arm your impact will often lead to a broken wrist or arm. Most folks do this reflexively with their strong hand, and as you may have noted, it's pretty difficult to run a handgun well with a fracture of the wrist, hand, or arm. Note that while the middle-of-the-back holsters look real cool, imagine what happens if you were to fall back onto your back--with your handgun placed on your spine. Spinal injuries are bad enough without putting your sidearm in such a critical area. If you don't like a normal, strong side hip carry, then try something like a shoulder rig, ankle or pocket holster.

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group