cmshoot
Senior Member
I taught a course recently called Stress ThReat Engagement Skill Shooting (STRESS). Wanted to share some observations myself and the other Instructors made during the course.
Before we got into the meat and potatoes of the course, we did some simple warmups.....regular ol' flat range drills. Shooting from the ready positions, reloads, transitions, malfunction clearances. This not only warmed up the shooters, but it gave the Instructors a chance to fix any gross problems and get a feel for what the individual shooters' skill levels were. With that as a base, we were better able to assess how differently they performed when put under stress.
A lot of this will sound like common sense, and I'm not trying to harp on any of the shooters that attended the course. I'm throwing these out as learning points for everyone's betterment.
1. If your weapon system doesn't work reliably on the flat range, you're going to have major issues when those same issues crop up under stress.
2. If you haven't trained, trained, and trained with your gear setup, then when stress kicks in you will have problems. Issues like can't find your reload magazine, or when you do, you draw it backwards or upside down. Magazine pouches that are so secure, or so buried, or have so much Velcro, that when you need it you can't get it out. I'm talking 10 seconds or more to draw the magazine after it has been located. Trouble with the retention device(s) on your holster, both when drawing the handgun and when reholstering.
3. If you're going to shoot and operate with gloves on, then you need to practice with gloves on. You lose dexterity with gloves, and you lose some more of that dexterity under stress. Add them together and you can get pretty......fumbly......if you haven't trained regularly while wearing gloves. I'm not saying not to wear gloves....I'm saying to train with gloves on if you plan to operate with gloves on.
4. After lunch, folks started stripping off extraneous gear and removing accessories from their weapons. We had a saying in the Corps: "Ounces equal pounds, pounds equal pain."
5. Under stress, shooters had issues finding threat targets when they blended into the background. Don't count on bad guys to wear contrasting colors and obligingly stand in the open.
6. We all have a weapon system we prefer; AR, AK, FN, Tavor, what have you. That's all well and good, but don't neglect the other systems. You don't know when the brown matter will hit the spinning blades.......you may end up using a "weapon of opportunity". You're an M4 fan and you don't like AK's? That's fine, but you need to borrow one and sign up for an AK Operator course. Vice versa for you AK users. Bolt actions, all types of shotguns, lever actions, you name it. You need to be able to use ANYTHING in a pinch.
7. Cardiovascular endurance is a great thing
Semper Fi!
Before we got into the meat and potatoes of the course, we did some simple warmups.....regular ol' flat range drills. Shooting from the ready positions, reloads, transitions, malfunction clearances. This not only warmed up the shooters, but it gave the Instructors a chance to fix any gross problems and get a feel for what the individual shooters' skill levels were. With that as a base, we were better able to assess how differently they performed when put under stress.
A lot of this will sound like common sense, and I'm not trying to harp on any of the shooters that attended the course. I'm throwing these out as learning points for everyone's betterment.
1. If your weapon system doesn't work reliably on the flat range, you're going to have major issues when those same issues crop up under stress.
2. If you haven't trained, trained, and trained with your gear setup, then when stress kicks in you will have problems. Issues like can't find your reload magazine, or when you do, you draw it backwards or upside down. Magazine pouches that are so secure, or so buried, or have so much Velcro, that when you need it you can't get it out. I'm talking 10 seconds or more to draw the magazine after it has been located. Trouble with the retention device(s) on your holster, both when drawing the handgun and when reholstering.
3. If you're going to shoot and operate with gloves on, then you need to practice with gloves on. You lose dexterity with gloves, and you lose some more of that dexterity under stress. Add them together and you can get pretty......fumbly......if you haven't trained regularly while wearing gloves. I'm not saying not to wear gloves....I'm saying to train with gloves on if you plan to operate with gloves on.
4. After lunch, folks started stripping off extraneous gear and removing accessories from their weapons. We had a saying in the Corps: "Ounces equal pounds, pounds equal pain."
5. Under stress, shooters had issues finding threat targets when they blended into the background. Don't count on bad guys to wear contrasting colors and obligingly stand in the open.
6. We all have a weapon system we prefer; AR, AK, FN, Tavor, what have you. That's all well and good, but don't neglect the other systems. You don't know when the brown matter will hit the spinning blades.......you may end up using a "weapon of opportunity". You're an M4 fan and you don't like AK's? That's fine, but you need to borrow one and sign up for an AK Operator course. Vice versa for you AK users. Bolt actions, all types of shotguns, lever actions, you name it. You need to be able to use ANYTHING in a pinch.
7. Cardiovascular endurance is a great thing
Semper Fi!
