We had a fantastic day out at the Best of the West range in Liberty Hill, Texas. Gene reserved us a bay, and took us through a series of shooting drills. Let me give some pretext to this post first. Konstantin Komarov is coming to Austin to give a two day Systema seminar, followed by a third day out at the range. As if the first two days weren't enough, the third day is an extraordinary opportunity, even for the most seasoned professionals. Konstantin is a very unique individual in that he has experienced combat psychology both within a highly formalized academic context as well as on a grueling personal level. He has a Ph.D. in combat psychology and has served as a Russian Special Forces Officer in the MVD and GRU. The first two days will involve experiencing and sustaining an optimal internal state. I have no idea what that will entail, and only an abstract sense of what it means, but I am very much looking forward to it. I also have no idea what we will be doing with firearms, but I am sure it will be extremely dynamic and not something to go about flippantly.
As such, Gene has been including pistols as a regular part of class for the last few months. For someone like me, who has little experience with pistols, the time spent with a pistol in hand during class has helped quite a bit. I've been shooting rifles and shotguns since I was a kid, and they feel quite natural to me. Pistols, however, are another story. I shot a pistol for the first time only a couple of years ago, and have only done so infrequently since then.
To me, they are little tiny things that make big noises and can cause a lot of hurt. I am slowly losing my hesitancy with them, due to the exposure as well as training. Pistols are different from rifles in that they have little to no hunting use--bluntly put, they are made for shooting people. The effect that a pistol can have on a person's psyche is different than that of a rifle, at least in my experience. Simply holding a pistol, even unloaded, can cause feelings of fear, aggression, or hesitancy. I am slowly shedding these influences from this particular inanimate object, as I come to understand that my judgement determines the outcome from using such an object. The ability to use judgement in order to effect outcome with regard to pistols is no different than in martial arts practice. I have a responsibility to hone my judgement, decisions, and resulting actions in such a manner that the outcome is beneficial to everyone around me. While that may be a considerably complex thing to consider philosophically, I place a certain amount of trust in the various social, psychological, and physiological constructs available in this universe to do the right thing (or next best thing). To do otherwise would be an affront to humanity. In that regard, I am grateful for Gene, Vladimir, and others for providing training that blends so homogeneously into my own life and circumstances (and heck if it ain't a lot of fun too!).
Anyhow, blathering aside, we started off the day at the range with basic static drills: shooting from a standing position, off-hand, laying on the ground, and crouched. The next level of drills included standing on a person laying on their back and shooting, having someone lightly push from behind while shooting, and shooting close up at the targe.
Every so often, Gene would make us take a break. Some of the drills became more intense, and built upon previous drills, and so we would gradually get a little more over-excited or overly eager. One goal in all of this is to stay calm, stay aware of our surroundings, and most importantly stay aware of ourselves and our internal mechanics (the psyche, breathing, etc.). Over-excitement and eagerness, while not a bad thing in and of themselves, can blind us to reality in situations that require alertness and vigilance. Handling firearms is one of those situations. Handling firearms while moving dynamically and making physical contact with others is, in no uncertain terms, one of those situations. During the breaks we did some pushups, squats, chatted a bit, and got ourselves back to normal before moving on to the next level of drills. Let me be the first to explain that this type of training is F-U-N, so getting back to normal required a little bit of focus. Very slow pushups while letting the rocks dig into my knuckles a little bit, and breathing very intently helped though.
Another level of shooting drills involved dynamic movement. We started at several meters distance from the target, drew our weapon, chambered a round, then advanced towards the target while firing. We then started at the target, and retreated while firing. We also did lateral movement, as well as a combination of lateral and retreating movements. Another sequence was to start from kneeling, then firing while moving to a standing position, then continuing to fire while advancing at the target. The final sequence to this level was to practice moving to cover while firing. These drills were absolutely new to me--I've never moved, ducked, squatted, or rolled with a loaded firearm before (to be candid, the pistol was empty when I rolled, I'm not quite there yet).
The crescendo of drills peaked with a partner drill. I forget the official term for this, but essentially the shooter mirrors their partner's work. Dene and I worked out a sequence in advance that we'd follow. We'd approach the target until Dene shouted "threat!", and then fire at will while still advancing. The first person to run out of ammo would shout "out!", and we would both get to cover and then continue to fire at the targets until out of ammo. This drill put the biggest smile on my face. It built on all of the experiences of the day and then topped it off by throwing another person in the mix.
We finished the day by spreading out across the shooting bay, all in a line, and shooting through two magazines while moving back and forth (and up and down). I even felt comfortable doing a little barrel roll with a chambered round, keeping my pistol pointed downrange of course. I have kept myself honest about hesitations and anxieties over handling a pistol, in the interest of not shooting myself in the foot (literally). Being able to do a little barrel roll with a cocked and locked firearm was especially gratifying, both in the Systema sense of natural ground movement and in the firearms sense of "oh dear this thing is loaded!" I think Gene did a fantastic job of building up these drills in such a way that we grew accustomed to our firearms, all while maintaining complete safety. I am extremely proud of us as a group for the work we did today and the vigilance upheld in maintaining safe conditions.
