Adam Painchaud, Vice President of the Sig Sauer Academy, during an interview, broke it down even further "When is comes to fundamentals really all there is is trigger control and muzzle management, getting your sights on target, keep the muzzle from doing a lot of movement and then squeezing the trigger without disturbing the muzzle." He goes on to demonstrate this concept firing a single round from his pistol into a 1" target, holding his pistol upside down, one handed, standing on one leg from 10 yards. "Now obviously this isn't an ideal shooting position but as you can see you can achieve accuracy focusing on those two things; trigger control and muzzle management.
For the tactical employment of firearms WDG breaks down the five things a shooter needs to focus on in order of precedence to properly and effectively employ firearms in an operational environment.
Five Fingers of Tactical Proficiency
I use the
human hand as an aide-mémoire to remember the principles of tactical training
to which I adhere. There are a few reasons I do this: you use your hands to
manipulate weapons and other tactical equipment and you will always have your
training mnemonic with you!
Thumb –Safety
Opposable digits and the
ability to reason separate humans from animals. Both of those attributes play a
huge part in training safety. Safety is designated by the thumb as it is
impossible to operate a weapon without a thumb. You should not operate a weapon
or participate in tactical training without safety being first and foremost in
your mind.
Treat your weapon as if it were
loaded.
Don't treat it likes it’s radioactive. Treat it like it’s a firearm
and you will be safe.
Do not intentionally or deliberately
point your muzzle at anything you are not willing to destroy, without an
adequate reason for doing so. This is a practical training class, in a training
environment. For the square range make a conscious decision to NOT point your
weapon at other people. In the real world, you do occasionally have to point
your firearm at other people.
Know what is between you and your
target, and to either side of your target. We’re not going to be operating on the square range
in the real world. You will have good guys and innocents down-range of you in
addition to the suspect. Pay attention to your surroundings. Consider the
reality that you might miss. The reality that someone may step in the way of
your shot, and the reality that your round may punch all the way through
someone and keep going. Most of all, consider the reality that you might miss.
Keep your finger off the trigger
until ready to shoot. If
you fail in all three of the preceding rules, there is a fourth one for good
measure. If you point your weapon at someone while it’s loaded, but don’t pull
the trigger, the worst thing that will happen is you will get beat up. Unless
you are actively engaging a target, with a solid sight picture, there is no
reason, whatsoever, for your finger to be on the trigger.
Use your mechanical safety. Once you have successfully engaged a
target, snap your firearm’s safety on if it has one. This is for the safety of
everyone around you. It goes the same for the real world as well.
There is a
zero tolerance policy for safety. If you violate safety rules, you are gone.
Weapon Manipulation-Trigger Finger
Building
fluid and natural weapon manipulation skills is a cornerstone of tactical
firearms proficiency. There are four levels of skill competency.
1.
Unconsciously
Incompetent
2.
Consciously
incompetent
3.
Consciously
competent
4.
Unconsciously
incompetent
These skills
can only be developed to their full potential with regular dry training. The
good thing about this training is that it is inexpensive. The only required
investment is a handful of dummy rounds. You just need a place and to make the
time. A few minutes a day can have long lasting effect on your learning
potentiation.
The place
and conduct warrants some discussion. It
must be a quiet place; free of distraction. You must decide on which skills you
are going to practice before you start. All firearms must be cleared prior to
starting any dry training. Absolutely no live ammunition should be in the
vicinity of your dry training area ever! Practice perfect. Perfect practice
makes perfect. Speed comes with familiarity and fluidity.
Practice
admin loads, unloads, immediate actions and remedial actions. Practice
presentations, dry firing, adopting different fire positions, and post
engagement drills. Run these drills slick, with belt kit and with full order.
Train the way you will fight.
Dry training
needs to be constant. One spring a couple years ago, I was invited to audit
Phase Line Green Tactical One Day Pistol Course as a participant. Not wanting
to embarrass myself, I got into dry firing and weapon manipulations drills
extra hard the week before the course. It really showed on the course who was
familiar with their firearm. Part of it was experience but, part of it was the
constant refresher. As an aside, the course, for me, was
a rock solid review of fundamentals. Well worth the time.
Accuracy-Middle Finger
"Speed is fine but accuracy is
final." Larry Vickers
The primary
objective of tactical firearm training is to survive tactical encounters. Solid
hits on your adversary or adversaries are the most effective way to survive. I
am talking about combat effective accuracy. However, to achieve combat accurate
hits under a body alarm response will require you to practice accurate shooting
drills regularly. The effect of your natural physiological reaction to life
threaten situations will deteriorate your skill. Additionally, these skills
will fade without regular practice.
Start this
by getting a solid zero for your chosen firearm at a realistic distance for
your environment. Shoot groups in the five conventional positions from that
range. Once you are confident at that range, expand to longer ranges and
shorter ranges. Learn the hold offs for your sights at those ranges. Practice
shooting around, over and under cover. Shoot supported and unsupported; learn
how that affects your accuracy. Learn and apply unconventional shooting
positions; the hold offs for your sight will be different. Shoot slick and full
kit; learn how your gear can affects your accuracy and ability to adopt fire
positions.
Speed-Ring Finger
"Smooth is fast, but slow is
just frickin' slow" Kyle Lamb
This is
gunfighting. Shooting as fast as you can maintain combat effective groups is a
life skill. However, speed without causing terminal effect on your target is
futile. This is more than timing and cadence than rushing for the sake of going
fast. Time and distance affects the requirement for speed. The shorter the
distance to the threat the shorter the reactionary gap.The greater the distance
to the threat the longer the reactionary gap.
Set
realistic goals. Work engagement drills to increase speed: controlled pairs,
hammers, zipper, Two and One and non-standard response. Use a shot timer or
shot timer app to set limits and increase stress. Do all drills at combat speed. This includes
immediate action, remedial actions, reloads and post engagement drills to
complete the cycle of training. Push your limits but once your groups are not
combat effective or making errors then dial it back a notch.
Tactics-Little Finger
"You should not be figuring out
SOPs as your SUV is being remodeled by a PKM in Tikrit" a US PMC
Tactics are
the final building block of tactical proficiency. They must suit the
environment, mission, threat and your own level of skill. They must be executed
with safety, accuracy and speed to be effective.
Work on
individual tactics, pairs and team tactics. Consider different environments and
threats. Build slowly at the speed of the slowest member of the team. Remember,
what works in the sandbox might not work in the arctic!
"What
worked yesterday would be fine, if it was yesterday." CTOMS Website
Practice,
Practice, Practice.
Mindset
"It is not about shooting. It is
about fighting with a gun" Pat Rogers
You may have
noticed that I did not include mindset in my principles of training. Think of
mindset as the glove. Some people wear gloves in tactical environments, others
do not. Though everybody should. It is a personal thing. Mindset cannot be
taught. It is product of experience and personal growth. It is part of the
overall training experience. If you are
reading this blog post, then you are on the path of personal growth towards the
correct mindset.
A good
tactical mindset can be guided and hindered by well-intentioned bystanders and
trainers. Good instructors provide experience and expanded the 'toolbox' of
their students. A tactical mindset is a highly personal thing. Developing your
mindset affects your lifestyle and it is up to you how far you down this path
you are willing to go.
In closing,
these are the principles to which I conduct my personal training, range
activities and the courses that I teach. This is, by no means, an exhaustive
article on The Five Fingers of Tactical Proficiency. It is, merely, an
introduction to the concept.
Credit:
Whiskey Delta Gulf
