ALIVE!™ Methodology Monday April 13, 2015

When Speed and Accuracy Aren't Enough

By Steve Miles

Last week we took a look at the "Modern Technique of the Pistol" with a critical eye towards its origins in sport shooting.  We recognized that assumptions made about what it takes to win against cardboard targets were inescapably different than those required to prevail against a live resisting opponent.  This week we will continue to deconstruct Modern Technique and go deeper into specifics of how and why a sport shooting system alone is inadequate for personal defense.

Jeff Cooper Commemorative Coin

"DVC" was the celebrated motto of Jeff Cooper, an acronym which explained the central elements of Modern Technique as:

Diligentia - Accuracy: You must hit your assailant in order to injure him.
Vis – Force: You must strike your opponent with sufficient force to incapacitate him.
Celeritas – Speed: You must strike him quickly, so your opponent does not injure you before you injure him.

Note that all three elements are "one-way", that is, DVC is solely concerned with achieving incapacitating hits on an opponent.  Speed and Accuracy make sense from the perspective of winning a timed sport shooting match, but Force seems incongruent as no real force is required to punch paper or cardboard targets. So where does the Force element come from?

Cooper seemed nearly obsessed with the .45 caliber 1911 pistol and its legendary stopping power aka Force.  He summarily dismissed the merits of other pistols that today seems like an over-the-top farce:

"As long as one doesn't get into a fight, a nine is fine." (Jeff Cooper)

 "Carrying a double action 9mm automatic pistol for protection is like playing golf with a tennis racquet. You can do it, but why should you?" (Jeff Cooper) 

When one understands the strategy of Modern Technique as "hit and incapacitate first", essentially a variation of "the best defense is a good offense", one begins to understand why the .45 caliber 1911's "one shot stop" mythos was a perfect fit for Modern Technique.  If an opponent can be incapacitated before he can attack, defined as sufficient Force, then Modern Technique's "one-way" strategy certainly works as it does against cardboard targets.  However, when faced with a living opponent who is already applying or about to apply his own deadly force toward the shooter, the "one-way" strategy falls apart under pressure because sometimes Speed, Accuracy, and Force are not enough.

"How Close is Too Close?"

Dennis Tueller was the first to substantively question the utility of a "one way" strategy in a 1983 SWAT Magazine article entitled "How Close is Too Close?".  In the article, Tueller presented the results of his study which indicated that inside of 21' an attacker could likely reach an officer before the officer could draw and shoot him effectively.  In 1984 one year after Tueller's SWAT article was published, a police training film titled "Surviving Edged Weapons" was released that demonstrated Tueller's findings and the work of other knife experts.  Between the SWAT article, the landmark training film, and the subsequent "21 Foot Rule" that has become urban legend, Tueller's study made a indelible mark on police and personal defense training that we still address today.  Although Tueller's conclusion in the article was that officers should retreat to maintain a "reactionary gap" so as to keep a shooting option viable, he irreversibly exposed the deficiency of the Speed and Accuracy  "one-way" dogma in close range active attacker contexts.  

1984 police training film "Surviving Edged Weapons" further expanded on Tueller's work.

Context matters in fighting, and if your shooting system is deficient against active attackers inside of 21 feet, it's deficient in the context of most law enforcement and civilian defensive shootings. To use Maslow's Hammer again, the tools of Modern Technique are speed and accuracy, and thus all their gunfight problems look like cardboard targets. 

An adherent to Modern Technique can either:

a) Continue to chant the "front sight...press" mantra and ignore that Modern Technique is inherently deficient in most shooting situations one is likely to find oneself in? Or..

b) Find a better way to deal with the context of close range active attackers.

Next time we will go deeper into understanding fighting context with the PROACTIVE TO REACTIVE FIGHT SPECTRUM.



To learn more about ALIVE!™ Combatives or ALIVE! Gunfighting® contact the author Steve Miles via email to steve@combativestraininggroup.com

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