Military/Police CQC

“Developing The Offensive Mindset”

Author: Odhinn Kohout

 

 

 

 

We have a bad habit as Instructors to always put our students in the role of the victim that is to say “facing their Attacker from the 12 o’clock position” but I like to pair the students up with a third Officer plying the role as the knife wielding assailant and get one student to stop his partner from being attacked.  In reality this type of attack has happened because one Officer may be talking to the person on the street or taking notes and oblivious to the explosive surprise attack when a blade is unexpectedly produced.

Why do this?...

By having your students automatically react in training to their partner getting suddenly attacked you are building cognitive pathways that will replace the “freeze-set” ones which inhibit a proper response. Assuming that your students will do the “right” thing when confronted with extreme stress is the wrong teaching approach. Take the time to engrain the correct responses in training and they will pay dividends in actual combat.

Your defensive tactics program can be tweaked with some small things that assist in building the offensive mindset. After you have your students perform throws or takedowns have them finish the technique with an arrest/control tactic. These sequences will reinforce and bring together other techniques which they have been practicing throughout the day and gets in some extra reps in the process.

After a takedown do not let your students help each other  back up…Explain that this has no basis for field applications so it should be discarded as it is building incorrect responses to a performed action.

Training attire?

I like my classes to train in their uniforms or in cargo pants with a duty belt etc. It is not as comfortable as MMA shorts and a T-shirt but ask yourself when you would wear those types of clothes on duty. Training should always mirror real life as possible. At the facility I train at there is no air conditioning and I would not have it any other way. In the Summer, these classes condition my students to fighting in a very humid environment while being sweaty just like on the street.

Some people have told me that classes are made up of numeric values representing a student’s ability to learn. “Ones” have no experience while “ten’s” are advanced.

This is nonsense… and contributes to perpetually bad training practices leaving an easy way out for the Instructors. I have told classes made up of nothing but recruits (who have “zero” training experience) to listen and watch what I demonstrate and to work hard because what they are about to learn just might save their life. On my last course students with no fighting background performed advanced material flawlessly because I did not use the word advanced when talking to them. I EXPECTED them as their Instructor to perform at a high level. I am not going to water down my program for them; they must rise up to the material being presented. “Steel Sharpens Steel” , and your students will only benefit from you as their Instructor taking no shortcuts or settling for results that are just good enough.