I am hoping to make this a frequent part of this blog, time will tell. I have had the rare ability to train with some of the best firearms and close quarters combat instructors in North America over the last three decades, the emphasis was always on winning a gun fight, which includes the principle of movement, act, and react. If you find yourself in a fight for your life the first thing is to get yourself out of the danger area, the next is to effectively deal with the threat, and then react to how the situation has changed. A healthy and physically fit person can be trained in dozens of ways to move and dozens of ways to fight and win in a fight.

What happens if you aren’t a physically fit person? What if you have a serious weight problem and dynamic movement isn’t possible for you, or if you are disabled and rapid movement is impossible. Many instructors will try and accommodate a handicapped shooter and some succeed, but by and large these folks are forgotten. These forgotten individuals are often the most often preyed upon by the evils in society, and they are not being served.
Those who have read this blog know of my journey and the rough parts that have come along during my recovery and feelings of finally being myself again or at least as much of myself as I can be. The last few years have given me a lot of time to think about my own self defense as well as the defense of my family, I carry a gun much more often now than I did before my surgery, I scan my surroundings for threats a lot more often, and I live in what is called “condition Yellow” which is always scanning, always looking for something that can hurt me. For awhile I was feeling like I was overly paranoid when I would see threats everywhere, it wasn’t until I took the time to evaluate my situation that I made the following realizations.

I am a target, I am using a cane to walk, I am by no means fast, and if threatened I am from the outside perspective a soft target and one that is easily taken down by an assailant. This made me very isolated, I felt as though it wasn’t safe for me to leave the house alone because I could be attacked, but after awhile I realized I was creating a scenario that disregarded the fact that I am far from defenseless, in fact I am in a great position to not only fight back the wolves but help others as well.
So Here we go.

The O.O.D.A. loop

The OODA loop is a term used to give you a flow chart approach to a situation, it stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. For example I am walking down the street, I see a large dog approaching me, I want to Observe what the dog is doing, is the dog acing aggressive or does the dog seem to be a happy wanderer. I want then Orient myself to the situation around me and the dog, if the dog is acting aggressively I want to position my body to defend against an attack, or be ready for action. I then need to Decide on what I am going to do, am I going to shoot the dog, scare the dog off, pet the dog, or ignore the dog. Finally I have to Act on that decision. The loop then resets for the next interaction.

So you have identified a threat, for the sake of discussion its a large male advancing toward you with his hands in his pockets. What do you observe? Large male, hands in pockets heading toward me. How do you orient yourself? I pause and turn my body slightly presenting my strong side putting my weight on my good leg, maybe I pull my phone out as a distraction while I attempt to decide what needs to happen. The large male pushes me down in an attempt to over power me and rob me. Now for the vast majority of people this is when you throw your wallet and get up and run the other direction, but I have a bad leg and not only is me getting knocked down risking life threatening injury but also it makes me non mobile and an easy target. My decision has now been made for me I must fight for my life, because I have practiced for this I am going to roll to back, draw my weapon and from a supine position while resting my pistol on my good knee I will shoot him, I could use a taser if I have one, I will shoot until the threat stops. Afterward I need to re-assess the situation, contact 911, and give my statement.

I have practiced this many times in my home doing dry fire drills as well as using an airsoft copy of my carry gun for more realistic training, until I was comfortable enough to go to my local range and practice with live ammo.

To conclude I am going to give you my practice routine for the above scenario:
You will need 100 rounds
a good holster
your gun or a training weapon
something to lay on if you are at the range

from the carry side draw and re-holster gun 20 times slow, focus on the movements, slow is smooth, smooth is fast

on your strong side bring the gun up and get a solid sight picture and shoot 20 times

now roll to your back
from supine do a standard weaver grip and shoot 20 times, again slow and smooth, then get to a supported position whether seated or using your knee(s) shoot 20 times

now roll to your left or weak side for the south paws and shoot single handed unsupported 20 times.

Finally, without crossing yourself get to a seated or kneeling position and shoot 20 times

until next time.