The Tactical Head Shake

[Kilroy]

One of the marks of a real tacticool dude is the tactical head shake. The Tactical Head Shake (THS) is the quick side to side glance performed after delivering a perfect center mass double tap to a cardboard bad guy. Instructors call this search and assess. One sequence straight from a tactical instructor is to engage the threat, follow to the ground, evaluate threat, (with the weapon up) scan 120 degrees, engage safety and scan 180 degrees on one side, re-evaluate original target, then scan remaining 180 degree arc. The chances of anyone actually pulling that sequence off under stress or even remembering it are extremely low. Another commonly seen method is to look left and right quickly. Let's try a little experiment. Right now, look behind you! A normal person would turn their head and shoulders to look behind them self, not look left then right quickly. How would a normal person look around a new area, for example walking through a dark parking garage? Moving the head somewhat slowly, looking for details in their surroundings. My point is, a person that swings their head left then right DID NOT just look around, and DOES NOT have 360 degree situational awareness. When doing a search and assess, look around like a normal person would without the gun. Students do the quick head shake to show the instructor that they remembered the last step, but they do not actually regain actual situational awareness. If this isn't corrected, and becomes a habit, the shooter has developed THS.
The root cause of THS syndrome is non-realistic training. Let me draw a parallel to martial arts, and the difference between training in Muay Thai and Karate. Karate is based on forms, and emphasizes katas. Much of practice time is spent throwing kick, punches, and blocks into the air against imaginary opponents. To advance, students learn katas, which are sequences of moves that must be performed in order. The more crisp-looking the moves, the better the kata.
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Karate is not completely without value, but someone who is well trained with that method can still be a terrible fighter. Muay Thai fighters train by hitting pads other people are holding. The idea is that without the protective pads, the same exact blows would do damage to the other person. In the early days of the UFC, karate practitioners found out the hard way that their art wasn't preparation for a real fight. (They would usually get knocked to the ground, then beat senseless.) The same thing applies to shooting. Shooting at a cardboard target, and doing a pre-programmed sequence (double tap, reload, double tap) has value, but is not the best way to prepare for a force-on-force fight. Making the sequence more complicated and harder (intentional malfunctions, time limits, multiple targets) will result in better weapons handling, but not necessarily better fight performance.
This is a flawed example, but I'll go with it anyway. I had a friend that played semi-pro paintball in high school. One day, the Pheonix SWAT team was playing, and played against him and his team. The SWAT team formed their stack and started moving down the field. They got surprised from the side and were all taken out, because they were in a tight group, and high-end paintball guns can put A LOT of paint into the air very quickly. Tactics aside, this kind of thing shouldn't happen, right? The SWAT teams job is to shoot people. Why didn't they take apart some high-schoolers in this force-on-force scenario? Because shooting at a range is very different from shooting at live opponents.
The bottom line here is, if you're training for a force-on-force situation, train realistically. Don't wag your head from side to side before putting your gun back in the holster. ACTUALLY look around.

 

[BigMBobbyOP]

just an aside, the reason karate people got beat senseless was that they didn't know ju-jitsu. It wasn't only karate people, everyone got hammered in the early UFCs.

Karate has proved itself in UFC as evidenced by Lyoto Machida, a shotokan karate practioner, who has trained up in BJJ and other grappling arts.

But again, your point is proven. It just not realistic to train in a 'stand up only' art and expect to do well in a real world situation. It wasnt until people started grasping comprehensive skills of mma that the field was leveled.

 

[1970swifty]

good point

 

[mcbruzdzinski]

Thanks for the write-up. Good points to keep in mind when I train and when I train others. My NRA PPITH/PPOTH instructor was keen on the 'search and assess' phase of our live fire drills.

 

[kmb]

There was a female shooter at BRA on Monday doing this very exercise. She was all kitted up with AR (8) mag holder across her chest, Glock on her leg, and a variety of contraptions (spent ammo pouch?) and other stuff on her belt. She had a 'gucci'd' AR and was shooting at 20' targets. What I wanted to know is what she was training for but she didn't seem approachable plus she had a posse of dudes with her. Her technique was scan, shoot 3-5 with AR, drop it, then 2-3 with Glock. She had some sort of Army silhouette target in Army dig camo with smaller targets in diamond form in the corners and on side.

Not bashing her or her technique or purpose. Just found it interesting if that is some sort of training for CQB/pistol/rifle competition.

 

[Kilroy]

just an aside, the reason karate people got beat senseless was that they didn't know ju-jitsu. It wasn't only karate people, everyone got hammered in the early UFCs.

Karate has proved itself in UFC as evidenced by Lyoto Machida, a shotokan karate practioner, who has trained up in BJJ and other grappling arts.

But again, your point is proven. It just not realistic to train in a 'stand up only' art and expect to do well in a real world situation. It wasnt until people started grasping comprehensive skills of mma that the field was leveled.

Wasn't knocking karate as a martial art, just the style of training in which real opponents are not sparred with and training isn't realistic. Punching and kicking at the air causes stupid techniques to be reinforced. I can guarantee that Machida does not spend his time doing katas and shadow boxing.

There was a female shooter at BRA on Monday doing this very exercise. She was all kitted up with AR (8) mag holder across her chest, Glock on her leg, and a variety of contraptions (spent ammo pouch?) and other stuff on her belt. She had a 'gucci'd' AR and was shooting at 20' targets. What I wanted to know is what she was training for but she didn't seem approachable plus she had a posse of dudes with her. Her technique was scan, shoot 3-5 with AR, drop it, then 2-3 with Glock. She had some sort of Army silhouette target in Army dig camo with smaller targets in diamond form in the corners and on side.

Not bashing her or her technique or purpose. Just found it interesting if that is some sort of training for CQB/pistol/rifle competition.

She was being tacticool! High-speed, low-drag navy seal delta ranger training! Just kidding. It's easy to bash people who seriously train like this, especially when they wear multicam and plate carriers, but sometimes people just like to shoot for fun. Half the time I'm at the range I'm not trying to train, just waste some ammo and have fun.

 

[JamesBailey]

She had a 'gucci'd' AR and was shooting at 20' targets.

20 foot targets? Training to hit the sides of barns? Not much skill in that

 

[clandestine]

I see instructors tell people to look and asess but they arent often looking for anything just going through the motions. Instructors need to put threat targets up randomly to the sides and behind students and instruct students to acknowledge the presence or absence of additional threats (dont shoot)

I hate the tactical rotation tactical response teaches people.

 

[parbreak]

One drill that test whether people are actually scanning and assessing or just going through the motions is to have the instructor hold up a number of fingers and have the student recall how many fingers were held up after the drill. Of course, you don't tell the student you were going to do that.

 

[mcbruzdzinski]

One drill that test whether people are actually scanning and assessing or just going through the motions is to have the instructor hold up a number of fingers and have the student recall how many fingers were held up after the drill. Of course, you don't tell the student you were going to do that.

Good idea and an eay thing to do at most ranges.

At the range I was at in Apex, there were random pop-ups as well as lights/sounds not to mention having the lights go out and then come on again. I wish we had one like it in MD.

 

[Schwabe]

Wasn't knocking karate as a martial art, just the style of training in which real opponents are not sparred with and training isn't realistic. Punching and kicking at the air causes stupid techniques to be reinforced. I can guarantee that Machida does not spend his time doing katas and shadow boxing.....

The reason for the katas was because after WWII we did not allow Japanese to pratice full contact sports. Under General McArthur we completely de-militarized Japan, including banning all Martial Arts ... so the only way for them to pratice their 1000s of years old culture and customs they had to formalize and stylize them. Same is true for Kendo. Totally different when you are in Japan and see them actually practice their real Martial Arts. I have seen some amazing sword fighting with real swords and no armor.

 

[Dogabutila]

Wasn't knocking karate as a martial art, just the style of training in which real opponents are not sparred with and training isn't realistic. Punching and kicking at the air causes stupid techniques to be reinforced. I can guarantee that Machida does not spend his time doing katas and shadow boxing.

He does, but your general point is well taken. I think we all want to train as realistic as possibly, but a lot of times it is hard because ranges have rules we have to abide by, so we try to do whatever we can.

Just need to remember the reason behind the drills and not start to cheat. *kind of like how the FTS drill evolved*

 

[Kilroy]

The reason for the katas was because after WWII we did not allow Japanese to pratice full contact sports. Under General McArthur we completely de-militarized Japan, including banning all Martial Arts ... so the only way for them to pratice their 1000s of years old culture and customs they had to formalize and stylize them. Same is true for Kendo. Totally different when you are in Japan and see them actually practice their real Martial Arts. I have seen some amazing sword fighting with real swords and no armor.

You are correct. My understanding of it is that the kata is not the lesson to be learned, you're supposed to learn additional skills by doing the kata. There's secrets hidden in the kata, or something like that.
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For example this kata is not realistic, but you could learn some useful stuff by doing it. Kinda like doing a Mozambique drill. Not useless, but realistic training is a better way.
Just curious, do you do some martial art?

 

[K-Romulus]

There was a female shooter at BRA on Monday doing this very exercise. She was all kitted up with AR (8) mag holder across her chest, Glock on her leg, and a variety of contraptions (spent ammo pouch?) and other stuff on her belt. She had a 'gucci'd' AR and was shooting at 20' targets. What I wanted to know is what she was training for but she didn't seem approachable plus she had a posse of dudes with her. Her technique was scan, shoot 3-5 with AR, drop it, then 2-3 with Glock. She had some sort of Army silhouette target in Army dig camo with smaller targets in diamond form in the corners and on side.

Not bashing her or her technique or purpose. Just found it interesting if that is some sort of training for CQB/pistol/rifle competition.

Was this the target?
http://www.eagtactical.com/admin_section/products/product_images/alt_image_3_3.jpg

If so, she may have been a Pat Rogers/EAG Tactical student practicing what she learned in her class. I remember Pat ran a private course somewhere in NoVA for employees of either Surefire or Crye Precision or something, and commented on how the few women in the course kicked @ss. The fact this lady you saw was geared up as such and surrounded by dudes made me think of this.

 

[kmb]

Was this the target?
http://www.eagtactical.com/admin_section/products/product_images/alt_image_3_3.jpg

If so, she may have been a Pat Rogers/EAG Tactical student practicing what she learned in her class. I remember Pat ran a private course somewhere in NoVA for employees of either Surefire or Crye Precision or something, and commented on how the few women in the course kicked @ss. The fact this lady you saw was geared up as such and surrounded by dudes made me think of this.

That is said target. The guys she was with were throwing lead downrange with an AK variant, all black. Or what I presume to be an AK. She had a Crye Precision shirt on. I was trying to remember the name and that's it. One of the guys had one on too.

 

[RCH]

I suspect that the THS is a bad habit formed from a good purpose. In reality, your gun should travel with the eyes so that you can react to the threat faster. Unfortunately, if you try to move to look to the side or behind you in training, you have a loaded gun swinging around on the range or in the class, the fear of liability (Holy Sh#%! he is sweeping the line or class) takes over on the instructor/management and "KEEP THAT DAMN GUN POINTED DOWN RANGE" is the rule of order. And what you do 100+ times in practice is what you will end up doing in real life.

The other problem that I see with the THS is that it is being done so fast, I doubt that the majority of people actual "see" or even register what they were looking at. In a brief micro second you took to look, you may see the brightly colored clown running at you, but did you see the 1/2 of a head and gun peaking over the paper box from 30 feet away?

Maybe we should do a fun test: Try glancing out an office window for a second at a setting you are unfamiliar with, and then write down everything you saw. Then go back and compare- how much did your mind process, how much did you totally not see?