TRAINING EVOLUTIONS OVERVIEW
Intrinsically, combat will never change; there are certain immutable principles that define a violent assault as remaining generic, random, senseless and explosive. The suddenness and speed of a real criminal attack requires that you counter the assault by initiating an explosive offensive action or defend and counter attack immediately, directly and explosively with forward pressure keeping one aim in mind: SURVIVAL! Whether you are on the battlefield, street, in your home or hiking in the country; whether you are a soldier, law enforcement, private security contractor or civilian, our agenda is to provide you with a healthy amount of Survival Combatives coupled with a balanced mix of Skill Development in order to raise your level of peak performance, by way of Drills , and transmute you into becoming a functional fighter. That is our objective - YOU become functional!
Fortune Favours the Prepared- Fortes Fortuna Paramus
There is no such thing as a risk free world. With that in mind there will probably never be such a thing as world free of violence and crime. What we can do is learn to manage that risk and reduce our chances from being caught up or caught out in an all-out violent criminal attack where our personal safety and security has been compromised. Of course it has been known that luck and quick wits can get you out of a sticky situation, which you have not pre-planned, but relying on this tactic alone is not recommended, irresponsible and in many cases will probably assure you a quick and untimely death. There is no adequate substitute for being prepared in advance and having a well thought out immediate action plan when all hell breaks loose and combat stress sets in! The most certain way of dealing with a criminal threat and reacting effectively is through being prepared way before the event actually occurs. Functional Force Options' curriculum is based on a 10-level modular evidence based system that consists of Empty Hand Combatives; Knife/Counter Knife Combatives; Impact Weapon Combatives; Gun/Counter Gun Combatives and Street Specific Ground Fighting Solutions & Counter Measures. All of these systemic learning modules have been specifically designed to accomplish the task of preparing YOU for sudden violence before it actually occurs.
Rather than laying down a set of rigid techniques, this program is based on concepts and principles that delineate best practice tools and methodologies that are based on more than two decades of real-world experience. Forget about flashy fantasy movie driven techniques, your personal security will largely be based on commonsense survival tools and tactics; combat mindset; understanding how to control fear and anger, and developing a tactical awareness of your own personal strengths and weaknesses as an individual. The question is not whether any of these concepts stand alone unrelated, but rather how they serve you as an interdependent greater whole. If you learn, practice, absorb, functionalise and then finally maintain all of the skill-sets and advice required- then, and only then, will you be ready!
Know the Enemy/Think Like the Enemy
All effective personal protection, all physical security and intrinsically all real self defence begins and ends by developing the ability and willingness to understand how the enemy thinks and operates. But thinking like a criminal or a terrorist does not come easy to an upstanding citizen of good character. That's why- so many people- whether trained to fight or not, easily become prey and then victims of monstrous criminal attacks. Deception is the hallmark of the recidivist criminal mind. In order to develop a successful blueprint for survival, you must become more familiar with the particulars of that deception. Then, with this knowledge at hand, you must learn how to use it to counter the criminal's tricks without compromising your own personal integrity. If all human interactions are based on perceptions, then it is of vital importance that we must learn the perceptions of our enemy inside and out. No matter what your mission is- military, law enforcement, high-risk security professional or civilian - having the ability to think like the enemy is a vital link in the chain of success for survival!
The M.I.D. System
The M.I.D. ( Military Integrated Defence) system is based on a physical security model which draws heavily on the concepts and methodologies from sources such as the Department of Defence (DOD), the Department of Army (DA) and other proponents and agencies of physical security.
Prevention and protection are the two primary concerns for physical security. Both serve the security and safety of people, equipment and places. Through direct experience in this field, I have adopted and transmuted these principles in pursuit of developing a seamless connection between the strategic, tactical and operational levels of personal protection.
The M.I.D. system is based on a systematic approach to developing personal protective counter measures resulting in an integrated use of detecting, delaying, intercepting and overcoming a covert or overt violent confrontation. This is a concept based system that is highly organised and contains mutually supporting elements coordinated to prevent gaps in order for YOU to protect yourself, your property and/or your home!
This is what we refer to as Concentric Layers of Defence. These are the four pillars of physical security that are crucial in establishing an effective personal protection program and must work interdependently with each other.
. Detection must be based on awareness & avoidance and must occur early enough to provide an effective response.
. Delay elements are used to slow down an adversary's ingress to provide ample time to implement defensive counter measures.
. Defensive measures may be active or passive depending on the situation; your response is activated when detection occurs and intercepts the adversary before he can complete his objective.
. Although defeat is not a design objective, your detection, delay and defensive systems all depend on your ability to defeat an aggressor and survive at all costs!
Each system must work in conjunction with the next:
. Let's say that you have detected a pre-indicator clue indicating that you are at risk, but you do not have ample time to respond: Inadequate Delay Measures
. You may be unaware that an attack is forthcoming until after the adversary is actually launching his attack: Inadequate Detection Measures
. Your detection skills were successful and the adversary was delayed, but your lack of preparedness in knowing how to respond causes your adversary to complete his mission: Inadequate Defensive Measures
. To be effective, Detection, Delay and Defend all MUST occur before the adversary can complete his attack!
Concentric Layers of Defence
All effective personal security is based around establishing Concentric Layers of Defence. If you wanted to commit a violent attack, what would you look for in a victim and/or target (people, equipment & places) and who or what would you avoid in your pursuit of senseless destruction?
Principally speaking, your main objective is to find a victim/target that is a soft target- someone with their head in the clouds who is not switched on; somewhere or something that is an easy target that would enable you to complete your task quickly, efficiently with little to no resistance and significant material gain. With this knowledge in mind, you are now ready to implement the first layer of your personal safety program - Detection. This layer of defence is comprised of alertness, situational awareness, pre-indicator clues, low profile adaptation, anti-surveillance tactics, evasive driving skills, personal routine management, awareness of your immediate environs and threat analysis. If the criminal manages to get through this first layer of defence and encroaches towards you, he receives further dissuasion at the second layer- Delay. This second layer of defence slows down and potentially de-escalates any further threat. This layer is made up by creating a barrier between you and your adversary; establishing effective communication skills; being aware of cultural differences; de-escalation and distraction set ups. At this stage, many criminals and/or terrorists will go somewhere else and seek out a softer target rather than compromise their overall mission.
Okay, let's assume your adversary becomes persistent in achieving his principal objective. In the criminal mind, negotiation is not the antithesis of combat, but rather foreplay. They will try to trick you into believing that they are of genuine character, then, they will wait for you to make the first incorrect move before they attack. Now the third layer kicks in- Defend . This third layer of defence is where through a deceptive delivery system you would initiate an attack with a close quarter onslaught of tools, targets and tactics. Things don't always go as planned, so it is within this third layer that a comprehensive support system must be honed that would include weapon skills, ground fighting and multiple attackers. Once the third layer is immobilised, so is the fourth- Defeat . It is here that you would neutralise your opponent in proportion to the degree of the assault working within the perimeters of the Law.
Now, if you are a potential target for an attack, are you starting to see just how invaluable your outer layers of awareness and avoidance actually are? Again, by visualising yourself in the enemy's shoes, are you beginning to recognise the criminal's behavioural patterns of deception? Now that you know what you are looking for, augment this with the criminal's assessment stage of whether or not you are a suitable candidate to attack. This will increase your ability to recognise this pre-incident behaviour and counter it with anti-surveillance tactics before it ever reaches the Defend stage.
With that in mind, your self-defence skills begin at your inner most layers, while situational awareness, avoidance and thinking like the enemy are at your outer most layers. If your overall defence strategy starts at your inner most layers, you will always be fighting from a late-phase vantage point. What we are trying to do here is functionalise your ability to survive sudden violence before it happens (early-phase), while it happens (mid-phase) and after it happens (late-phase). With this said, survivors like to work backwards; reverse-engineering and problem solving the most likely scenarios that they may face in the reality arena of urban, suburban and rural veracity. Please remember- it does not matter whether you are a soldier, policeman, close protection operator or a civilian- all of this life-saving information applies to YOU! Now hang in there, there's more to come!
How We Develop Functional Fighters
In survival mode or actual combat, when faced with a one-on-one situation our agenda is to utilize the M.I.D. System whereby through our awareness we would detect the threat; delay the threat by creating a barrier between us and our opponent; initiate the contact with a pre-emptive strike or defend and counter attack immediately with explosive forward pressure; close the gap with a close quarter onslaught; finish with a takedown and finally escape to gain safety. If things do not go exactly as planned, we will have to draw upon a support system; this is why we train ground fighting, weapons and multiple attacker scenarios. This is what defines the Survival Combatives side of the system. The complexity in the learning process comes with the many drills that we have to enhance the Skill Development side of the coin- this is what enables YOU to become effective, proficient, explosive and functional when all hell breaks loose.
The drills are the course of action that we would carry out in order to augment what we would actually do in a fight. Some systems claim that skill development falls into the category of being dead or non-functional, but in reality skill development allows you to discover your maximum potential and ultimately leads you to reach YOUR highest level of peak performance. The problem lies with people not being able to differentiate between what we call Survival Combatives and Skill Development. This is really two sides of the same coin. It is within this framework that you will be able to successfully counter a sudden, random, violent assault and begin to catapult your skills- whether you are a high-risk security professional, military personnel, law enforcement or a civilian of good character- into becoming a full spectrum functional fighter!
Let me leave you with the words of Viet Nam veteran Col. Dandridge Malone: Build internal control. And there is only one way to do that, the same way a football coach does: DRILL. Practice and critique, practice and critique, practice and critique. Over and over, until individuals and teams learn to control themselves; until they learn where, when and how they are dependent on each other; until individuals and teams learn what each individual and each team must do in order to get it all together. DRILL!
Football coaches call these drills scrimmages, and they write them down in playbooks. Army leaders call these drills collective tasks or battle drills, and they write them down in ARTEP manuals. Coaches that win on the playing field and leaders who win on the battlefield will both tell you the same thing: you must start with good basic individual skills as a foundation. Coaches say, Run, block and tackle. Battle leaders say, Move, shoot and communicate. After that, it's DRILL and DRILL and DRILL. DRILL until working together becomes instinct. And DRILL towards perfection. Practice doesn't make perfect. What makes perfect is perfect practice. DRILL!
Basic individual SKILL, the WILL (TO SURVIVE) to work to get ready and TEAM WORK drill. That's the only road that leads to winning teams. Now we can lay out another simple, basic formula of leadership arithmetic:
SKILL x WILL x DRILL= KILL