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The Core of Survival: The Fighting Mindset And Advanced Handgun Combat Principles.September 2010

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THE CORE OF SURVIVAL: THE FIGHTING MINDSET AND

ADVANCED HANDGUN COMBAT PRINCIPLES

Table of Contents

Introduction: Training Your Mind to Fight

CR Williams, Suarez International Staff Instructor

Street Tactics - Outdrawing the Drawn Pistol

Gabe Suarez

Point Shooting Progressions

Todd Burgreen

The Counterattacking Mind


I ATTACK

What is your Mission?

Be the Apex Predator

Steve Collins

Being A Finisher

Roger Phillips

Afterword


3

5

7

10

10

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13

14

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THE CORE OF SURVIVAL:

THE FIGHTING MINDSET AND

ADVANCED HANDGUN COMBAT PRINCIPLES

t may be expressed as LEAVE ME ALONE. It may be expressed

as DONT HURT ME. It may be expressed as HOW DARE

YOU. It may be expressed as I WANT TO GO HOME. It may

be expressed as NOT THIS TIME or NEVER AGAIN. It may not

be expressed by anything but actiona silent scream of indignant

rage as Good advances to ght Evil. It may be driven by fear or

anger or both at the same time. It may be carefully considered, or

it may be instinctual.

What itis, is the mindset of anyone who has been attacked and

forced to counter-attack in order to survive.Itis the attitude taken

on the instant one realizes that it really is FIGHT OR DIE. It

is the ultimate in task-orientation and xation with one goal:SURVIVE AND WIN.

Itis what this Special Report is about.

Just as change is a fact of life in general, so is it a fact to the civilian

defender, the individuals among us who prepare for the possibility

of unannounced violence against themselves or those around them.

Stand up, lock in, get the sights on, for these few, becomes to

get moving, there are other ways to aim, get the hits in. Double-

tap and assess is exchanged for shoot until they stop or shoot

until they fall. Revolvers are traded for semiautomatics, the skil

of one-handed shooting is being taught again as a necessary skill

and the strict line between sighted and point shooting is crumbling

like the Berlin Wall did not so long ago.

This report represents another change, one that acknowledges

this real-world necessity: We cannot defend without attacking

There are two reasons for this. One, the weapons we use to defend

ourselves are offensive weapons, not shields and barriers. They do

not stop force, they project it. That is, by denition, an offensive

maneuver, it is a return of force for force. What is different, thenbetween defender and attacker? We, the civilian defenders, use our

weapons only to counter an attack upon us; as someone attacks us

we counter to defend our lives and the lives of those around us

We do not initiate the attack, we respond to it, but we do so with

equal and opposite force. We do this justiably, with the law on

our side, and we are able to articulate (the term will be explained

later) the necessity of this action to anyone who needs or wants to

understand what we did.

The second reason we cannot defend without attacking is that we

cannot perfectly and purely defend against everything and anyone

that attacks us. Every pure defense will fail, and when that defense

fails, we will die. Others may die with us. Even worse, perhaps, is

the chance that we will see others die without being equipped to

defend them even if we can perfectly defend ourselves.

So, we must respond to aggression with aggression. We must, to

paraphrase George Washington, be prepared to ght at any time i

we are to ever be at peace. Not only that, but we must be prepared

to ght, to move aggressively, to counter-attack with little or no

warning.

How do we do that?

Mind-set. Wesetour minds up ahead of time so that the stimulus(the violent attack against us) triggers the response (the aggressive

counter-attack that saves us). We do this rst with our conscious

minds using a few effective methods which I will outline below

The training of our conscious minds will thensetour subconscious

minds, and, in time, we will forget the set (in a manner o

speaking; we will continue to practice and reinforce thesetjust as

we continue to practice and reinforce physical skills of defensive

offence) and continue with the business of the day. Most of us wil

never see the result of that set because we will never see the thing

Introduction: Training Your

Mind To Fight CR Williams,Suarez International Staff Instructor

I

To the reader: This report connes itself to the contemplation of

lethal-force attacks, that is, attacks meant to kill, maim, or cause

grave injury. This report does not consider anything other than

lethal-force attacks that require lethal-force responses. It is NOT

intended to advise reader about responses to less than lethal-

force felony assault. Nor should it be taken as strict legal or

technical guidance. This report is intended for information and

consideration, to provoke thought and discussion only. The reader

is advised to consult local authorities and those knowledgeable

of the laws at the local, state, and federal level regarding and

restricting use of force in their area, and to educate themselves so

that they can, ahead of time, know how best to respond to assault.Do not wait until a lethal situation arises to think about what

the law says you can or cannot do. Do your homework now, and

your thinking about legal response and levels of force before, not

during, the attack.


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that triggers it. Those few of us for whom this subconscious set

is triggered, howeverif we have trained correctlywill show

our attackers the real Mind and Spirit of the prepared defender.

We will use whatever we have and whatever we can get a hold of

and we will ght.

Best of all, if we correctly train ourselves in such a Mind-set , we

may not ever have to ght. Once properly integrated, the attitude,

though imperceptible is most, will shine subtlety through for

those who are sizing us up as potential victims. You will not haveto be continually conscious of it and you will not have to make an

effort to project it. Yet, it will be there for those who know how

to look. (How do I know this? I know a few very dangerous men

and women. All of them, so far, have been unfailingly friendly,

polite, and considerate of others. I would not mess with any one

of them for a truckload of gold and the promise of another after

I made the mistake of attacking them.) Those who are predatory

who know what to look fornot all dowill see the way you

carry yourself and know that there will be a cost, a price to pay,

for attacking you or those close to you. Criminals calculate risk

like any business person, and the smart ones will pass you over in

search of someone who will roll-over rather than ght back. Its

not a perfect defenseand nothing isbut it will help.

So what can you do to develop this mind-set? How can you train

yourself to go from peace to War without warning? Here are a

few suggestions:

Spend some time with those that you know or believe do have the

mindset. Note: It will likely not be obvious who these individuals

are; in my experience with the dangerously competent, it has not.

I have learned, in fact, to suspect those who are too overt and

obvious about their supposed preparedness.

Develop your skills and abilities. Take classes, train with others,

and practice on your own. Becoming condent that you canperform a defensive maneuver makes it more likely that, when

necessary, you will be able to do so.

As you train your body, train your mind. Focus in your training

on the attacking defensive attitude. Work through situations and

what-ifs in your mind at varying levels and intensities. Run the

mental practice up from idle-consideration level to full-blown

visualizations just as athletes and soldiers go through. Over and

over again in your mind, see yourself moving immediately to the

aggressive defense. See and feel your mind and attitude change

instantly as you and others will require in the moment of crisis.

Carry it through and see yourself stopping the attacker with

efciency and effectiveness. Knowing that the mind affects the

body which, in turn, affects the mind, practice not only mental,

but also physical skills in the arena of your mind from time to

time to supplement and reinforce the muscle memory acquired

from physical repetition. This will start you on the way to setting

your mind up for a sudden and violent encounter.

As part of your mental training, listen to, read, and then carefully

consider, what others have to say about the counter-offensive

mindset and how to develop it. As with all things combative,

examine every idea, determine what works for you, keep it, and

discard the rest.

Speaking of readingwhat you will nd in this report are ideas of

what you may have to face and illustrations of physical methods

of training to face it. In the articles by Gabe Suarez and Todd

Burgreen, you will also see some ideas about pre-facing it in your

mind, and the process of mind-setting that Suarez and Phillips

(and, for that matter, every other SI instructor I know or know

of) will begin to instill in their students during their trainingFollowing that, I will return with thoughts on the Mind-set, the

nature and direction of it, and some of the components that

believe should be included in it. Finally, Roger Phillips and Steve

Collins will offer their thoughts on the mind-set and attitudes to

carry with you before, during, and all the way to the end of a

physical confrontation.

You do not have to accept everything we say here, but do please

consider it. Whether you accept anything here and act on it or

not, begin now to develop the single most important part of your

weapon system, begin to develop the mind that moves the hand

that res the gun. Begin to develop the thought that precedes the

action. Begin here. Begin now.

Good luck to us all.

CR WILLIAMS

CR Williams has been a member and moderator of the USCCA

member forum almost since its inception, and is a regular

contributor to USCCA publications both print and online. He

also produces the Video Tips series for USCCA members. He is

also a Suarez International Staff Instructor for, primarily, the

state of Alabama.


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an you outdraw the drawn pistol in the bad guys hands?

That is a question that has been at the forefront of much

rearms training since the early days. We see John Wayne,

James Arness, and Clint Eastwood doing it onscreen on a regular

basis. It is a cornerstone of much of the training doctrines of

modern gunghting. Well, we tried this at the Extreme Close

Range Gunghting class in Atlanta, GA this last June.

We had a couple of federal police ofcers, a military ofcer,

two Executive Protection Specialists from Europe, an Americanmilitary contractor, and a miscellaneous collection of CCW folks

from various walks of life. A couple of them had been through

point shooting schools and quite a few through modern technique

based schools.

The drill was simple. We set up a bad guy pointing an Airsoft pistol

at a good guy, simulating a typical situation where the adversary

has the drop on you. The instruction given to the bad guy was to

shoot the good guy when he went for his gun. The good guys

Street Tactics - Outdrawingthe Drawn Pistol Gabe Suarez

C

Moving drastically and dynamically off-line bought you a sliver of time reducing

the likelihood of a centermass impact on you. This was no guarantee of success

in this bad situation.

If the gunman was within arms reach a disarm was the most logical choice so

we eliminated this option by establishing the distance as twelve feet.

mission was simple: Shoot without being shot. Carry was not

unrealistic, square range, open carry, but true, street concealment

Distance was just outside of combative range, or about twelve

feet.

We wanted to test the dynamics and technical problems inheren

in this situation. They were the only variables being tested. The

problem with every drill is the element of surprise. It must be

fabricated in the drill or it will not be there. The other issue is tha

if we allow role-playing, some students turn it into a try-out fordrama queen. This was not a role-play event. While we accepted

that it would be good for those involved to have such a distraction

we set that aside and looked at it from the angles mentioned.

Results: Every good guy was hit. A few managed to be hi

peripherally, rather than in the center of the body, but nonetheless

they were shot. If they stood still to draw, they were pegged

immediately. The best results were achieved by moving off-line

and sharply to the adversarys outside line (the 1:00 Oclock or

11:00 Oclock) while drawing. Will it be easier on an untrained and

unprepared thug? Maybe, maybe not. The conventional dynamic

of the problem show that you will probably still be wounded or

killed should such an event arise.

Some Points: Appendix carry and cross draw carry (centerline

carry) had serious advantages over traditional, strong side, hip

carry due to the smaller arc of motion needed to draw the gun.

We all agreed that using a ruse to change the adversarys focus

was essential. We tried the John Wesley Hardin ruse (throwing

money down to get his attention away from you, then moving

and shooting). We also considered the Lone Ranger ruse o

looking over his shoulder (Is that my faithful Tonto coming up

behind you?). This is difcult to experiment with reliably in adrill setting, but it can be done.

The theory of beating the drawn gun assumes speed, but speed

in open carry is an entirely false notion. What you can do from

concealed carry is what matters; everything else is an imagined

skill set.

The other problem is the follow-up. I do not believe that you wil

drop your bad guy with one shot. I think that it may easily take


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6

several. Thus, having a follow-up plan is important. Some might

think that if they can score one good hit with their manstopper

ammo, then the bad guy will be unable to re in return. I think that

this is excessively optimistic. To put it in perspective, a student of

mine recently called me to report a shooting that he was in. He is

a narcotics cop in the South. He shot the bad guy with a Federal

Tactical Slug from a shotgun! The bad guy was hit from right

shoulder to left scapula, yet he lived long enough to drive away,

get in another gunght with several ofcers, and ee the scene

in a stolen car. He turned himself in a week later to get medicalattention. All of that after being shot with a slug! Please dont tell

me how deadly your pistol ammo is!

Getting the rst hit is all well and good, but what is your follow-

up? If you are locked solidly into a shooting position or otherwise

immobile, he will simply shoot you a millisecond later and

you may be wounded supercially or fatally. The goal is not in

outdrawing anyone. It is in shooting him without being shot...

before or after.

We tried the turn and run like Hell tactic, not at this specic

class, but elsewhere. We tested it at the Warrior Talk Symposium

in Memphis last January. As I recall, it had some degree of success(peripheral hits instead of center hits). The problem is that unless

you have somewhere to run to, you generally wind up being shot

in the back. Also, few of our students t in the 18-25 year age

group, and while seasoned warriors can explode off of the X

pretty well, exploding into action too much or too far becomes

physically problematic.

There are many issues here. One is the situational awareness and

proling issues that we discuss. Another is surreptitious weapons

access (more easily done with some carry modes than others).

One other factor is the ability to distract or deceive. Other issues

out of our hands are the adversarys coolness and focus, as well as

his willingness to shoot.

Speed of draw is essential. Foul the draw and die. I think that so

many students spend so little time on CCW draw that when they

The better option when you nd yourself at closer distances is to prevent the

adversarys gun from being drawn...if you can.

must do so under pressure, as in a situation like this, they fail. After

basic level training, all training should be from concealment.

Again, my thinking is that if you can touch the bad guys gun

(reach it), you can attack it and disarm. You may be able to draw

then and re, but remember the two hands on one hand concept

I can easily pull out of a one-handed grip on my gun wrist. Not so

easy when its two on one. Disarming under duress is another skil

set that we may test in the future.

If you are outside of arms reach or more than one step away

the draw against the drop in some form will be what you need

This has been shown to be extremely difcult and the chances of

success are very slim. In fact, your chances of success, without

considering additional factors, are about one in three. But that is

what you have to work with in this deadly event.

Gabriel Suarez is an internationally recognized trainer and

lecturer in the eld of civilian personal defense. He has written

over a dozen books and taught courses in several countries.

http://www.suarezinternational.com

http://www.warriortalk.com

Suarez International, Inc. - 303 E. Gurley St., Ste. 461

Prescott, AZ 86301 USA - (Ofce) 928-776-4492


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uarez International training courses, newsletters, and Warrior

Talk forums always strike a chord of realism and common

sense with me. My participation in an Interactive Gun-

ghting Force-on-Force course a year ago opened my eyes to

many things, illuminating many misconceptions I had previously

held about personal defense and how an attack and response

would actually occur. A corollary to this experience is that I

realized much of my prior training was incorrect due to it being

based on square range concepts of marksmanship and limited

dynamic movement.

Wanting to continue my training based on what I had experienced

in the Suarez Force-on-Force class, and based upon the suggestion

of Suarez International Instructor Jack Rumbaugh, I participated

in Roger Phillips Point Shooting Progressions (PSP) course held

near Winchester, VA at Crooked Creek Investments (CCI) range, a

range afliated with Stonewall Arms located in Winchester, VA.

Let me quote the course description listed on the Suarez

International website for Point Shooting Progressions: Force

on force training has proven beyond any argument that the

traditional shooting range methods are simply not suitable for

reactive gunghting. In this course, Suarez International SpecialistInstructor Roger Phillips will teach you the Fight Continuum.

Roger has studied extensively with Suarez International. He has

also researched virtually every threat-focused shooting system for

many years. This course distills it all into one well thought out and

extremely applicable system that dovetails neatly into the regular

Close Range Gunghting matrix, presenting the full aspect of the

integration of sighted and unsighted re at CQB distances.

Sometime ago I converted to using Glocks for most of my

Point Shooting ProgressionsTodd Burgreen

S

Students were closely monitored for safety during drills which forced them to

respond to a challenge from both left and right angles to the rear.

Every individual has personal strengths and weaknesses. This shooter i

exploding off the X as he res, while another shooter might be less able to

move but just as capable of producing accurate hits with the rst round red.

training, due to proven Glock reliability. I was not disappointed

this time either. The G17 (9mm) and G30SF (.45 ACP) that I used

performed without a hitch. The G30SF was out-of-the-box new, ye

did not exhibit any need for a break-in period to perform reliably

when subjected to a demanding course of re as found in PSP.

Anyone familiar with Suarez International knows that the

instructors will not be drawn into caliber debates or handgun

preferences. What works best for you is what you should train

with and carry. The seventeen-member class predominantlyconsisted of students carrying Glocks, along with a few Sig Sauer

users and a sole 1911 shooter.

Roger typies the Suarez International Instructor in being very

serious about his subject matter, yet approachable for questions and

comments. He also has a clear methodology and teaching method.

The PSP course started with participants establishing a baseline

of prociency with aimed, sighted re. Several drills were run

extending to the fteen to twenty yard line. This served as a good

warm-up and allowed shooters a chance to relax from pre-class

jitters. Roger then launched into his ideas for the role of poin

shooting. To clarify, point shooting is not random, mindlessring from the hip or substituting mass of re for accuracy. Poin

shooting is re aimed by means other than your sights. Other

indexes such as the slide orientation below your line of sight

shoulder alignment, wrist cant, and forearm positions are all used

as aiming references. Hand-eye coordination is a premium when

using point shooting techniques.

Roger eased shooters through various methods of point shooting

to wean us away from our dependence on the sights. He noted

that participants with more training, especially of the Modern

Technique variety, found it harder to divorce their brains from

the ingrained relationship between sight alignment and trigger

press. A ash sight picture was used in a couple of drills before the

handgun was brought even lower from the line of sight, eventually

ending up with the elbow anchored in the hip socket. Roger stated

that ideas derived from the square range or competition shooting


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may very well get you killed in a hostile encounter, especially if

you nd yourself behind the reactionary curve when surprised or

ambushed.

Point shooting is all about condence building and establishing

what feels right, while producing the best effect on the target.

Practice is crucial on both points. I soon discovered that pressing

the handgun out while focusing on a very specic spot on the

target produces the best results. Focus on the target was a

constant refrain echoed by Roger during the weekend course.This proved critical to our ability to produce solid hits on targets

regardless of what position we were ring from. The ability to

gain a slightly crouched, athletic stance while delivering re

also proved important. The Fairbairn-Sykes shooting crouch

was introduced as segue for a block of instruction, stressing the

importance of obtaining both proper foot work and body positions

in order to produce combat-accurate hits on a target, especially

while shooting on the move. Most of the drills after lunch on the

rst day had some component of moving while ring incorporated

into them.

The PSP course pushed the limits of the square range experience.

Several drills were done dry and with nger pistols to establishweapon movement arcs so as not to cover the shooter and others

on the line. Other drills were limited to one or two shooters at

a time to ensure safety. This allowed Roger and assistant Jack

Rumbaugh to give more attention to the shooters engaging the

targets. Once basic drills were completed, Roger upped the ante

by introducing movement while engaging the target. This is where

the PSP method really started to shine. By eliminating reliance on

perfect sight alignment, which is near impossible to obtain during

the dynamic action typical of a gunght, the shooter is better able

to deliver ballistic effect on an adversary.

Aggression was advocated as the best method for reacting to an

attack since it is not the expected response. Roger was adaman

that mind-set is most important for personal defense, backed up

with a solid skill set and practices tactics.

Rogers PSP course has shooters easily going through 1,200

rounds or more over the two day seminar. Shooting time is

particularly important for PSP so that participants learn what feel

right for instinctual aiming versus sighted re. The rst day serves

as a building block for the second day, where movement is the

norm while engaging targets. Suarez International methods of

reloading and scanning after engaging are shown for informationapurposes but not instituted as a matter of procedure due to the

effort to maximize time spent training on point shooting while the

instructor is available to mentor and give feedback. PSP is one

of those courses which can be taken multiple times continuing to

yield benecial results with each session. While point shooting

is instinctual and thus easier to retain compared to other weapon

skills, practice is still important for rening ones abilities. PSP is

the denite meat and potatoes of a gunght and would qualify

as a must-take course for someone who could only take a single

handgun combative course.

Many times Roger referred to the ght continuum. The ght

continuum is characterized being in continual ux depending onwho has the initiative, the present range of engagement, and wha

method of re best handles the situation. Roger is not hindered

by doctrine and warns students to be wary of any instructor or

method that is represented as the be all and end all of methods

Why be conned to a total reliance on sights when point shooting

is capable of producing combat accurate hits at distances up to

ve yards and often beyond? Kudos go to Roger for stressing

mental toughness and exibility in adapting to wherever you nd

yourself in the ght continuum.

Roger does not argue that point shooting is the exclusive method to

use for hitting an adversary. As engagement distances increase, so

does the need for sighted re. Certain scenario drills kept shooters

honest by forcing them to stand and deliver aimed re as the

best way to resolve a situation. Other drills demanded dynamic

movement to disrupt the opponents decision-making cycle and

give the defender time to present the rearm and engage targets.

After minimal practice, many students were hitting targets while moving.]

Shooters practice an extremely compressed point shooting position, one which

may be appropriate for ring from an automobile during a life-threatening

carjacking attempt.


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Point shooting gives a person a ghting chance to succeed if

forced to react to an attack at close distance. Point shooting can

produce on target hits from a concealed position in times usually

reserved for professional shooters during competitions. Point

shooting is a skill that should be explored and learned by anypractitioner of concealed carry. It can truly increase your odds of

surviving a gunght.

Roger Phillips Point Shooting Progressions is one of the most

informative courses I have ever taken part in. Not only did it

resolve many of my questions regarding how to respond to threats

at close range, it increased my general desire to train. It built on

experience I gained in FOF. The more I learn and experience,

the more I realize that an actual ght on the street will be a close

range affair with little time to react.

Todd Burgreen is a freelance writer with work published in

Precision Shooting, The Accurate Rie, The Varmint Hunter

Magazine, andSWAT. His topics have covered the gamut,

including but not limited to, a CQB tomahawk article, long

range rie, single-shot ries, full-automatic ries, hunting

handguns and defensive handguns. Todd lives in Virginia with

his wife and three sons.

One of the last exercises conducted by students was to start engaging targets twenty-ve yards away with stand and deliver sighted re, transitioning to controlled

movement while ring, ending up with close-range point shooting. The pace of movement and rate of re was expected to increase as distance to target decreased.


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10

The Counterattacking MindCR Williams, Suarez International Staff

Instructor

The purpose of ghting is to win.

There is no possible victory in defense.

The sword is more important than the shield

and skill is more important than either.

The nal weapon is the brain.

All else is supplemental.

John Steinbeck

Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.

If you want to have peace, be prepared to ght for it.

or the civilian defender, here are the seeming paradoxes as I

see them:

We live in a peaceful world, but we see a need to be able to entera violent world at any time with little or no warning.

We provide ourselves with offensive weapons to defend ourselves

with.

We plan and prepare to defend ourselves against force by

projecting force.

We have to. We have no other choice if we do not wish to surrender

to whatever violence is offered to us. There is no perfect defense.

No shield, no armor, no barrier, nothing that man has produced

will stop every attack, every bit of force offered, every strike and

stab and bullet, every time, all the time. This (device, substance,

technique) will stop most attacks that you are likely to be subject

to, someone says. Is most good enough for you? Lets put a

gure on it97%. Thiswhateverwill stop 97% of all attacks.

Do you want to risk being in the three-percent of cases where it

does not? And do you want to believe that an attacker, without

being resisted, will not continue, will not repeat the attack until

they hit the golden three-percent mark?

The reality is that most of us already have those odds of not being

successfully attacked without the magical armor or miraculous

technique, because most of us will not be attacked at all. The odds

that you will be attacked at some point in your life, however, arehigher than the odds of winning almost any lottery you can name,

and we know that people win lotteries all the time.

So we are back to those paradoxes. Were back to carrying

weapons and learning hand-to-hand combat. Were back to being

able to project force to resist force projected at us. Were back to

attacking the one who rst attacks us.

Defend myself with a gun? How? Do I use it to stop bullets or

F

I ATTACK

deect the blade of the knife thrust at my face? No: I use the gun

to stop the attacker, not the attack. How do I stop the attacker with

a gun? I shoot him. I dont take the gun and put it against his arm

or hand or trigger nger to block his action. I shoot him with it

I point the gun and I pull the trigger and I project force enough

(I hope) that he becomes unable or unwilling to keep projecting

force at me. I attack back. I attack the attacker.

And so do you. You also attackto be more accurate, you and I

counter-attack, because we know that will be the only way to stop

the violence once it has begun. We acknowledge the reality tha

Steinbeck speaks of, which is that pure defense, however perfect

does not produce victory (however we dene victory at the time)

The reality is that we must have the sword and we must respond

in force with it. It may not even be a physical swordwe are

discussing mind-set here, after alland it may not be a physical

attack we employ even if we have a physical sword, or knife,

or gun, in our hands, but it will be a counter-attack regardless

It will be an attack made in response to an attack (against ourbody or our mind and spirit or any combination thereof) which i

intended to stop the attack against us from continuing. Whether

we do that by affecting the will of the attacker alone (and this is

the most effective thing we can do to stop them) or by affecting

both the will of the attacker and their physical ability to attack (by

damaging them) or, in a worst-case scenario, by affecting only

their physical ability to attack (and where the will remains, this

is the hardest option of the three to accomplish), we must stil

counter-attack. Whether we use a gun or a knife, pepper spray

or our bare hands, we must still counter-attack. Whether we do

that by exploding off the X, dynamically drawing, and running

a burst of rounds up their centerline or by standing tall, locking

the gun out and the sights on and sending a round precisely into

the base of the attackers nose from sixty feet away, we must stil

counter-attack.

To do otherwise is to risk death. To think of defense alone is to

risk death. To think of what others will think of us in that moment

because of what we did, is to risk death. To worry about courts

and lawyers when the attack is come upon us is to risk death

To think of the sword as a shield is to risk death. Our death, the

deaths of others, the death of the way we live that occurs if those

who are evil are able to do evil things to us and those we love. To

properly defend against that death, physical and otherwise, we

must in the moment of the threat put aside thoughts of defensealone. We must take up the sword, and we must attack those who

have attacked us, and we must do it until we win, however we

dene winning at that time and place.

Not only must we counter-attack, but we must do that with all the

force and aggression we can muster. We cannot afford to measure

the counter-attack until we have, without any doubt, dominated

the attacker. We cannot think of a certain number of rounds red

we cannot think of a certain number of stabs or slashes with the


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11

What is your Mission?

knife, we cannot think of certain blows with the hands and feet.

We cannot think of this before, and we cannot think of it during.

We must think only of resultsgetting results, measuring

results, observing results, acting upon results. No pre-set limits;

only results.

To set limits is to, again, increase the risk of death.

Reality Says: Think ATTACK, not defense.

Reality Says: RESULTS MATTER.

We have begun the study of mind-set.

There are missions, and there are Missions. Small m missions

come and go and vary in importance depending on time and place

and circumstances; large M Missions, are the core, the central

theme and focus, that all the small ms support and move youtoward. There will be many missions, but for each major area of

your life, only one Mission. I submit to you that developing the

proper mind-set for no-notice counter-offense begins and depends

on you developing or discovering your Mission.

In the rst part of the movie Saving Private Ryan, Captain Miller

says, as best as I can recall, If nding this guy gets me home to my

wife sooner, then thats my mission. His mission, his immediate

goal and task, is to nd Private Ryan and get him headed home.

His Mission, the ultimate goal and his central task, is to go home

to his wife. Everything else he does in the movie is in support of

that Mission.

At the end of the movie we see the older Ryan as he falls to his

knees at Millers grave and says to his wife, Tell me Ive been

a good man. This is because, when Miller died in the defense

of the bridge, his last words to Ryan were earn this. Earn it.

Whatever Ryans Mission was before that time, I believe that

after hearing those words it became, Be A Good Man. Everything

else he did after that in his life was in support of that Mission. His

question to his wife could have been, Have I accomplished my

Mission? Have I?

Your Mission does not have to be kept in your conscious mind.

Miller was more conscious of his Mission than Ryan was

throughout most of the lm. While you do, I believe, decide ordiscover consciously what your Mission is, once you have done

that, and once you understand that it is THE Mission and not a

waypoint, you can, for the most part, stop thinking about it. Your

subconscious mind will understand its importance and maintain

the focus on it that you need for decision-making and action

after that.

Your Mission should be simple in concept. Other, small m,

missions can be as complex as they need to be to be understood

and accomplished, but the core Mission, the one that drives you

forward past or, if necessary, through any obstacle, should be

as simple as it possibly can be. The subconscious will perform

a simple directive much more easily that a complex one; it will

focus more easily on it and assign more resources to it once it is

understood that this is important to you. Do NOT have a Mission

that can be separated into parts. It must be a singular concept. It

must be a unied goal. There must be a single focus. Your life, in

this case, will depend on it, so keep it simple if you want to have

the best chance of survival.

Example: An infantry company has been assigned a hilltop

to take possession of. There is in this a Mission, and there are

missions. The missions, the sub-tasks, might be phrased this way

1st Platoon will advance partway up the objectives north slope

to x the enemys attention and distract them. 2nd Platoon wil

simultaneously maneuver to the right ank and, once the enemy

has committed to dealing with 1st Platoons advance, attack up the

west side to the objective. 3rd Platoon will split heavy weapons

section off to support 2nd Platoon, provide light re support for

1st Platoon, and provide the reserve to exploit the breakthrough

to the objective.

Those are missions, small m. Whats the Mission? TAKE THE

HILL. Or even more simply put, WIN. Once the subconscious

of the company internalizes the Mission, the actual steps to

achieving it are worked out based on knowledge and experience

The process of supporting and achieving the Mission becomes

automatic, instinctive, and adaptable to circumstance once the

Mission is properly internalized. It will work the same way with

you. Determine your Mission and accept it. Your command staff

your subconscious and conscious mind, will take your knowledge

and experience and adapt it to the demands of the encounter.

For best effect, I believe that the Mission should have a Why?

attached to it. There must be a reason why you want to accomplishyour Mission. Captain Miller wanted to go home to his wife

Why? Because he loved her and wanted to see her again; because

she needed his support and needed for him to come home. Private

Ryan wanted to be a Good Man. Why? Because someone who had

died to keep him alive had wished him to do so with his last words

because he wished to honor the sacrice made for his sake.

SURVIVE, or WIN, are simple, easily understood Missions, but

without a Why, I dont believe it is enough just to have the

Mission. I dont believe the subconscious, especially, will grasp

the centrality and importance of the Mission unless a solid Why?

is attached to it. Because, for most of us, simple existence is no

enough. For most of us, simple victory is not enough. There has to

be something more to existence or victory for most of us. That

what the Why is. So increase your chances of winning by making

sure you have one.

Thats the basics of making and having a Mission as I see it

Closing this subject out, let me say one more thing: You may fai

anyway. There are no guarantees. Understanding the need for the

counter-attacking mind-set, having a Mission, knowing Why

none of these things will guarantee your survival in the face of


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12

unexpected assault. It did not save Miller in the movie; it has not

saved people in reality; it may not save you.

Nonetheless, I very rmly believe that you are more likely to

survive with these simple tools than without. I believe as rmly

that to neglect these central principles is to increase the risk that

you will not survive the ght. So, I urge you to start now and

get these few things straight. Get them inside of you and make

them part of you. Dont just decide that you will ght and win;

DECIDE that you will FIGHT and WIN, and know WHY youregoing to.

More than you may know depends on your doing that.


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Be the Apex PredatorSteve Collins

hat is an apex predator? One that has no fear or natural

enemy. An example would be the Great White Shark, a

creature feared even by man and at the absolute top of

the food chain in the ocean. Nothing hunts it, and it hunts all.

There is the grizzly bear. When a grizzly walks up on something, itcomes ready to ght, and kill whatever is in its way. Nothing stands

up to it. The same can be said for the alligator, and the African

crocodile. Seemingly unchanged since the age of the dinosaurs, it

is the same whether large or small, all ght and no give.

What separates us from them? The ability to reason, to think, and

the fact that we have opposable thumbs!

There are still apex predators in our midst, however. They are

the gangbangers and terrorists that have little fear of the police,

and no fear of you and your little CCW pistol. They are ready to

ght and kill you with no worry that you can put up any kind of

effective resistance.

I submit to you that if you are only training to be defensive, to

get away, to use minimum force, you are setting yourself up for

failure. You need to become the Apex Predator yourself.

How?

Watch the news. Watch reruns of the attacks of 9/11 again and

again. Watch the video footage of the Mumbai attacks. Get

angry! Stay that way! Channel that into your training. Dont just

go to the range and shoot around, train to kill your opponent

by whatever means necessary. Take knife training, empty hand

training, combative pistol training. Pursue every new skill you

can acquire! Learn to ght!

Think about your family as you train. Think about your wife or

signicant other being a casualty of violence, or worse, being

killed because of your inability to defend them. Develop your

mind-set. You need to accept that you need to not only be ready

to ght, but you need to desire it! You want to sink your teeth into

another mans throat, rip it open, drink the blood of your enemies,

then point to his homey standing close by and tell him youre

next.

Challenge yourself in your training. Make yourself so dangerousthat your potential enemies see you as the fellow Apex Predator

you are. Be ready to ght, and kill.

STEVE COLLINS

Steve Collins is the Suarez International Staff Instructor for

the State of Missouri. He has been a competition shooter for

over twenty years, and an NRA instructor for the last ten years.

W

A graduate of many rearms training institutions, he began

training with Suarez International in 2004, and has been a

Suarez International instructor since 2008. He is certied to

teach all of the SI series of classes, and will travel to any venue

to do so. After serving two decades in the US Army, he now

teaches and writes full time.


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Being A FinisherRoger Phillips

n any ght, having the ability to nish an adversary is a trait

that separates good ghters from great ghters. To make this

happen we need to dump the pansy, politically correct mind-

set of stop the threat. This type of mind-set can get you killed!

What is in our head (mind-set) and what comes out of our mouth,

need to be two very different things. If you are in a ght for your

life and you are thinking stop the threat, in my humble opinion,

you are probably going to die. We need to take it to another level

beyond this defensive thinking. We need to become offensive

and I mean that in more ways than one.

If your mission is to go home then you must stop the threat.

Is it possible that the best way to achieve that goal is not just

to stop the threat, but to ruthlessly annihilate the threat? It is

acknowledging the need for this ruthlessness that leads to the

ability to be a nisher. If we do not nish our opponent as quickly

as possible, we endanger our mission of going home.

In this case quickly means ruthlessly.

The mind-set of stopping the threat leads to hesitation...to being

overly careful.

Hesitation allows your adversary to get off of the hook, to

gain control of the situation and start dictating your next move.

If you allow him to get off of the hook you have signicantly

diminished your ability to succeed in your mission. As the

good guy, it will be likely that you are starting out behind in

the reactionary curve. You must regain that lost initiative. Once

you have done so, you must nish the adversary as quickly and

ruthlessly as you possibly can. The longer the engagement goeson, the more things can go wrong. So, in short, hesitation puts

your mission in jeopardy.

We must ingrain the mind-set of the seamless integration of

defense and offense. We may need to think defense to survive

the initial attack, but we must turn the tide as quickly as possible

and go on the offensive. Once you own the adversary, you must

nish him quickly, ruthlessly, without mercy. You must reach and

exceed the level of violence that was attempted to be perpetrated

on you.

In the world of the gun, some may call this shoot them to the

ground. As we shoot them to the ground we need to keep things inperspective. The OODA loop concept tells us that every decision

we make takes one-fth to one-quarter of a second. If it takes us

that long to make the decision to shoot, how long does it take for

us to make the decision to stop shooting? Is it possible that you are

going to pull the trigger two or three times more than was needed

to stop the threat? Since we are imperfect human machines this is

a very likely possibility. Lets say that you have an adversary that

is ghting you all the way down. You are making the hits and they

are having a signicant effect, but he keeps ghting as he falls

I

forward. Just as he is about to hit the deck you get a good high

line CNS hit and he is done. Is there a chance that you are going to

put a few more rounds in him before you work through the OODA

loop and you stop shooting? This is very likely! It happens often

And it is completely defendable in a court of law.

If you try to mitigate this phenomenon you will hesitate in your

attempt to be overly careful. Do not let the fearmongers of the

recent past keep you from going home. Go offensive and ruthlessly

nish the adversary. Stop shooting as soon as you can, once you

realize that you have completely stopped the threat. This is the

line that you have to worry about! Do not do anything obviously

illegal, immoral, or unjust, but realize that you may have to live

with the fact that you are an imperfect human machine that takes a

good portion of a second to ascertain that it is time to stop shooting

This is completely defensible, but you need to make sure that you

have wrapped your head around this potential reality.

Do not let the guilt of being an imperfect human machine keep

you from going home.

A quality mind-set and outstanding articulation* need to go

hand in hand. One without the other could have devastating

consequences.

*Articulation: The ability to tell a story, without lying or

exaggerating, that convinces a reasonable person that what you

did was reasonable, even if they would not have done the same

thing.

ROGER PHILLIPS

Roger Phillips is the Suarez International Staff Instructor based

in Southern Nevada. He is a lifelong hunter, shooter, competitor

and training enthusiast. He became a Suarez International

Instructor in the summer of 2006. Roger was originally brough

in as a Point Shooting Specialist. He is the author of the book

Point Shooting Progressions (PSP) and is featured in the Inde

Media training DVD under the same name. In 2010 his second

DVD was released titled The Fundamentals of Point Shooting

He has now written seven point shooting course curriculums for

Suarez International, including his agship course PSP, PSP/

Fighting at Night, Long Gun PSP, Advanced PSP, Introduction

to Point Shooting, Point Shooting Gunght Skills, and PSP/

Force-on-Force co-developed with Richard Coplin. He is also

qualied to teach numerous Suarez International courses as

a Tier One Staff Instructor. Roger travels all over the country

instructing these courses.

For information about classes by these and other instructors in

your area, contact: Suarez International at 928-776-4492, or

email:[email protected].

To host a class by a Suarez International instructor in your area,

call the ofce at the number listed for information about how to

or go to http://www.suarezinternationalstore.com/freetraining

aspxon the web.


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Afterword CR Williams, SuarezInternational Staff Instructor

HERE BEGINNETH THE LESSON

What?...Did you think this was all there was to it?

Learning never stops. That said

Thank you for reading this.

Thank you for considering these ideas.

Thank you for starting to develop your mind-set.

Dont stop here.

Keep going.

Dont forget to get some (physical) training too.

See you in class.

core of survival

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