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When we refer to X-weapon and we are referring to any weapon that you can get your hands on a crisis. If you carry a weapon, the only way that that weapon does you any good is if you can draw that weapon and use it in a crisis.
In this article I will focus on getting your weapon out from where you carry it so that you can use it efficiently and then escape. If you carry a weapon, make sure that you carry it in the same place all the time. We can also assume that weapons that could be carried would be one of the following, a knife, a gun, and pepper spray, some type of ASP or baton. Other things can be deemed as weapons as well, such as pens, ice scrapers and combs.
Whatever your weapon of choice, ensure that you carry in the same location all the time. I will teach you how to practice drawing that weapon. Yes, you need to practice every day so it becomes second nature. I will first give you drills to practice drawing your weapon with no stress, then we will slowly work our way up adding more and more stress. On paper the drills look very basic and simple; however you do need to perform these to ensure you can draw your weapon of choice under any, and I mean ANY circumstances.
I will have you add different positions with and without stress. I will then follow with you deploying an empty handed attack of some kind before you draw your weapon. I then will cover blocking an attack before you draw your weapon. Then we will do positional situations, and drawing your weapon with no stress and work up to a fully resisting opponent.
The important thing is you need to be able to draw your weapon under stress and be able to use that weapon defensively to create your window of opportunity for escape.
Whether we are drawing the weapon off our person, out of a purse, or from under a car seat, remember smooth is fast, and fast is smooth. If you fumble the weapon in the middle of the draw, not only does the weapon do you no good, you have wasted precious time trying to deploy your weapon, instead of defending yourself.
Also you do not have to wait for the crisis to happen to draw your weapon and be ready. Using your situational awareness you may see pre-assault indicators; this will give you ample time to draw your weapon. At times it may be pertinent to display the weapon, and at other times may serve you better to keep the weapon in a concealed, but at the ready. Either way using situational awareness is always the best answer.
The following drills should be done with safety being the number one propriety! Use training weapons, eye protection, and gear up for any contact drills.
The schedule I suggest is for everyone, even those most seasoned weapon carriers.
Week 1. Drawing your weapon should be done every day, at least 100 times each day. Draw slow and smooth. Do not look at the weapon when you draw. You can add this to your daily workouts as a warm-up or a cool down As you build into the complexity of the drills, they too can turn into a workout.
Now for the drills:
Each different drill gets its own five-minute round. If you feel uncomfortable in any of the rounds perform another round until you get comfortable with that particular drill.
Week 2. Drawing with no stress. Draw from a standing position, leaning, squatting, holding something in your non weapon hand. Draw from a sitting position. Draw while sitting in a chair feet under a table, in a car with the seatbelt on and off, sitting on the floor. Draw from a grounded position, supine, prone and on your side. These are all no stress drawing practice, and each one gets its own round.
Week 3. Strike and draw practice. I recommend one drill a day for 2-4 rounds.
For the strikes, strike a heavy back, focus mitt, partner, or shadow fight.
1. Offhand strike and draw. Perform an Offhand strike, and then draw your weapon.
2. Weapon hand strike and draw. Perform a weapon hand strike, and then draw your weapon.
3. Combinations strikes and draw. Strikes with both hands (think combinations) then draw.
4. Cramming and draw while moving toward the opponent.
5. Strike and back out and draw.
6. Strike circle out and draw.
We will now introduce some stress before the draw.
Have a partner put on a focus mitt or boxing gloves and throw a looping right hand strike at your head. (This is the most common street strike). I recommend one drill a day for 2-4 rounds.
1. Block one strike and draw.
2. Block one strike, cram and draw.
3. Block one strike, back out and draw.
4. Block one strike, circle out and draw.
When you are comfortable with the above situations perform the following:
Week 4.
1. Block a combination of strikes draw. Then perform the cram, back out, and circle out and draw drills.
2. Block a grab and draw. Then perform the cram, back out, and circle out and draw drills.
3. Stuff a takedown draw. Then perform the cram, back out, and circle out and draw drills.
4. Sprawl and draw. Then perform the cram, back out, and circle out and draw drills.
5. Block an attempted weapon takeaway. Then perform the cram, back out, and circle out and draw drills.
The next set addresses when we unable to block. Make sure you gear up appropriately to take some strikes. Also don't try to take your training partners head off, we are just adding some stress with some ole fashion rough housing.
1. Get struck once in the head draw.
2. Get struck with a combination of strikes in the head draw.
3. You are grabbed draw. Use a wrist grab, Hollywood choke, front and rear bear hug, rear hostage choke.
On all of the above use the same format as before, perform the cram, back out, and circle out and draw drills for each one.
I have added some situational drills for added training scenarios.
Positional situations:
Using the basic ground fighting positions, practice drawing your weapon, for at least one five minute round. You will draw from the following positions with your partner applying zero pressure working up to ten on the scale for resistance. You will find out quickly that each position has its own advantages and disadvantages. After practicing the drawing the weapon from the ground positions, you may decide not to draw at all. You don't want to have the first time you try to draw your weapon in an unusual situation to be for real. Make your decisions to draw and how to draw in training, so when it is for real most of the work is done.
We Rise or Fall to the level of our training in a crisis. So make the most of your training! Here are the positions:
Top mount, top guard, top side control, top scarf hold (head and arm) Bottom mount, bottom guard, bottom side control, bottom scarf hold.
After about one month of drills, if you train each day, you should be able to draw your weapon in most any situation. Of course you can move through quicker if you have some experience, or take longer if you need to. You should also perform a maintenance program to keep the skills you have honed. Perform these drills at least once a week for maintenance if you are serious about being able to access your weapon.
If you decide to carry a weapon of some kind, do yourself a favor and at least perform the 4 weeks of drills I have laid out here. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones that, when it happens, you will Be Ready!
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