COMBAT MARKSMANSHIP MENTALITY
The Mindset of Combat Marksmanship.
Combat Marksmanship (CMMS) is the ability to place lethal precision fire on
a threat target in all environments under the stress of combat in order to
reduce a threat to a point that it is no longer viable. CMMS differs from
Marksmanship (MMS) fundamentals, in a way that, the enemy is firing at you
or was just firing at you. In marksmanship shooting events, the shooter has
all the time to make a shot count. In CMMS, the shooter has limited time,
literally the rest of his life to perceive a threat and then eliminate that
threat. When a UFC fighter goes into the octagon, they call it combat.
However, is it really? He cannot bite, head butt, or gouge the opponent’s
eyes. It is nothing more than a very painful athletic event. The UFC fighter
has the ability to say, “I quit” or tap out. In combat, the face off of
opponents to the death, you do not have the ability to quit. If you quit it
is very likely that you or someone else will die.
CMMS
begins with a mindset that the shooter is going into a combat situation.
When a boxer enters the ring, he expects to be hit. When a person has taken
on the responsibility to protect himself or others, he has to assume that
once the fight is on, it is to be to the end. It may end peacefully.
Posturing may actually work. Studies show that a gun presented by a victim
actually keeps the assailant at bay or runs him away. The mental decision of
the “victim” to refuse to be a victim was the first action completed to save
his life. That decision was made as soon as that person decided to arm
himself. The correct mindset for the “Combat” situation starts with
preparedness.
Preparedness is the situational awareness that
something may happen and “prepares” the mind by thinking out the “what
ifs”. “If this happens, I will do this……..”. This little saying is one of
the best thoughts to have before something actually happens. Human reaction
times to a stimulus are as fast as .25 seconds. These reaction times are
achieved when a person can think thru the actions needed to accomplish a
task before it is needed. This is a mental rehearsal. My collegiate
wrestling coach was a big advocate of the “mental rehearsal”. Before
matches, I would lie in bed the night before and mentally picture the match
in my head. I would visualize the actions I was going to do first and think
to myself “if this or that happens, then I will do this…..” I wrestled the
match virtually many times before I wrestled it actually. Now, I am a much
better shooter than I was a collegiate wrestler, but I learned a lot from
those simple mental exercises. These prepared me for many situations in
life. Preparedness also influences determination and the ability to be
proactive..
Determination is the next principle of the
mindset for combat. It is the innate personal decision to “not quit” until
the situation is over. By being mentally prepared, the shooter is not as
surprised at the situation and therefore not as overcome by events as
someone that has no idea about what is going on. Because a person can think
ahead in the gunfight, he can then realize the outcome and be proactive, not
reactive. By being determined and proactive, the gunfighter has a diminished
fear factor. I am not saying that there is no fear in the gunfight. There is
fear, fear of others getting injured or dying and other types of fear. Maybe
fear of the bad guy getting away. However, determination, the mental
attitude that “I WILL NOT QUIT” carries us thru to the end of the fight.
Determination gives us passion and passion can be the driving force that
gets us out of bed on Saturday mornings and takes us to the range.
Passion is the love that we have for
activities we do. Going to the range and training for tasks that are
uncomfortable or hard to accomplish. However, once we accomplish those tasks
we feel gratification and satisfaction. That passion breeds more
determination to excel and make ourselves better and push ourselves
harder. We just have to remember, too much “can do” sometimes can do us
in. We need restraint at the right time in the training cycle. We must be
able to control the passion and use the smoothness we develop in our actions
to develop the mental speed needed to anticipate what happens next.
Speed, both mental and physical comes by
training actions repetitively. By repeating the same actions correctly many
times, we “groove” that action in our brain. Once that motion is “grooved”,
the action can become almost reflexive. There is no such thing as “muscle
memory” per say. It is a term used to explain the reflexive actions of
trained tasks that can happen with minimal outside influences. A reflex by
definition is a response to a stimulus that does not need to go to the brain
and be processed. It goes to the spinal column and back to the point of
origin. Training increases speed. Training gives us the experience to know
what should be happening next in the sequence of events. Passion drives us
to train and determination keeps us going when it gets difficult. By
focusing that passion and determination, we can “push thru” to the next
level of accomplishment and our speed increases. With focused power and
speed, we accomplish violence of action.
Violence of Action is the execution of
actions with surprisingly overwhelming force. It is a culmination of all the
passion, determination and speed needed to realize victory. When faced with
violence of action the assailant must reevaluate the situation. Violence of
action also diminishes the bravado of the assailant and increases the
bravery of the gunfighter. Violence of action is the one aspect that
criminals use to surprise victims and totally dominate the situation. By
dominating the situation, they control the victim. The gunfighter must use
all the aspects of the COMBAT mindset to be the one that dominates
the situation, eliminate any threats with the appropriate level of
force and be prepared to go to that level of force. Thereby controlling
the situation and being victorious.
The
Combat Mindset is not a natural born ability for most people. It is and can
be a learned response. In preparing oneself for the fight, the combat
mindset must be mastered. You must have determination to go the distance,
passion to work hard and the mental preparedness to be aware of the
situation.
Written By
Frankie McRae, Director of Training Raidon Tactics Inc.
www.raidontactics.com
Frankie McRae is the Director of Training for Raidon Tactics Inc. He is the
former head of the US Army Special Forces Course that is the proponent for
Hostage Rescue/Counter-Terrorism training and operations. Raidon Tactics
Inc. is a minority woman owned service disabled veteran company that offers
premiere Shooting, Close Quarters Battle and Counter-Terrorism driver
training. These courses are offered to Military, Law Enforcement, Corporate
Security firms and the general public.
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