Course Description:“To be what I call an “effective armed citizen”, a person must possess cross-domain skill sets that support our goal of just…getting home. Not enforcing the law, not inflicting our will upon others…just going home. There is so much to the adoption of this lifestyle beyond simply carrying a pistol that most people do not appreciate.
Street Encounter Skills and Tactics prepares citizens for personal security challenges by equipping them with a comprehensive suite of “soft” and “hard” skills that are woven into a holistic approach to legal self-defense.
Who is this course for?
This course is for the person who recognizes that there is much more to personal safety than simply carrying a gun. If you want to expand your knowledge and acquire skills oriented toward the layered nature of civilian self-defense, this class is for you.
Methodology
Employing an iterative approach, students progressively acquire skills and knowledge required to enforce their security decisions and secure themselves before, during and after an incident. Among these skills are:
Stopping Bleeding (Medical Trauma)
Employing Pepper Spray (Less-Lethal Options)
Interacting with Law Enforcement (Legal Preparation)
Street Encounter Skills (Managing contacts and conflicts for de-escalation and de-selection)
Subsequently these concepts and newly acquired skills are reinforced and validated as students are exposed to a combination of drills and scenario-based exercises emphasizing decision-making and decisively employing an appropriate course of action.
End state:
Students will be equipped with an understanding of the threats they face and provided a comprehensive suite of skills and tactics that enable them to respond to these circumstances and effectively respond.
I fired just under 300 rounds and received a POM OC spray unit and trainers (2) which were used in class.
John's approach was to integrate a variety of skills into your brain and test you using a host of methods. To that end we carried med kits and at random times were told to do a self assessment and treat various simulated wounds on ourselves. We integrated Pepper spray with verbal skills, movement, and firearms. We worked scenarios where anything could happen. You might have an ambiguous unknown contact that was nothing or turned into something. You might have a clear shoot situation turn into a no shoot, then back to a shoot again. You might feign compliance in a situation where the threat had the drop on you and wait for them to turn their head so you had an opening. At the end we got to work all of these skills against a 3D moving target scenario.
I can say as an instructor putting all of this together into a 2-day format that included live fire was very impressive. It's something I've only done in Force-on-Force or scenario training. It was funny that the more complex and challenging the scenarios got, the more I got into the class. I was fully engaged by the complexity and challenge.
Dallas Pistol Club was a superb host. We had full use of their LEO training facility for the weekend and accommodations were first rate.
John isn't local, but he will be back to Texas in the near future. I would strongly recommend having holster training before you go to this class. Walking in the door to this class you need to be safe with a holster and those who only had limited holster training were feeling it pretty quickly.
More on John Murphy: Trainers You Should Know- John Murphy