This will be an ongoing process as time is available. I hope you will find it of value.

If you know me, you know I am open to all feedback and discussion (dissention). This is one of the reasons for this page(s). I might be way off on this stuff but I don't think so, and I would appreciate your input.

For the last 10 years or so, 70-80% of my practice time has been spent on fighting with a pistol, and not developing competition skills (prior to that it was ~60/40 in favor of competition). Might explain why I don't finish as high as I used to, might be age too, but I'm fitter than I was 10 years ago, and work just as hard on skills as I did then, so it's probably the focus change. The other 10-20% livefire training time is spent on pure accuracy. Sometimes this is done by shooting at rocks at the back of the berm 70+ yards away. Actually, come to think about it, that could also be concidered fighting skills in this age of the active shooter. Bottom line is that I want the skillset to take a sniper shot at some POS on the other side of the mall.

Until the last 2-3 years most of that "fight" training was close range with very dynamic movement drills. However, for some time I've been focused on low light skills, and manipulateing a hand held flashlight. I've virtually given up on pistol mounted lights for several reasons. If I'm using the switch on the light it always seems to be off when I want it on, and on when I want it off. Additionally, if you switch hands the controls reverse, and I'm easily confused. Even lights you just press to activate on either side, I have issues with pushing the muzzle of the gun sideways. Although the remote grip activated switch certainly works, now I'm locked in to having the light on when shooting. When I grip the gun the light goes on I can't get around that no matter what I try. While that does make for speed and accuracy and a normal shooting platform (same as daylight) I don't really like the idea of having to have the light on to shoot. I'm now commited to being right where the "shoot me beacon" is every time. What if there are more threats out there I haven't ID'd yet ? There's that pesky +1 rule to worry about. I also see big problems with using the light mounted on the gun to investigate "black holes". Can't exactly do that when walking down the street at night without attracting negative Law Enforcement attention. This isn't an issue when using a handheld light, if something doesn't feel right you can light it up with vetually no consequence exept they now know where you were. If I'm going to have a light in hand anyway what do I need a light on the gun for if I know how to co-ordinate both the light and the gun together?

Realistically 99 + % of the time all I need the light for is to check black holes and get a good look at someones hands (with the wonderful bonus of blinding them and taking away 70 percent of how humans get information from their enviroment). At night in an urban / suburban environment, and even generally out in the country, you can most times see good enough to see where people are, but not good enough to see what's in their hands. That's what's really important, and I can't exectly point my gun at everyone I want to check for weapons (without a Aggravated Assault charge). Just light something / somebody up and move while digesting what you saw. I have night sights for what may come next.

Bottom line is that some time ago I decided I needed much better skills with a handheld light. Over the last few years I have developed some techniques and tactics for a handheld light that seem to work for me, both from a simple shooting perspective, and they seem to work very well in force on force exercises. The techniques I'm now using I have never seen documented before, even with all the studying I've done on self defence. I'm not saying I've invented something new, just that I've never seen anyone else do it. The closest I've seen is Ken Good and the Strategos crew, but not quite.

Most of what is to come will be focused on this subject.

After deciding I needed real work on bilateral pistol shooting several years ago, I'm now getting pretty close to being competent. I still have some issues with my left hand trigger finger co-ordination. But it's getting better. Most of todays livefire range session was spent shooting various ways weakhand supported with a light. Since leaving the indoor range where I used to work, most of my practice shooting with a handheld light is either outdoors in broad daylight, or in my shop with airsoft. Nothing says you have to practice low light shooting in the dark, and airsoft is a great tool for far more things than just force-on-force.

Practice mainly involves shooting from cover using basically 3 shooting platforms, bilaterally, from different elevations. The elevations are from essentialy 3 different levels, using 4 different body positions; standing, deep squat, kneeling, and what Ken Good refers to as modified prone. The modified prone is interesting since you can shoot from about 6" off the ground yet still retain the ability to move much faster than a proned out position. Basically how I'm doing it is to go to kneeling, and then just slide my lead foot out till I get a good stretch on the leg and lean my upper body forward. The photo below isn't as deep as you can get but you get the idea.

This is right at the forward edge before the slide hits the bottom of the hand/wrist. I've drawn blood making this mistake, but have never jammed the gun. More details later..

Concerning the above photo - I have some issues with modified prone. It's a valuable tool for the toolbox, but you plant youself in place pretty hard for the benifit of a slightly more unexpected position. It takes a lot of flexability and leg / torso strength so it is good to practice it from a health standpoint (more on exercise later). But the most likely place I see myself using it is for shooting around a tire, and under a car. However, a good deep squat can get you below the oponents line of sight, and below the zone they'll probably shoot into when they start shooting through the wall. And a squat also allows you to rapidly vacate, or take, space better than a kneeling or modified prone position. The squat tends to be my default when I want to get low for this reason.

Getting up from modified prone is quicker than it looks. Notice how far the body is leaning forward, getting up quickly uses that. Here's how it works for me; rapidly bring your torso upright and use that momentum to pull the leading leg back under you to the kneeling position, from there you just get up like you would from kneeling. Simple. But you have to use the momentum of the rapid movement to pull the leg back, or it takes forever to move. The added benifit of whipping your torso upright is that you rapidly vacate vital body parts from where the enemy last saw you. The head moves a good ~10" back from the edge, and it's elevation completely changes. The way I see it I can probably stay in the fight long enough to at least take the opponent with me, just as long as I don't get hit in the head or upper spine. Which seguays (sp?) into the next point.

One of the things that needs done, if you're serious about fighting with a gun, is to develop the ability to shoot with either eye. I've been doing it so long that if the gun is in my left hand I autopilot to using my left eye, even when I'm not peeking around a corner. One way to look at it, even if you think bilateral shooting is stupid, is that if you can only shoot using your dominant eye then by default - around one side of cover you'll be forced to expose your entire head to incoming rounds. The first time you get nailed in the face by airsoft pellets you'll decide switching eyes is a worth the effort. You won't get a chance to learn how to do it right out in the real world went some POS nails you cause you poked your whole head out, and then nails your daughter. It's that important.

20 years ago I started working this skill by removing the contact from my right eye (dominant eye) for up to 2 weeks at a time. It's very disorienting at first, but the brain quickly adapts, and the non-dominant eye strengthens into it's new roll. The beauty of removing one contact is that you still have your binocular vision for balance and depth perception, you just can't get a good focus with the eye that naturally wants to lead. Very quickly you adapt enough to safely drive. But, don't be stupid and try blurring one eye (dominant) and going for a drive the first time you try this. This is best started during a weekend when you plan to hang around home.

My suggestion, if you are lucky enough to have perfect vision, is to buy some cheap low power reading glasses and remove the lense from your non-dominant eye's side. Cheap,simple, and easy enough there's no reason to not bring you survival skills up a big notch.

This is the platform I intend to use for the quick peek into the room after I've set up a confusing light flash pattern. It is quite probable I've already stuck my arm forward and flashed the room and retreated expecting POS in the room to respond by firing into the wall next to where the light was. This is NOT a platform for slicing the pie - I don't really plan to slice the pie in the dark. I poke my head in and take a picture, then immediately vacate that space (lateral or vertical movement) and digest what I just saw. It's a quick 1 second strobe and then I'm gone. Even if they have a prepped trigger waiting for me, I plan be elswhere by the time the trigger gets pulled.

The movement of the peek is just the same as I would corner with good lighting, only quicker. With good lighting, my feet are balanced under me and I lean my upper body forward slowly and fully digest what is out there before moving my feet forward and straigtening back up for the next slice. In the dark I'll do the same thing but with a fast lean forward with light on, as soon as I reach the end of comfotable controlled movement, the light goes out, the feet either move back, or I'll drop below waist level (or both).

If I do see a problem one option would be to do a Ken Good "slide by" (photos to come later) to get a second look, and a picture of the entire room and who else might be there. Another option would be to engage from the same side below their line of sight.

I added a close up of the light position from photo #5 from the left right next to it to show how I hold the light when shooting without using the light. Here's a photo of what the opponent sees when you roll out to shoot him. Note how his hands and gun keep me from sight. Mark has a normal chest level point of aim.