By Col. Thomas Bovet
IALEFI Control #26-04
1.) Seemingly irrational, determined and extremely vicious attacks will force us to take a critical look at existing techniques and CQB training.
2.) Most formatted responses are insufficient for survival and age-old wisdom teaches us that unorthodox attacks regularly beat well organized and superiorly armed opposition (lessons from guerrilla wars).
3.) Our penchant for “systems” is a major problem. We create systems for they can be structured, packaged, organized, named or labeled and managed. However, their “symmetry” can also be easily studied and attacked or circumvented.
4.) Catch-phrases/words, such as “survival mindset”, “condition red”, OODA-loop, etc. are well intended and meant to prepare us to react to the unexpected; but they also give the illusion that combat can be approached systematically.
5.) If a fighter is nothing more than the sum of his learned and practiced “techniques, will be inferior to the warrior who acquires the real fundamentals, develops his natural talents and learns to adapt intelligently.
6.) Established stances (Weaver and Isosceles) or particular popular body or limb positions are not basic. The real fundamentals must be identified and wastage in time, movement and energy eliminated.
7.) Shooting is a martial art – and real life is not a dojo! As there is no standard attack, so there is no standard response or defense. Whether bare hands, knife, club or firearm, we must cut through the rituals and forms and re-learn the warrior’s bare-bone and unformatted, unpredictable response:
MOST POTENTIALLY LETHAL ATTACKS CREATE A CHAOS FOR THE VICTIM.
BUT WHERE MOST MEN ONLY HEAR DEAFENING NOISES AND EXPERIENCE IMMOBILIZING CONFUSION, THE WARRIOR FINDS A RHYTHM AND FORCES HIS OWN DEADLY TUNE ONTO THE ENEMY.
Important Questions and Answers
Q: To what extent can we really train the way we fight?
A: Commonly, we set up scenarios which suit our assumptions, match our abilities and backgrounds. Our fondness for a neat and structured curricula prevents often proper and realistic training. (Mandates by our own administrations and authorities, such as range-rules and safety regulations may prohibit certain important combat-scenarios).
Q: How many basic shooting positions and techniques can you learn and practice? How many vectors of attack are possible?
A: Probably too much to remember in the response time needed in order to be applied effectively. The next attack will be different from all the possibilities you practiced!
Q: How can we teach and train within a “structured curriculum” when the bad guys do not follow one? How to present training that is intended to teach defense against irrationality and chaos?
A: Teach / train only the TRUE FUNDAMENTALS. Be sure, every student is reliably trained in gun-safety; the range should be “hot” upon entering and securing.
Go through improvised scenarios, starting from weak positions, “blind” positions with surprise stages, malfunctions and handicaps.
Consider 3-dimensional vectors, angles, movement, environmental stress and stage “impossible” problems. Allow student’s ideas into a scenario.
Begin with physical workouts and pre-stress. Briefings should require keen concentration and mentally demanding. Allow scenarios to finish before critique.
Remember: When you are surprised by an attack, your defenses are already penetrated and options, movements & positions become drastically reduced!
Training Components
1.) Practice spontaneous attacks, vicious attacks, from non-threatening situations. Leave it up to the OPFOR to decide on how to attack. Do not choreograph everything. Invite OPFORS to attack using their favorite martial art styles, particular street-techniques, MMA, Kung-Fu, knives and clubs.
2.) Practice only with consideration to movement-vectors, angles and time.
3.) Variations: distance, nos. of attackers, vehicles, in simulated crowds, open spaces without cover, confinement, sitting, prone, performing ordinary tasks, etc.
4.) Prepare for objective critique: timer, hit-counter, videos, records and paintballs.
5.) Accept the firearm as more than a “launcher for projectiles”. Use the weapon creatively as an extension of your hand. Counter-offensives must not be solely based on those limited number of cartridges – treat them as a bonus in an engagement. You will be less surprised when you run dry.
6.) Train one-handed (especially weak-handed) with malfunctions and simulated injuries extensively, incl. reloads to comply with your natural response reactions.
7.) Never stop moving / actions because your first attacker lies on the ground or looks defeated. Follow through by keeping positive control of the scene and full 360 degrees – you remain vulnerable!
Safety Concerns
1.) Safety is a relative entity. Relative to the person/s who practice and to the measures place. Passive safety can be 100 percent. Dynamic safety is not. We must ask:
What do we want to achieve with a certain training and what safety rules are acceptable to my particular class, without ignoring realism?
2.) Rules do not guarantee safety, they are just guidelines or codes of conduct and create a danger-threshold for the players. However, following a set of rules does not eliminate accidents. The individual shooter provides the real range-safety standard.
A given range-standard is always as high as the standard of the player with the lowest personal firearms safety.
3.) Consider: If a lone shooter adheres to the 4 basic rules of firearms safety, he should be near 100 percent safe from personal injury. The moment another, second shooter joins the same range for practice at the same time, than the overall standard created by both shooters is already compromised by a certain factor; simply through the dynamics of a shared space (even if both adhere to the same 4 basic rules of gun safety).
4.) You must practice for total proficiency with your firearms, including blind operation, dis-assembly, reassembly, and malfunction clearing.
5.) If we strive to provide close to total safety in firearms training, to protect your students from injury – you must balance the practice conditions with the risks an officer/student will face by not being prepared enough for a realistic engagement.
Prepared by Col. Thomas Bovet
Hong Kong, May, 2026
(The author reserves the copyrights for the entire document, consisting of four pages)
