AAR SouthNarc ECQC; College Station, TX 18-20 May, 2012
Note: this will be a little more personal of an AAR, and a little less “clinical”, i.e, “Weather/Kit/”, etc. Weather -it was f#$%ing hot. Kit -jeans and an underarmor shirt, leather Desbiens Gunleather holster and a Glock. Sunglasses. Water. 
Also, this AAR is me speaking to my ‘own kind’; i.e., Average Joe Gunowner. There’s a lot of guys, especially here, that have broken their bodies in the name of their Duty, and are not the intended audience. I can only address the demographic where I find myself occupying most of the time.
Moving on.
Class Prologue: Late last year I had a few conversations with a few mentors/peers - they know who they are. These men took time they didn’t have to challenge me to go to the next level in my personal training regimen. I (still) didn’t know what I didn’t know. In many cases, I (still) had the gear cart before the mission horse; I had the tools held in clearer focus than the fight they were for. Shooting was more for “keeping up with the Joneses”, not for preparing for –God forbid- a fight to save my life, and win that fight. I was, in short, a soup sandwich –an internet Gun Guy, wholly ignoring the real purpose for all this –surviving and thriving in mortal combat.
At that time, I weighed in at 244lbs. I hadn’t had a consistent physical training regimen in, save for brief seasons, in 9 years. I couldn’t do a pullup. I wore a size 40 pants (38 if it had some give.). I liked to shoot, and although I would never come out and say it, fancied myself a “shooter”.
But that’s what fat people like me do. Shoot. We don’t like to fight. We shoot so we don’t have to cross the line over into actually preparing our body for more than just stand and shoot.
This Spring, I had the opportunities to train with 2 instructors that I’d never been to before; Jeff Gonzales and “SouthNarc”, as well as getting some magnificent reps and tweaks at the EAG Pistol 2 class in Brady, TX.
To be brutally frank about it, SouthNarc and TRICON classes, prior to January, were the two classes I would have gone the most out of my way to avoid. To be blunt, they intimidated the $#!t out of me. Like, that same mind-numb sensation when I see a page of Calculus equations; so, yeah, like long-division with blood, is how I would have described thinking about taking these two classes. No. Thanks.
But some part of my brain was telling me that I needed to get my hind parts to these classes. If for no other reason than just face value; they intimidated me to no end. They demanded more of me, just to be able to attend and function, than perhaps any other class I could get access to, at this point in time. I couldn’t just buy the right kit, wear the right swag, and show up and function. I had to make, in my personal case, a personal investment and commitment prior to even attending.
So I got off my cushy office chair. I didn’t by yet another carbine. I bought a pull-up bar, a dip-stand, a treadmill, and an ergometer. I had (at that time) 9 weeks until TRICON Pistol 2 (where I was absolutely certain I would be swinging 25kg kettlebells and doing pullups if I couldn’t make A-zone hits at 40 yards with my pistol, support-hand-only. *This was not the case, but The Boogeyman of not looking like a FAILfatty in a high-tempo class was a strong motivator.). I also had 14 weeks until SouthNarc ECQC in College Station. Much work was needed to be done.
I did not engage in a fitness Secret Program of Numbers and Letters. No crazy diet. I ate when I got hungry, eating as much protein and veggies as I could until I wasn’t hungry. When I got hungry again, I did the same thing. I did simple pyramid sets when I exercised, and when they got easier, I added more reps. I made my heart beat fast for 15, 20, 30 minutes at a time. I tried to get more sleep. I cut out sugar, as much as possible, and DX’d stupid chemicals in the Diet crap as much as possible. I stopped eating bread. I focused intently on pullups, first with assistance, later with full free-hang bodyweight –no kicking or whatever. Hang, pull, repeat.
14 weeks later, (as of 15 May) I was down to a size 36 pants –and had to cinch those pretty tight (thank you, Ares Gear, for the adjustment range on your belts). My XL shirts were too tight –in the shoulders and chest- and no longer just worn to try and (in vain) hide my gut. I could do 14 pullups -not all in one hang, but I could do them.
I felt like I was now in good enough shape to now actually get in shape. While I didn’t feel like I could pull a SGT Horvath, and yell; “We’re in business!”, I was where I was, and it was time to go to College Station.
Extreme Close Quarters Concepts, College Station TX 18-20 May, 2012:
To endeavor to try and give a blow-by-blow account, no pun intended, would do the course –and you the reader- a disservice. These are merely my observations and impressions, and my goal is this:
-to be as brutally honest as possible,
-to help you the reader learn from my successes and failures,
- with luck, to ultimately make you fill a seat at a course that I believe wholeheartedly will save your life.
Let me clear: I don’t like to fight. Frankly, I hate to fight. Potential death is a real bummer, you know what I’m sayin’? Bleeding, pain, injuries –that blows. *But… I like to be around people who do like to fight. Not psychopaths and roided-out MMA freaks; but people who have had the level of exposure to fighting and violence that it’s not a mystery and phobic to them. As was said in “Gates of Fire”, by Stephen Pressfield; [i]“War is work, not mystery”[/i], and I want to be around those people, and in those environments, that will demystify fighting for me. The majority of my adult life has been spent in pursuits that either abhor fighting institutionally, or just never cross paths with the need for fighting of the mortal kind.
Anyone, I believe, if enraged or brought to a heightened-enough emotional state will, or at least could fight –but that’s not what I am interested in. I wanted to, if you’ll accept the metaphor, blast through the concrete of social pacification, self-preservation and find some sort of “In Case Of Emergency, Throw Switch” lever that wouldn’t require red-lining my emotions to engage in physical combat, but to employ it with the same matter-of-fact methodology we would pull a ladder out of the garage to clear a clogged gutter, as needed and on demand.
ECQC, as taught by SouthNarc –a retired narcotics officer and SWAT team member- as it turns out, is NOT: a) Fight Club, b)Chaos, c)unsafe, d)black magic of the dark arts, e)unpractical. It IS: a)brutally relevant, b)confrontational , in that it leaves you and your weaknesses… and fears… nowhere to hide, c)a gut check –if you are scared of something(s) in the area of applied violence, it will come out, d)insufficient by a one-time attendance; this is just a step through the curtain for you as a student. You will not absorb a tenth of what is dropped on you in this class. This is “your first step into a larger world”. I was one of the only first timers, and one of the only people period with no current or recent prolonged exposure to BJJ, MMA, Muay Thai, etc. In short –I was an average white guy in his late 30’s who “carried a gun so he wouldn’t have to fight”. 
SouthNarc begins the class with a 4-hour block of instruction on a few key areas involving awareness, dealing with, managing, and finally solving violent encounters, steps to avoid these as well as much insight to the issues surrounding your basic street fight in our day and age, armed or otherwise.
Fights hurt. They are dangerous. I firmly believe that the best way to end a fight is stop one before it starts –and I believe that now even more, because of this class. But I can’t stop one if I am hesitant, unsure, unsound, uncommitted, or unproven. The four hours we spent Friday night was sublime… and at times, surreal –we even found ourselves practicing basic positioning footwork, low intensity and later 100% go, in pitch black cow pastures, illuminated by car headlights. So, maybe “Fight Club” –a little bit.
This block also included dealing with people who you can’t discern yet if they are a threat or not –but how to still take control of the situation from the jump. Also, further escalation of that control, if they behave in ways that are potentially an escalation of threat. Last, what to do if it goes sideways.
If you are a Concealed Weapons Permit holder and have no formal, supervised training/instruction in dealing with/preparing for the quick descent into chaos that a situation can go to -from a yogurt run to Target that ends with you fighting for your gun, and for your life, between two cars in a parking lot ending with you applying violence to save your life and get away, allow me to be blunt: you are fouled up. *Here is the good news: this 4-hour block, worth attending the class in and of itself, will expose that dark void in your skill, identify what is needed and move your mind to begin to make decisions on how to best fill that void. “What do I need? Where do I get it?”, etc.
The last portions of the 4 hour block was spent preparing for the worst: when $#!+ goes sideways, and you have to shift gears in the flash of a moment from nice average American, to doing whatever appropriate to get on top of the situation, as quickly as possible, bleeding the least –hopefully.
”Multi-Disciplinary Problem Solving”
That is what this class could be summed up as; preparing to solve quickly occurring violent, stressful problems using several disciplines.
Days 2 and 3 were two halves of each other, but built on the fundamentals laid out on day 1. Both days began with building shooting positions designed to be effective inside from 5 yards to contact-distance, ie., hands-on. As with the entire course, these are elegant but not-complex fundamentals designed to be easy to be remembered, be practiced, and ultimately be employed without any unnecessary clutter. They are designed to help you protect your head –allowing you to stay vertical, aware and fighting; to help you put effective shots into your opponent without endangering yourself or others with you or around you; place those shots effectively and consistently, even when “unsighted”, using body position. These positions are to allow you to be able to fight, defend, approach, or withdraw as needed for the fluid situation that is a fight.
SouthNarc: “My goal is to take a shooter, and move that ‘shooter’ into being a tactician. A tactician is adaptable [able to apply/employ what is needed, immediately when it is needed, effectively].”
The shooting positions taught in the morning portions of day 2 and 3 are, in my opinion, the most effective argument I’ve yet to find, for CCW persons to at least be competent with the concept and skill of Appendix/Inside-Waistband Carry (AIWB). As noted in the course, what you can most effectively physically control at any time is a very small area, and it is in a finite area in the front of your body (borders being your left, right shoulders and down to your hips). Keeping your blaster inside this area, as well as your fixed blade, for me –now- is not only sensible, but vital. Your mileage may vary, each to their own –I get it; but be able to clearly articulate to yourself why you are doing whatever your method of carry. If the answer is weak, reconsider.
In the afternoons, the course shifted gears to the other %70 of the word “gunfighting”; “fighting”.
To paraphrase the quote cited earlier, fighting is work. Hard work. But know this, and just like with marksmanship/gunhandling side of gunfighting, technique trumps physical strength. It is great and good to be as strong as you can be, but as SouthNarc proved to one and all, you don’t need to be big to make solid technique work. He slung big boys around in this class, like a mongoose tying knots in a buffalo.
Using and relying on brute physical strength alone in the hands-on evolutions left me completely gassed –and often worse for wear, especially as it wasn’t working a decent portion of the time. Late into the second day, after SouthNarc demo’d some of the techniques on me to the class, the lightbulb went on. In the next Thunder Dome session (my description), my sole thought was to rely on the techniques shown in the lecture in regards to position of the body, arms, feet, hips and head –and how they work together, as well as the right moments to apply them.
After this evolution, even though it was exertion of an extreme kind, I still had about %80 of my “gas in the tank”, and only began breathing hard towards the very end. Lesson learned. I need continued, and continuous, exposure to these techniques and practice of them.
Observation: all of my training, prior to this, has not been under these types of conditions. That’s not to say the training was “bad” or not relevant. On the contrary, the instruction was helpful to the extreme. But, for me, there remained, if you will, “an 800lb gorilla in the dark corner of the room”. Violence, and the application of it, intimidated me. Shooting and marksmanship/gunhandling is rather sterile: you’re punching paper, moving some and positioning the weapon to shoot small holes in small areas of small paper. My instructors did their best with me to reinforce what this was about, why we are really doing this, and to some degree –in theory- I understood. It’s a fight. Roger. Got it. Someone is looking to do me harm. Roger. Got it.
But that does not become more crystal clear than when you are trying in vain to clear a malfunction on a Sims pistol like a good boy, and someone (like a 260lb young police-officer-in-training) puts their shoulder into you, your Sims gun and your large padded head, at full speed.
Oh, THAT fight…
I have dark voids in the “fighting” aspect of “gunfighting”. In other words, I suck at fighting. It’s not a mystical revelation, but SouthNarc emphasized this early on, when noting that this class will expose your weaknesses: ”Train what you suck at.” I suck at fighting. It feels great to burn it down on the Mod Navy Qual with my carbine at 50 yards. Skill at arms is an achievement, no matter what level you are at. At the same time, I personally have to drag my focus onto the matters of what hostile encounters will I likely face, what will be required to survive and thrive in that contact, do I possess what is required, where am I deficient, and how do I get better.
Course Conclusion:
The course begins to shift into its final phases with dealing with/solving/fighting 2 against 1. If you’ve watched any video on YouTube or LiveLeak involving fights of a brutal nature, rare is that it’s just 2 players. Usually it’s a pack on 1, or a pack on pack.
ECQC emphasizes that there are scenarios to avoid at all costs, such as fighting from the ground –but prepares you for the worst-case scenario by breaking them down, and beginning to prepare you for how to confront them and handle them, while embracing the reality of those scenarios.
In our class, it seemed to me that maybe %10 of those that got taken to the ground in 2-on-1 made it back to their feet to get some sort of distance. Whatever the number, what was obvious was is this: fighting on the ground in a non-padded non-gym environment is bull$#!t. The mantra repeated in this class proved abundantly true throughout the weekend: “Stay conscious. Stay on your feet.”
Personal Note: Before attending, because the class itself was such an unknown for me, I had significant anxiety about what would occur in class. What if I lose one of the fights? Are people just there to get their fight on? Am I gonna get busted up? What if it is nothing but douchebags with a blood-lust?
My concerns were completely unfounded.
To a man, all were there for very similar reasons and motivations. Many had, like I had, put in much preparation to be able to get the most out of the class that they could. All were gentlemen. No one had an unchecked ego. (If they had, SouthNarc would have slung them around until they got in line anyway.) Everyone was genuine about their fellow students getting better, too. So, so what if I lost? It’s not about win or lose in one of the evolutions; it’s about getting the training so you don’t lose when it’s For Real.
Final Thoughts and Takeaways: (*Note: This is not a comprehensive list, just a few personal examples)
-During the last Evo, my personal 2-against-1 as the CCW holder, I dinged my right hand. My drawing hand, how I make a living. It completely “reset my loop”, or however you want to say it –but the effect of this ding (a sprained ring finger, nothing serious just painfully distracting) had an alarming effect: it made my brain check out of the fight. Pain –made my brain begin to shut off and treat the fight, even though it was technically practice, as if it was over. SouthNarc, ever circling and monitoring the excercise, said this; “Keep going”.
The fight isn’t over because I start bleeding, get a ding, get hurt, get stabbed or get shot. Fights suck, but that’s the way it goes. Lesson learned. I was confronted with my “Bitch Zone” as I dubbed it, where my brain checks out and quits, and it was not an easy pill to swallow. But, I’d rather find out in front of 15 or so other dudes trying to find out the same things, versus in the WalMart parking lot.
SouthNarc, when I asked what will push this back some, this “Bitch Zone”, he said simply; “Exposure”. I need to get myself into more uncomfortable training situations and train under as high level of pressure I can, and get more fight practice and more exposure to discomfort …again and again and again.
-Managing Stress. Pat Rogers said to me recently; “All stress is internal”, and this proved to be true over and over this weekend. Staying as calm as possible in this environment would make or break me, each evolution. I can’t solve problems if I am crumbling under the stress of it.
-whatever weapon I carry is merely an extension of my will. If my will is conflicted, hesitant, etc., so will be the employment of that weapon –knife, sap, club, gun, tire iron, whatever. I also realized that up til this point, if you’d removed whatever weapon I had, I’d truly be disarmed. But the goal, made clear by this class, is to be armed –whether you have a weapon on you, or not. To be able to avoid, confront, and if necessary solve problems capably even if you don’t have your blaster, your backup, your 3 folders, your reload, and your pepper spray. Because you know how we are; let’s compensate for our weaknesses by throwing more hardware at the dark void of our inadequacies.
Final Thought:
I wanted to let some time pass from the end of class, and allow for all I’d received, consciously and sub-consciously, to sink in some more. Today it was very clear to me; I still hate fighting. However, the fear of it has been reduced to some degree. Some. I still think fighting sucks –but I want very much to be a better tactician and fighter because fighting sucks. I want to avoid, shut down or solve such problems as quick as possible for that very reason: fighting blows.
I don’t want to go back. But I need to go back. ECQC enabled me to be able to see behind The Curtain of what I had not wanted, or been able to, confront in my own mind and begin to identify and rectify my own weaknesses and shortcomings with “immediate, followed by remedial action”.
I’d like to thank Josh B. of Grey Group Training, as well as Paul H., Ramia and Scarlett for their logistical help. To those men who I am fortunate to call Mentors in these areas, you have my continued gratitude. I’d like to thank the Host of the class, his facilities were Spartan in the best sense of the word –nothing more than needed, nothing less than needed; and also one of the best range classrooms I’ve ever seen.
Last to SouthNarc and his A.I., “Feral”; thanks for your time, input, honesty, commitment and generosity. I’m better for it, and am truly glad that you are out there giving this to the Good Guys who will listen and receive, to help them on their Day In The Car. Many, many thanks.