Handgun Retention Flow Drills

[Gomez]

I did a one day class with Gabe Suarez last Friday. The topic was Unarmed Agaisnt the Gun and one of the particularly neat pieces was that Gabe taught his unholstered weapon retention techniques as a flow drill. Has anyone seen this idea elswhere?

[EricO]

Paul, would it be possible for you to expand a bit upon your description of a flow drill? What are some of the key points involved in Suarez's drill. EricO

[Gomez]

Why certainly. It's a lot easier to work through than to write out, but here goes:

(With gun extended, bad guy attempts to grab gun) Retract gun to pectoral reference point as off-hand strikes bad guys face/head. Return off-hand either to gun or to contact ready position.

If bad guy is already establishing grip on your gun, keep both hands on gun, retract gun to pectoral position while rotating hips in the same direction. (Will generate more force to remove gun from bad guy's hands while keeping gun oriented towards him.)

If this technique fails to remove bad guy from gun, drop to one knee or a squat, orienting the muzzle up and into the bad guy. Shoot as neccessary.

If bad guy does not need shooting, at this point, drop from the kneeling/squating position into a groundfighting posture and direct kicks into his shins, knees or groin to drive him off of the gun.

Gabe taught these as a progression, if you were slow iniating the first step (retract to retention position), you could immediately flow into the next step, if that was not successful, it led into another technique and so on.

None of the individual techniques were new to me, but the idea of integrating them into a flow drill was something that I hadn't seen elsewhere.

Some of the details between what Gabe teaches and what I do are different, but either techniques work in this progression. (For instance, Gabe uses a different off-hand placement for a contact ready/retention position than OPS and he favors a side-on grounded position whereas I favor a spine-down/flat grounded position.) I was very impressed with Gabe Suarez. He was knowledgable, polite, very willing to entertain questions; all in all an excellant trainer.

[EricO]

Paul, interesting stuff, thank you. What do you think about the Lindell method of retention and disarming techniques? I've read many articles about it and would someday like to have some training within this system. Does OPS teach any techniques from this sys?

I wish OPS had easily avail. classes within the Northern CA for Bay Area civilians, I would hop on one in a second. Your prices are very reasonable and I've heard the instruction is top notch.

Thanks again,
EricO

[Gomez]

EricO:

The Lindell Method was the "bee's knees" when it came out. It was the first structured weapon retention program developed and it saved a lot of lives. For me, the Lindell system requires too many decisions to be made in too compressed a timeframe. It's a very diagnostic system. It's also a fairly passive system.

I prefer a more aggressive and integrated approach. Having said that, I also reccomend getting as much training, from as many sources, as you can. If you've got access to training in the Lindell Method, take it. See what works for you, see what doesn't. See what integrates with your other skills (gun and nongun) and what doesn't.

Andy does a few classes in California each year, maybe we'll get to the Bay area soon.