http://www.shivworks.com/pdf/ECQC%20Course%20overview%20.pdf

I took this class this past weekend (July 29th-31) and today I am walking with a slight limp from an escape in one of the evolutions........but that is the least significant thing I got from this training session

This is the most reality based course I have ever taken.

As Southnarc says throughout the course: "it is basically a problem solving course", meaning that you have to get yourself out of situations presented to you by thinking and then acting -depending on the opponent's reaction- in force-on-force evolutions.

You are taught concepts and techniques to prevent attackers from getting too close (through verbal commands like any other course), but then -knowing that many times that isn't going to stop an attacker from trying to take your money or your life- other students in role playing positions will "jump you"....................... and you have to fight "for your life".
Not literally for your life of course, but it sure seemed like everyone involved put in their best effort to simulate a real street attack and challenge you to your limits and beyond!


I will not attempt to give a detailed evaluation of the course, because I will not do it justice. This thread is nothing more than an unconditional RECOMMENDATION of the course for anyone who takes the responsibility of protecting himself and his family from the scum out there who will spare nothing to separate you from your money, car or anything they want and YOU HAVE

You will learn and put into practice disarming techniques, on your feet, on the ground, inside a car, in other crowded spaces,etc. You will learn to control an opponent with locks and moves that will give you an advantage to overcome an attacker.

Yes, there are also plenty of practical shooting drills from 10 feet to "in your face" distance. As a matter of fact, half the course involves shooting. Some of the shooting is taught and done - realistically- from the confined spaces of a car, with common "shit sandwich" scenarios.

One example: you are in the car with your wife in the passenger side and a child behind her. You then get out of your seat belt and maneuver your body to shoot an attacker (target) on your side, you then shift your body and pin your front passenger in place with your arm (to keep her from moving into the line of fire) and shoot a target on the front passenger side, get out of the car, approach a third target while compressing your pistol and shoot the target from a vertical or horizontal block at "in your face" distance and then shoot the second target shot (passenger side) extending your gun and shooting at 10 yds. All this while making sure you don't muzzle sweep anyone in the car, including yourself.

As I already stated above said, this is a recommendation to take the course, not a thorough evaluation of it. I leave that to more eloquent and talented writers.

If you want to learn and practice concepts that will help you win an armed confrontation at realistic scenarios, put your money where your wishes are. It is the best $$$ you will ever spend.........unless you don't value your life much........................... or that of your loved ones

I will get myself in better physical shape and take this class again! It is very physically demanding

WARNING:
If you do not want to work your ass off in getting better at CQB, skip this course.
If you are more interested in looking good than in exposing areas you are weak in (so you can work on it), skip this course.

http://www.shivworks.com/


Notes:

-My sincere appreciation to Chris -from MDTS- for his training, and for bringing close to home (upstate NY) this high quality of training.

-Many thanks to Southnarc for passing on his skills to those of us who can benefit from his field experience in CQC, and for doing it so effectively and enjoyable

To the guys that took the class, I have to say that I am amazed at the quality of human beings that go to these training sessions. They are the choir, so I won't preach to it, but the guys taking the class make a significant difference in making the experience a joy.

It is refreshing to know that there are so many decent human beings who will give you the shirt off their backs, if they sense you need it. But try to TAKE it by force from them, and you will be surely sorry you tried!

I was blessed and honored to have met such a superb group of individuals. Hope to see you again soon!

Good to see you posting and very glad to have met both you and your friend and neighbor who came to train with you. I owe both of you a beer or three

I had a very good time while struggling to get through the evolutions. Those darn FIST helmets are a necessary but royal PITA . i for one, was happy when mine came off and I didn't have to yell:"I can't breath"

Guys, if you have any questions, ask them now while the course is fresh in our minds. I speak for myself but i know the details will not be as clear next month as they are now

S, thanks for posting your experience in the class. It was my pleasure and honor to meet and have the opportunity to train with you.

Now, it is as if I had discovered gold and I want everyone to share in the wealth. This training is too good and important to not bring it up to everyone's attention because, one day it could save your life!

Take care S, and if you are near Rochester/Honeoye Falls let me know and I will be thrilled to take you to dinner and chat with you

Please post pics of that little girl kickin my ass :)

Hey guys, Sorry for the delay! I'd like to thank all of you for creating such a great learning environment, it was fun to hang out and get smacked around with you! I just got my AAR done and like Ed Sr. posted above, it's meant to be a slightly detailed recommendation for Southnarc and his curriculum, not a step by step walk through of course content.



PUC- Practical Unarmed Combatives 1800-2200hrs

The Friday night instructional block was an incredible precursor for the following two days of extreme close contact. I can’t imagine making an attempt at ECQC without this very technical and well designed course concerning the "criminal assault paradigm”. The evening started with discussion and demonstration of two primary components present in a criminal assault. These two components give the "bad guy/s” the upper hand through initiative, close contact, and multiple aggressors, and must be realized and worked into your thought process as you attempt to maintain awareness of yourself and your surroundings.

Once we became aware of the challenges involved in the opening moments of a confrontation, we discussed MUC or Managing Unknown Contacts. This not only provided us with the skills necessary to potentially avoid the criminal assault by controlling distance and maintaining positional dominance while remaining focused, but gave us incredibly valuable pre-assault queues. We took the opportunity to practice our pre-recorded verbal responses and allowed each other a chance to be exposed to and recognize the different pre-assault queues that commonly occur. Pick any criminal assault footage available online, and you will see these queues virtually screaming out to the soon-to-be victim.

This brought us to the point where perhaps through all of our efforts, we were unable to remove ourselves from a hostile situation and were left to deal with it, problem solve, and win. We discussed and drilled the concepts of the default guard, body positioning and posture, as well as minimal telegraphing strikes. All the while with the goal of "stay on your feet, stay conscious, and stay in the fight”. Much easier said than done. This night block of instruction worked me over quite well both mentally and physically but offered solid concepts learned and vetted on the streets, by one of the most impressive instructors I have ever had the opportunity to train under. I am purposely leaving TONS of information out of this AAR out of respect for ShivWorks as well as my fellow students. All of those who attended this course literally fought to gain this information and I feel its fair to try and protect such a valuable learning experience instead of just laying the course content out.



ECQC Extreme Close Quarter Concepts -Day 1 0900-1800hrs

ECQC 1 started off with a very thorough safety brief and medical response planning, taking the extra time to detail not only what each rule was but how these rules apply on the streets and ways to make them more effective. The idea of a "hard focus point” for the high frame index of the trigger finger is something I had not heard before and will absolutely be applying to my regimen. Carefully choose a point high and away from the trigger that allows you tactile sensation of finger placement(ejection port, take down lever) and use that point without fail.

The first part of the day consisted of live-fire exercises following discussion and demonstration of a fluid, 4 count combative draw stroke. I was able to increase my efficiency and reliability almost immediately as we covered topic of the "number 1” or accessing the final firing grip. The main focus of day 1 live fire in my opinion, was the ability to establish a solid and repeatable number 2 retained firing position. The importance of this position became very clear as we moved into FoF evolutions later on in day 1 and day 2. The same body platform we had discussed in PUC was applied in our deployment of concealed carry equipment and was drilled into us constantly. The topic of concealment garments and proper clearing techniques was included and practiced throughout the morning, despite the climbing heat and humidity. We also discussed the importance of a high transition near the eye line, from position 2 to 3, allowing to gain sight alignment at the earliest opportunity. We were then tasked with making "A” box hits just as the shooter reached extension, proving that proper body platform, final firing grip establishment, and consistent transition throughout the draw stoke would allow the student to place a round instantly, with no sight searching pause.

The later portion of the day was dedicated to hands-on techniques allowing us problem solve the initial close contact attack. Once the training area was sanitized of all live defensive tools and verified by training staff we covered techniques used while working in the clinch, echoing back to our previously covered and all important body platform. Select hooks and ties were presented and drilled with numerous training partners of all sizes. I had the opportunity to be dominated(unwillingly) by not only very large men but also a very dedicated and talented young lady. This drive home the point that proper training and retention of skill sets were the key to winning and not size or strength. Moving on into the grounded portion of instruction, we covered numerous topics including the spider guard and proper hip movement necessary to regain a dominant position. Once everyone had taken the time to work these concepts both consensually and not with different partners, we finished off the day with our first FoF evolution.

The idea of this encounter was to place the armed "good” guy in a grounded position with a single encroaching threat, testing our ability to apply the newly learned techniques and fight back from an inferior position with the possible attempt for weapon access in an all out fight. If my memory serves me right, a gun came into play typically due to the loss of concealment during the struggle and not because a superior position was established and allowed for the access of a firearm. The previous "stay on your feet” discussion was truly driven home in this evolution, as was the incredible exhaustion experienced from struggling with just one threat.



ECQC Day 2 0830-1730hrs

Day 2 kicked off with the second live fire session, lasting through out the morning. We revisited the weapon deployment concepts discussed and drilled the day before, with special emphasis again placed on firing from retention. The importance of a well structured and functional draw stroke appeared again as we moved into an instructional block on firing from a compressed position, as well as firing at points through extension and compression. The main point of this proficient draw stroke was to allow the shooter to place effective rounds as immediately necessary, regardless of timing, distance, physical contact or space available. As each of us pushed for consistency and adherence to tactics throughout the morning, the effectiveness of ShivWork’s TTPs was proven over and over. We ended the live fire portion of the day with a highly specialized presentation of armed threat response while present in a vehicle. The attention to detail and precision in which this was completed was absolutely stunning. I had not had the opportunity to experience this before, so not only was it unexpected but it was some serious icing on the cake.

After we returned from lunch we dove into more man on man reinforcement of our previously learned PUC skills and pushed on into threat disarming techniques. These techniques tied in perfectly with the PUC tactics already established and allowed us the chance to experience consensual and non consensual disarms. These drills also provided an opportunity to take note of the risks involved with deploying a weapon system in close contact and reinforced the importance of satisfying the requirements of In Fight Weapon Access(IFWA) before attempting to bring a weapon into the fight.

The remainder of the day was reserved for more FoF evolutions, this time involving multiple threats. These evolutions would be a proving ground for everything that had been learned over the past 3 days. For the first evolution, the "good” guy would be faced with an unknown threat. A threat that is attempting to close distance, engage verbally, and may or may not be armed. A secondary threat was present but the location and timing of that second threat was completely unknown. After each person had encountered and fought through their scenario, they were then interviewed and asked to describe what happened, what they saw, how they felt, and why they reacted the way they did. It was very interesting to see that there was often a disconnect between what the victim saw and experienced, and what the bystanders saw. The exponentially increased difficulties faced by adding just one more threat was scary to say the least and I can honestly say that before this training evolution I had never been to a point of exhaustion like that before. The fighting mindset really came through in this drill, or should I say fell through for me. Just that is worth the price of admission.

To end the day, we took our skills and moved them into a unique environment. The front seat of a car, or as Southnarc called it, VBJJ(Vehicle Brazilian Jiu Jitsu). This simulated a car jacking scenario in which the driver picked up an known person. Completely unscripted with verbal interaction and problem solving skills at play, this quickly turned into a robbery at gun point contained with the confines of a 1997 Ford Aspire. A true test of reaction, positional dominance, IFWA and weapon disarms, I felt it was priceless learning opportunity.

This course went above and beyond my high expectations at every point throughout the weekend and I feel confident in saying that you will not find a better, more comprehensive and highly specialized curriculum any where today. These concepts were born and proven from violent street encounters experienced first hand, and won by the instructor. Where else will you find that?

Some pics to accompany Tom's excellent AAR, thanks Tom.

Practical Unarmed Combatives (PUC) Intro


Developing the default cover


Default drills


Managing Unknown Contacts (MUC)


Non-power based striking drills


Day 1 - Safety Brief


Developing the #2 retention shooting position


Concealed carry discussion & handgun access


Shooting on extension and compression based on distance from threat, the #3 position


ECQ Clinch work for In-Fight Weapon Access (IFWA)


CPT Slatton & TomN developing the clinch


Ed Sr. working the clinch


Intro to grounded engagements


Grounded structure development and spider guard


FOF evolutions grounded vs standing


Final FOF evolution - Car Jack

Great review guys!

As an ECQC alumnus, I can also say without reservation that this is a MUST attend class.

I am glad none of you suffered from heat stroke. It was a toasty weekend in CNY.

I would also suggust taking SouthNarc's AMIS class if the opportunity ever presents itself.

this thread just keeps getting better, notarpole, another great AAR to compliment the others, and the Pics w/ context are worth a thousand words; thanks Chris.

Note to self: must bring southnarc to MI. next season.

forrest -

Let's see if this works from my phone

I took a sim round to the arm.




But Big Dan took two to the champ motors. ')

It was worth 3 times the price. I've spent much more, to learn much less.

Have fun, Ferrel! Wish I could make it out there to train with you again.

Stock up on the Advil!