Drawing Against The Drop by Guantes
DATD, which I developed for my own use is presented below, for your persual and comment.
This is a method of drawing and firing against an aggressor who is threatening you with a firearm that is pointed at you , in the 0-3' range and you decide the problem cannot be resolved by any other means. Drawing Against The Drop is not suited to those new to the realm of self defense or firearms, but with an understanding of the principles and practice it can be brought into one's arsenal. It is a high level, high risk manouver for situations where a lethal outcome is likely and the only question is who will prevail. It is based on suprise, speed and angles. This manouver is not meant to replace combatives or disarms but to supplement them.
Many would say that in a close range situation such as we are talking about that combatives or disarms are the answer, not going for your gun. In some cases either of those might be the best option, in others I do not believe it would be. As we age we begin to lose the attributes of self defense. Endurance is probably the first to suffer, followed by strength. It has been my experience that speed, which is essential to Draw Against The Drop, can be maintained longer and easier than the other two. Now let me give you some examples, where I think Drawing Against The Drop would be your best option.
Facing an opponent of say , six foot or larger, around 200 to 240 lbs who is 20 to 30 years old, when you are a male five foot eight, 160 lbs soaking wet and 50+, 60+, etc, in age, or a 5'2" 110 pound female, unless you have a lifetime of martial training and experience, you have a big problem. This problem is only magnified if you have any physical limitation or injury or your opponent recently got out of prison, where he was pumping iron and training for two or three years. I do not believe combatives or disarms would be your best option.
If you are facing an armed aggressor who has one or two unarmed accomplices (not that uncommon), combatives can be a big problem. An soon as you go to a disarm or combatives with the armed aggressor, you can bet the other two will be on you and trying to disable you and help the partner maintain control of his weapon. The rapid elimination of the armed aggressor in an eruption of gunfire may not solve all your problems, although it just may. At the very least, it has eliminated what appeared to be the greatest threat, while leaving you with some capability to deal with the other two, if they stick around. Here again I don't think combatives or disarms would be your best choice.
These are the types of situations where I think DATD outshines other options.
This is not "THE" method for drawing against a gun weilding aggressor, it is "A" method. I can tell you from experience that the principles of this method, if executed properly, do work. It uses simple, easy to learn techniques.
I have not seen this exact method or system described by anyone else so I don't know if anyone else has developed and promotes or teaches the exact same thing. I developed this method for my own use in these types of situations.
Drawing Against The Drop involves five specific and unique elements
1. There is the decision that you will execute a draw against the drop
The actual decision making process I'll leave up to you
2. There is a verbalization to act as a distraction to the aggressor and a que to make your move
3. There is a parry to get the aggressors weapon off line
4. There is a blading of your body to help get it off line from the aggressor's gun in case your parry is not completely
successful
5. There is the quick and efficient access of your weapon and discharge of rounds
Anything that interferes with this works against you, be it clothing, holster, type of draw, weapon platform or anything else
In detail, they are as follows:
The decision process, as I said, I will leave to your own means. Once you have made the decision you need a distraction and a cue. I use a pleading statement like, "Please don't kill me". One word in that sentence is my que. When I hit that word I go.
There are several reasons for this.
One, it gives me a specific go signal for nearly any situation.
Two, the pleading re-enforces the aggressor's feeling of control.
Three, Talking is a distraction and most people instinctively listen for the completion of a thought or sentence, whether intentionally or not, so a good time to attack is while they are focused on the completion of the thought.
The following three elements, the parry, the blading and the draw must begin simultaneously, during the verbalization.
If the blading follows the parry it might be too late
If the draw follows the parry and the blading , it may be too late
They must all occur or at least begin simultaneously
In the parry, I prefer a move from my left to right and down with my off hand. There are several reasons for this.
One, if the aggressor is right handed, which is most likely, it puts me to the outside, away from the aggressors off hand.
Second, I prefer to blade my off side forward so my left to right parry is moving the aggressor's gun in the opposite direction of which my body is moving.
Third, most armed ccw people, including me, are right handed. This means that they usually keep their S-O on their left or off side so as to not interfere with their weapons access. Therefore, I do not want to get in the habit of parrying the aggressor's weapon in the direction my S-O would be.
Should the aggressor be left handed the same actions will work quite well and have the same results, although you will be moving towards the inside and the aggressor's off hand. In addition, more effort must be made to control the aggressor's gun hand, as it is not wedged between the two of you. One thing to note is that the shoulder is not dropped during the parry. The reason for this is that the raised shoulder provides some protection for the face and head against the off hand of a left handed aggressor. The head is also lowered slightly, which protects it against a head butt I prefer using the palm as in addition to the parry it provides the possibility of a controlling grab. The preferred striking point with the parry is the juncture of the back of the hand and the forearm ( the wrist) of the aggressor. Striking higher on the arm may allow the wrist of the aggressor to bend back against the parry while a shot is fired. Striking lower, on the weapon, may work, but you may slip off the aggressor's weapon or you may injure your hand.
In the blading , I believe that blading the off side forward has the most advantages.
The blading does three things.
One, it helps get your body off his line of fire if your parry is not completely successful.
Two, it compliments the left to right parry and it makes your gun more difficult to attack in place or during the draw in its rearward position.
Three, it helps protect you from a knee or kick to the groin by the aggressor.
Blading the off side forward can be aided by a step forward with the off foot which is the method I prefer. In addition to aiding the blading the forward step contributes to forward pressure on the aggressor and puts you in a forward stance which will aid in your stability should the aggressor charge.
The drawing of the weapon is obviously an important part of the technique
I realize that climate, NPE's and clothing requirements and preferences will affect, not only garment selection but holster type and location. Regardless of those constraints, any combination that does not allow you to draw your weapon with one hand in an expeditious manner will impair your ability to Draw Against The Drop or draw in any other combative situation. If the imparment is severe, you should forget the idea of Drawing Against The Drop and concentrate on other alternatives or change your carry method.
The draw used is similar to a draw to the #2 Retention position of South Narc and fire. For lack of anything better I would call it The # 2 Parry Position. The difference is that the gun remains more or less in its original #2 position as the torso blades. What results is that due to the bladed torso the butt of the gun ends up near the sternum instead of the ribs. This brings the lower frame of the gun in contact with the parry arm in the area of the inner elbow. This does several important things.
One, it prevents shooting oneself in the arm.
Two, it makes it more difficult for the aggressor to attack your gun with his off hand.
Three, indexing the weapon on your arm will help prevent your pushing an autoloader weapon out of battery into the aggressor thereby causing a failure to fire.
Once the weapon is indexed on your arm, at least three shots should be fired as fast as you can fire them. This indexing prior to firing is extremely important to prevent shooting yourself in the off arm. The entire action, including the three shots should take about one and a half seconds. Whether you use more than three or more shots to com or a zipper, which is easy to do from the arm indexed poisiton is up to you. Should the aggressor go down, I would either follow him down continuing to control his weapon or I would create movement to make a more difficult target, until I was sure he was out of action.
For a left hander, it is a mirror image with the only difference being that you will be moving to the inside on a right hander and to the outside on a lefty.
Guantes
