The Combat Roll?

The only example of a "combat roll" I have seen, outside of the fantasy realm of hollywood, involves rolling in one direction or another prior to moving from a prone firing position. The concept being that when firing from a prone position behind cover and / or concealment, rolling to the left or right might give you a better chance of not being seen / shot due to the fact that you "pop up" in a slightly offset position, and force a shooter that may have your position "dialed in" to adjust their fire on your "new" location. If you do it fast enough, and far enough away from the baddie, it may give you another half a second to get from where you were to where you want to be, BEHIND COVER.

The only problem is that it requires energy better expended on hauling your arse to a nice piece of cover, it becomes slow and inefficient depending on your kit, and it becomes less and less effective as you close the distance to the baddies.

I neither used it, or taught it, as the way I look at it, if I am going to leave cover, I am going to do so on my feet, moving as fast as possible to the next piece of cover, and if I want to offset my position before I move, I will do so only behind cover and simply use a low crawl.

I DID use many of the same falling / rolling techniques taught in Judo / Aikido / Jiu jitsu, however, never INTENTIONALLY.

IMO, the only "combat roll" worthy of learning and actually using consists of the ability to roll out of an unintended fall / trip, which happens in training AND combat far more often than one would like to believe. Climbing in and out of windows, falling off / out of roofs or helo's, tripping while hauling arse through a street / alley / compound. These things happen, and if you have the ability to "roll with it" and pop right back up on your feet and keep moving, you are less susceptible to injury, and getting shot in the arse....which is good.
 
I call it falling with a spectacular recovery. I just saw the new modern twist. I believe it was on Demolition Man. When both Stalone and Snipes met up after getting thawed, Stalone does this flip in the air to land on his back and start shooting. I have NO clue what purpose that served, but I guess the stunt coordinator or director thought it looked cool.

Fly
 
I saw in one of Michael Yon's Dispatches from Iraq a couple years back where a Battalion Commander was on a foot chase and did a flip/roll across an opening ..... it got him shot in the leg, IIRC. I looked for it again, and can't find it.... maybe someone else's Google Fu is better than mine....


The only "combat roll" I'm doing is combatting the rolls trying to show up above my belt line......:D
 
He was shot in the leg mid-stride, then did a roll to come up firing. It worked well enough, in that he didn't get shot again, and was able to return fire.
 
I rolled my duty vehicle once. Took the wind right out of my sail!! The seatbelt saved my life, no doubt!! Airbag deployed, but I was so braced for the impact the ab never touched me.
 
so glad that people see this the same way as I do. I have seen it so many times and I was wondering what is this? Where did it come from? Nobody does this. Only thing I can see is if you accidentally fall it would be nice to know how to fall properly so that you can get back to your feet as fast as possible. Like I said before...in my Brazillian Jiu Jitsu class, the only reason we do it is so you can train your agility and how to land from a moving position.
 
Combat Rolls are rarely fun... You have way too much gear on, pre-camel back the canteens would dig your back really nicely.. If your stuff not attached right things go missing and its overall better avoided...
 
He was shot in the leg mid-stride, then did a roll to come up firing.
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Why do I have the feeling he was shot and didn't do a roll by design, but tucked his fall as it taught by various disciplines to lessen the impact and he was able to return to upright and fire was a bit fortuitous?

Think about it. How many folks have trained for the off chase of getting hit in the leg to then go immediately into a combat roll?

It worked well enough, in that he didn't get shot again, and was able to return fire.
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Lots of guys only get shot once and don't do combat rolls. There is no way to know if his tumbling had anything to do with not getting shot or not. There is no way to know if the first shot was even actually aimed at him. Given the reports on how well many of the opposition shoot, he may not have even been the target.

It is really hard to read too much into the incident. It isn't a normal bullet avoidance technique you see being practiced/utilized with any frequency when soldiers come under fire. I, for one, have never seen it used in any of the documentation from any of the conflicts. If it was such a good technique, then I think we would be seeing it used regularly, but as BGutzman pointed out, there are so many things that can make them turn out poorly.

Maybe combat rolls work. Maybe pink boxers and flipflops are the ultimate combat uniform. :D
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/05/ap_gates_pink_boxers_052209/
“Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage,”
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Like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhQkk...eature=related

I think I will pass.
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From what I can see of what those rather unwise men are performing, I will also take a pass. First of all they are doing a roll with pistol already in hand. Sooner or later one of them will come up with a muzzle full of dirt and blow the barrel up when he fires. Secondly, when they roll, the firearms covers way too many things other than the intended target and they have no way of knowing what it is covering in a street type situation. Thirdly, it would be very easy to do that just a bit off and have your finger winding up on the trigger and the gun going off when you did not intend for it to do so. Fourth, what was the purpose of the roll - was it to bring you out from concealment into the other guy's field of fire where you are an easier target? They could have fired from concealment, in the reeds, then run to the other side, and again fired from concealment much faster than the roll out into the open, stand, then fire thing they did. What truly tactical shooter runs out of a concealed area, INTO THE OPEN, TO ENGAGE??? Finally, doing it on dirt (or on mats) is one thing - doing anything like that on concrete is one heck of a difference; I know due to several experiences with people who resisted arrest during my career.

It may be cool under controlled circumstances but very likely would be mostly useless against someone shooting at you who is a decent shot. By the time you are up on your feet and firing, you would probably have several bullets in your body. I would like to see someone do this during a Simunition exercise against a capable opponent.

As for the guys being less than safe in what they were doing, they added insult to injury because I did not hear anyone correct the guy who turned on the camera gun still drawn. He may have thought he was cool, I think he is an accident waiting to happen as I think about the whole maneuver they were practicing.

I will admit, it possibly could save your life if it startled your opponent enough (then again so could doing jumping jacks or dropping your pants) but mostly it seems to be potentially too dangerous to others than your targetted bad guy so I will pass it up. Besides, I am fat and old and wiser and not about to do things like that even though in my dumber youth I may have tried it.

All the best,
Glenn B
 
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Put it this way:

I'd rather be shooting AT the guy rolling, than BE the guy rolling.

I don't care how many movie stunts claim different.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhQkk...eature=related
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Sure hope a skeet shooter isn't shoot'en at them.

Here is a test guys. Get a worn out basket ball and a stick with a long string tied to it. Go to some outdoor range were a berm will allow you to set that ball up high and use the stick to prop it up.

Go back 10 yards and try to hit that ball as it rolls down the hill.

Easy? Actually yea it is.

And I'd love to ask those 'commados' in that youtube movie if they have ever actually used that ninja roll in combat.

Deaf
 
I always thought of combat roles as something a martial arts training move that Hollywood adopted to demonstrate a character's training and experience. Over time, viewers adopted it for themselves.

It is a similar phenomenon to Hollywood dictating firearms be held so that they are seen on the screen/TV, and viewers adopting those holds, whether consciously or unconsciously.
 
I always thought of combat roles as something a martial arts training move that Hollywood adopted to demonstrate a character's training and experience. Over time, viewers adopted it for themselves.
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It is. The combat roll is taught in many a martial arts school. But I've never ever seen it used in any kind of sparring competition (just like the ninja back flip.)

I might see where if you were running and you realized you were about to trip and fall then a roll to bring yourself back up and stable as fast as you can would have its place.

But if anyone here thinks you are dodging a bullet and messing the aim up of a shooter then you are kidding yourself.

Deaf
 
I think combat rolls are great.


They brighten up my day with a good laugh when you see someone do one. They're only good for when you have all your gear on trying to get out the back of a 7 ton and you fall. That too will bring a good laugh.

Equally useless is the 'combat slide' and 'combat dive.' It was always fun watching the new guys run as fast as they could, then dive and slide to their position while training them on movement to or from contact. I'm sure many of you have heard it but slow is smooth and smooth is fast, right?!
 
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