Winning Mind Training

  • Home
  • About
    • About Winning Mind
    • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Courses Listing / Calendar
    • Training Schedule
    • Course Descriptions
      • Dare To Be Great Leadership: Strategies to Help Build and Sustain a Culture of Leading, Learning and Excellence
      • Dare to Be Great: Strategies for Creating a Culture of Leading
      • Dare To Be Great Leadership 2.0: Continuing the Journey of Building a Culture of Leading, Learning and Excellence
      • Dare To Be Great Leadership: Strategies to Help Build and Sustain a Culture of Leading, Learning and Excellence
      • Excellence In Training
      • Performance Enhancement Imagery
      • PPCT Threat Pattern Recognition Use of Force Instructor Course
      • Ground Fighting and A.C.E. Edged Weapons Defense Instructor Course
      • Lessons From Life’s Most Powerful Question
  • Resources
  • Contact Us

March 27, 2009 By Brian Willis

Handling Weapons in Training

There are a number of issues I will address over time in regards to the handling of training weapons during training. In this post however, I will address the issue of the handling of weapons during training in weapon disarming and similar events.

 

I am sure everyone has heard of the story of the officer who trained weapon disarming techniques with his spouse on a regular basis. Ever time he disarmed her of the training weapon he handed it right back to her in order to perform another training repetition. As the story goes he was actually in an incident on the street where he disarmed a subject and handed the gun right back to him. I have heard a few versions of this story and am not sure if they are true or just urban legend.

 

Regardless of the truth of the story it is certainly a consideration for training. We want to ensure we train officers to follow up with appropriate tactics following a disarming and avoid training officers to disarm a subject of a knife or a gun and then hand the weapon back to them.

 

I have seen a number of things that concern me in attempts to avoid this programming of officers during training. There are two of those ‘solutions’ I would like to address, both of which fall into the category of unintended consequences of well intentioned training:
  1. I have seen officers taught to state “For training purposes only.” while they are handing the weapon back to the ‘subject’.. If we are truly concerned that we will program the officer to immediately hand over the weapon on the street following a disarming then in this case we have trained the officer to not only hand the weapon back but say “For training purposes only” while they hand the subject back the weapon. This is less desirable.
  2. I have seen officers who have been trained to throw the weapon on the ground and have their partner pick it up as a way to avoid training them to hand the gun back. If we follow the logic behind this drill then the officers have just been trained to disarm a subject and throw the weapon on the ground at their feet rather than retain the weapon and eliminate the threat. This is less desirable.

In the early stages of the training where the officers are learning the components to the skill they will need to hand the gun or weapon to their partner at the end of a set number of repetitions. As law enforcement professionals they will have to handle firearms on a regular basis anyway so simply teach them how to hand a weapon to someone in a safe and professional manner.

 

Once they get to the stage where they are completing the disarming then have them follow through with the appropriate tactics, then reset the drill and simply change roles. The officer who has the gun then switches to the role of the subject and points the weapon at their training partner who will complete the disarm and follow through.

 

Take care and commit to excellence in training.

Brian Willis

Filed Under: Blog

Subscribe To Our Blog

Sign up to the Winning Mind Training blog to receive new articles, tips and posts directly to your email inbox.

Excellence In Training Blog

  • What are you leaving out of your training? February 7, 2023
  • Where are you looking? January 31, 2023
  • Are you intentional and deliberate about this? January 24, 2023
  • Working through the dissonance; uncomfortable, but necessary. January 17, 2023
  • Do you think of yourself as a coach? January 10, 2023

Contact Winning Mind Training

Address:
246 Stewart Green S.W., Suite #2486
Calgary AB. Canada. T3H 3C8

Phone: 403-279-5954

Email: winningmind@mac.com

Connect With Us

  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Winning Mind Training is a proud member of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. To get more information and to find out how you can become a member of the Chamber of Commerce go to www.calgarychamber.com

Events

  • Guardians of the Heart Conference, Quapaw, Oklahoma - Closing Keynote
    • Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023
  • ILEETA Conference
    • Monday, Mar 20, 2023 - Saturday, Mar 25, 2023
  • Excellence in Training Course - Denton, Texas
    • Monday, Apr 10, 2023 - Friday, Apr 14, 2023
    • Denton
  • Copyright © 2023 · Winning Mind Training