Thoughts aloud of a sambist and a system specialist.
To make it difficult for him to aim, I continuously "swung the pendulum": I danced with my left
shoulder forward, jerking the body from side to side and moving himself all the time - something similar, only simpler, is done by a boxer in the ring.
(c) V. O. Bogomolov. "In August 44th"
The sambist's opinion will be as follows. What the arrows of practical shooting demonstrate in motion is inconsistent from the point of view of application in a real combat situation.
Combat training has existed since the time when human individuals began to gather in organized controlled groups with the aim of obtaining food, robbing less organized or weaker relatives, or, on the contrary, protecting against stronger ones. With the development of scientific and technological progress and the appearance of new weapons, combat training began to be divided into disciplines, so wrestling and boxing, fencing, horse or tank control appeared.
Over time, regular training and practicing techniques developed into a separate system, which was called sports. Unlike combat, she has completely different goals - physical culture, health, entertainment, striving for excellence, business. Accordingly, other external and internal connections and relationships. Since sport emerged from utilitarian practice and turned into an object of mass culture, it has lost some of its applied qualities and acquired others, giving it a staginess and aesthetics.
For example, fights in single combats break up and conduct trainings and competitions in the weight categories of athletes. Needless to say, in life you do not have to choose the weight category of the opponent who attacked you. A similar example can be found from any sport. For example, the Weaver stance from shooting training is needed as a kiba-dachi karate stance in a street fight. Therefore, from sports training, you can take only elements of applied purpose and supplement them with the specifics that are not in sports, but can be found in life.
Let's go back to the main topic - movement while shooting. In the epigraph I gave a literary description of the "pendulum" from the work of V. Bogomolov. Pay attention to the clarification - "something similar, only simpler, is done by a boxer in the ring." Remember the famous expression of Muhammad Ali - "flutter like a butterfly, sting like a bee." A pendulum is the ability of a fighter to move in space during a fight, not the ability to hit a target with a weapon. First of all, it is developed in active sports, where it is required to maintain balance in unexpected situations - in boxing, wrestling and even in football. If you start practicing the skills of the "pendulum" right away with a pistol in a firing position, then nothing will work.
If you start moving from a static stance, in response to an external threat, you will need a loss of energy for acceleration, overcoming the body's inertia, and a loss of time. In the state of a pendulum, a reflex is developed - the body's reaction to the external environment, which may not be a threat, but the signal to change the stance has already passed. An experienced goalkeeper, by swinging the opponent's stick, can determine to which corner of the goal the puck will fly, and only an even more experienced goalkeeper will determine what the swing will be and will already begin to move in the right direction. Wrestling and boxing is a rivalry between two sets of reflexes. The brain does not have time to process the changing situation, but by a barely noticeable swing or even by the tension of a certain muscle group of the opponent, the body of a trained athlete already begins its counterplay of evading a blow or reception, and among the highest masters of conducting a counter strike or reception. The development of such tactics is superbly staged in sambo, wrestling and boxing. In exactly the same way, the body of a trained fighter must work in case of fire contact with the use of cold weapons or firearms. The hero of Bogomolov's novel Tamantsev is fluent in this art. Due to the pendulum, he evades pistol shots, reflexively determining the moment and direction of the shot.
Browning's barrel again followed my movements - from right to left and
back, and I felt, knew that in the next second
shot.
In addition to perfect physical fitness in the pendulum, the analytical component also plays an important role. An experienced fighter or athlete is constantly in a creative search. Mentally, he works out various techniques that may occur in a given situation. For example, moving down the street, he assesses the men and possibly women he meets for a surprise attack from their side and the choice of countermeasures from his own. Here you need to correctly assess the weight, build, supporting leg, whether he is left-handed or right-handed, and even a mental portrait of a possible opponent.
Dodging danger, a fatal blow, a throw, and a throw can also be fatal, a shot from a weapon, a stab or cut with a knife - this is all the apotheosis of a fight, which can be preceded by a variety of situations.
It is necessary to clearly understand that the basis of combat training of the pendulum is the reflex possession of the body for various life situations, the end of which should be the physical neutralization of the enemy up to physical destruction with any weapon from a fist or a bullet to a porcelain plate (according to Pikul), and not just the ability to shoot in Macedonian …
As already stated, in practical shooting, targets do not shoot at the athlete. He is completely focused on the high-speed destruction of targets. And what is primary in fire contact, which is practiced in combat training? This is a departure from the line of oncoming fire. It is necessary to determine the danger, its type and direction, to perform an evasive maneuver at the same time uncovering the weapon and striking the enemy. Performing an evasive or blocking maneuver is one of the main conditions in combat training, but it reduces the rate of fire, which is the main one in sports shooting, that is, we have a systemic contradiction.
Let's take a look at what causes cognitive dissonance in a sambist when he sees the movement of practitioners during shooting. First, a little wrestling physics - the body falls if the projection of the center of gravity goes beyond the body's support area. The task of the athlete is to maintain the optimal combination of a larger support area with minimum energy consumption with maximum mobility. "Don't cross your legs!" - this was the first advice I received. when he first stepped onto the carpet and the last one who gave himself when leaving the carpet twenty years later, while dropping an opponent weighing 140 kg with his own 72. All movements in the pendulum only with a side step! At competitions in practical shooting, you can often observe the following picture:
On smooth playgrounds, it can and does help to aim high-speed fire at targets without worrying about what's under your feet. But life slips there knots and stones at the wrong moment, this is its specificity. Even a child can drop a cross-legged opponent. The sambist will not suffer in this case, since the fall insurance is the first thing he studies on the carpet, but an inexperienced athlete can break his neck, since both hands are holding a pistol and IPSC does not explain how to act in this case.
Let me give you another example. Going to the ground, or taking up a prone position. Two approaches are recommended - kneeling or resting on your free hand, followed by a toss of the sirloin with the legs straightened.
Now let's compare it with the Soviet approach. The fighter assumes a prone position taking a step forward and slightly to the side. Such a movement is energetically less expensive than throwing the body into the air, and the displacement of the body to the side reduces the likelihood of being hit by the enemy, that is, an evasive maneuver is performed at the same time.
Let's think about reflexes. Let's say a fighter has a threat from the side to the left. Passing to the ground with a step forward to the side with his right foot (or stepping back with his left), he has the opportunity to turn towards the threat. The task in combat training is to develop the reflex skill of lowering to the ground with a foot step opposite to the direction of the threat while simultaneously turning the body in its direction.
Of course, crossing the legs or moving to the ground is not limited to. Errors from the point of view of the pendulum are made by practitioners during straight movements, turns, U-turns, changing magazines. The location of the holster and the manipulation of the weapon when removing from it and even simple holding of the weapon are not always optimal for a combat maneuvering duel. There are questions about weapons and targets. For example, a swinging target is easy to read at the phase of maximum deviation, when its speed is minimum, but I did not see something that suddenly appeared.
The consistency of combat training lies in the fact that the disciplines studied should complement each other. Contradictions are unacceptable here, because their result will be the loss of the most valuable thing a person has.
