We are going to move forward assuming you have already read part 1 .
In this post we are going to focus on agility, specifically making hard turns at speed in tight spaces. AMIS grads will be familiar with the need to be able to take corners hard, change directions without losing speed, and keeping our footing. In Part 1 while the movements did include turns the space to do so was large and the focus was more on absolute speed with large areas to accelerate into.
Here in Part 2 we will be focused on clean cornering, restricting the room to move within, and acceleration in short bursts. The set ups are built to focus on this.
“I couldn’t have become a great goalkeeper without power, agility, and quickness.”
~Hope Solo
Diligentia – Vis – Celeritas
(Accuracy – Power – Speed)
Our first set up.
The small white barrel to the left is Position A, and the end of the row to the right is Position B. The white fault line on the ground represents the limit of the shooters movement (over penetration). The steel target is slightly inboard from Pos B, such that you cannot see it immediately when taking the corner and it does not become visible until you are 3/4 of the way down the line of travel.
Exercise 2-1 walk through
Shooters perspective
Exercise 2-1
Start hands relaxed at sides at Pos A, on signal draw and hit target, advance to Pos B and hit again. Our focus is on taking that corner efficiently. As I approach the corner I look at where I intend to plant my foot. I want to turn my hips sharply at the corner. I achieve this by slightly lowering my center of gravity, stepping with the outside foot to the spot I have chosen, my weight shifts down into the planted foot as I pivot my hips and drive forward pushing off the ground from the planted foot. I keep the gun high and compressed and run it straight out as I decelerate and locate the target.
Exercise 2-2
Starting at PosB, hands relaxed at sides, Toes touching the fault line. On start signal hit once from Pos B, move to and hit once as soon as possible when approaching Pos A.
You will notice I run this muzzle back as I run up range, this will be familiar to AMIS grads when bypassing the “don’t shoot – yet” , and leads to good practice on getting the gun back up high into the eye line especially making a right turn as a right handed shooter inside the compressed space created by the corner. I’m looking to get my second hit as soon as its visible passing the barrels as I approach Pos A. I should have my eyes up and rapidly looking around that corner as I approach it.
Exercise 2-3
I will remove one barrel aprox 2/3 of the distance down the first line of travel. This creates a third shooting position the shooter must “Port and Bypass”. In the AMIS coursework the shooter is called upon to be able to navigate past uncleared space when being driven by circumstances. Think about a loved one screaming for help at the end of a hall, and you need to pass an open door to get there. You cannot just run past it blind, but neither can you stop and methodically clear the space in an emergency. We want to look at and point our gun at this space as we pass it. Creating this port along the travel lane will require the shooter to throttle down their speed enough to be able to see and address that space. Requiring a shot there is proof that we have effectively looked at this space and had our gun pointed at it. Again, this is not contextualized, there is no decision making here, only the raw athletic and visual skills required to perform the task.
Exercise 2-4
One port is good but two ports is gooder!
The second port adds both the need for finer control of our momentum, good balance, and stability as we lose and regain visual on the target while running the gun in and back out along the horizontal line of presentation. Remember we are working on Agility today!
Exercise 2-5 set up
Now we will change our path again. Position A will again be the small barrel to the left, B will be inside the structure at the blue barrel, C will be to the right within the fault line. We will gain both a hard left and right turn. I want a narrow door way to navigate on the first turn, the shooter is not to run into or make contact with the barrels. Using these pretty common range barrels that doorway is one barrel wide. We will need to be nimble. The target should not be visible until we are within arms reach of the new second shooting position. Notice the white fault line at the final position, again I want to be able to stop without over penetration based on a visual index.
Exercise 2-5
Starting at Pos A on start signal draw and hit once from each position A-B-C.
This will give us good agility work as we pivot both left and right with shorter travel lanes requiring hard acceleration and precise footwork in compact spaces. Keep focused on the visual lessons of Part 1 where we are looking through the corners with a distant focus looking for the next target while developing intensely accurate footwork.
The focus on this session as prescribed is agility. The ability to be both fast and accurate, not just with our shooting but with our movement. We also have the opportunity to develop our visual skills as discussed in Part 1 , and practice maneuvering in structures where we need to reach a certain location to see something gives us good practice at our Spacial Intelligence. There is also good secondary work here on footing. There is nothing quite like running full steam and trying to stop on a piece of thin carpet sliding on hardwood or running over some garbage to make one appreciate good footing. Range conditions will generally dictate our footing, here I am running on loose gravel, mulch, and spent brass wearing minimalist shoes mainly because I forgot my good range shoes (Adidas Turf Hogs). Little things like developing an intuitive sense of balance, learning how and when to appropriately lower our level, and having a high degree of control over acceleration and deceleration will pay huge dividends when it comes to keeping our footing sound.
Agility and complexity of stage design is one reason I prefer USPSA as an avenue for skill development over other types of shooting sports. The ability to focus on the raw athletic and shooting skills needed without trying to play make believe on the range lets us develop a high level of skill in the fundamental abilities required to dominate the environment. But we should not confuse this raw delivery system with the application of the skills under pressure in a live complex and ambiguous environment. Application should take place with live role players in realistic settings, and complex problem solving. I will look at this further in another post.
Fast Is Fast !
Shawn Lupka
Antifragile Training 
1 thought on “Shivworks AMIS Live Fire Exercises (Part 2)”
Comments are closed.