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Ayoob: Do This to Stress-Test Your Gunfight Survival Skills

Good article.
I'm left handed and have been so for almost 65 years. Most lefties learn to adapt to a mostly right handed world from a young age.

I started practicing shooting with my right side over 30 years ago. I started with 22 caliber handguns and slowly moved up to bigger calibers. Shooting a rifle with your weak side is humbling, at least it is to me.

I'm a martial arts instructor and most of my students are right handed. I make all of them practice a few self-defense techniques with their left side.

My right side is almost as strong as my left, so much so that I carry a knife on my right side and a firearm on my left.

I train/teach Escrima(Filipino Martial Arts) and practice knife, stick, and machete drills with my right side several times a week. It's great coordination training. It gives my strong side a break..:)

It's not easy to train your weak side, but it could mean the difference between life and death. The sooner you start practicing weapon techniques with your weak side, the better.
 
I learned shooting with both hands. Mind you, I was a so-so shot. I was right hand dominant so most of the time I shot that way. I served in the Marines and Air Force as a mechanic. Shooting wasn’t my specialty. I love to shoot though. Nearing the end of my military career, I fell and crushed both of my wrists. Not much could be done for them but I tried. Multiple surgeries failed to fix either wrist so I ended getting them both fused. No more wrist motion. I rarely shoot even though I still love shooting. My 1911 sits in my safe, probably never to be shot again. I have to have a large frame pistol because of the geometry of my hands. The M9A1 is a good pistol, it’s fairly light and the 9mm doesn’t hurt much to shoot. I guess I’ll ask the question: is there some type of training for train wrecks like me? When I hold the pistol at full arm length, the pistol is always cocked off about 30 degrees or so to the left. Two handed gives me a better chance of holding it better but it’s a suboptimal position. I’ve never been much of a shooter outside of the usual annual qualifications. Anyway, great article!
 
Excellent article. Thank you for writing.

In regards to the topic of shooting with one’s support hand, perhaps someone can write an article about how to respond when one’s shooting arm is injured and you are unable to reach your holstered weapon.

I work as an armed guard with a full duty belt (right handed shooter). I have thought about what I might do if my right arm was injured, and I needed to react to a criminal emergency where the use of force was a necessity. I have tried self-training, experimenting with spinning my duty belt to get my (plastic training) handgun centered in front of me and try to unholster a gun from a right-handed holster using my left hand. It is awkward and slow. I find myself struggling to finally grip the gun and then turn it towards the threat. Who has a drill for this? Is there one?

This article even mentions that police officers are sometimes injured and forced to use their support hand to handle their duty firearm. How does a right-handed shooter draw a gun from a strong-side retention holster if one’s right arm is busted up?
 
another fantastic article by the great one. It makes so much sense. Practicing weak hand shooting is talked about all the time, but this is the first time I ever heard someone talk about owning a weakside holster. DUH! Who'd a thunk it?
W
Always a pleasure to read Ayoobs stuff
 
Thank you Mr. Ayoob. Sharinv your keen insight and experience is much appreciated. I learned I was Cross Dominant at a young age. Made me a good pinch hitter in baseball. I learned fairly early in handling pistols, that I used a modified my stance all on my lonesome. Later, Instructors would question me about it, and many couldn't understand why it would make a difference (in spite of the evidence between two targets).
A shoulder condition developed due to my work, that necesittated spending 6 months immobilized with an external fixture. That's really when I began working on my weak side. It's much improved, but your article reminds me I've been a bit negligent about keeping up with the work.
Thank you for the reminder, and I'll put more effort into it.
 
James45 said:
Excellent article. Thank you for writing.

In regards to the topic of shooting with one’s support hand, perhaps someone can write an article about how to respond when one’s shooting arm is injured and you are unable to reach your holstered weapon.

I work as an armed guard with a full duty belt (right handed shooter). I have thought about what I might do if my right arm was injured, and I needed to react to a criminal emergency where the use of force was a necessity. I have tried self-training, experimenting with spinning my duty belt to get my (plastic training) handgun centered in front of me and try to unholster a gun from a right-handed holster using my left hand. It is awkward and slow. I find myself struggling to finally grip the gun and then turn it towards the threat. Who has a drill for this? Is there one?

This article even mentions that police officers are sometimes injured and forced to use their support hand to handle their duty firearm. How does a right-handed shooter draw a gun from a strong-side retention holster if one’s right arm is busted up?
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Former security and police officer here. I did a lot of training trying to learn how to do exactly what you are describing. It's a slow process no matter what the gear or training. What I finally decided was to pick a safe, reliable method of obtaining the gun with the off hand regardless of how slow it might be. Practice that and you'll get a little faster, but it will likely be a slow process no matter how good you get at it.

I also carried at least one backup gun that was readily accessible to my "weak" hand. This was my "go to" should I need a firearm and my strong hand was unavailable. Hopefully, you have policies/laws that allow for a backup gun?
 
BSD, thanks for your kind reply and good advice.

Back-up guns are not authorized for us. I have talked to our training guys, firearms instructors, etc. about this reasonable idea. Their buoyant smiles turn to frowns as they exclaim that such a policy would be impossible to get approved.

Thus, in a dire emergency, for any hard-pressed officer under attack with shooting hand immobilized, our best (albeit meager) suggestion was to try to move away to gain space, striving to twist our belt around to draw using our left hand, or attempt to use OC spray to thwart the bludgeoning, stabbing, or shooting assailant(s).

In security or police work, this scenario is a potential risk. Luckily, it doesn’t happen often. Should such a situation arise, we hope (prey) we’ll figure it out.
 
I carry a good knife in a belt holster on my weak side.
May not always be a gun battle. Just an assailant. A knife in the weak hand quickly may be enough to protect yourself.
Reaching for strong hand gun will be slower but still may be enough time to fire your weapon

Not every situation is 1 second draw required as we train for
 
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