Timing Your Handgun Disarm Technique!
Ok, you’ve practiced how to disarm a handgun a few thousand times and you’ve reached the level of expertise where you can rip anything short of a howitzer out of your training partner’s hands.
But a handgun disarm technique requires much more than just nimble fingers and a willing partner. For your disarm to truly be ready for a “gun in your face” encounter, your timing must be dead on.
Unfortunately, while handgun disarm techniques are a dime a dozen in close combat DVD’s these days, one crucial element is often ignored…
…and it’s perhaps the most important step in your disarm technique.
I’m talking about proper TIMING of your disarm of the handgun!
You see, your attacker is already adrenalized when he has the gun aimed on you and 90% of the time, his brain is focused on his weapon and you as the “target”. In this state of mind, one stupid move from you can mean a quick pull on the trigger, either on purpose or as a flinch response to your sudden movement.
Sure it helps to be quick and get your body out of the line of fire. But to effectively pull off a handgun disarm, you MUST time your movement when his brain is NOT focused on the trigger.
To accomplish this, your attacker’s brain must be disengaged from his trigger finger. In psychological terms, it’s called a “break state”, a momentary mental “hiccup” that happens when his brain is subconsciously distracted.
For you in your disarm attempt, there are two very prominent times when your attacker is in a break state during a holdup or hostage encounter…
…but only ONE of these offers you a critical opportunity to disarm his handgun and turn the tables.
Here are your options…and the winner:
Handgun Disarm “Break State” #1:
When He’s Giving You Orders
When your attacker is giving you an order to do something, his brain is momentarily focused on communicating those directions.
At that point, he is much less likely to pull the trigger because his brain must first re-engage with the intention of shooting. This may only take a fraction of a second, but in a handgun disarm, fractions of seconds can mean life or death!
However, this break state is NOT the best opportunity to disarm a man with a pistol.
Why?
Because many people, and especially a nervous thug armed with a gun, give directions with their hands. So even though he’s in a break state when motioning you to move from one location to the other, he may be using the gun to point you in the direction he wants you to move.
If you were to make your disarm attempt while he’s giving you directions, it’s probable that the gun will be in motion and you’re more likely to miss your target when you reach out to disarm the pistol.
However, there IS a better option…
Handgun Disarm “Break State” #2:
AFTER He’s Given You Orders
When your attacker has given you an order or asked you to move, his brain is even MORE focused on making sure that you’re following directions. This is an even more powerful break state because your movement is something only you control so his brain has to process your response, whether it’s the one he wanted you to make, and whether he needs to give you further orders.
THIS is the most opportune time for you to make your move and snatch the gun away!
Here’s why…
1. Since your attacker isn’t the one giving direction, he’s instead focused on your own movement, he’s less likely to have the gun in motion.
A stable handgun gives you a static “target” to aim for in your disarm move and increases your probability of success.
2. If you’re asked to move, he’s EXPECTING your body to be in motion. Therefore, your lightening quick disarm is more likely to catch him off guard because your movement was actually something he asked you to do in the first place.
3. It allows you the opportunity to TALK to your attacker. When you’re communicating with him, his brain’s focus is again taken off of the trigger and your disarm is much harder to detect. This is even more likely if you’re in movement and talking at the same time, like asking, “You mean move over here?”
So in your handgun disarm training, don’t just practice the disarm move itself. Train with realistic hostage-like scenarios to also practice creating mental break states in your attacker to perfect the entire handgun disarm technique.
I like your concept of the break state makes sense.
I like the concept of the break state it makes sense.
thank you for the wise advice
Awesome tips Jeff. Reminds me of the ole’ training =
timing + distancing = successful moves
Keep up the Great tips Jeff !
Bill
Nice tip. I never would have thought of that. But now that I do, it makes sense.
I believe your advice is more valuable than gold. I think that winning in any altercation is 90% mental and 10% physical. The specific technique used (ie:the physical part) is only 10% of the equation.
The important part is the mental part. Your brain is your “weapon.” Your arms and legs are just “tools.”
This short video and article are way more valuable to me than a 2 hour DVD showing 15 different ways to grab that gun !
Because of the shape of the elbow and its structure move in on his right, or dive to the left. I have earnt skill at arms badge (best shot from 2000 soldiers) on OMC Owen Machine Carbine. (In my mind still the best close quater weapon Aust.)
I was trained when “held up” to give the smallest currency first, keep calm, observe and try not to stop him!
I don’t agree with this, when you are street wise,– and drugs can be a factor.
They could walk out through the door turn around and shoot you.
answer 50 years of character observation, and stretching political correctness,,,, ie to gain intelligence
regards
Glenn
Blauer, who started from the NLP paradigm, calls this a “pattern interrupt” and says that the best way is to ask the attacker a question.
Your attack is unrealistic. Good video otherwise.
Hi Jeff,
Good advice – re the break state / patten interrupt ask a question thing – I’d suggest that IF possible you ask a compliant question – In other words IF you can think of something that asks for more information about the order that the ‘gunperson’ has given you in a way that requires an ‘A’ OR ‘B’ choice – this will do the following…
1) Not annoy the attacker – you want to appear compliant to reduce the attacker’s stress level (Even a tiny bit is good).
2) Get his brain processing options – Hicks Law comes into play so that the more options ‘A’ or ‘B’ or ‘BANG’ is way better than ‘BANG’ or ‘NOT BANG’.
OBVIOUSLY – if you are having a gun pointed at you – YOU are under HUGE STRESS – If you are not, then sorry, but there is something wrong with you!!! So all the above may be replaced by all sorts of other activity ‘in the real world’. That said, good realistic scenario based training can help you to learn how to speak appropriately under stress.
As to the actual disarm… If you get to walk away from that sort of confrontation, then your disarm technique is ‘A OK’ in my book
All the best.
Robert.
I think one is to whatch before he pulls the gun be aware of your surroundings. like whatching there hands,and where they put them.Try to stop it before it starts. If it is too late try to run zig zag away from him,and not give him a target to hit.
good advice robert
Jeff,
Provocative and useful as usual–thank you. The chances of having to deal with this scenario are greater than most of us would care to admit. A friend of mine was actually held up at gunpoint in the San Jose airport a few months ago. There were a dozen people in the vicinity and you would think security would be fairly good at an airport. Not this time. The question of what to do when threatened with a gun reminds me of a place called the Gunsight Ranch. I haven’t heard about it lately, but 20 years ago it was dedicated to teaching combat shooting to ordinary people. Their motto was something like “control your environment” and that still makes a lot of sense. True, a handgun isn’t a very flexible weapon, but the real emphasis was on situational awareness and the acknowledgement that lethal danger can arise anytime, anywhere.
Amazing, I tried it in an actual situation today and boy was the attacker surprised. I was able to disarm the gun and got it out of their hands and had it pointed at them while they were ordering me to give them my wallet.
Just kidding; this concept of break states for when an attacker is pointing a gun at you isn’t too bad. But I’m not someone who would take chances like that too easily. Anyways, it would have been cool if your example video showed someone nervous etc. while holding the gun (empty) and see what would happen. My assumption is that this would definitely be a 50-50 chance of success.
That’s a good point about being distracted either while talking or being spoken too. I think that what you have to take into consideration, is that if the attacker wanted you dead he would have already shot you. That is something to really remember if a weapon of any kind has been deployed. First and foremost, they aren’t going to kill you immediately if they are giving you orders. THey want something from you. Second, theres is no doubt what someone wants once they have pulled a weapon. Trauma. They want to increase the amount of trauma that they can dish out to you so there fore they have added a weapon to allow them to do this. On the other side of that, I feel personally that the most effective way to get rid of the problem of the gun, is to turn the aggressors brain off. Once you do that, the gun is no longer a threat to you. I don’t want to be wrestling with a guy that has a gun. YOu know. Also, I think that it is important for your subscribers to understand that like 90% of victims that have been shot once live. The danger is not from being shot, it is from the attacker continuing to shoot you. Multiple gun shot wounds. After the first shot, your chances of survival decrease by something like 30%, (if I remember correctly), with each subsequent bullet taken. So the danger really lies in doing nothing. IF you do nothing, and sustain more gunshot wounds, your chances of becoming a statistic and dying increase exponentially. So whether, you turn around and run, go for the disarm, or try to just turn the guys brain off, you have increased your odds of survival because you did something. Doing something is better than doing NOTHING. Guaranteed.
Sensory Irradation-Loud Scream,Clap of the hands-hard stomp on ground-is enough to alter focus of attacker with split second disarm technique-
Hard ,fast,continuous,keep on smiling and DONT BLINK-
I have to disagree with Louis “Sensory Irradation-Loud Scream,Clap of the hands-hard stomp on ground-is enough to alter focus of attacker with split second disarm technique-”… This is great for knives or other weapons, anything without a trigger!! Any one of those could spook the attacker into firing!! Speaking in a low, direct tone is not only enough to get their attention, but also gives your attacker a false sense of security.
Beautifull!
That was excellent concept. Keep up the good work.
If attacker has revolver,
kick gun hand/barrel itself, and watch the hammer hit the attacker square in the forehead.
“two short bamboo sticks are far better than a baseball bat”!, or trucheon in short, who knows that?, -your brain is the best weopen, and being “street wise”!, every situation is different, the wind, the dark, the rain, the traffic, people, machinery, dust, heat and a million other factors. Break state? sounds good, zigzagging sounds good, kicking or hand tactics sounds good. WHAT IS THE MAKE, CALIBER, EFFICIENCY (single or double action revolver)of the weopen?,is it loaded?, is he/she alone?, What are your abilities?
YOU CALL THAT A KNIFE! ! Aust.-HOGUES-
the situation requires “An Appreciation” (classified)(to think! !)sub headings
AIM
FACTORS
COURSES
PLAN
it may require further information to execute the “aim” ‘or not to’, ie intelligence (information)from the gun holder(s)ie. their reason, state of mind (drugs), emotional hang up(s),bi-polar, age, do you know their mates (Aussie for friends)?, do you know their language/ etc. etc., what defense or aids,(light destroys night vision) can you see.?, information can be “observed” quickly & quietly.(not increasing anxiety), it also addresses you “manner”-tactics, method of your communication, or not.
rgds
Glenn
diplomacy is befriending the dog, “until you can find a rock’!
S O M E T I M E S !