You hear alot of people talk / get so rousy about demoing in front of students...on paper targets.
But i ask my self. Do you demo FOF on yourself? I do if time allows. For few reasons:
1. I can get hit as well. Students need to understand that CQB cant and wont be 100% safe. Tactics merely increase % of survivability when conducted appropriately. Its all about footwork 40%, skill Y adds 10%, and technique X adds 15%....
2. When we train on paper / dry, we tend to fantasized what would a threat do when i do X YZ....very often that perception is flawed, as target feedback is missing. as a result, the individual is simply trying to force his procedural training and his own manifestation of his environment into reality - which is ultimately in his head and quite flawed. When we do FOF, we actually do the opposite. We try to force some kind of close enough reality, that will allow a realistic human interaction.
3. Setting an example. Set a standard of weapon handling, safety, awareness and execution of what you literally just spent hours teaching your students. It is allready proven scientifically, that a student who experienced through exposure in first and third person the success of the techniques he learned, is thus believing and confident that what he learned is useful for him,which will increase probability of transfer into real world applications.
4. Egoless. No ego in FOF much like no ego in the ring. We are here to do work, and get better so we can fulfil our tasks. Theres no better way to shut mouth or prevent some distinctive egoistic behaviors - by an authority figure stepping first into the fray.
There are more reasons. But we are curious to hear yours. Drop it in the comments!
In the vid: Eli demoing basic 1vs1 FOF around a threshold. Threat is unscripted.
