A few months ago my wife and I were invited to shoot an episode of First Person Defender. I had never done any force-on-force training, so I was very excited about the opportunity. After I attended a weekend pistol course with VATA Training Group, I decided to send my wife to their Women’s Defensive Pistol course. She loved it but was still a bit more nervous than I was going into this.
I was familiar with the show but still didn’t know what to expect or what type of situation they would be putting us in. The scenario wound up being where someone broke into our house while my wife and I were in our bedroom and our son was sleeping in his room.
As you can see from the video, I didn’t do too great on the first run. I moved way too slow, stopping at our bedroom door and by that time the burglar was already in the hall doorway where we exchanged gunfire. I didn’t even realize I got shot in the face but did feel getting hit in the hands.
After the first run, we received some training from Greg Lapin of VADA Training Group and Vida Jiu-Jitstu who was the instructor that was running the scenario. The main issue was that I took too long and stopped at the bedroom doorway. He also explained how we needed to move together as she passed behind me to get into the baby’s room. After going over a few other tactics, we proceeded to run the second scenario.
I felt like the second scenario went much better. As soon as I didn’t see anyone in the hallway, I went through our doorway, down the hall and to the next doorway which leads to the living room and front door. My wife and I moved together as instructed as she went into the baby’s room, grabbed him and then back so she could get back to the master bedroom. As soon as she passed, the burglar came out of the kitchen, and I immediately shot him until he went down.
Going through this exercise definitely made me think about how this would play out in my own house. I would highly recommend getting some force-on-force training. Although it isn’t a real-life situation, it is probably the closest thing you can get to it. It is just something you can experience shooting at paper targets or going through a regular pistol course.
