Fight Club

My class has just completed our Defensive Tactics training. We managed to make it through with only one major injury (one recruit fractured his collarbone during our fleeing suspect drills), and only a few bumps and bruises. When it came to practicals time, we all passed our scenarios as well, so we are still 24 strong heading into week nine of twenty-two.

Having wrestled in the past, I had a blast learning the various takedowns and holds early in the week. Things took a slightly more somber turn when we started learning potentially life saving techniques such as escaping chokes, disarming suspects, and weapon retention drills. Everything culminated with our practical, which started as a demonstration of what we had learned, and ended in a Redman scenario.

The scenario was very exciting, and I assume, and extremely close recreation of what may actually happen. When my partner and I entered the room, two men were arguing over a woman. Before we had the chance to announce ourselves, a punch was thrown, and we leapt into action. My partner went to assist the victim while I squared up with the suspect. Here's where I made my mistake: when I approached the suspect I stood less than two feet away from him. I tried to calm him down, and went for soft hand control: I put one hand on his chest while telling him to move to another area of the room. At this point the instructor in the suit made me pay for being too close; he nailed me with a crushing left hook square in the jaw.

That made me mad.

Immediately I went to perform a takedown on him. In doing so, I managed to tear his arm guard right off, which earned me another punch to the head. As I pushed him away to reassess, my partner came streaking across the room, Asp in hand, and started laying into the suspect, ending the scenario.

Ultimately we passed, thanks to our teamwork and handling of the situation. After all this excitement, next week is back into the classroom for crime scenes, which doesn't sound nearly as fun.

Stay Safe
-The Rookie