POMW B basic shooting Safety, Safety and Safety.

By Claus Hansen, 41 years 1.dan Sr. Yakami Shinsei-ryu and 3.dan, Kodosoku-kai Gensei-ryu Karate-do, winter the 2012th Trained for almost 12 years

TLUS POMW 1 “dry training” conditions is limited to an ordinary gym
We therefore use simulations of distances, and seek to protect what is not ours,  and therefore use wood panels and absorping materials on the walls
7 m simulate a distance of up to approx. 12 m, and 12 m simulate a distance of up to approx. 28 m distance to the targetPOMW uses standard  targets for 5 m distance, and DDS DSkyU targets for 10 m, 15 and 25 m,
We use DSkyU DSF IPSC 1/1 and 2/3 targets, Airgun standard poppers and Plates, and other equipment
POMW “Dry training” uses; CZ 75 no blowback co2 airguns, professional SIRT laser guns, toy guns and water guns

 

It was 26 shindenkan students full with expectation, whom on a Saturday morning in May had come to start the POMW B. The day started with small talk in small groups amongst the participants. All were dressed in the obligatory GI, as this course was shindenkan competence training like any other course. The only difference was that anyone, with a few exceptions, was wearing indoor shoes, and safety glasses. The atmosphere was cosy, “old friends” and training mates shared history and joked with each other, it was some time ago that all had been together, so there were many things that they had to talk through. All had the option of studying the technical setup for the upcoming day’s events. This was set up earlier by all the Chef Instructors with helpers, of course, after careful guidelines from Kimu sensei.

It was with only a few minutes past the schedule, that everyone found a place to sit and Kimu Sensei could initiate the day’s program.

The first part of the course was a brief review of POMW A, since it was some time ago, so everyone could also revive why POMW had been created. It originates from the Minouchi Sensei’s theory of the 3 paths.

  1. The Budo path with emphasis on inner clarification through philosophy and meditation, supported by martial arts techniques.
  2. The Bujutsu path with emphasis on clarification through internal martial art techniques supported by philosophy, meditation and ki techniques.
  3. The Unconventional path with emphasis on survival through war possibly with sporadic meditation and philosophy.

The aim is to prove that one can achieve greater clarity and understanding by switching from a one path to another, if this occurs before the densho degree Joden. Since POMW A now was done sensei could move to the theory part of POMW B. All of the courses I have attended in shindenkan had a ryugi (theory) and ryuha (practical) part. Only a few courses have been pure ryugi courses.

The Ryugi part in POMW B were about some of the things which, among other Kimu sensei had experienced in his preparation for POMW and some of the prejudices which also the chief instructors had encountered in their preparation between pomw A and B. The Chef Instructors had gone through a course between Pomw A up and until Pomw B, then their credibility will be higher than the other students and because the requirements to complete the courses are higher than for other students. It is optional whether you would participate in POMW D, which are “wet” training primarily with 0.22 Cal which will be held in the second half of 2013. For the chief instructor it is mandatory. When asked who was interested in POMW D all the students accepted. Personally I would not miss it. It is more realiable to say at a dinner party “I have the theory understanding of shooting, I’ve never shot with nothing else than an airgun though. No, well it gives more credibility to say I understand the theory and have shot with different calibres and have a license to shoot.

Kimu Sensei also commented on that POMW has “stirred up the water” in the sports shooting world as well as in the military world. Fortunately, it is not all shooting clubs where the chairman sees himself as self-appointed judge of the laws of firearms, so all instructors have managed  to find one or more shooting clubs with sound chairmen. And in the military, there has been only positive feedback for the POMW project, “finally someone that tries to understand us.” And in the big world outside tiny Denmark, we have only been met with openness and curiosity.

One of the big questions from the shooter associations were among others, the prerequisites  Kimu sensei had to teach in POMW. The starting point were that Kimu Sensei did not have any process of shooting training per August 1. 2011. Since then much has happened. Kimu sensei has A+ license for the pistol, the RO (Range Officer), which is the lane judge. He has license to hunt signs and proven his shoting skills reaching “Gold with Oak Leaves” and the “free shooting” emblems . You can say he is a complete marksman. He has structured the shooting lessons for us and made the sanity check with some of the best shooters in the world by competing with them on various stages around the World. It was truly an impressive list of shooters.

After this review, it became a little more serious, as we turned to the more practical part of the course. We got a review of the various disciplines in shooting, shooting with the airguns,  in the same classes as in IPSC, where Japan had some of the best airgun shooters. As you could see in the video, they were also pretty fast and it is very similar to IPSC shooting. The only difference was that it was with air instead of real ammunition. But it demanded the same of the shooter. This was compared with modern target shooting where you in total peace have all the time in the world and numerous aiding tools to hit the target. It was pretty boring to watch, I thought if it were not for the music I believe that I had fallen asleep. There were a lot more action around field with the airgun. To emphasize the connection between karate and martial arts and the military a film clip from Ran was shown , where you see samurai being mowed down by guns, they were introduced to Japan in the mid-1600 century. This emphasized greatly that if the general does not understand the weapons of the battlefield he loses the war, although he has the best soldiers at his disposal. This was followed by a film clip from the D-day landing on the Normandy coast, and finally a clip from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This highlights to me that POMW actually is very much a need if you want a complete tool box as a martial arts performer, because guns are unfortunately becoming a likely part of our everyday lives.

Finally, within the practical part Kimu Sensei went through the technical manual and safety rules for shooting.

Technically shooting consisted of nine rules

  1. Safety.
  2. Optimum shooting technique
  3. Safety.
  4. Optimum shooting technique
  5. Safety.
  6. Optimum shooting technique
  7. Safety.
  8. Optimum shooting technique
  9. Safety
  10. Optimum shooting technique

What to check before you shoot.

  1. The correct double-hand position
  2. Proper use of the sights
  3. Proper use of the trigger, PS (press and squeeze)
  4. Proper recoil control, correct breathing and overall position and attitude.
  5. Troubleshooting, put the gun down after every shoot and evaluate your performance and learn.

This was relatively simple in theory and but hard to remember and carry out for real, which we were soon have to find out, but done properly, led to surprisingly good results very quickly.

It was time to test the theory in practice and become familiar with the guns. All wore the mandatory safety glasses and also had the opportunity to experience why you should wear safety glasses, as a pair that had been scratched after firing of ammunition went around. Probably no one had doubts about why it was important with safety glasses when you shoot . Some thought maybe it was a bit excessive when it was only airguns we had to shoot with. Soon this should prove to be a good idea.

After a walk through of a few safety rules on handling the gun and ammunition, and the possiblity to be DQ’ed the cheerful mood from earlier was superseded by a more serious and tense atmosphere. Guns should be handled as if they were real.

It was time to fire the first shot, we were divided into teams of 2 persons, each with an air pistol for sharing. Wearing safety glasses we started shooting first at the 3 m. There were fired no more than two magasines before the first person was DQ’ed and pointed to the bench having plenty of time for thought, for having the finger on the trigger while the gun were not pointed at the target. This served to emphasize the seriousness. Today it was air guns and “tomorrow” it would be real guns and deadly serious. Subsequently, the distance increased to 5 m now, it was somewhat difficult to hit the target, and now you could also hear and feel why it was a good idea to wear safety glasses. The bullets that did not hit the target  richoceted back toward the shooters. Now the distance was increased to 7 meters. At this distance, it was very difficult to hit the target because the target was small, however it suited the distance, it just looked very small. The reason for the difficulties of hitting the target probably was because many forgot the basics and felt a performance pressure. However it is not important to hit bulls eye, it is important to perform all the steps correctly. Eventually you will be able to hit the target. After limited success at the 7 m distance it was reduced to 5 m again. This resulted actually in a better hit rate. Personally, I discovered that my shots were more clustered the second time I shot at the 5 m than the first time. I attach to this that I started paying more attention to my basic technique. I still did not hit “bulls eye” each time but was glad that the shots were more clustered, as it means that you shoot consistent, and from there you can work towards the center, because it is just about adjusting the sights. Furthermore, you can also from the cluster see what error the most common error of  the shooter. The last lesson finished by shooting from the 3-m. And you were only supposed to hit the black circle on the target. Many forgot that they still had to perform the basics correctly, like on the 5 and 7 m. I admit outright that it was very tempting just to shoot away. I caught myself in this, trying to take my time and learn.

This shooting was over and it was time for reflection, time was too long since gone. Personally I thought it had been a really exciting day. Now it was up to participants to practice every day, the next few weeks and be as good as they can before Pomw C.