feature By George T. Williams
Punch/Draw in Touching DistanceS
Does it work as advertised? SUMMARY
The punch/strike is intended to disorient the Threat through actual injury or by distracting him sufficiently to enable the officer to draw his weapon. In-car videos began to see officers shoving or striking with too little negative effect.
MORE INFORMATION
www.cuttingedgetraining.org
he Punch/Draw is a technique designed to disrupt a sudden imminent threat within touching distance. As you realize the suspect is reaching for a weapon, you simultaneously strike the suspect in the face or chest with your non-gun hand while drawing your weapon as you step back. If the Threat remains within touching distance, employ a combat tuck and shoot him. If not, extend your handgun out, interrupt the eye-target line, reference the sights and/or weapon, and shoot until the imminent deadly threat is stopped. The strike disorients or delays his ability to shoot you while giving you time to get on target. So it makes sense to teach this method when responding to close imminent threats, right?
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The traditional Punch-Draw has the offi cer pivoting back at the strike with the body weight and movement already moving to the rear. This rearward movement lessens the effectiveness of the strike and often gains little more effect than a push. Moving backward, care must be taken to avoid muzzling your striking hand.
shoving or striking suspects with too little negative eff ect, confi rming a problem with this method.
Well, no, not really as it is generally taught. We taught this method in the 1980s before it was widely popularized, and continued until the mid-’90s when force- on-force drills began to alert us to a prob- lem—the Punch/Draw didn’t seem to work as advertised. T en came the avalanche of in-car videos, and we began to see offi cers
10 The Police Marksman Jan-Feb 2014
Reality is Problematic As many as half of the offi cers murdered by gunfi re are at a distance ranging from con- tact to 3 feet away from the suspects, and suspects almost universally get the fi rst shot off (“Violent Encounters,” FBI, 2006, page 49). Trainers realized that offi cers needed to even up the timelines in the shooting by either slowing or stopping the suspect
from drawing while creating time for the offi cer to be able to shoot. T e Punch/Draw was developed in response to this perceived need. T e strike is intended to disorient the
T reat through actual injury or by distract- ing him suffi ciently to enable the offi cer to draw his weapon. T e problem with the Punch/Draw is the nature of momentary eff ects of the strike (if the offi cer actually makes contact) and the realistic length of time it takes the offi cer to draw the hand- gun before the suspect can begin shooting.
www.policemarksman.com
Photo Credit: Cynthia Williams, Cutting Edge Training, LLC
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