Recently, a friend shared a video with me, posted by a well-known YouTuber instructor, where individuals were fighting to win a door during a CQB. It wasn’t a training scenario; it was a real-life situation. My response to him was: when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Let’s talk about it.
Facing a life-threatening situation is undeniably stressful. You may have heard how this stress is linked to higher levels of decision-making and shooting errors in such situations. You might also be familiar with ABA Intl’s principles of technique selection.
Considering all this, it’s crucial to recall two points that can prevent situations like the one mentioned:
- Technical simplicity: In this case, it’s better to say tactical simplicity. Humans should strive to achieve the best results with minimal effort. When encountering resistance, it’s likely that the tactical execution is incorrect or, which leads to the next point…
- Technical variation: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And every solution you think of involves hammering. But a hammer is not the best tool for tightening a screw, cutting wood, or painting a wall, right? It’s essential for the operator to have sufficient technical and tactical resources, not relying solely on “their hammer” and having the opportunity to choose smarter tools.
I like to tell my students: If it’s difficult, it’s wrong. We need to seek the easiest solutions possible, considering that the life-threatening situation is challenging enough.
