Rob Pincus: Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network.
Lower Center of Gravity in Response to A Threat
Rob Pincus: Understanding the body's natural reactions to startle or fear that are likely to happen at the outset of a dynamic critical incident is really important if we want to be able to train in a way that's going to allow us to be efficient in an actual fight.
One of the things that's going to happen when we get scared, of course, is that we're going to lower our center of gravity. Lowering our center of gravity is not done to make us stronger in a fight. It's not done automatically by the brain to make us a smaller target.
When we think of the body's natural reactions, we need to remember that these things have been around for a lot longer than firearms and a lot longer than modern defensive tactics training. The reality of lowering our center of gravity is that it prepares us to move.
Human beings can't move unless we lower our center of gravity. Even if I want to go straight up, I have to bend at the knee to propel myself up. If I bend my knees, I can push my body out, and then catch myself as I come forward, or I can extend my keg out to the side and pull myself out in that direction. That preparation to move is an instinctive survival reaction, because movement is a huge survival benefit. It allows us to get away from close proximity attacks. It allows us to get into a better position. It might even, by creating distance, allow us to buy time to learn more about our threat or to access tools or to develop a plan.
Motion is a huge survival positive, and lowering our center of gravity at the beginning of a critical incident allows us to take advantage of it.
Keep this in mind the next time you're out at the range shooting. If you're shooting in a posture that keeps you standing up straight, your posture is incongruent with the body's natural reaction to startle or fear. A much more appropriate defensive shooting stance is going to take advantage of the fact that we know we're going to be in a lowered center of gravity with our weight forward and shoulders in front of our hips. Of course, this supports the proper operation of a firearm also by allowing us to extend forward, keep our weight behind the gun and keep that frame steady, allowing that semiautomatic pistol to cycle properly.
Understanding the body's natural reactions is an important part of your efficient defensive training.
Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.
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