Combat Focus Shooting book review

[bdickens]

Combat Focus Shooting by Rob Pincus (ICE Publishing Company, 2006) is subtitled Intuitive Shooting Fundamentals. And that, in a nutshell, is what this book is about. As Mr. Pincus explains in the book, his system is all about training to work with, rather than against, the human body's natural, instinctive reactions to perceived danger. Such training, he argues, is more efficient than training that goes against the body's natural reactions.

Rob Pincus is the former director of Valhalla Training Center in Colorado and the founder of ICE Training Company. He has used analyses from video footage of actual “dynamic critical incidents” (his term) as well as research into human physiology and psychology to find out what sorts of things we do automatically when faced with danger and tailored his training methodology to act in concert with that.

Mr. Pincus writes in an informal, yet educated style that neither talks down to the reader nor attempts to impress with pseudo “academic” language. His prose is simple, direct, and to the point. In a mere 106 pages, he outlines a complete system of combat-oriented shooting that allows even people who have never shot a gun before to , in his words, “...recognize and hit reactive and interactive targets...effectively while moving through a realistic 360 degree environment, in various lighting conditions with a lot of distraction, without using their sights after shooting less than 50 rounds EVER.”

This is not a course in target shooting. Mr. Pincus' focus is on “Combat Accuracy” which he defines as “any shot that significantly affects the target's ability to present a lethal threat.” By this definition, even a miss that causes an attacker to cease is “combat accurate.” But far from an excuse for sloppy shooting, his system focuses on putting the maximum number of effective shots on target in the least possible time. As he puts it, “two hits in one second that are six inches apart on a target are infinitely better than two hits in three seconds that are in the same hole.”

Some of Mr. Pincus' techniques are sometimes at odds with what other instructors teach. However, he does a good job of explaining why he recommends what he recommends and the thought behind it. Through all this, he admits that there are other techniques that produce more accurate shooting, but that his techniques are the most efficient that he has found. Nothing, however is particularly oddball or exotic.

In the course of the book, Mr. Pincus takes the reader through discussions of stance and movement, presentation of the firearm, grip and trigger control and on to shooting drills designed to hone your Combat Focus Shooting skills. Through it all, he stresses consistency and efficiency of movement.

I highly recommend this book for any CHL holder. While this method probably won't make you an IDPA champion, it will help you to better be able to successfully manage a dynamic critical incident, should you ever be so unfortunate. I believe that the Combat Focus Shooting method is great for those people who have little time available for training, as everything is totally streamlined, cut-to-the-chase and eliminates as many variations as possible.

[Rob Pincus]

Byron,

Thank you for the very well written review. I am glad that you liked the book!

-Rob