Take Cover...by, Tiger Mckee

Skill Set: Take Cover

Cover provides you with protection against the threat, and is only cover relative to what type weapon they are using.  If someone is trying to hit you with their hands or an impact weapon or cut you, then an object that prevents the threat from getting within arm’s reach provides protection.  Against a firearm you’ll need an object that “stops, impedes or redirects bullets.”  Cover prevents you from being injured, and yet under stress most people don’t use it.
Moving to cover isn’t natural.  We don’t instinctually run for cover when attacked.  The techniques for using cover are not natural.  Creating distance between you and your cover is mandatory, especially when someone is firing at you.  Yet, most of us will tuck in tight to cover, which is where we feel safe.  But bullets striking that hard surface create a storm of debris and fragments that can injure or kill.  Distance almost completely eliminates this happening.  There are a lot of other reasons to create that distance.  It puts more distance between you and what’s on the other side of cover, allows you to see more of the environment and gives you more room to maneuver.  None of this is instinctual.
So, how to you learn to go to cover and use it properly?  First comes training, the introduction to these skills.   Next is practice, where you begin to program these actions into your response through repetition.  Using cover starts with conscious decision; repetition turns it into a subconscious response.
Once you’re behind cover, it’s decision making time.  Remember, cover provides protection.  The best response is to use this protection to break off contact, escaping the danger.  Or, you may be required to engage the threat from behind cover.  This means working on your fighting position so you’re exposing very little of your body while being able to engage any part of the threat’s mass.
You’re engaging the threat and they break contact, ducking behind cover in an attempt to escape.  This may be the ideal time for you to escape.  Be very careful about rolling out in an attempt to reengage the threat.  They may be trying to suck you into an ambush.  Reacquiring the threat could turn you into the aggressor; now you’re the bad guy.
Regardless of what you’re doing if they are shooting back get behind cover.  We see a real problem with this during force-on-force training.  The bad guy is shooting – the good guy is covered and protected.  Yet the good guy will try to work around or over cover in an attempt to engage, getting hit in the process.  This may be the result of watching too many John Wick movies.  It’s certainly a case of them never seeing anyone stick their head out and taking a direct hit.  Get behind cover where it’s safe and then decide what to do next.
Never lose sight of your mission statement.  Do you need to break contact and escape at the first opportunity, or is it your job to keep pushing until the threat is neutralized?  Focus on your mission before the fight.  During the confrontation you’ll have plenty to think about without trying to figure out your life’s purpose.
Study and learn how to use cover, and then get in plenty of practice.  If these skills are ever needed they will serve you well.
Tiger McKee is director of Shootrite Firearms Academy,