Lowlight/Flashlight

Let me preface this by saying that there are a lot of institutions out
there conducting low-light training. I've never had the opportunity to
attend any of them so I lack some "formal" education in this area.
There may be some better stuff out there but this is just my take and
as usual I'll tell you my reasons. This is all based upon my experience
and common sense.

As far as holding the light itself, I have come to prefer to use the
reflector end protruding from the bottom of my fist. I like this because
it works regardless of what kind of light I'm using for the most part,
whether it has a bezel or butt mounted switch. It works with an E2E...
An M2 combatlight...

Or a Streamlight Stinger.
Another reason I like a bezel/bottom hand grip is that it's relatively
easy to re-acquire our grip capability in the same hand. To grip
something what we need is the thumb and index finger. So all we have
to do is just flip the index finger on the other side of the light and now
we can get some grip back and still hold the light. Like this.

No problem in grabbing the magazine.

Feeding it in the well.

And slamming it home.

I can rack my slide... (Another reason I like the over hand position)

...and manipulate doorknobs with no problem.

There are a lot of different ways to hold the light in conjunction with
the handgun. After working pretty much all of them I prefer to not
meld the gun hand to the light hand in some kind of marriage for
stability, especially during structure movement. With the gun
constantly moving in and out, encroaching corners, and having to open
doors it's just easier for me to stick with one hand pistol manipulation.

As far as where the light is in relation to the rest of me, I like to keep
things common and stick with a vertical guard that floats from left to
right as needed.

Here I am with the light indexed left off my centerline.

Here's a side shot.

Light indexed off the right of centerline.

Side view.
And finally horizontal elbow for breaking corners without depth.

Side view again.

Now. Why would we want the light hand to be able to float from left to
right? Pretty simple when you think about it.
We want to be able to let it traverse because we never know if we
have to clear a vertical plane (wall, doorjamb, etc.) that's to our left or
right when cornering. When we break vertical planes we do so with our
eyes and the muzzle. Obviously the primary job of the light is to
illuminate so it needs to go where our eyes do.

So when cornering left, the light orients with the eyes, incrementally
breaking the vertical plane.

Another shot cornering left.

And cornering right. Notice the light is aligned with the rest of me
where it can be used for what it's there for. To help me see. Don't
make all this stuff so complicated. Just use common sense guys.

Cornering left closer up.

My gun hand is more extended than it would normally be in relation to

how close I am to the jamb, just so you can see.
And cornering right, closer up.

Let's say I have to take this vertical plane shallowly. Same as before, I
go to my horizontal elbow.
I break the corner and run into a baddie...

...who grabs my arm and starts to swing.

I'll basically drop step and do a cross-cut swing to jam the arm.

And finally drive in a circular, clockwise motion like in previous stuff

you guys have seen me do, and acquire my muzzle index into his
back.

Okay if you have the commodity of a ranged warning and light in hand
(such as a police officer would), it's a good idea to use the light to your
advantage. Now this window is predicated a lot on how dilated his
pupils are, but I personally used light effectively from my handheld
and from the vehicle light bar when I was a patrolman with pretty
good success. Just don't make it out to be more than what it is guys.
Again common sense.

So with a ranged warning from the BG...

I'll give him a quick blip in the eyes which he reacts to.
I'll side step...

...and swing a simple O'Neil pivot kick into his nuts with the toe of my
Acadia. Nice, easy, and gross motor.
We'll finish up with a hammerfist to the face, striking with the bezel.

Even if I can't light flash a guy, the same principles of pocket stick,
pikal, hammerfist cycling, etc. still apply.

Light in the off-hand, he punches, I vertical elbow shield.

He eats the bezel on a hammerfist while controlling the other arm.

Control the arm, passing from my right to my left, maintaining the

outside.

And finish with an edge of hand. No biggie.

That's it for this one guys. Not "the" way just "a" way.

Enjoy!

SN

Originally posted by Southnarc of ShivWorks and Total Protection Interactive. This PDF file is created to
aid students of self protection, as a tribute to those who wrote the content and is in no way a challenge to
the original author. The format of this document is protected by a Creative Commons Licence. Any
derivative works must give attribution to the original author(s) of the content. The copyright for the
content is held by the original author. I have edited spelling and grammar only.

James Marwood