By Martin E. Hansen, Member until 2018

Shindenkan can shoot'a also move

After a successful POMW TSM C1 course, where Minouchi Sensei's thesis was thoroughly proven, it was time for a superstructure and more advanced shooting. The question was whether Minouchi Sensei's thesis also applied when the participants had to make transitions (alternation between several targets), shooting in motion and IPSC (Practically applied shooting) and not "just" range shooting, as it had been until now.

A group of tired but also expectant participants showed up again on Saturday morning to continue Friday's training. It didn't take much coffee and rolls before they were all once again high on the farm day's successful experience "Yes we can hit" and even hit really well. There was a prospect of a long and hard day, as Kimu Sensei expressed it, and the day before the participants had been given the prospect that it would probably only end an hour later than planned, depending on the level, but that simply meant that all the participants would get extra training and around 7 hours in total. The level the day before was quite high and it was also a tired Kimu Sensei who announced that due to the high level of the participants he felt compelled to stay up half the night and change the course so that it suited the level of the participants, whereby everyone could get maximum yield. This once again emphasizes Kimu Sensei's way of thinking and respect for other people, it is never too late to do something more optimal even if it is at the expense of one's own resources and in this case night's sleep.

The first lesson of the day built directly on top of the farm day's shooting, where Kimu Sensei introduced what is called transitions. Transitioner is still stationary range shooting, but against multiple targets, in this case 2 targets. Therefore, the participants were also divided into groups of 4, where one had to shoot while the other 3 were either at the loading table, or practiced POMW shooting technique from the next marked distance. The difference from the previous shooting is that you first take aim and shoot according to the POMW shooting manual at an oblique angle to one side, after which you point the gun obliquely to the opposite side and fire another shot and lower the gun. The difficult thing in this exercise is not the first shot, and perhaps not the second either, but when you have to shoot the second time and take the second target first ie. you shoot, for example, from right to left, instead of left to right. Why is this getting harder? Most of us have trained one eye to be dominant throughout our lives, and this eye would very much like to take over all the time, and it is quite clear when you move the aiming direction to the side where you have your dominant eye. However, the participants had an advantage that most other shooters do not have, namely they have Tai-sabaki with them from the karate training, which can be used and especially what we call shiho level 1 (see and execute), where you shift the focus before you move say, which is exactly what you do when shooting at multiple targets, look first, focus, move the gun and POMW shooting technique. The transition shooting was of course also trained from several distances. In order to have some competition and fun, Kimu Sensei had planned a small shoot-out, where the two teams with the most points (i.e. the most hits in the black area of a target) would meet at the end of the transition shooting. From the pictures you can see for yourself who were the clear winners with 25% better scores - GREAT, but there were a couple of chief instructors who had red ears, but then they took revenge at the end of the day.

After a short break it was time for the next lesson of the day and the start of POMW TSM C3, shooting in motion. First, the participants were divided into two equal-sized groups, which were then again divided into several smaller groups. Kimu Sensei wanted to build another level on the shooting, which required some more space. So one team took up again with SIRT and trained transitions towards 3 targets at a greater distance, while the other team two and two trained shooting in motion on a straight line back and forth towards a shooting target. The pace got faster and faster as the contestants got used to moving forward and backward while firing airguns. A queue slowly began to build up at the loading table and several CO2 cartridges ran dry. Quite quickly, most people found the trick with movement and could once again create a connection to karate and walking basis, keep your center of gravity at the same height, then it is also easier to keep the aiming devices at the same height and towards the target 🙂 It is not enough to move back and forth, so the next thing on the agenda was naturally movement to the side. When you have to go to the side and move at the same time as you shoot, it is important to twist the lower body so that you are actually turned up to 90 degrees in relation to the upper body, i.e. you walk the line that goes far with the goals. It was trained so that you first went forward and shot and to the left and then went backwards and shot to the right, and of course the POMW shooting technique had to be used, although there was now a difference in the shooting arm that was bent or extended depending on which side you shot to.

When everyone had gone through both SIRT and shooting in motion, it slowly began to smell a bit of IPSC. In order not to lead the participants directly into the long stage that was arranged as part of the set-up, the participants had to be led straight to try to shoot at the targets used in IPSC. For this purpose, two smaller "courts" were built, on one of which IPSC cardboard discs were set up (symbolizing a torso) and on the other 3 poppers and a plate with an indicator for a hit, poppers and plates are however made of metal. The participants now continued in the two groups and in one group they again trained with SIRT against the cardboard discs and in the other group they trained with airguns against poppers and plates.

Now it was time for what many have probably been waiting for, but didn't know if there was time for - IPSC. Since it had to reflect real-life competitions where there were many participants, there was only the option to "walk" through the course once. This naturally put pressure on the participants, who had to remember everything they had learned including safety rules, i.e. you always point the gun at the target, or away from the crowd and referee also when you change direction on the field, which in this case was almost square. At the same time, a magazine change was also included along the way to train this, which is lightning fast in IPSC. There was a really high pace on many of the participants and it was clear to see that they had become familiar with both safety and shooting in motion, although there were also several DQ's and in some cases several to the same person for the same mistake thanks. teaspoon 🙂 During the IPSC part there was, if possible, an even more fantastic atmosphere and everyone cheered each other on in the hope that there would be an even faster time and more flawless shooting.

A good hour later than planned but at the same time expected, today's course ended. The overall evaluation had nothing but praise for the course, which had given both food for thought, but also another confirmation that Minouchi Sensei's thesis had been proven. At the same time, it was clear to see that even in a skill such as shooting, the basic technique from karate can be applied and used as a tool for improvement and troubleshooting.

The first part of the large POMW project, i.e. the course requirement up to first dan is now well over, and so far it has been a huge success in several areas. Firstly, the most important and the driving force behind the project, Minouchi Sensei's thesis is chiseled into history as "Myth approved" and not "Myth busted" to use the language of a well-known American TV series. Secondly, Kimu Sensei has once again proven that, in his uncompromising way, he manages to create a project that is made for success, but has also taken an incredible amount of resources to complete. Shindenkan has added another success to Denmark's history, as the first multi-track martial arts system that can now also write the modern warrior's weapon competence on the CV, something that will surely attract attention both nationally and internationally.