POMW II 22. August – 20 September

On Saturday 29 August, POMW I had to take its test. On a splendid summer morning, the 10 participants met for the first "sharp" course at Hanebjerg shooting center. Hanebjerg shooting center is one of Denmark's largest shooting facilities and has formed the framework for all previous POMW courses incl. the instructors' A-license course, which you can also read more about in the archives. POMW II was massively supported by instructors: Kimu Sensei as shooting director, Søren Renshi and Jens Hanshi-dai as assistant shooting directors and the other instructors as course commanders and practical pigs.

With the coffee cups filled, Kimu Sensei started with a presentation of the shooting technique handbook in the room connected to the "large pistol range". On a shooting range with real guns and real bullets, safety is essential, which was also Kimu Sensei's message. This was repeated and shown to be technically correct afterwards on the shooting range, where the participants listened intently, as they now knew very well that a mistake could mean that a shindenkan comrade could ultimately be hit by a shot with fatal consequences. On a shooting range it is important that a weapon is always treated as if it is loaded. This means that the weapon must always point in a safe direction, which means towards the shooting targets at the end of the shooting range. When loading or preparing for shooting, the weapon lies in the magazine and points down the shooting range towards the target with a safety peg inserted. If the weapon is transported from the shooting range to premises, for example to be cleaned, this is done with a firm grip around the stock so that the muzzle points upwards and the magazine well forwards and away from the carrier so that you can see that the gun is not loaded. All safety rules were carefully reviewed and repeated several times to be safe.

The first team of participants of 3 people could now start by loading their magazines, with the next team "in the hole". The first shooting was used by the participants to get to know the weapon, as it was the first time that almost everyone shot with a real sharp-loaded gun. Until now, they had been used to air-guns and SIRTs that do not emit recoil. A caliber 0.22 doesn't do that much either, but a little bit, which if you don't hold the gun correctly means that you don't hit the target or the spread becomes large. Therefore, it was also to be expected that the first series would be widely distributed. But it was actually not that bad and the participants all had good shots, of which the women had the best results, but also Jonas as a jokokid did very well with the air pistol at 15 meters.

What was the biggest challenge for the participants technically was that the real gun, which was now a Smith & Wesson 22L, weighs considerably more than a cz airgun. It was now also clear who had practiced the necessary strength training with dumbbells, in order to get the body used to holding a weight with an outstretched arm in front of the body. If you have practiced this for a long time, everything else becomes easier to hold a gun still, which is necessary to achieve the optimal aim. Then you can at least exclude this and concentrate on aim, trigger and other things that give the good shot. You could sense a certain annoyance among some participants that they had not had the time to strength train the 2 minutes a day that is required to maintain the strength for the good shot. Despite this, after the long shooting until 17.00 good results most of the way around. Along the way, Kimu Sensei had given all the participants corrections that they could work on along the way but also in the interim period until the final day of POMW II.

The decisive factor in shooting is, of course, how to operate the gun technically correctly. POMW shooting technique is simple if you otherwise follow the process. This is also the key word in POMW shooting – the process. The process is an expression of your state of mind, as the state of mind and thus the attitude affects and influences your thoughts and thus action when you have to shoot. Therefore, shooting is, as Kimu Sensei says, "Nicely consistent, as it reflects your state mentally and physically". The philosophy is that shooting is simple and thus it is just point and shoot. If you don't hit, you have to look at the process and at yourself, many other shooting associations will tell you that you probably have to adjust the sights or maybe change shooting glasses or something else practical. But Minouchi Sensei's theory has told several times that it is the person behind the weapon that is decisive, to which the participants in the course could now seriously nod in recognition. If you keep correcting the outside and adjusting the gun without looking at the inside and finding out why you can't keep focus, you are missing a process step in POMW shooting technique, then you will never improve, or it will be very slow. There is a reason why shooters who have gone through the POMW shooting training come out as really, really good pistol shooters after 3-5 months as opposed to the 15-20 years it traditionally takes - they work with the inside in combination with the outside.

The final day of POMW II was held on 20 September again on the large pistol range, thus the participants had 3 weeks to dry train and strength train. The procedure on this day was the same, however, without the presentation at the start, instead it was moved to it immediately. All participants had been practicing in the intervening period, which could immediately be read from the shots. Traditional range shooting is stationary shooting and can thus be learned by repeating the same thing over and over again, which is why there is also great success with autistics who find peace in shooting.

The decisive factor was whether the participants had received enough strength training and hand grip in particular, as POMW II ends with 9mm shooting. A 9mm pistol has quite a lot of recoil, and recoil cannot be combated, but it can be controlled to some extent. In terms of safety, it is also more serious with a 9mm pistol, as an accident means either serious injury or death. Therefore, Kimu Sensei made much of the safety surrounding the handling of the 9mm pistols, which the participants were allowed to practice without bullets in the magazines before they were allowed to reload. There were again 3 shooters forward in the booths at a time, all of whom were flanked by a shooting instructor, so that safety was top notch. At the same time, Kimu Sensei was working on another course with rapid shooting to get the participants used to the loud bangs that the 9mm emits. He had started a little under the 0.22 shooting as well. The loud bangs can mean that you instinctively hesitate or do inappropriate actions, as you may be afraid of loud bangs without wanting to admit it. There is only one way to cure it - habituation. It is the same way you train hunting dogs, which can stand next to a gun going off, whereas you can see other dogs almost shaking and having to take tranquilizers on New Year's Eve because of the small bangs that come during the evening.

It was clear to see that the participants who had been trained in strength training had better gun control than those who had jumped over where the fence was lowest. It can go in 0.22 shooting with a loose grip, but not in 9mm shooting, as the gun then becomes very lively. A good hand grip is the prerequisite for recoil control, which means that the gun moves briefly in a line up and down in extension of the arms and further down into the body and the ground, which Kimu Sensei naturally explained pedagogically through analyzes of various shot images, both his own but also of the participants.

For the 2 jokoteens Maya and Jens and one joko kid Jonas, POMW II meant the end of the POMW training, since POMW III, which is a pure 9mm course, is only for adults. All 3 of them did very well with results they can be proud of both internally and externally. For the other participants, it was back home and dry training before POMW III and the initiation into more practical shooting could begin.