SABER GROUP, INC.
~ Established 1997 ~
|
SABER GROUP, INC. ~ Established 1997 ~ |
|
The Story of JELLY BRYCE Coming to American Heroes Channel March 23rd! Author Mike Conti interviewed for program.
Available Now!
Part I of the Trilogy Inspired by the Life of a True American Law Enforcement Legend-Jelly Bryce Download Now!
Bob Taubert's Classic Legacy Book: RATTENKRIEG! Available Now!
The Officer's Guide to Police Pistolcraft
Mike Conti's Original Police Pistolcraft Instructor's Manual
New Paradigm Target Systems from LET Police Pistolcraft Video Series produced by Calibre Press
Read Mike Conti's article "A Winning Hand" Check out our Free Article Library!
Visit PoliceOne.com!
Visit Officer.com! In Remembrance
Rex Applegate 1914 - 1998 U.S. Army / OSS In Remembrance
Roger A. Ford 1948 - 2002 USMC / MSP
In Remembrance
Jim Cirillo 1931 - 2007 NYPD
Help support the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
|
THE OFFICER'S GUIDE TO POLICE PISTOLCRAFT All professional and peer reviews of The Officer's Guide to Police Pistolcraft will be posted here. If you read or hear of a review we do not have posted, or, if you would like to share your professional opinion regarding this book, please contact us and provide us with all the pertinent information relating to the review.
Reviewed and Endorsed by Ed Lovette Ed Lovette is a retired CIA paramilitary operations officer. He was also a captain in the U.S. Army Special Forces and is a 10-year law enforcement veteran. He has a long association with Combat Handguns magazine, for which he currently writes the Last Shots column. He is also the author of the acclaimed book, The Snubby Revolver.
Michael Conti has prepared a new book entitled "The Officer's Guide to Police Pistolcraft" as a companion piece to "Police Pistolcraft." Neither of these are "how-to" books. They are far more important than that. Mike has managed to combine the best of the old with the best of the new into an extremely well researched and well documented program of basic handgun training for police which he calls the Integrated Duty Pistol Training Course Concept. At the outset of the development of this program, Mike stated that he wanted to create "a reality-based approach to firearms training for police officers." He has done so. This is the gold standard for giving an officer the basic skills in pistolcraft -- such as mindset, physiology, tactics, and judgment -- in addition to shooting fast and accurately, that will allow him to prevail in an armed confrontation. How you can do the same thing for your agency is spelled out in exact detail for the firearms instructor. Mike has done far more than write two important reference works which will serve as bibles for police firearms instructors. He has performed a much-needed service for the law enforcement community. (Copyright © 2009 by Ed Lovette.)
Reviewed and Endorsed by John S. Farnam John S. Farnam, president of Defensive Training International, is considered to be one of the top handgun instructors in the nation. He has personally trained thousands of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel as well as civilians in the tactical use of firearms. In addition, he has authored three books on the subject: "The Farnam Method of Defensive Handgunning," "The Farnam Method of Defensive Shotgun and Rifle Shooting" and "The Street Smart Gun Book."
New book by my friend and colleague, Mike Conti: Some time ago, Mike Conti wrote Police Pistolcraft, where he pointed out to all of us the necessity of looking at the requirements of the job of policing and letting those requirements, and history, drive our firearms training. His new book, The Officer's Guide to Police Pistolcraft, has just hit the market. It is a thorough treatment of contemporary police pistol training, and Mike is probably the one person most qualified to write it! A copy should be in the hands of every young police officer! /John (Copyright © 2009 by John Farnam.)
REVIEW & ENDORSEMENT OF THE OFFICER'S GUIDE TO POLICE PISTOLCRAFT Reviewed and Endorsed by Dave Grossman Lt. Colonel, U.S. Army,
Retired From a personal correspondence: Mike, this really is a tremendous book. You have taken the [operator application aspects] a whole level above and beyond the original version. And I am honored and impressed by your applications from On Killing. You cut right to the heart of that book and made these key aspects available for others. There is a quote from me on the back of Police Pistolcraft, and I definitely still stand by those words*. A superb job. A tremendous resource for the police officer and the police trainer. WELL done, my brother warrior-wordsmith! Hooah! (Reprinted with kind permission.) (* Mike Conti’s scientific analysis and application
of his many years of observations and training in the “House of Horrors” are
simply brilliant. His assessment of the “puppy” or unconscious mind, and the
application of operant and classical conditioning in firearms training represent
the best writing and thinking that I have ever seen on the subject.)
January to March 2010 Volume 6, Issue 1 Book Review: The Officer's Guide to Police Pistolcraft Author: Michael Conti Reviewed by Chuck Soltys The Officer’s Guide to Police Pistolcraft is the celebrated follow up to Police Pistolcraft. The Officer’s Guide to Police Pistolcraft is considered to be a companion text to Police Pistolcraft, but it is also a stand alone book. Police Pistolcraft was not read prior to this review. The Officer’s Guide to Police Pistolcraft is one of the most comprehensive books of its kind currently available. It is a detailed manual covering every aspect of law enforcement firearms training from the early days to the present. The book begins with a very interesting history of the origins of law enforcement, the development of police firearms training, and how firearms came to be the trademark of the modern day street cop. It covers weapon selection and equipment, safety, pistol handling and operational skills, police combat pistolcraft skills, pistol retention, low light considerations, plainclothes pistol techniques, problems and solutions of shooting with the opposite hand, considerations for female officers, and much more. It even contains a special appendix for those law dogs seasoned enough to remember the "wheel gun." Conti covers topics that few advanced or in-service programs address. In addition, he taps the knowledge of legendary modern day gunfighter, the late Jim Cirillo (NYPD). Conti has been a police trainer for almost 20 years. He has many significant accomplishments to his credit including the development of the first full time firearms training unit for the Massachusetts State Police. His experience as a law enforcement firearms instructor is immediately obvious in this book. You get a sense of Conti‘s deep appreciation for a keen tactical mindset and mental preparation throughout the book. Any seasoned firearms instructor would be hard pressed to find a topic or sub-topic related to basic police firearms training that is not addressed in this book. Each chapter is well organized and broken down into various sections, making it easy to read. The chapters are full of photographs, diagrams, and text boxes that highlight particular training points; all of which enhance the benefits of this book. This book is so full of information; one has to merely scan the pages to begin to appreciate the years of experience it captures. Whether you are a new recruit, a seasoned officer, or veteran police trainer, this book has something for you. Due to the opinionated nature of firearms instructors and the vast array of techniques and philosophies that make up police firearms training, it is unrealistic for any author to expect that a passionate instructor would read a book of this nature and agree with everything. However, academy directors could build their entire firearms training curriculum from this book alone. This book is recommended reading for every firearms instructor. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Chuck Soltys is a federal agent and tactical emergency medical technician (EMT-B). He has been a firearms/tactics/DT instructor for over 20 years. He can be reached by email at csoltys@msn.com.ert Copyright © 2010 International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association.
The Official Publication of the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors & Armorers Association Fall 2009
New Book From Mike Conti - THE OFFICER’S GUIDE TO POLICE PISTOLCRAFT In 2006, Police Pistolcraft: The Reality Based New Paradigm of Police Firearms Training was published by Saber Press. Author Michael E. Conti’s work has become a primer for instructors favoring a combat based firearms training program. The Case Head reviewed Police Pistolcraft in the Fall 2006 edition where it was hailed as a “must read for serious firearms instructors”. The New Paradigm is the basis for the firearms training given at the Mass. State Police Academy and several other agencies have adopted it entirely or in part. Police Pistolcraft was written for the instructor who was looking to upgrade their training program with techniques and material that was based on combat shooting situations – not shooting competition. Mike Conti has a wealth of experience gained from years of researching the New Paradigm and building the Mass. State Police Firearms Training Unit. The foundation of the New Paradigm is the handgun shooting techniques developed by William Fairbairn and Eric Sykes in Shanghai before WWII. Shanghai was a wild place during those times. The streets were ruled by gangs and thugs with murder, rape and robbery being an everyday occurrence. Fairbairn and Sykes were determined to take back the city. The two developed highly effective armed and unarmed fighting techniques which were based on real world encounters. Over the years they refined their techniques and returned to Britain at the beginning of WWII to train the Royal Commandos. In 1942 they wrote Shooting to Live which documented all their work. Around this time, a young OSS officer by the name of Rex Applegate became acquainted with their work and further refined these close quarter techniques while training agents scheduled to parachute behind enemy lines all over Europe. Applegate went on to write Kill or Get Killed. Both of these works have heavily influenced Conti’s teachings because they are based on sound techniques developed in combat for combat situations. Much of our traditional firearms training is based on the “Modern Technique of Pistol Shooting” developed by the Southwest Combat Pistol League most notably Jeff Cooper, Ray Chapman, Jack Weaver, Thell Reed and Elden Carl. After using many of the techniques developed by Fairbairn, Sykes and Applegate, they began concentrating on obtaining a visual sight picture in these competitive events even at close range. Cooper was a prolific and dynamic writer which further promoted this method of shooting. As police firearms training evolved from bulls-eye type target shooting to a more realistic form of training, many trainers adopted the Modern Technique because it was perceived as a “combat shooting” method. In fact, it was really a rapid fire target shooting concept. This should not be interpreted as disrespect to Col. Cooper. The Modern Technique worked for what the users intended – winning combat pistol matches. It also served as a mechanism to pull us away from “target” style shooting for qualification. Let’s be very clear - the New Paradigm is not point shooting vs. aimed fire. Mike Conti is not naïve and understands that there are situations where a sight picture must be obtained for accurate fire. This is generally when the threat is further away or we have the advantage of surprise. The New Paradigm takes the best of all worlds and rolls them into one program. Therein lays the advantage for the dedicated trainer seeking a realistic firearms training program. The Officer’s Guide to Police Pistolcraft is Mike Conti’s follow on work to Police Pistolcraft. Because of the similarity in the titles, I will refer to this work as “The Officer’s Guide” for simplicity. The Officer’s Guide was designed and will serve as the student manual for the New Paradigm. Do not expect this book to be a simple rehash of Police Pistolcraft! This is a stand alone work oriented towards the street officer level user and has several new chapters of material. It has new material on handgun retention, edged weapon defense, understanding the reaction lag and police vs. the terrorist. There is also a very informative section on low light considerations, working in the dark and tactical flashlights. The Officer’s Guide introduces us to the concept of the “pistoleer”. It is the dedicated law enforcement professional who does not relax their vigilance when going off duty. Anytime they leave the security of the home, they are armed and in condition Yellow. If you are reading this, you probably see one every morning when you look in the mirror. This book also takes a look into the realm of the female shooter and the particular differences they will face. Rather than assuming he knows what works best for the female pistoleer, the author engaged the services of an experienced female trainer – Trooper Donna Losardo. Her resume is impressive and she writes with first hand experience about the obstacles female shooters will face with weapons and equipment. Since the majority of available information on this topic is oriented towards the male shooter, this will be an invaluable tool for the male trainer working with female shooters. The Officer’s Guide is full of solid training information, photos and diagrams. Since it is unlikely the student officer will have read Police Pistolcraft, the author takes the reader through the concept of the New Paradigm and explains why this system is superior to the Modern Technique. I could not help but notice how the reader is treated with respect. Each aspect of the training program is explained in detail which gives the reader the feeling they are truly part of the training rather than just expected to listen and learn. As I was reading The Officer’s Guide, I could not help but think that this will be perfect for the officer who was looking for better firearms training but was unable to get it at their agency. Even if you are a student of the Modern Technique, you will find useful information in this book. With just over 400 pages, The Officer’s Guide to Police Pistolcraft is highly recommended and will be a well used addition to every firearms instructor’s reference library. If you have adopted the New Paradigm, this book should be standard issue for every student you have.
REVIEW & ENDORSEMENT OF THE OFFICER'S GUIDE TO POLICE PISTOLCRAFT Reviewed and Endorsed by Colonel Reed V. Hillman, MSP, Retired Reed Hillman has over 25 years of experience with the Massachusetts State Police, including three years as commander of the 2,600-person department. Hillman is an experienced lawyer and also served as a MA State Representative for six years and ran as Lieutenant Governor in 2006. He currently serves as the Chair for the Mount Wachusett Community College Criminal Justice Program. I recently had the pleasure of reading Mike Conti's most recent book, The Officer's Guide to Police Pistolcraft. This is the fourth book Conti has written, all dedicated to keeping police officers safe and effective. I served on the Mass State Police from 1974 to 1999, and over the course of that quarter century I qualified at least once, and, if the job had the money for ammo, twice a year. It was amazing to have the rangemasters give us training protocols that changed so dramatically over the years; this was hardly a model for inspiring a conviction that the training of any given year was in actuality the very best it could be, both in guaranteeing that force was used appropriately, and more important, that we had been given the skills to come home at the end of the shift even if confronted with an armed and violent offender. Now that I have retired, it is indeed reassuring to read a pistolcraft book which finally gets it just right, not only spelling out the right way to train and shoot, but also in giving the reader confidence that the training will provide a significant edge over the bad guy in any armed confrontation. This book and its predecessor, Police Pistolcraft: The Reality-Based New Paradigm of Police Firearms Training, will be invaluable to trainers in both the recruit and in-service settings. The Officer's Guide to Police Pistolcraft will also be of great benefit to any officer wanting to make sure that his mental and physical preparation is state of the art. You might not ever have another chance to get it right if you're confronted with an assailant tonight, so why not spend a few hours honing a skill that may well save your life? Mike Conti was the founder and director of the Firearms Training Unit of the MSP. He also served as a member of the SWAT Team, and has been extensively trained with many different types of firearms. Mike is also conversant with all the major schools of firearms training and has been all over the United States increasing his knowledge base. While many officers possess years of training, Mike is the only one I know who has made a study of the science of combat shooting, what works, and what doesn't, from the twin perspectives of taking down the bad guy, and making sure you don't end up on the deck with him. I recommend this book to all firearms practitioners, including those who train other officers, those who write policies and procedures for police to follow, and everybody who carries a handgun to protect yourself and others from death or serious injury. (Copyright © 2009 by Reed V. Hillman.)
Reviewed and Endorsed by Ralph Mroz Ralph Mroz is the co-founder and training director of the Police Officers Safety Association (POSA). The POSA provides free force-training video programs to police officers. To obtain them, visit www.posai.org. Ralph is also a well-known law enforcement trainer and author of numerous articles and several books, including Tactical Defensive Training for Real-Life Encounters: Practical Self-Preservation for Law Enforcement. A couple years ago, Mike Conti published a book titled Police Pistolcraft. That book was a both a description of the “New Paradigm” police training that Mike and his staff had developed for the Massachusetts State Police, and a description of why it was developed and structured as it was. That book was geared not so much at the actual techniques of the system that Mike had developed (although they were covered significantly), but more at the instructor-level background on how our minds and bodies work under the kind of stress that police encounter when they need to use their firearms, and how a police-relevant system of instruction should and could be structured. He went on in that book to illustrate these points with the specific instructional technique and courses of fire that MSP had developed. Then Trooper Conti and his “New Paradigm” training had made headlines in the professional police and firearms press mostly because of two unusual elements of the system: the inclusion of Applegate-style target-focused shooting for much of the program (as well as sight-focused precision shooting at appropriate distances) and because Mike had built his own version of Colonel Applegate’s House of Horrors at the MSP firearms training facility. I attended an MSP in-service training day, shot the courses of fire and went through the House of Horrors, and to say that the training was street-relevant is a severe understatement. The run through the House of Horrors, in particular, stays with me today. Not only was the new training extremely realistic and relevant, I still remember one trooper telling me that “Mike Conti has made firearms training fun!” (The description of how Mike built his House of Horrors is included in this early book, as well as a description of how another friend, Officer Michael Lupichini, built one for his department in his barn.) Well, the publication of Police Pistolcraft spawned a call for a book that detailed the specific techniques of the “New Paradigm”, and now-Lieutenant Conti has met that demand with the publication of the 400+-page The Officer’s Guide to Police Pistolcraft. This new book goes over each element of what a police officer should know about using and fighting with his/her pistol. Starting with safety and moving onto pistol handling and manipulation, to basic skills and alternative shooting positions, to pistol retention, to mental preparation and the aftermath, to low light, to plainclothes considerations to left-hand shooter considerations to a section about the issues that female officers face in both uniformed and plain clothes assignments. There’s even an appendix about revolvers, since so many new recruits today have never seen one (Mike recalls one newbie asking him if his revolver “used black powder”!) OK - so what’s different about this book from many other books on pistol use? The best way to answer that question is to quote (or paraphrase) from the introduction. One of the primary reasons for the constant struggle (between marksmanship-oriented and combat-oriented training) has been because there had never been a system of pistol training designed exclusively for the civilian police profession. Police officers’ training programs had always been derived from, or at least heavily influenced by, outside sources [such as competitive shooting, military shooting and non-police civilian shooting]. As a result of all these influences, and in the absence of a needs-driven, police-specific training approach [what cops got was] based on an individual trainer’s beliefs. Of even greater importance than the techniques used to aim and fire the pistol are the techniques used to prepare the officer to operate effectively in the element of danger, and to assist in the development of sound judgment and decision-making skills. This focus on mental preparation as opposed to pistol aiming technique is absolutely critical, for being trained to respond and act appropriately when operating with a pistol in your hand is the hard part of the equation. The development of the actual physical skills required to aim and fire the pistol accurately and effectively is much easier to achieve. That, in a nutshell, is why this book is different... and necessary! It’s because we are civilian police officers. We are not competitors in a game, we are not soldiers fighting a war or an insurgency in a foreign country, we are not (game) hunters, and we are not bull’s-eye plinkers. We have a duty-bound, rights- and liability-constrained job to do within the same society in which we live. Compared to the other venues from which so much police firearms training has come, what constitutes appropriate and effective use of our handguns in our environment is unique. It only makes sense that the training we receive in that use should be specific to the job we are tasked to perform. That’s what The Officer’s Guide to Police Pistolcraft delivers. It is written by a consummate police training professional for professional police officers. It‘s about winning gunfights that we can’t avoid while protecting the citizens we serve. I recommend it as highly as I recommended (and continue to recommend) the earlier Police Pistolcraft. One other quick comment: In this book, Mike goes into a good bit of detail about the police officer as the modern-day pistoleer: one who is highly proficient with their sidearm and who is always armed with it because of the responsibility they have undertaken. This frank discussion of the necessary relationship between a professional police officer and his/her skill with arms is as refreshing as it is unusual these days. The Officer’s Guide to Police Pistolcraft is published by Saber Press, and is available from Saber Group, www.sabergroup.com. Happy Reading! (Copyright © 2009 by Ralph Mroz.) The Law Enforcement News Center features articles and stories about and of interest to law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. September 11, 2009 Reviewed by John Veit A Report On Michael E. Conti’s: The
Officer’s Guide To Police Pistolcraft It is written in plain English, and in a conversational style that engages the reader in a pleasant one-to-one discussion. There are lots of stop-action style photos to help in seeing and understanding just how-to-do what is being discussed, and in some cases to point out what not-to-do. Some chapters read like a good novel and not a field manual. They are filled with helpful and practical ways of carrying out the day to day tasks of an Officer. They also deal with the obligations and responsibilities of the modern day warrior. Mike Conti, the author, has been a member of the
Massachusetts State Police (MSP) since 1986. During his career he has worked in
a variety of jobs ranging from uniformed patrol, high-crime area community
policing, SWAT and special security details, to undercover narcotics and d eath
investigations. He has been involved as a professional trainer
since 1991, and holds numerous instructor certifications in various use of force
disciplines.
In January 2000, Mike was given the task of setting up and putting into
operation a Firearms Training Unit (FTU), for the State Police. The unit is
responsible for conducting yearly qualification courses of fire for department
personnel, and for training academy recruits in firearms use.
It instituted a new paradigm of training which is reality-based, as the
traditional sight-oriented and marksmanship-based approach that was being used,
did not meet the needs of police officers on the street. Just as interesting if not bizarre, was the FBI’s subsequent modification and
rejection of the reality based system which followed a change in personnel, not
a change in the requirements of the job.
That left a void which gave rise to the Modern Technique and competition-based
target pistol shooting, which was soon equated with and called combat handgun
shooting. It became and served as the basis for the vast majority of U.S. Law
Enforcement Agency training programs for well over thirty years.
During that time, the police hit rate when engaged in actual real-world
close-quarters gunfights, was and has remained under 15%. That poor efficiency
rate is compounded by the facts that more than 85% of close range encounters
occur within 21 feet, and more than 53% of them take place within 5 feet.
|
|
Send mail to
The Webmaster with questions or comments about this web site.
|
REVIEW
& ENDORSEMENT OF THE OFFICER'S GUIDE TO POLICE PISTOLCRAFT
REVIEW
& ENDORSEMENT OF THE OFFICER'S GUIDE TO POLICE PISTOLCRAFT
REVIEW &
ENDORSEMENT OF THE OFFICER'S GUIDE TO POLICE PISTOLCRAFT