Whole article found here: http://www.tigerswan...rswan-May09.pdf
The company’s unusual name was born in the old mining town of Tiger in the Swan River Valley of Colorado, but its foundation is firmly rooted in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. The two principals, Jim Reese and Brian Searcy, are both veterans of the Army’s most elite Special Operations unit and it is from this fraternity that the company draws its staffing. Searcy, a retired Sergeant Major and top ranked competitive shooter whom the Army also sent to Harvard for an executive leadership program, describes TigerSwan as a risk mitigation crisis management company, “Providing solutions to uncertainty.” As you would expect from men of their background, it also has a strong core competency in firearms and tactical training.
All the TigerSwan instructors have experience in competitive shooting, and this strongly influences their training program. It may seem incongruous that veterans of the most elite hostage rescue unit in the world would draw from civilian competitive shooters. In actuality, it dovetails neatly with their philosophy of acquiring the best available information and adapting it to their mission requirements. Searcy argues that the closest thing to combat is shooting in competition. As for those who dispute that by saying, “Competition isn’t combat,” Searcy agrees. He believes that you use competition to practice shooting and you practice tactics when doing tactical training such as force-on-force or flowing through a shoot house. He states that most people who dismiss competition shooting “use tactics as an excuse for poor marksmanship.”
As for whether competition develops bad habits that will show up if a shooter is involved in a gunfight, both Searcy and Copper just smile and say they’ve never had a problem distinguishing between the two. Searcy recalls that even within their unit, there was resistance when the first group of operators started training with civilian competition shooters, as many operators already believed themselves to be the best shooters in the world. Searcy’s assault team was the first to train with Rob Leatham, and Copper notes that the “high grip” was one of the things they adopted once it was proven to help operators shoot better. As for those techniques that were discarded, Copper replies, “I don’t remember since we never used it.”
As Operations Sergeant Major for their unit, Searcy relates that he was largely responsible for the annexation, refurbishment and reopening of additional ranges on Fort Bragg, which allowed civilian shooters and soldiers to shoot against each other in monthly competitions. Searcy grins and says, “It’s one thing to get beat by a fellow unit operator, but quite another to get beat by some 50-year-old, overweight civilian.”
Having shot almost every type of competitive sport from skeet to bull’s-eye to Service Rifle and IPSC, Searcy believes it is impossible to improve without shooting in competition, as you will inevitably plateau if shooting only on a square range by yourself. The stress of being against the clock, against other shooters and having an audience watch you forces you to develop the mental management necessary to execute the correct subconscious weapons handling skills under pressure.
Having trained with the best civilian competitive shooters, and filtering what works in the ultimate competition of real world combat around the world, TigerSwan now offers that information to military, law enforcement and civilian students. “Not to pass on that experience and knowledge would almost be criminal,” says Copper.
Amazing what common sense can do.
