AAR Southnarc/Shivworks AMIS
I attended Southnarc’s AMIS course this past weekend in Bristol Indiana. AMIS Stands for Armed Movement Inside Structures. This course is a 20 hour class delivered in two days. Most of that time is spent working problems inside a building using an air soft pistol, working angles and “hunting” for a bad guy. The goal for the class is to give a solo shooter the skills he needs to conduct a building search or to move from point A to point B inside a structure with possibly one or more hostiles. The worst of situations. But sometimes you have to do it. The class delivered.
We started out Saturday morning at 0800 with intros. The building was “cold”. Live weapons were locked inside vehicles, so there were no live guns inside the building, not even on the instructors. The first couple hours Southnarc laid down the foundation of basic, simple principles that all structure movement is based upon. There aren’t many, and everything you do flows form them. Get them and you are on your way to solving a lot of problems.
After that we did some white board or chalk and talk work. Southnarc drew a building/room diagram on the board and students took turns coming up and talking through how they would clear sections of rooms. It was good stuff, allowing the principles to start taking shape in my brain-allowing me to start to see them in 2D terms, which helped when we moved onto the 3D world after a break for lunch.
After lunch we broke into 4 man teams -with 3 teams total, and all headed into 3 different sections of the building. (2 offices sections and a large warehouse/workshop area). We started working angles on dry runs at first and then going live with loaded air soft pistols and masks. We learned how to conform our bodies to the hard angles and visual impediments (corners, doorways etc) The stress started to ramp up. All along the way, Southnarc coached, prodded and adjusted students as he watched each team work their sections. After an hour we switched to another section, and then another section an hour after that. Each area presented its own set of challenges.
We broke for dinner at excellent eatery in Elkhart Indiana. An Irish pub style restaurant owned by Dennis, a student and also the guy who offered up his business to hold the class in. Thanks for the hospitality Dennis and sorry about the dings in your walls dude.
After dinner we returned for the low light phase. Southnarc could not cover all there is to know about working in lowlight, but he gave a taste and we spent a couple hours working our angles and problems, dry and then live, hunting a bad guy. Once again the stress ratcheted up. The effectiveness of the high intensity strobe became evident to me. We broke for the day a little after 10:00 A long ass day. Not physically demanding, but I was tired when I got to my room.
Sunday we met back in the class room and briefly discussed new situations and complications we would start incorporating into the scenarios. We worked on holding a compliant BG at gunpoint, and then holding a compliant BG at gunpoint and then having to leave him and quickly move to another part of the uncleared building. This involved “porting” each doorway and other decisions that needed to be made quickly in calculating your risk as the situation changed. That then changed to an emergency situation (blood curdling scream) where you had to leave a known armed BG and RUN to another section to fight. And that’s what it came down to. Once again, choices had to be made, fast and risks traded. Beside a lunch break. We spent all day from 0900 to 1700 working.
The final X was a big ****ed up situation, home invasion situation with multiple armed intruders. The student had to search the structure, encountered one BG and held him, and then had a loved one scream that drew his immediate attention and required decisive action (and hits).
This was an awesome class. I learned a metric **** ton of material that I had always wondered about or sort pf pieced together over the years, never coming up with a satisfactory set of solutions. This really filled the gap in my knowledge and understanding of angles. That’s the science. Under Southnarc’s watchful eye I was shown the art of moving through a structure, armed. That’s the hard part. That’s what takes continued practice.
Southnarc is a top tier instructor. You can tell he is passionate about his training and his students. He teaches stuff you just can’t get most places and he is one of the few tactics instructors that is 100% open to civilians. SN is also a good dude, great teaching style, no bull**** trainer. He always gave credit to others that have gone before him or recommended other trainers, who do a better job than he does in certain areas. The mark of a good dude IMO.
Stuff I learned that wasn’t really “taught” in the class:
Trust your instincts. If you think you saw part of person, it probably was, don’t bypass it.
Use ALL of your senses. In lowlight, your sense of hearing becomes VERY useful.
In lowlight, a person moving through a structure can backlight themselves on something as small as the light on a coffee maker, betraying their position. I shot a couple students who were hunting for me, using that idea.
Having solid, weapon handling and marksmanship skills down cold really come into play in a situation like this. I was able to get hits on BGs time and time again, under stress while not getting hit. I credit my training with Tactical Response for that and the payments I have made. Shooting accurately was never an issue for me in this class, while it was for others. It was VERY evident.
Take this class. Its worth it. You will not be disappointed.
I attended Southnarc’s AMIS course this past weekend in Bristol Indiana. AMIS Stands for Armed Movement Inside Structures. This course is a 20 hour class delivered in two days. Most of that time is spent working problems inside a building using an air soft pistol, working angles and “hunting” for a bad guy. The goal for the class is to give a solo shooter the skills he needs to conduct a building search or to move from point A to point B inside a structure with possibly one or more hostiles. The worst of situations. But sometimes you have to do it. The class delivered.
We started out Saturday morning at 0800 with intros. The building was “cold”. Live weapons were locked inside vehicles, so there were no live guns inside the building, not even on the instructors. The first couple hours Southnarc laid down the foundation of basic, simple principles that all structure movement is based upon. There aren’t many, and everything you do flows form them. Get them and you are on your way to solving a lot of problems.
After that we did some white board or chalk and talk work. Southnarc drew a building/room diagram on the board and students took turns coming up and talking through how they would clear sections of rooms. It was good stuff, allowing the principles to start taking shape in my brain-allowing me to start to see them in 2D terms, which helped when we moved onto the 3D world after a break for lunch.
After lunch we broke into 4 man teams -with 3 teams total, and all headed into 3 different sections of the building. (2 offices sections and a large warehouse/workshop area). We started working angles on dry runs at first and then going live with loaded air soft pistols and masks. We learned how to conform our bodies to the hard angles and visual impediments (corners, doorways etc) The stress started to ramp up. All along the way, Southnarc coached, prodded and adjusted students as he watched each team work their sections. After an hour we switched to another section, and then another section an hour after that. Each area presented its own set of challenges.
We broke for dinner at excellent eatery in Elkhart Indiana. An Irish pub style restaurant owned by Dennis, a student and also the guy who offered up his business to hold the class in. Thanks for the hospitality Dennis and sorry about the dings in your walls dude.
After dinner we returned for the low light phase. Southnarc could not cover all there is to know about working in lowlight, but he gave a taste and we spent a couple hours working our angles and problems, dry and then live, hunting a bad guy. Once again the stress ratcheted up. The effectiveness of the high intensity strobe became evident to me. We broke for the day a little after 10:00 A long ass day. Not physically demanding, but I was tired when I got to my room.
Sunday we met back in the class room and briefly discussed new situations and complications we would start incorporating into the scenarios. We worked on holding a compliant BG at gunpoint, and then holding a compliant BG at gunpoint and then having to leave him and quickly move to another part of the uncleared building. This involved “porting” each doorway and other decisions that needed to be made quickly in calculating your risk as the situation changed. That then changed to an emergency situation (blood curdling scream) where you had to leave a known armed BG and RUN to another section to fight. And that’s what it came down to. Once again, choices had to be made, fast and risks traded. Beside a lunch break. We spent all day from 0900 to 1700 working.
The final X was a big ****ed up situation, home invasion situation with multiple armed intruders. The student had to search the structure, encountered one BG and held him, and then had a loved one scream that drew his immediate attention and required decisive action (and hits).
This was an awesome class. I learned a metric **** ton of material that I had always wondered about or sort pf pieced together over the years, never coming up with a satisfactory set of solutions. This really filled the gap in my knowledge and understanding of angles. That’s the science. Under Southnarc’s watchful eye I was shown the art of moving through a structure, armed. That’s the hard part. That’s what takes continued practice.
Southnarc is a top tier instructor. You can tell he is passionate about his training and his students. He teaches stuff you just can’t get most places and he is one of the few tactics instructors that is 100% open to civilians. SN is also a good dude, great teaching style, no bull**** trainer. He always gave credit to others that have gone before him or recommended other trainers, who do a better job than he does in certain areas. The mark of a good dude IMO.
Stuff I learned that wasn’t really “taught” in the class:
Trust your instincts. If you think you saw part of person, it probably was, don’t bypass it.
Use ALL of your senses. In lowlight, your sense of hearing becomes VERY useful.
In lowlight, a person moving through a structure can backlight themselves on something as small as the light on a coffee maker, betraying their position. I shot a couple students who were hunting for me, using that idea.
Having solid, weapon handling and marksmanship skills down cold really come into play in a situation like this. I was able to get hits on BGs time and time again, under stress while not getting hit. I credit my training with Tactical Response for that and the payments I have made. Shooting accurately was never an issue for me in this class, while it was for others. It was VERY evident.
Take this class. Its worth it. You will not be disappointed.