Shivworks ECQC Course Review
Pictures of Course
Summary
This is an extremly physically demanding and well taught 3-day course. You’ll learn how to fight while standing and on the ground, think wrestling and jiu jitsu with guns. It’s as close to real world as you can safely get and it will expose any weaknesses you have in your self-defense skillset. The instruction is world class and the course is worth every penny.
Begin
As a trainer, your journey typically begins by taking some professional training yourself before you ever begin teaching material to other students. You find out there’s a lot you don’t know, and you find a lot of weaknesses in yourself. You begin to fix all those weaknesses by taking more classes, getting more education, and practicing more. When it comes to firearms, there’s rarely a class I take today that makes me feel uncomfortable or question myself after the class. I’ll pick up some new techniques here and there but once the class is over, I don’t give it much thought. I still have some gaps in my training that I want to take care of and I’m constantly working to fill those gaps.
One of the holes in my skillset I was looking to fill was weapon retention. When it comes to training, there are a lot of bad trainers out there, so I’ve been hesitant to sign up for a class in this area since it’s so niche. On a recommendation from some fellow trainers, I decided to check out Craig Douglas from Shivworks. He was hosting a class about 6 hours from me, right on the edge of my driving range, so I signed up for a 3-day Extreme Close Quarters Combat class. Craig is a former undercover narcotics officer and as he explained during the class, he wanted to fix what didn’t work in the field by creating this course. I watched a couple of promo videos for the class and saw 2 people in protective gear attacking a 3rd person who eventually wrestled his way free and shot his attackers with a simunition gun from very close range. After watching that video, I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the class.
Day 1
On our first day we started at a mixed martial arts gym and went through introductions. There were a wide variety of people and backgrounds in the class ranging from college professors to active NYPD cops to cowboys. Most of the students also had a background with some sort of martial art with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu being the favorite. We discussed the agenda for the class and the theory behind Craig’s class. Once the lecture was out of the way, we immediately began to work on the physical part of the class. That wouldn’t stop until we ended Sunday night. We moved progressively through the drills until we came to what Craig called the mountain goat drill, 2 people with foreheads pressed together trying to push each other around the gym. This was when I realized that I might have gotten in over my head. I’m in decent shape since I lift weights and do a little cardio here and there, but I was not in shape for this type of work. By the end of the drill I was sweating and heaving for breath.
Day 2
The next morning, we moved to a range close to town and began with the live fire portion of the class. I was much more comfortable with this as I was in my element and I picked up some new techniques to use in my own classes. After that we moved to stand up work, basically how to wrestle while still on your feet. For hours Craig would demonstrate a technique or series of techniques and you would then pair up with someone and drill the technique either hard or easy depending on the instructions given. Craig had an interesting way to run the drills by listing a 4-command combo which told us how he wanted to work together.
Consensual – Both parties are working together to accomplish the drill. No winners or losers.
Nonconsensual – You are trying to win and prevent your opponent from winning.
Technical – Very careful and slow in your movements to make sure you were doing something right
Competitive – Win the drill.
So, for example, if he said to do the drill nonconsensual/competitive, you knew you were going all out to win the drill. We did this for hours both standing and on the ground. Needless to say, I was exhausted. At the very end of the day we would put everything together into what Craig called an “Evolution.” A culmination of all the techniques put together into a live real-world exercise with simunitions. For this evolution, the “good guy” would be on the ground on his back with a sim gun in a holster. The “bad guy” would be standing and attack the good guy. The good guy’s job was to be able to fight off the bad guy and be able to successfully deploy his firearm while creating enough distance to do so. Easy right? Nope. There weren’t many times the good guy was able to cleanly get his gun out and shoot the bad guy from a decent position. A lot of the times, the gun was taken from him or lost completely. By sheer luck, I was able to get my gun out of the holster at the right moment and make the shots necessary. Even if someone was shot, the drill would not stop. During my fight, my attacker, who’s name was Jake, managed to get me in a bad position. I was able to create a little space and make a few close shots from retention. As I was shooting, Craig simply said, “Jake, stop getting shot.”
These exercises were as close to real world as possible and the amount of stress that was introduced was high. Just wrestling on the ground wouldn’t have been a big deal if the only goal was to pin the other guy or force a submission. When you introduce a gun into the mix, things ramped up quite a bit. You could feel the energy of the fight change immediately once a gun came out.
One thing to note here, there was no difference between strong side carry and appendix carry in this drill. There are often arguments on why one is better than the other, but out of dozens of drills, both carry positions performed the same. Carry how you’d like, just know how to fight on the ground with and without your gun.
Day 3
The last day we began with more live fire, broke for lunch, and immediately went into the next evolution. This would be a 3-person scenario with one person as the good guy, one as an instigator, and the last as a wild card. After viewing the promo video online, I was not particularly excited about the possibility of having to fight off 2 people at once. The biggest takeaway from these scenarios is that most of the time, you could probably talk your way out of a lot of them. If the good guy had some de-escalation skills, they often would walk away without issue. These evolutions were all over the place. Some ended without issue, some ended with all out brawls. There were basically no rules in these scenarios. Everyone started standing and all parties could use whatever techniques they wanted to win. At times it was pure chaos. Once again, not exactly a ton of fun for me, but necessary stress inoculation.
From there we moved to weapon retention and how to disarm someone with a gun. I’d originally signed up for the class to learn retention, so I was pleasantly surprised on how simple and effective the technique was. After that we moved to how to fight in a car. This was the proverbial “knife fight in a phone booth.” With sim guns, 2 participants started in the front seat of a car, the driver has a gun in his holster, the passenger tries to rob him at gunpoint. The goal is to disarm your opponent and shoot him with “a” gun. This was messy. People ended up all over the place with opponent’s guns, their own guns, both guns, and guns tossed out the window. Even though it was chaotic, this was a very educational drill for me. We always teach that action beats reaction and this exercise definitively proved that. Out of the 20 student who were the driver, every single one was able to grab the robber’s gun before they could fire a shot. This would also go the other way. If you let a bad guy get too close, they could easily grab your gun before you could react.
One of many takeaways from this class was the use of something called a clinch pick. A clinch pick is a small knife that you can tuck into your belt and use if you can’t get to your gun. Some of the students had training picks and I was shocked at how effective they proved to be. Getting your gun and creating enough space to shoot can be very difficult when someone has a hold of you but deploying a small knife was very easy. Once deployed, stopping someone from stabbing dozens of times was nearly impossible. After seeing the efficacy of the clinch pick, we immediately ordered 2 of them once we got home.
Final Thoughts
As a trainer, I’m always preaching stress inoculation, getting as much stress as you can in a safe environment so that if you’re ever faced with that situation in real life, you’re less likely to freeze up. This class was all of that and more. As mentioned in the first of the article, it’s rare that I think about a class after I’ve taken it. With that being said, I haven’t stopped thinking about this class since I left. For me this class was uncomfortable. It exposed a lot of weaknesses in my skillset that, as a firearms instructor, I don’t like to admit. If I’m honest about my self-defense readiness, I need to address those weaknesses.
Despite my comfort level, this course was world-class. I’ve taken training from all levels of trainers and this is near the top. Every technique is explained thoroughly and with purpose. Often, after explaining something, Craig would say, “…and the reason for that is.” I absolutely love that style of instruction and Craig was phenomenal at it. His assistants were top notch and have some of the best backgrounds that you can achieve. These guys were always willing to answer questions and they flowed seamlessly into Craig’s instruction. If you are looking into testing your self-defense skillset, there is no other option. You need to take this course.
Tips for a good class before you go
You need to be in decent shape before taking this course. I lift weights and do some cardio, but I was gassed after some drills and absolutely after the evolutions. Don’t let your conditioning get in the way of the class.
You will get some cuts and bruises. Take a kit to help with that.
You’re at the location almost 12 hours on 2 of the 3 days. Plan accordingly. Sunscreen if necessary. Food, water, etc.
Know what you’re getting into. This is a very physical class. Be mindful of any injuries you may have and bring that up with the trainers. They did a great job of managing existing injuries with the students to make sure everyone stayed safe.
As with all classes I teach and take, make sure your gear works. You’re going to be rolling around on the ground and fighting. If your holster is untested or sucks, it’s going to fail. I saw shoes fly off, guns fall out, etc.
Check your ego at the door. You’re not as bad ass as you think. This course will humble you, but it will show you what you need to work on.
Do some grip training. That was the one exercise I think helped for this course. I do grip training every day after I work out and I was able to grab a hold of an opponent’s gun and hang on for dear life during our car fight without letting go. I directly credit that to training my grip.
I would suggest videoing during the class for your personal use. There were a lot of techniques covered. Way more than I can remember much less practice at home so some video that you could go back and review would be helpful. Shivworks has a good media site with some well-done videos so you can review there as well.