Intermediate Force: OC, Batons, and Improvised Weapons

Not every human problem has a ballistic solution.

But some situations, that don’t, still require some level of force application.

Heloderm will teach you how to use your pepper spray, walking stick, expandable baton, Taser, bike lock on a chain, and other intermediate force / improvised devices. You’ll learn strengths, limitations, and alternatives for each. You’ll practice how to keep it so it doesn’t get taken away in a fight. We’ll give you protocols you can use to simplify your decision making processes under stress.

Pepper Spray

Many people carry chemical irritants, but very few have ever trained realistically in how to use them, without getting the cannister taken away and used on them.

Batons

Likewise, we often see older people walking with a stick to fend off dogs. At first blush, use of a baton seems rather intuitive. But timing and proxemics are CRITICAL with batons. Further, using a stick against a mugger can be either physical force or DEADLY physical force, depending on your intended target and where you end up hitting.

Have you ever practiced against a living, breathing person? Do it wrong, and you’ll telegraph your intent; your strikes can be defeated, deflected, avoided . . .

In trained hands, sticks and sprays can be fantastic force multipliers. But ONLY if you know what you are doing, and have practiced the skills beforehand.

Improvised Weapons

In class, we’ll conduct basic drills, and then move on to interactive, scenario based use of force decision making exercises.

Once you have fundamental techniques of striking and retention down in this course, we’ll also practice improvising weapons, such as “hooligan’s bats” from your environment.

Your Needs

If you only carry pepper spray, or only carry a stick, that’s fine. If one (or both) of those are supplemental to the pistol you carry every day, that’s OK too. There will be an optional live fire component at the end of the day, where you’ll get to integrate your firearm into the use of force continuum (if, for example, you spray a less than lethal threat but he is unimpressed, pulls a knife, and becomes a lethal threat).

What to Expect

We will provide inert (water or alcohol only) pepper spray trainers, as well as samples of various batons and baton simulators. If you have your own OC (pepper) dispenser, baton / stick, or Taser type device, please DO bring them with you. That way we can tailor your training to the specific device(s) you’ll have in hand.

If you don’t have a chemical dispenser yet, we recommend pepper gel with a flip up safety cover over the activation plunger. But bring whatever you have.

We will discuss decontamination procedures, but . . . 

WE WILL NOT EXPOSE YOU DIRECTLY TO REAL OC DURING THIS COURSE

. . . although that can be arranged, if you want.

There will be an optional component where you can do some live “target practice” against an inert target with your own OC. Although each pepper spray canister has a limited amount of juice, you should test yours periodically, and might as well get some training out of it when you do. Also, it will allow you to feel some of the diluted, indirect effects you will WILL experience in a confrontation, even under the best conditions.

Tuition for this all-day course will be $90; $81 for returning Heloderm / Warlizard students.

If you want to become competent with your intermediate force options, or just to learn what those options are, please contact us via the form below, and we will arrange for you to get a class.