Top 3 “Getting Off The ‘X’” Myths about Shooting On The Move

One of the most important rules in a gunfight is to avoid being in the path of incoming rounds.

And one of the popular sayings is that you need to “Get Off The ‘x’.”

But that’s where bumper-sticker answers do us a disservice and cause us to buy into training myths about shooting on the move.

As an example, some say that you should point your “finger gun” at a friend, have him walk around, and see if you can keep pointing at him.

They say that since you can track them with your “finger gun”, then an attacker could track you and moving doesn’t do you any good in a gunfight.

Except that’s a myth–In real gunfights, movement does matter.

A friend of mine is former Army special forces and a current LE trainer in the western states.

He has several cases where students have stepped offline, shot their attacker, and found that the wall or patrol car they were standing in front of had one or more holes in it where they were standing (before getting off the x.)

A few years ago, Force Science Institute found that novice shooters who hadn’t been trained to shoot center-mass shot (and hit) the head with surprising frequency.  If that happens to be the “straw you draw” then simply moving your head as if you’re slipping a punch may be all you need to do.

In addition, I’ve had shooters demonstrate this regularly in force-on-force training.  It’s not 100%…but that has to do with the fact that our visual skills change based on stress level and movement and different people process situations differently.

This goes way beyond “tunnel vision,” but in general, the higher the stress level of your attacker, the more movement will help you.

The next myth has to do with how fast you should move & shoot.

Most moving and shooting training deals with slow, controlled movement.

But there’s no one-size-fits-all speed for shooting on the move.

The speed that you should move is dramatically different if you’re behind the curve and responding to an ambush/assault than if you’re on an entry team following a flash bang with speed, surprise, and violence of action on your side.

Clearing a structure = controlled movement

Responding to an assault = get out of the way of the attack ASAP

So, then there’s the 3rd myth…that if you’re moving fast enough to be harder to hit and minimize your exposure time, there’s no way you can make consistent, reliable hits.

Without the right training, that’s correct for 99.99% of shooters.  But in today’s video, I’m going to demonstrate how you CAN move at a high rate of speed and still make consistent hits with your carry gun and tell you how you can get the same level of life-saving performance.

I want to encourage you to watch my presentation on dynamic gunfight training >HERE<

It’s different than anything you’ve ever seen before.  Even if you’ve been around the block a few times, been in actual gunfights, and think you’ve seen everything.

You see, we’re going to do a little drill together during the presentation where you’ll get to experience, first hand, one of the biggest reasons why good shooters only hit 15-25% of the time in real-world situations…and I’ll show you how you can flip those odds.

If you’re law enforcement or a law enforcement trainer, neither you nor your department can afford to miss this.

If you’re military, this will show you a step-by-step process to be able to return accurate, effective fire on the move in ambush situations.

And, if you’re a responsibly armed civilian, it’ll show you how to bridge the gap between the flat-footed static shooting most ranges limit you to and the fast, chaotic, dynamic reality of counter-assault shooting.

Seats are limited, so sign up now by clicking >HERE<

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4 Comments

  • rod vanzeller

    Reply Reply October 24, 2022

    Everything you showed is based on a defensive mind set.
    What I am going to share is not for everyone, we train charging the hostile with head shots,we use an offensive mind set on every situation.
    I am not going to tell you who I learned this from(I am not in here to advertise anyone) you know who he is and who he learned it from.
    Try it with training partners that don’t know what you are going to do and you will notice the temporary freeze of having a “predator”coming at them, this is hard wired,freeze,flight,fight.In training we constantly work on drills to reverse the process, fight,flight,(tactical) “freeze”.
    It is ok to call me crazy lol.

  • Johnny Crumpton

    Reply Reply April 1, 2021

    Cover is concealment concealment isn’t cover.
    Concealment is any thing that will conceal your body or movement.
    Cover is concealment but will stop a bullet.
    Most walls are good for concealment but won’t stop a bullet, this also goes for cars, trees and most other objects you can hide behind. The best place behind a car is the front tires behind the engine block and this isn’t a 100% gaurenteed to stop a bullet. Likewise it takes a large tree to stop a bullet and provide adequate concealment. As for walls only the strongest reinforced walls will stop a bullet and those are almost non-existent. Having worked on cars that were involved in police shootouts I have seen first hand how far bullets will travel through a car, and a car isn’t the best cover unless its all you have.
    I like this article as it is the first time I have seen any article on the use of cover, as most articles I see have to do with shooting fast.
    Please keep up the good work I like reading your articles.
    Johnny Crumpton

  • Caleb Anthony

    Reply Reply July 31, 2019

    I believe the movements are saccadic at different intervals, do to an unconditioned reaction. Your body reacts differently to different Stress situations.

    • Ox

      Reply Reply July 31, 2019

      YES! You’re absolutely right. In calm static situations, the average person can do smooth pursuits through approximately 30 degrees per second. So, to run your eyes through their entire range of motion without a saccade (jerk), it takes approximately 12 seconds. This varies widely AND it can vary depending on which quadrant you’re moving through or whether you’re just moving your eyes up/down, right/left from neutral. < That's me totally geeking out on your question. Here's some info that's actually valuable... The "frame rate" that you're able to see at depends on the total cognitive load in the brain. You can "see" quicker and through a wider range sitting vs. standing because the brain has less to worry about in terms of balance. As you add stressors, like balance, aiming while moving, threat of harm, etc. visual processing speed drops and gets more choppy. (The less novel the situation and more conditioned you are, the less of an issue this is.) But there are specific EASY steps you can take to improve vision, dynamic vision, balance, and movement...then combine them with fundamental static shooting skills...to get high speed dynamic shooting performance. I go into it more on the encore presentation that I'm holding on Thursday...check it out if you get a chance.

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