THE SKILLS DAY
We drill to failure. We train as we fight or in this case we train as we act. Bringing together the ECHO team and other key members of the cast we had a common goal; Education. With some having decades of weapon handling experience and others never handling a firearm in their lives the learning curve for our non veteran cast members was somewhat steep. The emphasis from the very beginning was of course safety, with the regulations within the UK being ‘difficult’ we embraced what we had, Gas Blowback Airsoft replicas. The ECHO team ‘tact’ up and immediately began to dry drill. Daniel, Saskia and Doireann eager to begin listened intently and after understanding the principles of a Pistol and Pistol marksmanship they were ready to begin dry drilling with the ECHO team along their side.
As you increase your reps, you make those minor adjustments, tweaking every element until you have everything locked. Emphasising technique over speed always, it’s remarkable how an individual with the correct intent can progress so quickly. Moving on to static targets, the drill was of course focusing on all the key elements of pistol marksmanship and weapon handling but with some inconsistency with Gas Blowback Replicas we also had to focus on the most important aspect for production, how their movement translated to camera.
Does their movement look natural?
Do they manipulate the firearm with confidence?
Are they safe?
I can honestly say after half a day's training I would have been more than confident to take Daniel, Saskia and Doireann on to a live range. Their ability to take direction as actors and shooters was incredible and slightly unexpected. Even when breaking for lunch they continued to dry drill; a professional pride overwhelmed them and it translated as such on camera. With time running away from us we dropped them into the deep end, running through short serials with the seasoned ECHO team. With only a day's training they began to shoot and move naturally, manipulate the firearm with utter confidence and were constantly aware of their muzzles. All I could think about was how great they might be after a week's training!
I believe shooting and firearms training even with GBB rifles and pistols united the Sunray family in such a way that tactical/ firearms training only can. With the ECHO team members coaching and mentoring the novice shooters.
We didn’t have a live range, we can't! It’s the UK! But what we did is we worked with what we did have and my gosh were the results outstanding. It reiterated to me to always work with the assets available, dry drill and then dry drill some more; the Airsoft community has a somewhat stigma within the UK military awide, but it should be embraced! It's all transferable and any time drilling whether that be for live range shooting, operational military tasking or a 3 part web series is not time wasted.
