PAUL CASTLE'S CENTER AXIS RELOCK [C.A.R.] CLOSE QUARTER COMBAT PROGRAM

[Jolyn Esquerre]

In order to understand the C.A.R. Program, the reader must be able to answer the following questions: 1. How would you defend yourself with your handgun if you are sitting in the driver's seat of your vehicle & you are approached by an assailant on the Driver’s Side?; 2. How would you defend yourself with your handgun if you are sitting in the driver's seat of your vehicle & you are approached by an assailant on the Passenger  Side of your vehicle?; 3. How would you defend yourself with your handgun if you are sitting in the passenger seat of your vehicle and the assailant approaches you from the Driver’s Side?, and 4. from the Passenger Side?; 5. How would you get to a family member in another part of your house if an intruder had invaded your house? The answer to these 5 questions is not only about specific skill sets but it's also about your mindset. C.A.R. is about "survival"! C.A.R. is about weapon retention and C.A.R. is about "success"! These 4 dynamic C.A.R. Training days was about developing and transitioning to new CQC skill sets and mindset!

7 hours of Dry Fire Drills! The hardest issue to overcome was the traditional mindset of Dominant Hand and Support Hard (formerly known as Strong Hand/Weak Hand) and the concept of Dominant Eye & Weak Eye! C.A.R. focuses on (1) the ability to manage the Firearm on both sides of the body with equal skills; (2) the ability of the Shooter to use both eyes equally depending on which side the Shooter is using; and (3) changing the Shooter's Firing Platform from either a Weaver Stance, a Modified Weaver Stance or the " Isosceles" Stance and replace these stances with a "Bladed" Stance. The challenge we found is that the longer a Shooter has been using a traditional stance, the more difficult it is for the Shooter to change/modify his/her Stance.

Paul Castle's C.A.R. Instructors utilized a Team Teaching/Learning Technique that had each Team Member on one Team Coach a Team Member on the other Team. Then during this process, the Team Coaches were switched so that everyone had an opportunity to Coach & Learn from each other. This process created a vested interest in each Team Member to make sure that each of us was successful in completing the Courses-of-Fire! WELL DONE!!!!!!! THIS IS A "MUST-USE" TEACHING/LEARNING CONCEPT!

We spent 4.5 Hours completing various Courses-of-Fire so that each Student could be comfortable doing the following:

1. Defending yourself with your handgun if you are sitting in the driver's seat of your vehicle & you are approached by an assailant on the Driver’s Side?; 2. Defending yourself with your handgun if you are sitting in the driver's seat of your vehicle & you are approached by an assailant on the Passenger  Side of your vehicle?; 3. Defending yourself with your handgun if you are sitting in the passenger seat of your vehicle and the assailant approaches you from the Driver’s Side?, and 4. from the Passenger Side?. The Final Exam: a Team Course of Fire that each Team Member "HAD" to pass or else the entire Team would Fail! "NO-ONE-WAS-LEFT-BEHIND"! ANOTHER “MUST-USE” TEACHING/LEARNING TECHNIQUE!! This is a sample video clip from one of Paul's other C.A.R. Classes.