The Pekiti Take-Off

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Submitted just as received in the e-mail to me from Suarez International

The Pekiti Take-Off

I spent the day today working with a group here teaching the Pekiti-Take Off (aka Drop Step) combined with an Appendix Carry Draw to get off the x during force on force.

We had a few drills a a preamble. The first thing I did was stand two men facing each other at 4 yards, airsoft gun in hand. The task was to draw and shoot the other man. No movement was allowed. We did three repetitions showing equal initiative (starting on “go"), and unequal initiative (one started and the other responded). The second drill repeated the same thing, but this time from a concealed holster carry. The results of all of this was that both men got shot. As fast as they tried to draw and shoot, unless one side missed their draw, both men got hit within milliseconds of each other.

The next drill was simple. The “good guy” was to spring off the x as soon as he saw his adversary go for the gun. The adversary had one shot to fire. Surprise! The guys were not getting shot anymore. Once this primal realization was made (stand still = getting shot, moving fast offline = not getting shot) we began refining it.

I taught them a method of getting off the X that I learned from Tom Sotis. Tom is a knife master and we have been collaborating on cross training for a while. The Pekiti-Take Off is an athletic dynamic move off the spot. The take off is more easily shown than described but I will give it a shot. As Tom explained it to me, a normal step involves fighting gravity by lifting the foot and then dropping it as you fall into step. Thus walking or running are simply controlled falling and stopping. This may be alright, but to do it faster and smoother, we can refine the action.

Think of simply falling into direction without first picking up the foot. Simply “unweight the foot” and fall into that direction. This decreases the time it takes to move off the initial line. So to do this, you drop into position by doing the following -

When you want to move to the 3:00 for example, your right foot will be moving to 3:00 as your body begins falling. At the same time, the left foot will move a couple of inches to the 9:00, or the opposite side. This drops your body out of line and sets you up nicely for a good sprint off the x. So wherever you want to move, the opposite side foot will dart out to the opposite direction a couple of inches so you can drop out of position and then sprint off the X as you shoot.

We drilled the footwork for a while and then did it force on force. The results were dramatic. Folks got off the X much faster than before...dramatically faster. Combined with an appendix carry it was amazing to see. Appendix carry will speed up your draw by 1/3 without requiring out of control speeds. It does that simply because you have less travel time to gun or target. We saw shots out before the second foot hit the ground. Its almost cheating.

The Pekiti Take Off is prevalent in the FMA systems, but this application to gunfighting is new. Its incorporation to the draw takes some coordination, but the guys in class (many with zero martial arts experience) learned it in an hour. The grip is achieved upon the initial drop step/TO, and then as you push off the back foot (loaded foot), the gun is drawn and fired. This is more easily done with an appendix rig (which many in class seem to have instantly changed to).

As I said - combined with an appendix carry rig, it is very fast and, once understood physically, is very deadly. Things that I’m finding helpful -

1). Don’t wear metrosexual Gucci loafers, or wannabe seal sandals. Something with a good grip or traction is beneficial.
2). Plyometric training is helpful in explosiveness.
3). Make sure your cover garment is large enough to clear well. I am an XL size, but wear a 2x for cover.

Another benefit is, that being from the same FMA family, the Dog Catcher and False Lead of our DLO material blends very nicely into the Pekiti Take Off footwork matrix.

Access while dynamically moving is a skill like any other and it must be learned and trained to a point of being reflexive. I am coming to the conclusion that a controllable draw is more desirable than a fast draw. What I mean by that is that the traditional fast draw via open front cover may seem mechanically faster when standing still, but the movement may cause the garment cover to move in unpredictable ways thereby preventing the smoothness seen when the shooter is standing still. We saw this happen in force on force enough to take note of it.

A closed front shirt may seem marginally slower in standing target shooting but is much more “predictable” when moving. This seems to lead to a smoother more repeatable draw while moving. The speed is made up by traversing OODA faster, and by presenting an unpredictable and changing problem to the adversary (thereby slowing his response down), not by simply trying to draw faster against the clock. Speed is relative and I must say that this is a new way to look at speed, but I think it is more realistic than simply using a stopwatch.

Try the Pekiti-Take Off when you work your Get Off The X drills. I think you will find it a very nice addition to the skill set.

To learn the Pekiti Take-Off as it applies to gunfighting, check out our Advanced Close Range Gunfighting DVD