This is a new offering from Chuck Haggard of Agile/Training and Consulting. It was hosted at The Complete Combatant in North Georgia. He told us that he had many requests from students for live OC exposure, so he created a course with more practical exercises and the option for a live exposure to compliment his one day instructor course. He also pointed out that now that it was available, several of those same people have failed to sign up for the class. Cold feet, perhaps? I digress.

I am still certified as an instructor under Haggard’s program, and teach the material regularly to my self-defense students. I think it is a great one day program that gives the necessary classroom treatment on the history, development, and gives instructors the information and drills they need to coach clients on the ins and outs of pepper spray selection and use. You can read my review of my first time through here.

This new course forgoes the PowerPoint presentation and allows much more time for practical use and exercises that contextualize when OC is a good force option. First I’ll give a rundown of the day, then a few wisdom nuggets I gathered.

We spent some time in the classroom discussing some baseline info about pepper spray for the benefit of those who haven’t been through the instructor class. Things like what pepper spray is, how it’s packaged, how to pick an effective formulation and spray pattern that suits your needs, recommended brands, when pepper spray is the right choice for defense, the benefits of live exposure for legal articulation if it’s used on you, best decontamination procedures, etc. The classroom portion was thorough, but not unnecessarily long. Then we got out for the practical portion.

The practical segment started with demonstrations of spray patterns and ranges of various inert products. One thing that stood out to the students was the difference in both the throw and volume of spray between small handheld units like POM and larger MK3 or MK4 sized cans. We sprayed gel, foam, stream, cone, and fog type inert cans as demos.

We spent some time spraying each other with the different spray patterns and formulations from a static position against an advancing partner. We would verbalize, spray, and then ‘check our work’ by examining the pattern on our partner’s safety glasses. Chuck had us work this portion with POM, because the tiny stream requires more careful aiming. Aim small, miss small and all that.

Next we contextualized the average use case via Haggard’s take on MUC (managing unknown contacts) which is strategy template developed by Craig Douglas of Shivworks. MUC is a must-take block of instruction that provides a strategy to spot problems forming before they’re too close to avoid, determine if what you’re seeing is a real problem or just a harmless unknown person, and maintain space and time to allow you to stay mobile, upright, and conscious if it is an attack. A series of drills added complexity, culminating in plugging in OC as the pre-emptive force option. This segment is necessary for students to visualize when OC could or should be used in a developing situation.

After MUC, we test fired live OC against a paper target. This afforded the students the opportunity to see how the actual product behaves vs the inert spray, test formulations that are available and experience what ‘blowback’ effects each type of spray had. Most students were surprised at how minimal the effects were to the sprayer and even to those downwind of a blast. Maybe a little cough or skin tingle, but nothing debilitating.

The last thing was the optional live exposure counter assault drill. This is a modified police version which was get sprayed, back to vertical cover to protect your back, draw gun and issue commands and track the sprayer, once he complies, you’re called to switch to another gun, and pickup the knife wielding guy and shoot him a few times with the SIRT. Here’s my run.

Interestingly enough, I saw this assault on a cop using OC and a knife and it looked a lot like the scenario Chuck used. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKpS459udBI/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=dmVtdWExa2doanhv

This was a really fun class and it taught me some new things, as well as reinforced my belief that OC is a really effective and useful force option for average folks. This was my second exposure to live OC, and the difference in after effects when you have a good decontamination procedure is dramatic. Chuck used the Sabre Decon field kit and it worked like magic with a gently running hose. If you don’t have that, get some no tears baby shampoo and some aspercreme and you’ll probably be just as well off. The best analogy of the weekend is that POM OC is like the Ruger LCP of pepper spray. It’s better than nothing and easy to carry, but it pales in comparison to a harder to carry MK3 sized can (Glock 19) in range and volume of spray (usability).

This is the class for you if you have any interest in lots of info on the practical use of OC in the average criminal assault. Train with Haggard.

Products to Use:

POM: Code AGILE10 for 10% off. https://pompepperspray.com/

Sabre Red Stream: https://amzn.to/4mUc0la

Sabre Decon Kit: https://amzn.to/4dUlHMt

Defense Tech MK6 stream: https://amzn.to/4dUgQuN

UDAP: https://www.udap.com/mm5/product/3C

Sabre or UDAP bear spray (area denial, home, car, riot): https://amzn.to/3ZYXqiu

anything with a stated MCC % over about .8% and up to 1.5%, tend to prefer streams in smaller keychain sized packages, foam for minimizing cross contamination