I really like the notion of shooting cold from concealment with different drills...call it the crossfit of firearm defensive training.
Maybe even have a bunch of drills on index cards (one that only require a simple target setup) and just select one at random when you fire your first rounds of the day.But I'm not sold on two of the three ready positions as shown, and I think there's another important one that's missing...though you can't practice it live-fire at most ranges; you'd need your own land or do dryfire or airsoft.
After I started getting trained up at least a little bit about 20 years ago, I've never used a low-ready as shown, with the arms fully extended and down at about a 45° angle unless an instructor demanded it (which has happened). Three problems with that position.
One: you're exposed to a close quarters block or trap that can take your gun out of the fight. I've seen a lot of instructors teach going to this low ready following the immediate action, and then doing a scan for other threats. Well, if there is another threat who happens to be standing from your 4:00 to your 10:00, you're providing a good opportunity for him before you even scan around to see if he's there. No bueno.
Two: Newton's 3rd law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. You may think you can get the gun up to a center mass target super fast, but in reality it's like swinging a wrecking ball: if you swing a crane with a wrecking ball attached on a chain hard in one direction, the ball is gonna lag behind the crane, and when you stop the crane the ball keeps on swinging in that direction. A lot of competition shooters teach this about target transition. If you suddenly jerk your fully extended hands with around 30 ounces of gun at the end of them, the point of aim ain't gonna stop where you think it's gonna stop. It's going to overtravel, and then you have to adjust and continue to make a few microadjustments for a couple of milliseconds to get your sight picture. In essence, this is the whole "slow is smooth; smooth is fast" business. It's like opening a typical 16 ounce disposable water bottle and wanting get the water out quickly. If you just turn it upside down it's going to glug and splash everywhere. But if you control the pour to be as fast as possible without any glugging, the water actually empties faster and with no splashing.
Three: I've always been taught to remember learning theory about the four stages of competence:
- Unconscious incompetence
- Conscious incompetence
- Conscious competence
- Unconscious competence
Maxim two is that individual segments of movement in a skill that's reached unconscious competence are more readily and consistently repeated than a different movement that's at a lower level of competence. If we work hours on developing a drawstroke that ticks all the boxes for least extraneous motion, the ability to deliver CQB accurate rounds through most of the firearm's presentation, and offers least exposure to third-party fouling (meaning good retention characteristics), then why on earth would we opt to adopt any "ready" position that looked nothing like and followed none of the patterns of that drawstroke?
Neither the high ready nor low ready in the video are segments of anyone's drawstroke...or at least shouldn't be. There's only one situation where I see the need for a distinction or for having a "high ready" at all. In team tactics, if you're going high and another team member(s) is going low, you don't want your muzzle pointed downward when he's transitioning in front of you. If you're in a role where that's a realistic possibility--even working with your spouse for home defense--then, yeah, you absolutely train for it. Otherwise, setting yourself up to "Charlie's Angel" your presentation is just about as bad biomechanically as jerking up from a fully extended low ready.
I have a CQB compressed ready: gun indexed high and firm on the outer pec, barrel angle about 45° downward, elbow high and tight in the back, offhand flat against the chest at about the same height as the gunhand. This represents the first few inches of firearm travel in my drawstroke, and it's what you need at a bad-breath, hand-to-hand assault distance. First rounds at a couple of feet away can be delivered accurately toward the pelvis or abdomen and (if not in a multi-story building) misses or overpenetrations would go into the ground about 8 feet in front of you. Very difficult for an attacker to foul your ability to fire or to attempt to take your gun away.
Next stage of the drawstroke has the gun press forward, high nearer the shoulder level than the solar plexus level (you want to keep the sights as close to eyelevel as realistic), both elbows staying close to the body, and the hands joining in a solid two-hand grip about a foot in front of and a little toward the gunhand side of the chest. The muzzle is a little higher than at CQB compressed ready, closer to 30°. This is a compressed ready, and perfectly suitable for scanning immediately after action. Rounds can still be delivered accurately at short distances; gun is still tightly controlled close to the body and not easy to foul or intercept; complete view of anyone in front of you from toe to top. The sights would be only a handful of inches below eyelevel at this point, so they would travel very little vertically as you press out fully (no jerking up or down), allowing the front sight or optic to come into play visually for probably the last 50% of the press-out.
Three different positions from which rounds can be delivered at a spectrum of good accuracy based on target distance, and the transition from one position to the other is not either/or: they're all continuous component segments of the same drawstroke. Downside is that you can't effectively maintain a compressed ready or CQB compressed ready for extended periods. But to me any true "ready" position is at a solid orange in Cooper's Color Code: potential threat identified; ready to act.
The one that's not part of the drawstroke that I like, and I agree with Carl here, is the Sul position. I've been using it for a lotta years since I first got it from Gabe Suarez and it's always made a lot of sense to me. I think Paul Howe teaches it, as well.
If memory serves, it got its name from action in the slums (favela) down in Rio and Sao Paulo where people can be as packed-in as sardines in a can. Not a real Condition Orange position, but it allows a full, turning, 360° sweep to assess the environment and situation, it keeps the firearm almost flush with the front of the body (good for both retention and not bumping it into stuff in tight quarters), and it makes it safer negotiating around people and in buildings. I've had folks ask about multi-story structures and say that it isn't safer for people on the floor below, and though you could say the same about a high ready if there are floors above, I generally counter by asking them if they think they'd ever be likely to reflexively pull a trigger with both thumbs properly indexed and the gunhand wrist articulated at almost 90°.
You start in Sul, and you're a simple wrist-straighten and about 8 or 10 inches of forward movement away from a compressed ready. I think practicing from compressed ready to Sul and back again makes for a good addition to the pattern training. Also, you can maintain Sul for an extended amount of time without tiring, and compared to the arms-extended low ready it's both quicker to get an accurate shot off (in compressed ready) from there than extended low ready, and it looks a lot less intimidating to any observers, cameras or witnesses. With the gun in Sul it doesn't look like you're itching to get off a round. Conversely, that extended low ready can certainly look that way, especially if you're having an adrenaline dump and your arms are shaking and wobbling the point-of-aim all over the place. With Sul, you're indexed tight to your body and if your hands are shaking it likely won't be noticeable.