PR-24 BLOCKING SKILLS

The principle for blocking with a Control Device/PR-24 baton is to place the baton’s blocking surface between you and the threat, such as a punch or kick. The blocking surface is the outside surface of the short and long portions. There are five blocks, which come from your instinctive empty-hand blocking ability.

PR-24 blocks can be used to defend against a variety of attacks from many angles.

They are:

(1) High [when the attack is overhead],

(2) Strong Side [when the attack is to your strong side (0° - 180°)], (3) Support Side [when the attack is to your support side (0° - 180°)], (4) Middle [when the attack is coming straight at you] and

(5) Low [when the attack is coming up from the ground].

The role of a PR-24 baton in these five blocks is to make each block more effective and efficient by protecting your strong hand, wrist, forearm and elbow from possible injury, which in most cases is your gun hand.

It is important to remember that you may move to avoid being hit by a punch, kick or blow from a weapon. Your Patterns of Movement may help you to avoid being hit. Patterns of Movement may enhance your performance of any one of these five PR-24 blocks, as well as any PR-24 skill.

There are two positions in the PR-24 Basic Course called:

(a) Basic Position and (b) Long Position.

Therefore, you have close-in range (Zone 1) protection using Basic Position blocks. Long Position (two-handed) blocks are for intermediate range (Zone 2) protection.

Your support hand, if not being used to support a PR-24 Basic Course blocking skill, should be held in a defensive position. From such a position, your support hand can play a key and independent role in protecting you from an attacker, as well as in helping maintain your balance.

Disengage. Evaluate. Escalate. De-escalate. Go For Control. These are actions you could take after performing any one of the PR-24 blocks.

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BL OC KING

High Block

Middle Block Low Block Strong Side Block Support Side Block

Empty-hand blocks are the foundation for PR-24 Basic Course blocks, such as those found in the PR-24 course program.

Commentary

As an officer, you must perform each block in this module with dynamic energy that has but one purpose - utilizing all your faculties and resources to win in a confrontation, and certainly without sacrificing your own personal safety needlessly. As you review each block depicted in this module, please keep these words in mind and, by all means, pay close attention to your instructor’s demonstrations and instructions (MAPS) on how to perform each skill in the PR-24 Basic Course.

Factors such as, but not limited to, officer balance, which should always be sound; officer movement, which should not stop; officer use of other DT options or tactics besides a baton, which defines his/

her total defensive abilities in combat, and so forth are all components for winning on the job. In this module and others in this presentation, officer safety is the paramount goal behind the PR-24 program and all STG programs.

Individual pictures are used to construct this module and to portray each PR-24 baton assisted block within it. They are still images framed within a camera’s field of vision. So, when taking a picture with more than one subject in the frame, it is a common phenomenon to push every one or everything together so it makes it into that picture. This explanation is why you may view the relative position between the attacker’s free hand and/or hands and the officer’s face or body in some of the pictures as being too close. Or, the proximity between the officer and attacker may appear closer than what safety might suggest in a true encounter, as you may agree. Or, the officer and/or attacker may appear to be off-balance because each image was staged before a camera so everyone had to hold still until the picture was taken, which is not as easy as it sounds to do. These are amongst the simple truths associated with taking still images of what is otherwise an ‘action’ event happening in real time. Keep this in mind as you review this module and the others that proceed and follow it.

As you train in the PR-24 Basic Course program, you may encounter the PR-24 Basic Course MAPS that are used by the instructor to teach you each of those skills, as well as to access your minimum acceptable ability to perform those skills, and this presentation and each module therein. All share one common message, which is Protect & Restrain in the PR-24 Basic Course.

NOTES

Reinforcing Your PR-24 Basic Position Blocks

TACTICAL NOTE: You may use your Support Hand to reinforce a PR-24 High Block, Strong Side Block, Support Side Block and Low Block in one of the above approved ways. The Middle Block is always reinforced with your Support Hand.

Information worth remembering!!

PR-24 High Block is shown only as an example.

Reinforce at the

Short Portion Reinforce at the

Short Handle Reinforce at the Strong Wrist

Reinforcing Your PR-24 Basic Position Blocks

TACTICAL NOTE: You may use your Support Hand to reinforce a PR-24 High Block, Strong Side Block, Support Side Block and Low Block in one of the above approved ways. The Middle Block is always reinforced with your Support Hand.

Reinforce at the

Short Portion Reinforce at the Short Handle

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NOTES