The use of paintball and airsoft weapons to improve the shooting fitness of students

Konstantinov Vladimir Nikolaevich PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor at the Department of Tactical and Firearms Training of the East-Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation  664074, Russia, g. Irkutsk, ul. Lermontova, 110 gefffor@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Shokhirev Vadim Vladimirovich PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor, Department of Physical Education, Irkutsk State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation 664003, Russia, Irkutsk region, Irkutsk, Krasny Vosstaniya str., 2 gefffor@mail.ru

An analysis of the practice of using weapons by employees of the Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation over the past three years (2020, 2021, 2022) indicates that they do not have sufficiently formed skills and skills for the safe detention of armed offenders, which leads to injuries or deaths of police officers ^{[1, p. 12]}. In practical classes on fire training in accordance with the Course only technical elements of high-speed shooting are formed for the Department of Internal Affairs (2017), and only methods of detaining offenders without bringing skills to the degree of skills are formed in tactical and special training classes. Such a disparate methodological approach does not contribute to high-quality training, and even more so does not meet the requirements of the actual use of weapons by employees of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Attempts to conduct joint comprehensive classes, in our opinion, did not bring significant positive results for many reasons.

One of the ways to solve this problem may be the use of paintball or airsoft weapons at a special training ground (dash) in practical classes. This form of training is used in police academies and training centers in many countries ^{[14, p. 28]}. Paintball (airsoft) weapons allow you to simulate with a sufficient degree of reliability possible situations of fire contact with the offender. When hit, the ball breaks, coloring the place of hit, thereby it is possible to determine the quality and effectiveness of shooting. In addition, the ball flies at high speed and causes significant pain when it hits the student, which makes it possible to make classes more realistic, since cadets have tactile perceptions of the impact, turning into subconscious psychological awareness of self-defense. Thus, students additionally consolidate their knowledge and practically independently form skills and personal safety skills.

Theoretical and experimental studies, generalization of the experience of teachers and instructors have shown that the lack of development of the methodology for the use of training tools is one of the main problems when using paintball (airsoft) weapons. This served as the basis to investigate this issue and offer practical recommendations for conducting a training process for fire training.

The subject of the study is the method of using paintball (airsoft) weapons in the shooting (fire) training of students of educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

We have made an assumption that the developed exercises and techniques based on the use of paintball (airsoft) weapons, including a scientifically based rational ratio of training tools and methods, will increase the level of tactical, technical and psychological preparedness of the shooter.

Teachers of fire and tactical special training in complex classes have the opportunity to simulate both individual tasks and the entire special operation to detain the offender as a whole ^{[2, p. 35]}.  At the same time, the individual training of the student increases when moving and entering an advantageous shooting position. Teachers can determine in advance the zone shot by the "offender" and bring it to the student. The cadet on command, using the studied methods of movement and firing, overcomes this zone, trying not to be hit by the "offender". After the completion of the tactical action, teachers should conduct an analysis of the exercise, both on tactical actions and on shooting techniques, indicating errors and ways to eliminate them. As shooting skills and abilities improve, tasks (introductory) can be complicated, while students should be given greater freedom of action in using tactical techniques and methods of shooting.  Thus, the use of paintball weapons makes it possible to solve group tasks for the complex use of both movement elements and tactical techniques ^{[3, p. 19]}. It should be borne in mind that tactical techniques should correspond as much as possible to real situations of fire contact, and not to game techniques.

The disadvantage of paintball, in our opinion, is that it only simulates firearms and does not form techniques and shooting skills from a real pistol. Some students who have previously played computer games or entertaining paintball have formed the opinion that victory at any cost is important in the exercise, for which some players can be sacrificed, which is categorically unacceptable when conducting real special operations. In addition, the game has no real responsibility for the accidental defeat of its players.

The positive factors of paintball include: the development of abstract-logical and visually effective thinking of the student; the formation of skills and tactical techniques; practical application of personal security methods ^{[3, p. 12; 4, p. 40]}. At the same time, it should be taken into account that even a well-modeled game differs from real fire contact, although it accurately reflects the conditions of operational-service and combat situations ^{[5, p. 39]}.

Paintball can be used in complex classes with both tactical-special and fire, as well as physical training. It is possible to include elements of hand-to-hand combat and overcoming obstacle courses in classes with paintball weapons. This will help to avoid the stereotype of actions in real conditions of the use of weapons.

At the same time, the majority of teachers of fire and tactical-special training are skeptical about the use of paintball in teaching tools, considering it entertainment and play, as evidenced by the results of a questionnaire survey. Of the 15 people interviewed, 10 employees replied that the use of paintball (airsoft) in the training of employees is not effective and financially costly. Therefore, it should be noted that paintball is conditionally divided into sports and tactical ^{[3, p. 26; 6, p. 13]}.

Tactical paintball is conditionally divided into training and entertainment, differing from one another in goals and objectives.

Training paintball, although not actively enough, is used by law enforcement officers to practice their skills and actions in an environment close to real conditions. In training paintball, weapons are sometimes used that are inferior to sports in the rate of fire and the number of balls, but imitating combat weapons. Recently, the RAP (Real Action Paintball) format has become very popular, in which paintball pistols with a limited supply of balls corresponding to the real ammunition of combat service weapons are used ^{[7, p. 39]}. Thus, tactical paintball can become one of the means of training police officers in educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

In order to determine the interest in paintball (airsoft) and the possibility of its practical use in fire training classes, we conducted a survey of the teaching staff (n=15) and fourth-year cadets (n=75) of the East Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (hereinafter VSI of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia) of the specialty "Law Enforcement" according to a questionnaire developed by us. The survey and pedagogical observations showed the following patterns. All the interviewed cadets (100%) expressed great interest and are happy to take part in tactical paintball.  In the absence of this equipment at the institute, they are ready to independently pay for a commercial version of another training site. Nevertheless, it should be noted that such an increased interest among the respondents is caused not so much by the possibility of improving their fire readiness, as by the opportunity to actively conduct a game with the determination of the best players. The existing methodology for evaluating the results of high-speed shooting according to the exercises of the Shooting Course (2017) does not allow determining the strongest shooters and ranking cadets by skill level, and their status in the team is very important to students.

In the fourth year of training, interest in shooting decreases sharply, which was noted by about 50% of the interviewed cadets, because shooting from a combat pistol requires complex coordinated physical and mental interrelated actions that need to be worked out by numerous and monotonous trainings to perform the same exercises that are not diverse. According to the Yerkes-Dodson law, the effectiveness of educational and training activities is directly dependent on the strength of motivation, which persists to a certain limit ^{[6, p. 36]}. In such a situation, the use of paintball, in our opinion, will allow the teacher to activate the interest of students in fire training. In this case, external motives become positive, which affect the effectiveness of educational activities, because the learning process provides the cadet with new impressions colored by positive emotions ^{[7, p. 98]}.

Shooting exercises Instructions on the organization of fire training in the Department of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (hereinafter NOOP-2017), in our opinion, do not correspond to the real conditions of the use of weapons by police officers, do not form tactical thinking in shooting situations among students, which was also noted by the cadets during the questionnaire survey.

Thus, the survey showed that the majority of cadets have a decrease in motivational interest in fire training with an increase in the training period.  This is due to the monotony of shooting exercises, the lack of shooting tests on the conditions of the actual use of weapons by the staff of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, as well as the imperfection of the applied criteria for assessing the level of fire readiness, equalizing students with different skills of high-speed shooting.

The results of the survey among the teaching staff of the VSI of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia confirmed our assumption of a high interest in increasing the level of fire readiness of students, but at the same time low motivation to use new forms and methods of teaching. When conducting a questionnaire survey, the majority of bullet shooting specialists (70%) noted that it is advisable to use paintball only in tactical and special training classes, and it is ineffective when practicing high-speed shooting skills. However, this type of weapon can be used when practicing special exercises that are not provided for by the current Manual on the organization of fire training in the Department of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (hereinafter the Manual), but can be developed by teachers. Noting the high efficiency of paintball for practicing tactical tasks, most of the teachers of fire training during the questionnaire survey noted that this weapon in its shape, the operation of mechanisms and the flight path of the marker only vaguely resembles a service weapon. When using it, technical skills and skills of high–speed shooting from real weapons are not fixed, since there is no recoil and a loud sound of a shot, which demoralize the shooter and lead to serious mistakes, the main of which is pulling the trigger. The game dynamics of tactical paintball fascinates and pushes students to take actions that they will never be able to perform in real fire contact with an offender with a combat weapon. At the same time, tactical paintball promotes the development of visual-effective and abstract-logical thinking in an employee ^{[2, p. 18; 8, p. 23]}.  We believe that the above shortcomings can be eliminated with proper planning of training sessions and active work of the teacher on the development of special exercises.

In the fire training classes, skills and abilities for solving operational tasks are formed by the method of fire contact ^{[9, p. 17]}. In the course of the study, we found out that when faced with an offender at minimal distances, the shooters lost, trying to get and bring their service weapons to battle, at a time when the conditional "criminal" had already taken out his own and fired a shot.

If, during verbal contact, the "enemy" has taken out a weapon and is trying to open fire from a distance of no more than one meter, instead of attacking the pistol, it is more expedient, in our opinion, for the employee to instantly leave the firing line towards the attacking hand while simultaneously bringing the pistol to battle and firing back. In all other static productions, as a result, the employee is "shot" at point-blank range. The option of intercepting the offender's weapon when taking it out and pointing it is not excluded, which will allow the fire contact to be transferred to hand-to-hand combat. However, it should be borne in mind that an employee who has a perfect command of fighting techniques has a better chance of winning ^{[10, p. 45]}.

After analyzing the experience of training police officers in some foreign countries (USA, France), we found out that one of the test exercises is shooting from the spot with leaving the enemy's line of fire (with leaving to the lower port – the squat method) ^{[14, p. 38; 15, p. 47]}. A similar exercise was practiced during the training of Soviet NKVD officers "SMERSH", with a different way of leaving the firing line (with an emphasis on the free hand) and shooting with a side pistol ^{[11, p. 53]}. Analysis of shooting courses for employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (1998, 2008, 2017) showed that such exercises are not provided for execution due to the high degree of danger, because they are performed from a short distance for shooting (2-3 meters). The exercises of the current Manual, in our opinion, do not correspond to the real conditions of the use of weapons by police officers and do not contribute to the formation of tactical thinking in shooting situations among students, which was also noted by the teachers during the questionnaire survey. At the same time, the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia dated 11/23/2017 No. 880 allows educational organizations to independently develop shooting exercises, which allows the teaching staff of fire training to prepare their practical tests and methodological techniques for their development ^{[12, p. 4]}. Therefore, a good alternative may be the use of paintball or airsoft weapons in the educational process of fire training, as on the part of the student, and on the part of the conditional "criminal". The presence of such weapons on both sides will allow students not only to see their mistakes, but also to feel them through pain. In the course of our research, at the initial stage, we deliberately did not bring the rules of leaving the firing line to the students, but offered to perform "duel" shooting from paintball weapons according to already formed skills, i.e. according to the rules of the Shooting Course (2017). Most of the students, shooting from a static rifle, immediately received painful hits with a ball. When this exercise was repeated, all the students left or tried to lean away from the firing line in different ways. Thus, in our opinion, tactile pain sensations will forever remain in the subconscious of the cadet, which means that in a real situation of fire contact with an armed criminal, he will instinctively leave the line of oncoming fire according to the formed skills and abilities in fire training classes.  

In the course of the scientific research, an experiment was conducted to train a group of third-year cadets of the East Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (experimental group (hereinafter EG) 25 people), with whom the exercise developed by us with the use of paintball weapons was practiced. In the control group (hereinafter KG) (n = 25), classes were held according to the traditional method of shooting from combat weapons according to the exercises of the current Manual from long and medium distances. The participants of the experiment had approximately equal indicators according to the level of fire readiness, (Table. 1), i.e. they were identical (no significant differences were recorded).

Table 1 – Comparative data on the level of fire readiness of cadets KG and EG for exercise 2a at the beginning of the experiment

To solve the research tasks, a comprehensive program was developed with a training plan for EG during a two-month macrocycle. The training process was designed for four mesocycles: retracting, basic, control-preparatory, control-final. In the course of the study, we identified technical actions (techniques and methods of shooting) that we improved during training with EG cadets using paintball weapons to achieve high results when performing special exercises. During the training sessions, much attention was paid to the position of the shooter's body, aiming, biomechanical rationality of preparation, ways to get out of the line of fire of the "criminal", shooting from uncomfortable positions, intuitive shooting (without aiming).

The following tasks were solved in the experiment:

– study of the features of the construction of the training process of fire training using paintball weapons;

– development of exercises using paintball weapons and methodological techniques for their development;

– experimental testing and verification of the effectiveness of the proposed methodology of the training process of fire training using paintball (airsoft) weapons in educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

To solve the tasks we have used the following research methods:

– analysis of literary sources and generalization of scientific and methodological material;

– questionnaire, survey and interview;

– pedagogical testing; 

– pedagogical supervision and control;

– pedagogical experiment;

– methods of mathematical and statistical processing of results.

At the beginning of the experiment, an initial analysis of the general fire readiness of all cadets was carried out, at the end – a final analysis.

Technical and tactical readiness and the level of psychological stability in conditions of dueling shooting with a conditional "criminal" were tested at the end of the experiment when performing the exercise "Leaving the firing line" developed by us using paintball weapons. In this exercise, there are no time indicators and points (hits) are not counted, because the main criterion for evaluating shooting is the advanced defeat of a conditional "criminal" and the absence of his defeat in compliance with all the conditions of his own safety.

The results of the testing of EG and KG cadets on a special exercise at the end of the experiment are presented in Table 2.

Table 2 – Comparative data on the level of fire readiness of cadets of KG and EG for the exercise "Leaving the firing line" at the end of the experiment

In the experimental group, 21 cadets performed the test exercise for a positive assessment, and in the control group – only 7 cadets. These results show a higher level of technical, tactical and psychological readiness of EG cadets, as evidenced by the reliability of differences in the Student's t-criterion (P<0.05). Thus, the use of paintball weapons in the training process clearly showed the difference in the actions of the cadets of the experimental and control groups. After practical training with the use of paintball weapons, the technical actions of EG students became clearer, coordinated and tactically correct, and psychological resistance to the stressful situation of dueling shooting was formed.  

Thanks to the use of paintball equipment, it became possible to identify the following errors in some of the students, which could not be determined when shooting from a combat weapon:

– psychological "stupor" in actions during imitation of a sudden attack by a "criminal";

– forgetfulness of removing the weapon from the safety and firing a shot with subsequent confusion;

– production of non-aimed shots with pulling the trigger;

– non-reflection of the target from a short distance;

– incorrect tactical actions under the influence of stress, etc.

In addition, thanks to paintball weapons, it became possible to assess technical and tactical actions in dueling shooting as clearly as possible and compliance with personal safety measures during fire contact with the offender.

The use of paintball in combination with the competitive method of teaching in the experiment significantly influenced the motivational interest of cadets in fire training. The exercise we developed using paintball in the training process allowed us to form psychological and stress resistance, as well as increase motivation to improve the technique of high-speed shooting. This exercise received the highest marks in the questionnaires in terms of interest among students. The periodic use of paintball in practical classes motivates cadets to self-improve the skills of high-speed pistol shooting for subsequent fire combat with other students.  

Based on the results of the experiment, the following conclusions can be drawn.

1. Significant differences were revealed between the cadets of the experimental and control groups at the end of the experiment in technical and tactical preparedness.

2. The effectiveness of the dueling exercise has a directly proportional dependence on tactical, technical and psychological preparedness.

3. The positive dynamics of the performance indicators of high-speed shooting due to the complex use of paintball (airsoft) weapons has been revealed.

4. In the course of the study, the hypothesis of the study was confirmed that the use of paintball (airsoft) weapons allowed to significantly increase the level of tactical, technical and psychological preparedness of students.

At the end of the experiment, during the survey, all participants noted that the use of paintball weapons had a positive effect on their level of fire readiness and expressed a desire to continue practical training with the use of paintball under the conditions of various special exercises.

As a result of the study, we came to the conclusion that in order to increase technical and tactical readiness to improve high-speed shooting skills, it is necessary to use paintball (airsoft) weapons in the training process of fire training, which will allow:

– effectively determine the level of fire readiness of the ATS staff;

– to form students' operational thinking and skills of making quick tactical decisions in various shooting situations, as well as correct behavior in critical situations of real use of firearms;

– train physical qualities: quickness of reaction, quickness of action, coordination of actions, eye;

– simulate practical situations of real use of firearms by police officers.

Thus, in the course of the study, it was found that in order to increase the level of fire readiness of cadets, targeted training is necessary, including using tactical paintball as a new innovative form of training. Practical recommendations were developed on the use of paintball (airsoft) equipment and teaching methods in the educational process of fire training of educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, taking into account the experience of the actual use of weapons by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The use of these recommendations based on the results of the study will, in our opinion, increase the level of fire preparedness of graduates of educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the use of service weapons in operational and service activities.