Thank you! Very well put.The exaggerated scan-and-assess is one of my least favorite range-isms.
I certainly understand it as a concept, but on a flat range firing drills it is movement for movements sake. Pat McNamara has a great explanation for it relating back to safety at NRA ranges or something, and that the phenomenon isn't really tactically based anyway. I think it's kind of silly to do the 360 look around as a means of driving home situational awareness for a couple reasons: 1. You're teaching people to look around but it becomes a finger drill, so they're not paying attention anyway and 2. I never did more than scan my target, and yet in combat my teammates and I are aware of our surroundings even though we didn't train on it at the flat range specifically, because it is an inherent part of all our activities, although that certainly may not be true of all gun toting people out there. There's also the very valid argument of taking your eyes away from a known threat to look at an area you already came through.
I usually ask guys that do it where they got the concept and I get one answer universally, then I ask what they're looking for, then I ask what the threat they engaged is doing. Never has one answered "I would have already assessed that threat as neutralized before doing my larger scan", but most often "I don't know" is the reply. I think it fits your "range kata" topic pretty well.
And I couldn't agree more with the text I highlighted.
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