IMT's and other Movement Techniques

Proper movement techniques are among the most argued over and varied components of airsoft. But what are proper movement techniques and which should be used and which shouldn't? Ill attempt to explain this in this post.

We'll start easy, with some basic IndividualMovementTechniques and stances that are widely known and easy to use.

The Standing Position: You are standing fully with your legs fully upright. Even if you are bent over, you are still in the standing position if you legs are fully upright.
The Kneeling Position : You are kneeling on the ground with your knees bent. This lowers your profile while leaving you agile and ready to run at any moment.
The Prone Position: You are lying on your chest with your hips on the ground. This makes you both very concealed and lowers your chances of being hit, but makes movement difficult and agility is lost.

Low-Crawl : Not to be confused with the High Crawl, the low crawl entails that a person lie in the prone, sling their weapon over their shoulder, and have their face in the dirt. The person than proceeds to slowly worm their way forward, making sure that his/her hips do not break the plane over their shoulders. It is important not to look up or crane your neck, but rather to make sure that you are completely immobile other than your legs and arms, which should be dragging you forward.
When to Use: For airsoft you dont really need to lowcrawl very often. Ive only done it once, but you should use it when you are crossing through enemy fire or past a bunker that is actively firing on your position in an attempt to either escape, evade them without being detected, or flank them without being detected. Pros: Very silent, very hidden, Cons:VERY VULNERABLE, VERY SLOW.

The High-Crawl : This is the one everyone knows. You might call it the "bear crawl" or the "commando crawl". This is when a person lies in the prone and cradles their weapon in his/her arm and moves their way forward with speed more important than tactical value. In this position the person may have his/her head completely upright and facing the enemy. When to Use: The high-crawl is great to use in a multitude of situations. When you are taking fire and need get to better cover you can go prone and high crawl to a better position as it will keep you low to the ground. You can also utilize it to sneak to other cover without being spotted. When I say this, I mean you can be firing from position A, then high-crawl to position B, while the enemy still thinks you are at position A, then fire from position B. Pros; Swift movement, hidden from view, more protection, low vulnerability. Cons: noisy, loss of agility, limited sector of fire.

The High Ready: The high-ready is when you move with your rifle raised up and ready to fire at anything posing an imminent threat to you. When to Use: Of course when you are engaged in a fire fight, but also when bounding forward and bounding backwards, as well as moving through LDAs (which I will cover later). But this also comes with a when NOT to use section. Don't use the high ready when you are just moving along terrain without enemy contact. This will just tire your arm out and will drain your concentration onto one central point as opposed to having you scanning the entire area for enemy. Pros: fire availability immediate, threatening stance. Cons: tiring.

The Low Ready: The low ready is when you have both hands on your weapon, not raised to your shoulder, rather resting and waiting to move to the high-ready. When to Use: At all times other than when using the high ready. Pros: not tiring, weapon doesn't get in the way. Cons: fire availability not immediate.

---Bounding---
Bounding is a method which is employed to allow for security to be applied to movement. It is used to allow personal to move safely under enemy fire.

Bounding Forward (The Buddy Rush): When to Use : When advancing on an enemy position, while taking fire or having been spotted. How to do it : Make sure that you have at least one person parallel to you behind cover and with ample sight and firing capability on the target that you are moving towards. Look for a good piece of cover to grab that is in the direction in which you choose to travel. Let your buddy know that you are ready, then get up and move towards the target for 3-5 seconds (your buddy behind you keeping the enemy pinned), making sure to drop down at the cover that you selected. You then prop up and keep the enemy pinned down and let your buddy do the same. Repeat.

Bounding Backwards: When to Use : when falling back under enemy fire. This is the one that no one really uses and they suffer from it greatly. All to many times you will see those guys just get up and RUN. Wrong! At that point not only does your enemy have the ability to shoot at a clearly defined target, they also have the ability to pursue you unchallenged. How to do it : Have at least one buddy (or an entire section of your team) in the prone or behind good cover, providing suppressing fire on the enemy. Look back for good cover, let you buddy(buddies) know that you are ready to move, and move for 3-5 seconds to that cover. You (and whoever else bounded back with you )will than provide covering fire for the element of your team that just layed down suppressive fire on the enemy for you. Once the enemy is completely out of sight and at least one key terrain feature away you can break the bound and fall back normally.

---LDA---

LDA stands for Linear Danger Area, this is any open area that arises between you and wherever you are going. Examples; roads, open trails, rivers, open fields, small open spots in the woods, etc. I won't go through the proper way to cross an LDA (it requires knowledge on a wide spectrum of recon techniques as well as release point acquisition and proper LDA ORP [360degree perimeter based] establishment) as it is somewhat complicated and requires coordination that I honestly don't believe will make its way to the airsoft fields, however I will give you the run down on how you should cross these areas.
A) If you don't HAVE to cross it, DON'T cross it. LDAs are points where cover is not available, and therefore if the enemy bears down upon you you are done for. It doesn't matter how good you are, if aren't behind something you're dead where you stand.
B)If you can skirt it, skirt it. What I mean by skirting is following around the LDA as opposed to going across it. Lets say an open field is your LDA. Instead of going across it, follow the woodline around it. Skirting should only be ignored when your timehack, or any other METTTC dependant variable, requires that speed is more important than tactical value.
C) Send a recon. You do not know what is on the other side of that LDA. If its a large enemy position and they engage you, what do you have to fall back on? An area containing no cover, and from there you are screwed.

Here is what you should do. Once you see the LDA, make sure your team is aware of it. Make sure that everyone makes a good secure perimeter at the mouth of the LDA and grab two people to cross it first, this will be your recon element. Once the two people get across they should do a brief recon of the area to make sure that it is clear for the rest of the team to come across. They will then pull security to make sure that no one arrives to ruin the day for the rest of team that is about to come over. At this point in time the rest of the team should come over, making sure that security is always pulled. Remember, once you commit to crossing that LDA you really need to make sure that everyone makes it across. You should only cancel crossing when you are being engaged IN the LDA. Cutting your team in half is a poor decision. Once your entire team is across, continue mission. For those reading with prior experience, remember, I'm not saying that this is how to cross an LDA properly, just an idea of how it should be done.

Hints and Other Tips:

When you are standing there doing nothing, KNEEL DOWN AND GET SOME COVER. You need to act accordingly to be succesful, act as though the enemy is at your heels at all times. This will help to both conceal and protect you. Make sure you are behind something and either kneeling or in the prone whenever possible.

Move with a sense of purpose. When you commit an action make your movement deliberate and violent. This will make everything move alot faster and more effectively.

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. When you are getting frustrated with something, like reloading or some other action, calm down, your frustration will only make things harder. Slow down, get smooth, and itll get done.

Keep your cool. Dont get pissed off when things dont happen the way they should have, no mission is perfect. If you lose your head you will make wrong decisions and your team will begin to doubt your ability to lead. You will star to get flustered, drop things, forget things, and in general screw up. When you are calm and collective you look like everything is under control, even when its not, and the rest of your team will feel reassured by it.

Keep your head on a swivel. Dont lose sight of your team mates, if your team mates stop moving and get down, chances are something is going down.

There are plenty more tips that I can give out but that should cover it for now. Remember, do what you enjoy most. For some people its all about fun, for others its all about winning, and for others its just about making people scream.


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Nice, CLPC uses some of those tactics...IMT works really well!

Good post. Very informative. Looking forward to more

More good stuff for the uninformed.

Spent a bit of time over the past coupla years trying to determine what of my military training applies to airsoft and what doesn't function as well. But beyond a doubt, overwatch/fireteam maneuver are always more effective when I've used them or seen them used on the playing field. Nice post.

Piznops wrote:Spent a bit of time over the past coupla years trying to determine what of my military training applies to airsoft and what doesn't function as well. But beyond a doubt, overwatch/fireteam maneuver are always more effective when I've used them or seen them used on the playing field. Nice post.

The hardest part every airsoft game I've ever been in is team work. It's good in theory when you talk about it in a game but it normally falls through. Coordination is hard to implement in an airsoft game mostly because almost no one takes playing seriously.

probably since basically, airsoft is folks running around in the woods playing army with toy guns that fire plastic bb's.....
informative post though Paul....though i think it would be better with pics or some video....some of folks seem to have trouble converting the written word into practical action..

If yall want I mean I could, I posted this is 09, so its been a while, wasn't sure if anyone was still interested in the Airsoft Tactics section, but I can put up more basic things like this if yall are interested. Have a pretty decent camo thread as well, although I know alot more about camo now than I did then.

Basic movement techniques combined with aggressiveness and fire superiority. Seen it work, and work well. I like trying to use it, but it seems only experienced players and/or prior service guys understand it. At Zombie Fest I kept trying to get players to move up, even telling them which bunkers were clear using mt laser to designate....no joy. Mostly because it was "little kids" that I was trying to move. They just stayed back, shooting their team mates in the back with BB's and bright lights.......

yeah....lol..i've seen the same thing in my time playing...they shoot people out of a position, then won't move up to take it....and while you are trying to get them to move up usually the enemy is reoccupying it...
that and shoot and move..that would be the two things i would want to work on with younger players....oh,and some basic field craft too...god, most players make more noise in the woods than two skeletons ******* on a tin roof...

Andy wrote:Basic movement techniques combined with aggressiveness and fire superiority. Seen it work, and work well. I like trying to use it, but it seems only experienced players and/or prior service guys understand it. At Zombie Fest I kept trying to get players to move up, even telling them which bunkers were clear using mt laser to designate....no joy. Mostly because it was "little kids" that I was trying to move. They just stayed back, shooting their team mates in the back with BB's and bright lights.......

I remember paintball games like that.

Nice job Aggressor. I would love to read more stuff like this and of course play that way.