AAR: Mike Pannone (CTT Solutions) 2 Day Advanced Handgun
I was fortunate enough to attend Mike Pannone’s (CTT Solutions) 2 day Advanced Handgun course held in Reno,NV March 15-16, 2014. If you have not had the chance to check out Mike’s bio, it is worth a couple minutes.
http://www.ctt-solutions.com/about-us/mike-pannone/
The class was scheduled to be a 1,000 round class and there were only 12 students, which was just awesome.
Gear
I ran a Glock 19 gen 3 with GFA, a Vicker’s mag release and warren sights. My holster was a JM Custom Kydex AIWB with the extra tuck option. My mag carrier was a single paddle type that also came from JM. I had absolutely no equipment issues with any of the JM stuff, and the gear allowed me some decent times on my draws(Best-1.24 A zone hit @10 yards) and reloads (about 1.7 average).
The Glock ran fine throughout the class minus one failure to extract as I was shooting with my flashlight. I wasn’t able to diagnose what happened exactly, since it was dark and it was a moving drill, I just fixed the problem and went back to work.
Day one
We started day one at 09:00 in the classroom, where Mike made quick work of what his goals were and what he expected. He has obviously put a lot of time and effort into how people learn, and puts it to good use. He informed us the format may be a little different than a standard pistol class because after running a couple high speed drills we would be brought back to the 25 yard line and shoot 10 round bullseye drills.
He explained this was done because after you do a drill a 3rd time, it can be hard to keep focus and keep improving. The concept is:
-You run the drill once
-The second run you correct mistakes you made in the first run
-The third run is often just a repeat of the second run, so learning slows (maybe even stops).
By switching it up, your mind stays fresh and you can continue to learn at a faster pace.
After he explained this to us, we hit the range.
With all of the students geared up, we had our safety brief and then pasted NRA bulls onto the IPSC targets. He had us specifically paste our bulls at the top of the ‘A’ box, reinforcing in us that we should do everything with reason and precision. We headed back to the 25 yard line, COF was 10 rounds freestyle, no time limit.
I have personally been telling myself for the last year I need to practice more 25 yard bullseye, but this class exploited the fact that I have not. My best score through the weekend out of 12 total bulls shot (mostly freestyle, couple SHO) was 89(x2), with an average of a whopping 75.3. Yeah, time for me to go to work.
We then moved up and started to work on refining our draws and reloads, running a few drills and then Mike would put us on the timer. As has been discussed multiple times her on P-F.com, Mike is also a big believer in timing yourself and recording your results so you can see your progress as well as know what you need to work on.
We covered one hand manipulations as well. Mike’s technique for drawing from the strong side with your off hand was a unique one that I had not seen before, but was extremely positive and kept the muzzle in a safe direction at all times. He also has a unique approach to the one handed reloads. Without going into the whole process, he uses the ‘under the knee’ technique while making sure the muzzle never crosses your body. It is a very positive and safe way to accomplish the task. Win-win.
By the end of day one we had worked on draws, stance, reloads, one hand manipulation and basic movement. The key word of the day was efficiency, and we all had plenty of opportunity to get ‘tuned up’ personally since it was such a small class. We finished the day with 1on1 plate racks at 10 and 15 yards, did a quick AAR and went home.
Day two
Day two started promptly at 14:00 with 25 yard bullseye freestyle. Immediately after we got into manipulating the pistol under time, putting to test what we learned for both draws and reloads from the day before. After some baseline testing, it was back to the 25 yard line for another bull.
We proceeded to do more advanced movement drills while shooting steel. The pace was great, just enough time to load mags, receive a couple pointers and run the drills again. Shortly after we did a walk back on steel, 3 students competed for the win at the 50yd line. The winner made a hit on IPSC size steal WHO. There were some talented shooters in this class.
As it started to turn dusk, Mike covered his preferred flashlight techniques which were a head index and the classic Harries. He demonstrated how depending on your direction of movement/cover and many other factors you have to be willing to switch techniques.
We then proceeded to put rounds on steel while there was still some light left, so we could more efficiently figure out what worked with each of us before we had to do it in the dark.
After a dinner break we came back and started doing moving and shooting drills in the dark with our lights, again on the steel. We also practiced draws and reloads while retaining our flashlights. Mike was great while running reloads, stopping by each student and offering advice specific to their hand size/gear choice for the most efficient way to run their gun without losing their light.
Final thoughts
This class was small, and the shooting ability overall was good. Not once did anyone have any safety issues or get left behind as the class progressed. This made for a smooth class, and I was thankful for that.
One of my favorite things about Mike’s class was the pace. We fired right at 1,000 rounds over the two days, but every round was a learning opportunity. There where no drills of just blasting rounds to make you feel good about your tactical operator-ness. It was a well structured class that followed a thoughtful progression with purposeful drills.
I know I will be incorporating switching back and forth from bullseye shooting to fast shorter range drills into my practice from now on.
If you get a chance to train with CTT Solutions, I highly recommend it. This was certainly a quick over view of what we received from the class, there was so much great information in the seemingly short two days.
