SLG Mini Course

[evanhill]

Looks like SLG maintained his grey man status with one out of focus background shot. You'd think a guy with camera crews coming to his house would be a little bit more into getting his picture taken.

[JV_]

You'd think a guy with camera crews coming to his house would be a little bit more into getting his picture taken.

I was in his face, many times, taking his picture.

It's just that every single one came out blurry or was unusable in some other way

[LittleLebowski]

What impressed me aside from SLG's excellent instruction, was how squared away the students were. No problematic hobby pistols, no weaver stances, and spare mag carriers and good holsters were in abundance. Proper Isosceles stances were the rule of the day - no exceptions. The students I worked with needed only fine tuning. All in all, I believe these facts speak very highly about the makeup of this forum. We are shooters, not simply owners. Everyone there was truly there to learn.

With regards to SLG's instruction, I will bet money that there are many that have paid for instruction that did not rival the quality of SLG's. I've had the privilege of learning from a few distinguished folks (ToddG, Larry Vickers, Kyle Defoor), and I was making mental notes while Simon spoke and instructed.

[jar]

What impressed me aside from SLG's excellent instruction, was how squared away the students were. No problematic hobby pistols, no weaver stances, and spare mag carriers and good holsters were in abundance. Proper Isosceles stances were the rule of the day - no exceptions. The students I worked with needed only fine tuning. All in all, I believe these facts speak very highly about the makeup of this forum. We are shooters, not simply owners. Everyone there was truly there to learn.

+1. It was refreshing to look at a barrage of photos of people shooting and not groan at anyone's technique.

[vaspence]

With regards to SLG's instruction, I will bet money that there are many that have paid for instruction that did not rival the quality of SLG's. I've had the privilege of learning from a few distinguished folks (ToddG, Larry Vickers, Kyle Defoor), and I was making mental notes while Simon spoke and instructed.

I hear you on this. I literally sat in the truck debriefing myself and writing down the mental notes prior to supper that evening. Good stuff and explained in an easy to understand way.

[Dropkick]

I hear you on this. I literally sat in the truck debriefing myself and writing down the mental notes prior to supper that evening. Good stuff and explained in an easy to understand way.

I was taking notes on my pad the entire time, and I felt like I couldn't write the "good stuff" down quick enough.

[Odin Bravo One]

Hard to say anything new that has not already been discussed, but I will exercise my right to regurgitate the same ideas and pass them off as my own thoughts.

SLG initiated the course description as a "Basic Course", but I would argue that it was probably one of the highest speed, lowest drag courses I have ever attended. One may ask why that is..........because it focused on the fundamentals. HSLD is nothing more than the basics executed on demand, in high speed/low drag environments and/or situations. The true HSLD shooters are the ones that can keep their cool and execute those basic fundamentals when everything has gone to shit. SLG covered the basics in detail, with plenty of drills to reinforce those basics.

I only worked with a couple of students, and has been mentioned, the students at this class were shooters, not merely gun owners. I could care less if someone wants to shoot Weaver, or upside down, or a $7,000 race gun, or a Glock. As long as they are safe, I am of the opinion that the job of an instructor is to teach. The majority of my shooting instructors and mentors teach what has worked for them, as well as different techniques that have worked well for others. But ultimately it is on the student to decide what works for them.

Certainly many of the students who turned out for SLG's course had developed their own "style" of shooting, and as an instructor, the idea should be to identify area's that need improvement, and give the students the technique(s) that can help improve in those area's, as well as explain the why of his/her particular technique. Things like grip, stance, body position, trigger manipulation, etc. are all basic fundamentals that can be done several different ways, with varying degrees of effectiveness. SLG was very in tune with this concept, and worked with each shooter to continue to use their "style" of shooting, and tweak their technique so they gained a noticeable benefit to the change. Not just running out there and changing a student's technique to do it his way for the sake of doing it his way.

The material was fast paced, as there were some time constraints. But the drills performed did an outstanding job of reinforcing the concepts being taught. Each drill built on the one before, and by doing so, gave each student more and more repetitions of the previous drill, but adding the next element until it was being put together piece by piece into a full technique, or techniques. One of my favorite drills to use for Intermediate and Advanced level shooters is the "Now Drill", and I think the students at this course received it well and were able to apply the concept as well as increased their understanding of "Acceptable".

The big take aways for me, which are very much lessons re-learned, or re-validated were:

1) Acceptable is just that. Good enough really can be good enough, especially as it pertains to sight alignment/sight picture.
2) There is no such thing as TOO basic.
3) An open mind is the key to adult learning.
4) Practice is critical in order to improve.
5) Training is necessary in order to know how and what to practice.

SLG hit a few key points regarding mindset that are worth repeating as well. Doing every motion during every aspect of firearms handling, practice, or training properly will make you a better shooter and pistol handler in every single way, as well as train your body and mind to do it right until the right way becomes ingrained into the subconscious. Every draw stroke, every load/reload, every manipulation, malfunction clearance, etc. should be done the way we want to do it if the situation ever arises we need to be able to perform on demand. An administrative load should never be "administrative". The pistol should be drawn from the holster, just as it would be in a dire emergency....certainly it does not have to be done at "I just pissed my pants" speed, but the proper techniques should be applied. The pistol should be brought into the shooters workspace, magazine grasped as it should be, inserted as it should be, action cycled as it should be, shooter maintaining situational awareness, ad naseum. this gives continued reinforcement of the proper technique, and helps to prevent a "Range" mentality that will get you smoke checked in the real world. Having a proper mindset, and using every opportunity to get a good repetition is was addressed repeatedly, and something I encourage all of the students to practice each and everytime they handle their particular system.

I'd like to say thanks to SLG for taking the time out of his schedule to provide this opportunity to the forum members, as well as freely donating his lessons learned, and expertise. I look forward to the next opportunity to shoot and train with you.

Thanks to the forum members who all showed up ready and eager to train, and exhibited solid pistol handling skills, without any safety issues whatsoever. The positive attitudes and lack of ego's made for a very pleasant experience for everyone.

Thanks to TC for the lending of the P30..........saved me about $500, as the shooter borrowing it discovered it was probably not the right pistol for purchase and decided on an M&P instead. Also thanks for the mentorship of a relatively new shooter who was more than a little intimadated by the surroundings, and students who were more experienced. And for keeping me from having to do it.......

Thanks to Todd for his continued instruction, words of wisdom, thoughts out loud, points to ponder, non-contructive criticism, heckling, constructive criticism, and just plain fun to hang out and shoot with. I need to get up there more often to shoot with you. And I need to get you down to shoot with us.

Thanks to JV who took a generous amount of photo's to document the event, and wielded his pistol as well as he wields his camera. Someday I may need to upgrade from my cardboard disposable camera's and actually learn how to take a picture. Great pics JV. Thanks for sharing.

And finally thanks to my special lady friend who graciously allowed me to go out and play pistol student on my one day off this month.

It was a great day, and I look forward to the next time I can be a part of something like this.

[ubervic]

Few things:

1. Wow.
2. Too bad that I couldn't make this outstanding training experience, meet all the great folks and measurably improve/refine my pistol skills.
3. I would very willingly pay to attend & benefit from such a training experience if it were to become available in the future.

[MDS]

I will exercise my right to regurgitate the same ideas and pass them off as my own thoughts.

You know what they say: good men borrow other people's ideas - great men steal them outright.

I want to thank you personally for your coaching during the class. I've been practicing the "heads up" stance you showed me, and it's so much better than my old "shoe-gazing" stance. I still tend to lower my head when I'm not thinking about it, but that seems like something that can be fixed with a bunch of dry-fire while balancing a book on my head...

[Odin Bravo One]

Don't forget to add a little bend to the knees..........