PDA

View Full Version : AAR: Combat Shooting and Tactics Tactical Pistol Operator, 1-2 March, 2014



Chance
03-04-2014, 08:01 PM
AAR: Combat Shooting and Tactics Tactical Pistol Operator, Nacogdoches, TX 1-2 March, 2014

BLUF

Outstanding course and highly recommended to everyone. My next CSAT course is bought and paid for!

The School

CSAT (http://www.combatshootingandtactics.com/)is in Nacogdoches, TX, which is about two hours north from Houston and around three hours south east of D/FW. Nacogdoches is home to Stephen F. Austin State University and makes for a fairly nice town. Plenty of restaurants around and a selection of places to stay. The CSAT classroom and barracks are about a four minute drive from town, and the range is just down the road from that.

The barracks (http://www.combatshootingandtactics.com/facility_barracks.htm)are very nice. Washer, dryer, refrigerators, showers, restrooms, ironing board and sofas. The classroom has plenty of desk space to spread out and work on what have you and an LCD projector if you want to hook up your laptop and watch movies - Paul has a few movies there as well as every Panteao DVD available. There’s no stovetop, but there is a grill out back and at least two microwaves and a toaster oven that I saw. The bunk beds are split into five rooms. Clean linens, towels, mattress covers and pillowcases are all provided. And free WiFi!

I have seen on the CSAT website that the barracks wouldn’t be available for two-day classes starting in 2014, but they were available this time. If they’re available, skipping the hotel is a no-brainer unless you’re just allergic to sharing space with other people.

The pro shop at the barracks is small, but packed with high quality gear. Surefire lights, CRKT knives, Magpul accoutrements, VTAC slings and others. Also swag and all of Paul’s Panteao videos. The shop gets requests for things all the time and are slowly expanding. If I understood correctly, they may be getting ready to go online, but I’m not sure.

The range facilities were pretty big, and I only saw a small portion of them. There’s a shoot house, dedicated pistol range, vehicle graveyard range and several rifle ranges. I know there are additional facilities out there from watching Paul’s Panteao (https://panteaoproductions.com/instructors/paul-howe)videos, I just didn’t see them. The ranges are top notch and there’s permanent cover adjacent to all of them.

One nice thing I appreciated was that you can pull up and park right next to where you’re going to be shooting. There’s no unpacking all your gear onto a trailer, then towing the trailer to the tables, which are set up sixty yards away from the firing line for some reason. The whole weekend, I never pulled anything out of my car, I just worked from the trunk. I know that sounds like a minor thing, but it was really convenient.

The Instructors

Paul is former Army, ten years of which was spent in special operations (Paul never uses the ‘D’ word). His experiences include both Panama and Somalia. During the Battle of the Black Sea, he was part of the assault element tasked with capturing persons of interest at the initial target building of the raid, then spent the night at the crash site of Super Six One. He was featured prominently in Mark Bowden’s outstanding book Black Hawk Down (http://www.amazon.com/Black-Hawk-Down-Story-Modern/dp/080214473X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393978622&sr=8-2&keywords=black+hawk+down) and Paul now his own interview with Panteao (https://panteaoproductions.com/products/battle-black-sea)regarding the events that took place.

He has a Master’s degree from Stephen F. Austin with his thesis focusing on the military’s interaction, and subsequent distancing, from the media. He also has his own book, Leadership and Training for the Fight (http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Training-Fight-Operations-Enforcement-ebook/dp/B005PTZKLA/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-2&qid=1393978684), which is an excellent read on everything from effectively delegating responsibilities to keeping PowerPoint presentations interesting.

After watching Paul’s videos with Panteao, I expected him to be gruff and un-affable. In person, he’s friendly, funny and enthusiastic about teaching. Paul’s sense of humor is threaded into CSAT, from his alternative business card

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67659244/csat_card.jpg

to the sign leading onto the range that says “Leave Your Ego Here” and then points to a ditch. He also has faux motivational posters hanging on the walls of the barracks, this one being my favorite.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67659244/attitude-it-takes-43-muscles-to-frown-and-17-to-smile-but-only-three.jpg

On the range with Paul, you immediately get the sense that he’s there to work with you, rather than you being there not to screw up his class. He takes no issue with people using techniques outside his system: if something works well for you, keep doing it. He'll always share his rationale, but he doesn’t get bogged down in academic debates over which technique is theoretically better. His approach to this is simple: shoot it your preferred way, then he’ll coach you through his preferred way. Count the hits. If your technique works well, keep it up. If not, spend the weekend trying something new.

He says he reminds people about techniques three times. If after the third reminder, the student is either on information overload, or they just don’t care for that method. No beating people upside the head with things. In an age where so many instructors start preaching that only they can teach it, I found this endlessly refreshing.

Paul’s assistant instructor was Richard McCusker. Rich has five years USMC Force Reconnaissance with a direct action unit. He’s been a police officer in Houston for almost 20 years, 13 of which were spent with SWAT. He’s also trained under Eric Paulson, something of a pioneer in the mixed martial arts community. Rich was very steady, patient and encouraging. Like Paul, you definitely felt that Rich was there to work with you at your skill level, and his pointers were always succinct and helpful. Paul and Rich together made a great team.

Class Makeup

There were twelve students total, making the instructor to student ratio 1:6. We had several police officers and a contractor just back stateside. The rest were regular civilians with varying skill levels, including one or two that seemed as if they had just learned which end the bullet came out. The differing skill levels resulted in no issues though, as the course is set up to be self-pacing and you could move as quickly or slowly as you felt appropriate.

With Paul and Rich working together, the class flowed smoothly and everyone received plenty of individual attention. Other than the timed standards and video, there was never a point where the whole class was waiting on one person. Even when we were waiting for someone to wrap up, either Paul or Rich would be with the student and the other was available to answer questions.

Day 1

The first day started at 8:00am on the pistol range. Paperwork and safety. While this class is accessible to beginners, it is not a beginner’s class. There was no talk on the absolute basics, like the difference between revolvers and semi-auto guns and so forth. Everyone was expected to know those basic things, and everyone did.

After this, we immediately got into Paul’s system of shooting. Paul has spent many years putting together standards he feels will make people combat effective in the real world. To make the material easier to learn, and hence easier to practice later on your own, he sets up the first day to follow the standards.

His standards are published on the CSAT website in a section that is helpfully called “Standards (http://www.combatshootingandtactics.com/standards.htm).” To summarize: shot from high ready, shot from holster, high ready two shots, high ready failure drill, high ready two targets, strong hand / weak hand, stoppage clearance, speed reload, draw from holster in a kneeling position.

Clearing stoppages was front loaded because several people evidently brought bad magazines (http://modernserviceweapons.com/?p=5597). An explanation of the standard was followed by Paul’s preferred methods, then a demo. Afterwards, we would follow with a few minutes of dry fire practice, then go live. Paul also showed us some of his preferred drills: dot drill, line drill and others.

The dry fire was always useful and never busy work. It gave Paul and Rich the opportunity to iron out kinks and make sure everyone understood the mechanics being emphasized prior to people burning money and getting stressed out about hits. Paul is a huge advocate of dry fire practice (in his book, he says during his initial train-up, his class fired two million dry fire rounds before they were ever given a real bullet), so he wants to make sure people can use that tool effectively.

While the standards are important assessment tools, the way Paul has structured them makes for a simple, easy-to-follow workout program. You can assess yourself in 24 rounds, then work on whatever area you were weak in. The workout is posted on his website (gasp!) for free. This marks another departure from the “only we can teach it”, grasshopper-will-learn-when-grasshopper-is-ready type of instruction. Other than certain law enforcement tactics, most everything Paul advocates is out there in one form or another. A monthly subscription to Panteao’s streaming video service will get all of his videos (sans one for LE only), and his articles and newsletters are a wealth of info on how the guy thinks. There's no ego with Paul. He's there to make you a better shooter, not make sure you know how awesome he is.

At the end of day one, all the students were filmed for assessment. Three drills were shot: high ready to shot, holster to shot and a failure drill. Once everyone was finished, there was a Q&A period and some closing comments, and we called it a day.

Day 2

The second day started at 7:00am in the CSAT classroom. The timeline had to be pushed up a little, because a winter storm was making its way across Texas and almost everyone in the class had a drive home ahead of them.

We started with the video made on the previous day. Paul went through the video of everyone shooting, and pointed out various things to take into consideration when assessing performance. Body position, weight distribution, recoil control and so on. The video was taken from the feet to the head, and Paul noted several things to observe when watching the video I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, like leaning forward via shifting your weight to the balls of your feet versus dropping your hips. There wasn’t much time for an extensive, detailed critique, but again, this demo wasn’t so much about subtle refinements as it was about what to watch for when recording yourself.

I have never seen myself shoot on video, so that was interesting. One glaringly apparent issue is that I need to lose some damned weight.

After the video we headed to the range and went through the standards / workout to give everyone the opportunity to iron out any issues they saw in the video. We then setup IPSC targets with old shirts on them, and shot the standards with it. I seemed to make substantially better hits on this drill than with marked CSAT targets, for whatever reason. Then the class shot the standards for time and score.

When everyone was timed, we moved to the barricades set up on the pistol range, 25 yards from steel swingers. Paul showed us his method for moving in and out of cover, which is a bit of a departure from (what I understand is) the present trend. When taking a corner, Paul steps out just far enough to provide a clear line-of-sight to the target. It exposes a sliver of his lower body, but he ends up in his regular shooting stance with no awkward balancing act. Kneeling at corners is handled similarly, with the outside knee up and simply scooting until you have a clear shot.

I’m not the most graceful or flexible person, and I found that I actually liked this method a lot. Planting feet behind cover and then leaning out always makes me feel like I’ve lost my solid foundation, and my focus shifts from shooting to my balance. This technique makes it very easy to get just the right amount of distance around the corner for the shot. This method is also going to remain consistent for everyone, regardless of if they’re tall and lanky, short and squat, wearing body armor or have had multiple knee surgeries.

Consistency between body type and gear changes is another aspect of Paul’s system. What he teaches is going to work the same for everyone. You can be a young tactical athlete or an out-of-shape private citizen, and the mechanics work the same. The techniques are going to work if you’re bare handed or using gloves, or if your agency switches to M&Ps after using Sigs forever. “Universal” I guess would be the word.

After working barricades, we moved to the vehicle graveyard. Paul has a line of four cars, each sitting in a different direction (e.g., facing forward, facing right, facing left and facing backwards). Dots are painted on the cars at the appropriate points of cover. We moved from each car, overshot cover and then used Paul’s barricade techniques to position ourselves for shots on steel. We learned that bullets can easily skip off hoods and glass and to maintain an appropriate standoff distance so ricochets would go over our heads. It was a simple, but very informative drill.

At this point, we were going to head to the 80 yard range and practice long distance shots. Unfortunately, the winter storm chose exactly that moment to roll in and everyone elected not to run the last exercise in freezing rain.

We went back to the barracks, and Paul gave us a run through on dry fire practicing in the home. Everyone received copies of our times and scores on the standards, as well as our certificates. We called it a day and headed out for home.

The Bad

I have zero complaints. An excellent experience all around. If I had to find something to complain about, I guess if Nacogdoches could be moved closer to both Houston and Dallas that would be cool. I don’t know if that’s practical to implement, not to mention spacetime or whatever.

The Good


Paul’s curriculum at Paul’s facility. No fumbling around trying to figure out what to do next and where. Very efficient use of time.
Everything taught is practical and down to earth. No whiz-bang, look-at-me tacticool bullshit.
No shooting for the sake of shooting. Every live round was well spent.
Paul and Rich’s real world experience speaks for itself.
Paul puts everything out there. There’s no ego or secret sauce.
Class size was awesome. Everyone got plenty of individual attention and all questions were answered thoughtfully and thoroughly.
Learning how to train is as much a part of the course as learning how to shoot. Nearly all of Paul’s system can be practiced dry fire, and he lays out his training program for you.
Nacogdoches is a ways out there, but it’s a real town. Plenty of places to eat and things to do when class lets out for the evening.
Great facilities. Ranges are top notch and the barracks are nicer than some cheap hotel rooms.
Paul gives a CD out with the class which includes the CSAT scoring sheets, slides used in instructor courses, a variety of articles, videos of drills and more. Great resource.
Free WiFi!



Summary

Outstanding class and I highly recommend it to everyone. Unfortunately, Paul keeps hinting that he’s preparing to transition into retirement, so if you want to train with him, don’t wait too long.

jlw
03-04-2014, 09:48 PM
Thanks for the timely review. I was on his web page earlier tonight studying his course offerings. I have a buddy stationed out in Texas and would like to combine a trip to visit him along with getting some training.

robbf213
03-17-2014, 08:51 PM
Great AAR, Paul is a class act.

Jason F
03-18-2014, 09:55 PM
I just recommended him to a buddy from the Houston area who just made his departments SWAT team recently. We were talking about training classes and I mentioned how jealous I was that Paul is "so close" to him releatively speaking.... "Who?!?"

Oh geez... Now that I intro'd him, he's at the top of his "to train with" list.

JLW - does Paul travel, or do you have to go to him?

OldRunner/CSAT Neighbor
03-18-2014, 11:42 PM
Clearly not JLW but having known Paul since 2004 he has gotten to the point w/ CSAT that he is off the road now. I recall his monthly road trips he put in over the years & thankfully he is past those days.

Just saw him in Aug & Jan, going back in Nov. & Paul is in a great frame of mind these days, while still a very focused/humble man. While I have not met Rich, I do know Bill & Nic, his other two AIs & like Paul, they are all 3 very professional & capable men.

Suvorov
03-19-2014, 12:17 AM
Great AAR!

I took the rifle/carbine class back in 2009 and have been wanting to go back and take more classes ever since. The fact that I am no longer out of IAH has kind of put a damper on things, but I consider it towards the top of my shooting goals to take and complete both pistol and rifle/carbine instructor classes before Paul decides to call it quits. I am also really intrigued by his home defense and civilian response to active shooter classes. When I took my class he was just finishing up the course curricula for the home defense class and it seemed really good. I like his very professional attitude as well as his fundamentals based instruction. His ways may not be as flashy or exciting as other instructors but they are based on solid fundamentals and work.

One question I have for you is what the class make up was with regard to pistols used? I know that Paul usually uses a Glock 19 (or the .357 equivalent) but how does he teach the folks with DA autos (not much/any mention of it in his pistol video)?

Chance
03-19-2014, 01:50 PM
@Jason F: So far as I know, Paul's not on the road anymore. Reading his previous newsletters, I think he just got tired of it.

@Suvorov: Almost exclusively 9mm Glocks. One guy had an M&P9, and one guy started out with a Sig P229 but switched to a Glock almost immediately. The Sig shooter seemed to be a little new, so I think he was just experimenting. With regards to what Paul teaches for DA/SA, I don't recall him discussing it since no one was using one. Paul answers his e-mail himself, and since you're a former student, you could probably just ask him.

Dave J
03-19-2014, 03:58 PM
I went through Pauls' class with a Beretta 92, and he really didn't do anything differently on my account, other than making me shoot all the hostage shots on the M-K drill in double action.

FWIW, I was decocking upon returning to the high ready when coming off target, which is fairly standard practice in my mind.

In hindsight, I wish I'd have spent some more time asking his thoughts on safety & slide manipulation, since he was one of the guys in his former unit who chose the M9 over the 1911.

Dave Williams
03-19-2014, 06:56 PM
I wish I'd have spent some more time asking his thoughts on safety & slide manipulation, since he was one of the guys in his former unit who chose the M9 over the 1911.

I'd be interested in that also.

jlw
03-19-2014, 07:36 PM
I
JLW - does Paul travel, or do you have to go to him?

Good thing other people answered as I didn't know other than there was nothing on his webpage referencing travel.