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Bratch
03-01-2011, 03:13 PM
Course: Rangemaster Advanced Instructor Course
Where: Rangemaster, Memphis, TN
Dates: Feb 26-27, 2011
Students: 20; all previous graduates of Rangemaster Instructor Development course

Rangemaster's Advanced Instructors course is the 2 day follow up course to the 3 day Instructors Development Course. Students are limited to those that have successfully graduated from the 3 day course so all of the students come into the class with a good skill set. The weekend is a mix of shooting and academic lesson covering a wide variety of material.

Upon arriving at the range the students went to the classroom and found their seat, the students had been paired with a shooting partner that they would work with for the weekend. The shooting partner worked as a coach all weekend to help correct any technique problems the shooter had. After a quick intro the students headed to the range. On the range the day started with a bulls eye at 5 yards, the goal was to shoot the X-ring not the paper. After the warm up on the bulls eye we shot a variety of courses including bulls eye courses, FBI qual courses, and various other courses of fire. All courses are shot under time limits and had to be shot at 90% accuracy to pass. We shot through lunch and most students found some thing they needed to work on improving.

Following lunch William April gave a presentation on “Fatal Choices: Violent Criminal Actors and Victim Selection”, William is a psychologist and provided a very interesting insight into the thoughts of VCAs. He discussed various studies of inmates and how they selected victims and what they looked for in a target. An interesting discussion was the importance of gait and the nonverbal communication that it shows. Another fact presented was that less than 5% of the offenders studied who murdered a LEO were intoxicated at the time of the murder versus the vast majority of people arrested while intoxicated. Following William's presentation John Hearne did his presentation on “Hard Won Lessons” that was based on the FBI's “Violent Encounters” study. John did an excellent job of breaking out the difference between the LEOs who were attacked and those who attacked them. Family background, employment, history of violence, and general out look on life were all compared and contrasted. The truly eye opening section was when the gang members were broken out from the general VCA group. The gang members had a history of more violence at an earlier age and were more likely to employ violence for the sake of violence. The gang members began carrying weapons at 15 and “practiced” on average twice a month with their handguns, not the typical “crackhead with a Raven” everyone envisions. We broke at the end of the day after John's presentation and retired to a Memphis BBQ for a class dinner.

Sunday started back on the range, most of Saturday's shooting was spent working on the transition of close and fast to far and slower, so the first target we shot was Tom's 456 drill. The 456 is a 8” circle, a 6” circle,and a business card sized rectangle that must be shot 2 times each, from 5 yards in 4 seconds. This reinforced the need for speed on the big targets and the need for precision on the small targets. Sunday's course of fire were all recorded for score to go towards the overall grade needed to pass the course. We again shot a FBI Q course, a bulls eye course, and various other courses of fire
from 3-25 yards. Tom introduced several different methods of scoring and timing and had everyone shoot a Comstock scored course one at a time. Comstock incorporates speed and accuracy to give a rating based out of 100. When individual times were recorded the class began to differentiate in to several groups of skills as opposed to when par times were ran most students bunched together. After the qual courses were finished we shot a low light course of fire.

Following the range we headed back to the classroom for more classroom presentations. Gerald Foon gave a presentation on tactical medicine. Due to the time constraints the lecture was limited to a brief overview but it covered typical traumatic wounds and methods to treat them. He had several very good props to help demonstrate injuries to the chest cavity and lungs to help students understand what was happening. William April presented next on Violent Acts and Actors, he explained the difference types of criminals and the ones that pose the greatest threat to the average person. The criminal mindset and rational was explained and some of their motives and values were discussed. Following William's presentation John Hearne presented on the Newhall Massacre. The incident was dissected at a tactical level for what went wrong for the officers, the VCAs were described at detail and their histories were explored, and the training implications going forward were reviewed. Many mistakes were made by a variety of people leading up to the shooting and John presented them so we could learn from them and avoid them in the future.

The class was challenging though not as demanding as the 3 day course. The marksmanship requirements were stringent and the time limits were tight to make the shooting difficult. By working with a partner for 2 days little problems were able to be found and corrected helping to improve both the students and coach. The classroom material was relevant and interesting and provided a insight into the criminal mind and what threats are out there. Students came away better shooters and instructors. The class had a special treat with the first person in over 5 years to pass Tom's Handgun Master test in attendance.

If you have attended the Rangemaster Instructor Development course you owe it to yourself to attend the Advanced Instructors course if you have an opportunity. If you are interested in training either professionally or just helping out friends on the range I would look at both the 3 day and then the 2 day instructor coursse Rangemaster offers, you will come away a better shooter and teacher.