GJM
02-25-2012, 07:27 PM
Weather and locale permitting, my wife and I have been doing regular pistol training all this winter, but we were looking for instruction to improve our shooting beyond what we have accomplished with our own practice sessions. We were hoping to accomplish this in February, based on time available in our schedule.
Fifteen plus years ago, when I was an IPSC shooter looking to improve, I had done personal instruction with Frank Garcia of the Universal Shooting Academy (USA) in Frostproof, FL. That instruction was extremely valuable, and my wife suggested we see if Frank was available for instruction now. As it turns out, February is incredibly busy for USA, as they host the 400+ shooter Florida Open Pistol Shooting Tournament (FO), and had extended personal instruction going on with several international students. Neither Frank Garcia, nor instructor Manny Bragg, were available for personal instruction and we wrote off the idea. Checking back, it turns out that USA had a group class available in February with Manny Bragg that worked for our schedule, and since USA limits classes to four students we decided it was something we were interested in. Manny is an IPSC Grand Master and had just won Limited class at the FO.
I am almost embarrassed to say we came without even knowing the name of the class, although we did understand the goal was to shoot a lot of rounds improving. We met our two fellow students and Manny Bragg on the morning of TD1, and had just a few minutes of discussion. Manny and Frank Garcia believe that Grand Master level shooters are not born, but rather developed, by mastering a series of fundamentals, and Manny said he would help us shoot faster and more accurately. We began with drawing to a two inch dot at seven yards, followed by shooting five shots into the two inch dot. The class only picked up from there.
The morning was a blur of drills, that emphasized speed, accuracy and transitions. One drill that stood out was done on the plate rack, and involved firing a shot, and verifying that when your sights came to the next plate, your finger was in position to break the shot. Manny calls this "taking out the trash," and on the Glock pistols the three others were shooting and my M&P with a DCAEK trigger, it meant working through the initial take-up plus part of the weight of the pull. We started with, shoot one plate and verify trigger position, and worked thru multiples, until everyone was running the whole rack with proper trigger manipulation. This one drill was perhaps the single most important drill of the whole class for me, and while it was important for freestyle shooting, it is ABSOLUTELY critical for one hand shooting since you don't have a support hand to mask trigger imperfections.
Manny demoed each exercise, and he can really shoot. I thought I had a reasonably fast draw, but Manny's speed showed what is possible. While it was with an IPSC rig, he was demoing draws in the .65 range, and when he showed, what he called a glacial one second draw, it looked like he was in slow motion. He immediately identified that I had too much superfluous motion and tension in my draw, and working with me using my RMR equipped M&P9 full size out of the Blade-Tec unconcealed straight drop and Fricke Gideon holster I used during the two days, pushed me until I had some draws in the .85 range and most under a second to a close target. Without his insistence that it could be done, I would never have known that was possible. He explained that he started with his own draw at around two seconds, and systematically refined his draw to where it is today.
After lunch, we traveled amongst the approximate twenty dedicated shooting bays at USA, picking between left over stages from the recently held FO and permanent Steel Challenge stages they have set-up. Again, Manny would demo each stage, giving us an idea of what was possible, and then work with us to improve our performance. We had an interesting discussion about split times, after one field course where one student has some splits from .14-16, but had some accuracy problems on those shots. Manny said his fastest splits at the FO, where he just won Limited Class, were in the .24-.26 range, including on the close full targets. He said that Frank Garcia told him some years back, that when you are shooting very fast splits, the gun is running you, not you running the gun, and you need to slow down to reliably make your hits with accuracy. I never focused on shooting any faster than I could properly work my trigger, and never had trigger freeze thru the course. Interestingly Manny never focused on our split times other than for a draw, reload or transition, despite timing each drill.
We finished the day on the shoot-off bay, which has two arrays of six six inch poppers, from about 12-20 yards, with two overlapping full size poppers at just over 20 yards as a stop plate. After some freestyle runs, my wife and I started running them strong and support hand only. This is where "taking out the trash" of the trigger made the difference between a fast, accurate hit, and either mashing the trigger or taking forever to break the shot. The students were all whipped by day's end, but only stopped shooting because we would have to go get more ammo. There were zero wasted rounds shot, and each shooter went thru about 1,200 rounds. After class each day we took our bird dog for a hike before dark, keeping her on leash due to concerns about alligators and poisonous snakes which as an Alaskan dog, she isn't savvy to.
TD2 started with a brief discussion of Airsoft pistols. Manny believes they are extremely important for their low cost, indoor practice possibilities. He loves the way the slide cycles, allowing him to watch the sight lift between shots. He sets up scaled mini aluminum plate racks indoors, and does regular practice using his Airsoft pistol. He told us of a Japanese competitor, prohibited from having a handgun in Japan, that practiced exclusively, came to the Steel Challenge, and did fantastically well, using just Airsoft training prior to shooting here at the match.
We started with, guess what, draws and five shots into a two inch dot at seven yards, before moving on. That moved into some accuracy work with shots to the two inch dot at 10 and ultimately 25 yards. This was followed up with single draws to the plate rack at 25 to 30 yards, and then a field course that finished with one plate at 40 yards as a stop plate. While my RMR M&P shoots accurately, this is not where you would want a pistol without an exact zero and reasonable accuracy.
Accuracy quickly turned into speed drills, focusing on reloads. Manny demoed a drill that involved a draw to a close target, a slide forward reload, and follow-up shot, consistently under two seconds. I think he said his personal best times about 1.4 seconds, which is mind boggling, even if using IPSC gear. Initially, I was having some problem with the M&P mag release, when going fast, and realized this RMR has a thumb safety model, which placed my dominant thumb in a different position than using a non-thumb safety M&P. I grabbed a non TS lower, plopped the RMR top end on, and the problem went away, showing how small changes can cause issues. Everyone improved with Manny's encouragement, and my best times for the draw, shot, reload, shot were in the 2.38 range. My wife made dramatic progress with her reload times. We finished the morning session with drills that involved a fast draw to a close target followed up by an eight inch plate at 20 yards, forcing you to focus on high speed and then precision.
The afternoon session followed the same pattern as TD1, and we worked our way thru various FO and Steel Challenge stages, until we ended up at the shoot-off bay where we all shot against each other to ammunition exhaustion. Manny added a mandatory reload prior to the stop plate, incorporating the morning's lesson, and everyone looked good. Looked good until Manny started shooting in the line-up, when initially I started over running my ability, trying to keep up, which lead to misses and a fumbled reload. Ultimately, I figured out how to beat him -- I omitted my reload when shooting against him!
We shot until my wife was down to one magazine which she kept for any alligator encounters involving our dog at the range, since there was a seven footer in one pond part way thru the bays. The other two students went and got more ammo, and knocked themselves out in the various steel challenge, until one ran out of ammo, and the other broke skin on the web of his hand from his Glock 34.
Overall, my wife and I each shot about 2500 rounds over the two days of instruction. In terms of gear, my wife had zero stoppages or malfunctions with the two Gen 3 Glock 34's she shot (she was verifying function with a second G34 she recently got as a back-up.) Of the two other shooters, one shot a Gen 3 34 and the other a Gen 4 Glock 17, and I observed no stoppages with either of these two pistols. With my RMR FS M&P 9, I had two stoppages that occurred in short order with one new magazine, and once I discarded that mag, no further issues. I also had one failure to ignite with one cartridge, but since it was during a shoot off, I just cleared it and continued on, and never took the time to find the cartridge and examine it. I shot Aguila 124 ball thru the course, and found it accurate, clean and reliable, excepting that one round that didn't fire.
This course, which I later learned was called Intermediate/Advanced Handgun, was just what we were looking for to improve our skills in subtle but significant ways. Manny was very flexible, and if someone was having a particular issue, would work that, while keeping the pace fast moving and fun. It was not a how do course, or one focused on tactics, although I suspect that would have been possible if that is what the students wanted. I still can't believe we shot that many rounds and that they were all high quality rounds, although I sure would not have wanted to be shooting .40 or .357 Sig! Even though he is an open and limited shooter, Manny did not have experience with the RMR style RDS, and messing with mine briefly announced it was harder than either a iron sights or an open dot, although I have no doubt he would master it quickly if he wanted to. I came to the course with some uncertainty about the RDS versus iron sights, but left feeling extremely comfortable with the RDS for close in fast use as well as long range precision work.
Fifteen plus years ago, when I was an IPSC shooter looking to improve, I had done personal instruction with Frank Garcia of the Universal Shooting Academy (USA) in Frostproof, FL. That instruction was extremely valuable, and my wife suggested we see if Frank was available for instruction now. As it turns out, February is incredibly busy for USA, as they host the 400+ shooter Florida Open Pistol Shooting Tournament (FO), and had extended personal instruction going on with several international students. Neither Frank Garcia, nor instructor Manny Bragg, were available for personal instruction and we wrote off the idea. Checking back, it turns out that USA had a group class available in February with Manny Bragg that worked for our schedule, and since USA limits classes to four students we decided it was something we were interested in. Manny is an IPSC Grand Master and had just won Limited class at the FO.
I am almost embarrassed to say we came without even knowing the name of the class, although we did understand the goal was to shoot a lot of rounds improving. We met our two fellow students and Manny Bragg on the morning of TD1, and had just a few minutes of discussion. Manny and Frank Garcia believe that Grand Master level shooters are not born, but rather developed, by mastering a series of fundamentals, and Manny said he would help us shoot faster and more accurately. We began with drawing to a two inch dot at seven yards, followed by shooting five shots into the two inch dot. The class only picked up from there.
The morning was a blur of drills, that emphasized speed, accuracy and transitions. One drill that stood out was done on the plate rack, and involved firing a shot, and verifying that when your sights came to the next plate, your finger was in position to break the shot. Manny calls this "taking out the trash," and on the Glock pistols the three others were shooting and my M&P with a DCAEK trigger, it meant working through the initial take-up plus part of the weight of the pull. We started with, shoot one plate and verify trigger position, and worked thru multiples, until everyone was running the whole rack with proper trigger manipulation. This one drill was perhaps the single most important drill of the whole class for me, and while it was important for freestyle shooting, it is ABSOLUTELY critical for one hand shooting since you don't have a support hand to mask trigger imperfections.
Manny demoed each exercise, and he can really shoot. I thought I had a reasonably fast draw, but Manny's speed showed what is possible. While it was with an IPSC rig, he was demoing draws in the .65 range, and when he showed, what he called a glacial one second draw, it looked like he was in slow motion. He immediately identified that I had too much superfluous motion and tension in my draw, and working with me using my RMR equipped M&P9 full size out of the Blade-Tec unconcealed straight drop and Fricke Gideon holster I used during the two days, pushed me until I had some draws in the .85 range and most under a second to a close target. Without his insistence that it could be done, I would never have known that was possible. He explained that he started with his own draw at around two seconds, and systematically refined his draw to where it is today.
After lunch, we traveled amongst the approximate twenty dedicated shooting bays at USA, picking between left over stages from the recently held FO and permanent Steel Challenge stages they have set-up. Again, Manny would demo each stage, giving us an idea of what was possible, and then work with us to improve our performance. We had an interesting discussion about split times, after one field course where one student has some splits from .14-16, but had some accuracy problems on those shots. Manny said his fastest splits at the FO, where he just won Limited Class, were in the .24-.26 range, including on the close full targets. He said that Frank Garcia told him some years back, that when you are shooting very fast splits, the gun is running you, not you running the gun, and you need to slow down to reliably make your hits with accuracy. I never focused on shooting any faster than I could properly work my trigger, and never had trigger freeze thru the course. Interestingly Manny never focused on our split times other than for a draw, reload or transition, despite timing each drill.
We finished the day on the shoot-off bay, which has two arrays of six six inch poppers, from about 12-20 yards, with two overlapping full size poppers at just over 20 yards as a stop plate. After some freestyle runs, my wife and I started running them strong and support hand only. This is where "taking out the trash" of the trigger made the difference between a fast, accurate hit, and either mashing the trigger or taking forever to break the shot. The students were all whipped by day's end, but only stopped shooting because we would have to go get more ammo. There were zero wasted rounds shot, and each shooter went thru about 1,200 rounds. After class each day we took our bird dog for a hike before dark, keeping her on leash due to concerns about alligators and poisonous snakes which as an Alaskan dog, she isn't savvy to.
TD2 started with a brief discussion of Airsoft pistols. Manny believes they are extremely important for their low cost, indoor practice possibilities. He loves the way the slide cycles, allowing him to watch the sight lift between shots. He sets up scaled mini aluminum plate racks indoors, and does regular practice using his Airsoft pistol. He told us of a Japanese competitor, prohibited from having a handgun in Japan, that practiced exclusively, came to the Steel Challenge, and did fantastically well, using just Airsoft training prior to shooting here at the match.
We started with, guess what, draws and five shots into a two inch dot at seven yards, before moving on. That moved into some accuracy work with shots to the two inch dot at 10 and ultimately 25 yards. This was followed up with single draws to the plate rack at 25 to 30 yards, and then a field course that finished with one plate at 40 yards as a stop plate. While my RMR M&P shoots accurately, this is not where you would want a pistol without an exact zero and reasonable accuracy.
Accuracy quickly turned into speed drills, focusing on reloads. Manny demoed a drill that involved a draw to a close target, a slide forward reload, and follow-up shot, consistently under two seconds. I think he said his personal best times about 1.4 seconds, which is mind boggling, even if using IPSC gear. Initially, I was having some problem with the M&P mag release, when going fast, and realized this RMR has a thumb safety model, which placed my dominant thumb in a different position than using a non-thumb safety M&P. I grabbed a non TS lower, plopped the RMR top end on, and the problem went away, showing how small changes can cause issues. Everyone improved with Manny's encouragement, and my best times for the draw, shot, reload, shot were in the 2.38 range. My wife made dramatic progress with her reload times. We finished the morning session with drills that involved a fast draw to a close target followed up by an eight inch plate at 20 yards, forcing you to focus on high speed and then precision.
The afternoon session followed the same pattern as TD1, and we worked our way thru various FO and Steel Challenge stages, until we ended up at the shoot-off bay where we all shot against each other to ammunition exhaustion. Manny added a mandatory reload prior to the stop plate, incorporating the morning's lesson, and everyone looked good. Looked good until Manny started shooting in the line-up, when initially I started over running my ability, trying to keep up, which lead to misses and a fumbled reload. Ultimately, I figured out how to beat him -- I omitted my reload when shooting against him!
We shot until my wife was down to one magazine which she kept for any alligator encounters involving our dog at the range, since there was a seven footer in one pond part way thru the bays. The other two students went and got more ammo, and knocked themselves out in the various steel challenge, until one ran out of ammo, and the other broke skin on the web of his hand from his Glock 34.
Overall, my wife and I each shot about 2500 rounds over the two days of instruction. In terms of gear, my wife had zero stoppages or malfunctions with the two Gen 3 Glock 34's she shot (she was verifying function with a second G34 she recently got as a back-up.) Of the two other shooters, one shot a Gen 3 34 and the other a Gen 4 Glock 17, and I observed no stoppages with either of these two pistols. With my RMR FS M&P 9, I had two stoppages that occurred in short order with one new magazine, and once I discarded that mag, no further issues. I also had one failure to ignite with one cartridge, but since it was during a shoot off, I just cleared it and continued on, and never took the time to find the cartridge and examine it. I shot Aguila 124 ball thru the course, and found it accurate, clean and reliable, excepting that one round that didn't fire.
This course, which I later learned was called Intermediate/Advanced Handgun, was just what we were looking for to improve our skills in subtle but significant ways. Manny was very flexible, and if someone was having a particular issue, would work that, while keeping the pace fast moving and fun. It was not a how do course, or one focused on tactics, although I suspect that would have been possible if that is what the students wanted. I still can't believe we shot that many rounds and that they were all high quality rounds, although I sure would not have wanted to be shooting .40 or .357 Sig! Even though he is an open and limited shooter, Manny did not have experience with the RMR style RDS, and messing with mine briefly announced it was harder than either a iron sights or an open dot, although I have no doubt he would master it quickly if he wanted to. I came to the course with some uncertainty about the RDS versus iron sights, but left feeling extremely comfortable with the RDS for close in fast use as well as long range precision work.