TElmer2
03-19-2013, 09:38 PM
Been out of town that last week or so I apologize for the late AAR. It also helps with time to help the lessons sink in. This is my first one so hopefully it isn't too bad.
Weather: Day 1: 29 degrees, cloudy
Day 2: 31 degrees, off and on clouds, it did warm up into the fifties
First off there's Bob...he is a very down to earth, humble, approacheable guy that was easy to talk to. I don't think many know that Bob was an active duty police officer(including SWAT), and keeps his badge as an active reserve officer in Ohio. Before class we talked about hunting and fishing rather than anything tacticool or highspeed. That in itself was refreshing. Dude definitely has some stories to tell!
Day 1 began in the classroom which wasn't too bad considering the temp outside which is not conducive to this southern boy's usual temperment. :cool: Of course, Bob started with the usual introductions and immediately began into what we should expect of him and from the curriculum that we would be learning. Bob is adamant that he has designed this course as a "practical/competition" course as he believes that in many ways these types of skills go hand in hand, and he feels many instructors don't capitalize on this; or they simply don't recognize it. He has both the competition and law enforcement background to back up his thoughts. What he spoke about "efficiency of movement" was an eye opener also.
What I thoroughly enjoyed in the classroom was Bob's take on dry-firing; he says he still dry fires religously before a big match, and it is not uncommon for him to have a 1:6-8 ratio between live rounds and dry fire rounds. He also showed us a few dry fire techniques and drills to work on and showed us what to look for to not only critique ourselves, but to also become better shooters. I really wish more instructors would do include this in lectures or curriculums as we all know here dry firing is where it's at for skill development and progress. Before we hit the range Bob went into two things he does a little different: Grip and Grip...this is also where we started at on the range.
GRIP: Bob is a very firm believer in having a VERY strong grip. When I say strong, I mean he demoed gripping a Gen 4 G21 frame and you could see him warp the frame. When you get to this point you back off just a touch so as to not to impede function of your firearm. He also helped show us this by putting his support hand on our firearms and torquing against us to show how much pressure we should be exerting on our guns. He also teaches to "torque" the gun along with the grip, which after a while I noticed that it did seem to help. He believes in that the less the gun moves by strength along with proper fundamentals the better off you will be able to control recoil. Not only was this different, but to the uninitiated this is fatiguing as I have never been taught to exert this much force onto a pistol. This coming from a gentlemen that spends a good bit of time in the gym, and also a lot outdoors being active.
Bob says that he does not workout, but what he does do is A LOT of grip work. He is a big fan of the Captain of Crush grip sets along with various other tools to enhance grip. He does this not for "reps", but for maximum strength building in his hands and forearms. I did take this away from the class and have been working on it since then and have already seen a benefit with grip strength training. As far as gripping the gun THAT hard...that is still undecided.
GRIP: Bob is known for his little wonky grip which is putting his support hand as far forward on the gun as possible. Very similar to shooting a carbine and the way that he explains it is very similar to how most knowledgeable instructors would demo, describe, and apply the benefits of this grip. You can't actually do this grip with every gun as it does rely on the trigger guard to be squared off to be as beneficial as it should be...ala Glocks; which he is a very big fan of. This needs to be seen and explained by Bob in a more detailed manner than I can explain effectively.
Day 2: Classroom in the morning. This was cue for a lecture on mindset and what it takes to win at the highest levels. What struck me was that he straight up told us at that level there is a reason the same 10 guys make the top 10 and the same top 5 always make the top 5. The top 5 have a tendacy to just switch around on a certain day. It's about that top 5 doing what it takes to win and having the mindset to do it. He did mention that this is the same mindset that let's you go home after a bad encounter, but what he honed in on and again, gave us some mental exercises really sank in and helped. I really took that away from the class more than anything, one of the best ones I've heard from an instructor.
On the range it was...cold. We started off with some warm up drills to get some blood pumping and then when into more drills and got into movement. Throughout the weekend we were timed constantly and we also did a lot of drills by ourselves after a few reps to create competition and stress for us to do our movements through. Bob did not concentrate on reloads, malfunction clearances, or anything of the sort as he feels this is the wrong class for that and we should know how to do all of those things for this. Remember that talk about dry-fire?
Bob concentrated movement on the rules based on USPSA as he feels this would be a little more fun, and he said he felt we would learn a little more about being more efficient with this style of shooting. Often shooters aren't necessarily the fastest shooter; they are the most efficient shooter and no movement is wasted on the range and from stage to stage...we honed this in all day long. What I did like about Bob's style was that he wasn't just trying to make you a better shooter by critiquing and showing you drills; he was showing you how to critique yourself and help you realize what you did wrong, what you did right, and what you simply could have done better. He knows that you aren't going to be a Master Level shooter in two days and wanted to help you realize that only you can critique yourself on a regular basis(Smokey the Bear pun intended)
Obviously Day 2 is a little shorter, but overall I would recommend this class to anybody. There were some minor issues I had as a student critiquing an instructor that I think could be improved upon, but it was a great class where I walked away with a ton of new "tools" in my toolbox. I love shiny new things!
Hope you guys enjoyed!
Weather: Day 1: 29 degrees, cloudy
Day 2: 31 degrees, off and on clouds, it did warm up into the fifties
First off there's Bob...he is a very down to earth, humble, approacheable guy that was easy to talk to. I don't think many know that Bob was an active duty police officer(including SWAT), and keeps his badge as an active reserve officer in Ohio. Before class we talked about hunting and fishing rather than anything tacticool or highspeed. That in itself was refreshing. Dude definitely has some stories to tell!
Day 1 began in the classroom which wasn't too bad considering the temp outside which is not conducive to this southern boy's usual temperment. :cool: Of course, Bob started with the usual introductions and immediately began into what we should expect of him and from the curriculum that we would be learning. Bob is adamant that he has designed this course as a "practical/competition" course as he believes that in many ways these types of skills go hand in hand, and he feels many instructors don't capitalize on this; or they simply don't recognize it. He has both the competition and law enforcement background to back up his thoughts. What he spoke about "efficiency of movement" was an eye opener also.
What I thoroughly enjoyed in the classroom was Bob's take on dry-firing; he says he still dry fires religously before a big match, and it is not uncommon for him to have a 1:6-8 ratio between live rounds and dry fire rounds. He also showed us a few dry fire techniques and drills to work on and showed us what to look for to not only critique ourselves, but to also become better shooters. I really wish more instructors would do include this in lectures or curriculums as we all know here dry firing is where it's at for skill development and progress. Before we hit the range Bob went into two things he does a little different: Grip and Grip...this is also where we started at on the range.
GRIP: Bob is a very firm believer in having a VERY strong grip. When I say strong, I mean he demoed gripping a Gen 4 G21 frame and you could see him warp the frame. When you get to this point you back off just a touch so as to not to impede function of your firearm. He also helped show us this by putting his support hand on our firearms and torquing against us to show how much pressure we should be exerting on our guns. He also teaches to "torque" the gun along with the grip, which after a while I noticed that it did seem to help. He believes in that the less the gun moves by strength along with proper fundamentals the better off you will be able to control recoil. Not only was this different, but to the uninitiated this is fatiguing as I have never been taught to exert this much force onto a pistol. This coming from a gentlemen that spends a good bit of time in the gym, and also a lot outdoors being active.
Bob says that he does not workout, but what he does do is A LOT of grip work. He is a big fan of the Captain of Crush grip sets along with various other tools to enhance grip. He does this not for "reps", but for maximum strength building in his hands and forearms. I did take this away from the class and have been working on it since then and have already seen a benefit with grip strength training. As far as gripping the gun THAT hard...that is still undecided.
GRIP: Bob is known for his little wonky grip which is putting his support hand as far forward on the gun as possible. Very similar to shooting a carbine and the way that he explains it is very similar to how most knowledgeable instructors would demo, describe, and apply the benefits of this grip. You can't actually do this grip with every gun as it does rely on the trigger guard to be squared off to be as beneficial as it should be...ala Glocks; which he is a very big fan of. This needs to be seen and explained by Bob in a more detailed manner than I can explain effectively.
Day 2: Classroom in the morning. This was cue for a lecture on mindset and what it takes to win at the highest levels. What struck me was that he straight up told us at that level there is a reason the same 10 guys make the top 10 and the same top 5 always make the top 5. The top 5 have a tendacy to just switch around on a certain day. It's about that top 5 doing what it takes to win and having the mindset to do it. He did mention that this is the same mindset that let's you go home after a bad encounter, but what he honed in on and again, gave us some mental exercises really sank in and helped. I really took that away from the class more than anything, one of the best ones I've heard from an instructor.
On the range it was...cold. We started off with some warm up drills to get some blood pumping and then when into more drills and got into movement. Throughout the weekend we were timed constantly and we also did a lot of drills by ourselves after a few reps to create competition and stress for us to do our movements through. Bob did not concentrate on reloads, malfunction clearances, or anything of the sort as he feels this is the wrong class for that and we should know how to do all of those things for this. Remember that talk about dry-fire?
Bob concentrated movement on the rules based on USPSA as he feels this would be a little more fun, and he said he felt we would learn a little more about being more efficient with this style of shooting. Often shooters aren't necessarily the fastest shooter; they are the most efficient shooter and no movement is wasted on the range and from stage to stage...we honed this in all day long. What I did like about Bob's style was that he wasn't just trying to make you a better shooter by critiquing and showing you drills; he was showing you how to critique yourself and help you realize what you did wrong, what you did right, and what you simply could have done better. He knows that you aren't going to be a Master Level shooter in two days and wanted to help you realize that only you can critique yourself on a regular basis(Smokey the Bear pun intended)
Obviously Day 2 is a little shorter, but overall I would recommend this class to anybody. There were some minor issues I had as a student critiquing an instructor that I think could be improved upon, but it was a great class where I walked away with a ton of new "tools" in my toolbox. I love shiny new things!
Hope you guys enjoyed!