This AAR has been a long time coming and for that I am truly sorry – rarely have I encountered instruction / coaching / proficiency / mastery (in any discipline) at this level and I feel compelled to spread the word regarding the gunfighting gold that is Justin Dyal.
Back in July I attended Justin’s
Technical Force-On-Force two day course down at BFG in Georgia, however I had previously attended a private 2-day course (loosely titled
High-End Handgun) held in May 2021 in WV. Rather than get in the weeds regarding the particulars of either course I am going to do my best to distill my overall impressions and experiences in a format that I hope will be useful for people looking for outstanding firearms training. Forum member @
rcbusmc24 was also in attendance at both these courses and has previously touched on these shared experiences if you’d like to dig deeper.
For those of you not familiar with Justin, I am not too super aware of the specifics regarding his background other than he had spent time with the USMC where I believe one of his prime areas of focus was running, instructing at, and developing curriculum for one of their elite shooting schools. Beyond that he is a lifelong shooter who has competed at a high level and has industry experience as a writer and performing T&E.
What is most important to now about Justin is his humility, personable demeanor, and well-developed capability to not only instruct a diverse group of shooters, but also to be able to provide relevant individual coaching within a classroom environment. As a personal anecdote, at the start of HEH, Justin had each student assume a shooting posture for his evaluation. Instantly he saw a deficiency in my support elbow position that was affecting my grip – something that had not been identified previously. He made a suggestion which I adopted and I saw near-immediate improvements. I like to get very direct feedback as part of my learning style and I found Justin's presentation of material offered useful guidance that cleared up quite a few ambiguities around shooting mechanics that I'd been struggling with.
To give a sense of the type of character Justin possesses, @
rcbusmc24 described in another thread how rather than have each individual go around the room talking about themselves, Justin himself spent time talking a bit about each student by way of introduction. I cannot begin to describe how disarming, classy, thoughtful of a gesture that was. In a time where people can barely muster the energy to register your presence (let alone address you properly or offer to shake your hand) this personal touch will be long-remembered.
It is not my intention to get deep into the curriculum of either course for a variety of reasons, mainly because I feel there must be be more context than what I can provide on this forum. What I will say is that a key concept in Justin’s firearms approach is
modulation, specifically regarding trigger press and sight picture and how they relate to speed and distance. This was discussed in depth with clear standards around what can and should be expected as far as time and accuracy benchmarks go. Other top focuses were on developing fluid movement and possessing solid strong-hand shooting skills though Justin touched on most fundamentals in some form or another. The drills reinforced these concepts and Justin provided opportunities to record immediate reflections on our performance for each course of fire. The pace and variety of drills held my attention over the period of each two-day class.
What I really like about training with Justin is his cerebral approach to shooting and firearms that isn’t so esoteric that one couldn’t find plenty of actionable considerations as they look to improve their abilities. Though the two courses I took were fundamentally quite different (one focused on “untethering” your shooting, the other on addressing 3D targets in 3D space) the reality was that I could tell Justin fed off the energy and capabilities of the individual students present, and tailored his masterful presentation of shooting knowledge to the “flow” of each class. Justin seems to simply love guns and to talk about shooting them, and can relay that passion to a variety of shooters.
I really hope I haven’t come across as too hyperbolic (and if Justin sees this I hope I haven’t embarrassed him). As someone who has instructed and coached all ages and personality types over many disciples over the years, I was really in awe of how (again) masterfully Justin approached instructing in such a technical yet relatable manner.
Justin keeps a fairly low profile – if you find an opportunity to train with him, please consider it. I sincerely look forward to more opportunities to grow under his tutelage.
