AAR - Defensive Travel Awareness Course (Ron Sable) Doswell, VA; 13-14 Oct 2018
AAR in brief:
This is my second class with Ron as the headliner; I've trained with him at least 3 other times with him at other venues. Notes on one of his other offerings can be found here: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....-2-3-June-2018 DTAC was held at the same venue as CS, using the same indoor classroom and outdoor grassy knoll; but without using the range facilities and plugging a training car in as well. The class announcement was here: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....4-October-2018
I went into this class not knowing quite what to expect, and not having any background in the realm; please bear that in mind when reading my remarks. Given the similar price scheme relative to Crash Shooting and other classes within this corner of the industry, it seemed a good value as (under) advertised.
When we got running on TD1 and I learned that the class is capped with a pretty low headcount AND Ron provides a gallon ziploc bag full of items both professionally made and those that can be used as field-expedient tools. Straight up, I didn't expect that, and knowing the values of some of the tools included, I was dumbfounded that the class was priced as it was so heavily in the student's favor. Most everything in that bag can be found and replenished by the individual; but may involve shopping from 3-5 different suppliers with the associated time burden and shipping costs that go with that; there was a huge convenience to having it presented in one bag, and it provides the means to fully engage with the coursework and later evolutions.
Ron also brought a true pirate's chest worth of supporting equipment: restraints and locks from around the world, dozens of different sorts of padlocks just from CONUS, and related knick-knacks.
Each training day involved technical work on restraints\locks\social-engineering\fabrication in the morning, before bodies exerted and muscles got tired. After lunch, the training days turned over to the combatives side of things, which included: working weapon\limb\hand management skills pared down to when you don't have a weapon - but your opponent does; in-car work contextualized around abduction and abduction-attempts; empty-handed techniques for escape and defense that work with bound-hands and in\out of small spaces; and firearm disarms.
Lots of guided practice and then self-guided repetitions with: identifying and defeating different forms of restraints through friction\cutting\shimming\picking to include when wearing said restraints, shimming\picking different locks, raking a diversity of locks, avoiding conversational disclosures without drawing additional scrutiny, and concealed tool carriage.
Lots of in-car work, which I love for unrelated reasons; I've had some training in the matter before, but Ron provided some new thoughts and with the small class plenty of coaching. Afternoons were moderately physically intense; so bringing some conditioning to class will maximize your take-aways. There will be tiredness after each day, and good sleep.
There was an evo at the end of TD1 outside; an evo first thing in the AM on TD2 and then again slightly later, and a carfight to cap out the class. I don't want to get too deep into those, but I found the safety and emotional concerns to be well managed; these in such a way that folks could work through their respective problems and others could learn from their problem solving process and methodology. Each evolution provided the opportunity to use verbal and non-verbal skills, the defeat or management of restraints, +/- some fighting and managing someone else's weapon.
Ron was pretty up-front about the lateral limits of what is and is not packed within the course: he explicitly described what hadn't been covered in the course and why (time constraints), described how to go about (and not go about) covering that base if there was cause or curiosity, and oriented his offering as a primer for most. That said, the package itself readily falls into the primer category for the first exposure, but the sustainment category if taken at regular intervals with more informed eyes and additional practice before each successive attendance; but that's drifting more towards the closed enrollment side of things.
Measuring the class material against the travel requirements of it for me, this was a pretty dense return on my investment. The bag of tools straight up blindsided me, and while I understand him needing us to have the tools to learn the skills (hardware supports the software so that the hardware can be used most fully, and on and on...) that the bag went home with each of us was a huge plus. Finally learning how to rake locks was honestly pretty cool, as I've always gone to picking first. We hit a pretty broad range of topics, but each was buttressed by lots of practice before we'd move on; if my recollections falter, I can pick up the thread by grabbing the right equipment and reenacting the specific learning point.
Honestly, generally working the weapons-inclusive stuff, this was directly related but without the time\money\gear sink of range stuff; and it was very enjoyable to focus on other skills for a change. Would recommend to a friend. Would reattend. Great value for the cost of attendance. Good venue; pack your lunch.
