MDFI: Handgun Cover + Movement (Ft Worth, TX)
MDFI: Handgun Cover + Movement
Cresson, TX (half hour outside of Fort Worth)
Instructor: Trek Utrecht
Stats: This was the third single day class for the weekend. 8 students (1 female). I was the only student who wasn’t present for at least one of the previous days. Weather was 65* and sunny. Range was made up of fine sand, rocks and random giant fire ants.
Class Description
Class breakdown
-Student and instructor introductions and safety/medical briefings
-Overview of class, goals, teaching methods and expectations
-Vertical positions of squatting, kneeling, “urban prone”, right side prone, left side prone and supine. These were modified from the conventional positions based on the Centrifuge Training VCQB coursework. Having never trained with Will Petty, I always thought the his positions looked rather strange and “fancy.” Trek gave excellent explanations on how and why the positions were modified that way. We spent the bulk of the morning developing those positions and getting in and out of those position. Trek uses a “Crawl, Walk, Run” teaching style for all of this. The positional block of instruction culminated in a couple of drills he called the “Taylor Tango” and “By the Numbers.” Both drills taxed everyone physically and mentally.
Mid afternoon we took a brief look at Shooting On The Move. Trek mentioned that SOTM is possible to do well, but doing it well while maintaining shot accountability, beyond the ability of most shooters. While acknowledging the situation may dictate SOTM, he suggested that moving then shooting is preferable if the option is available. This block consisted of a couple variants of a box drill. We had to move around a 10 yard square that included a single 10” square steel target and a couple no-shoots that we were not allowed to muzzle. Additionally we were not allowed step inside the box. It emphasized footwork, muzzle safety, positional awarenesses, and accuracy while moving.
The class culminated in working Cover from a couple of VTAC barriers.
Through the class, the instructor placed a strong emphasis on shot accountability and muzzle direction. All shots were expected to go into an 8” target. We were expected to adjust our shooting cadence and movement to make sure we got our hits and maintain safe muzzle control. This was a low round count class. I think I only shot about 250 of the 500 rounds the class called for. I’m not sure how we could have shot much more than that.
Who’s it for
This seems like a great second level class. It will pressure test your fundamentals.
This class was designed as a next step after your standard Foundational or Fundamentals class, like Rangemaster Combative Pistol, etc., where you spend the bulk of the shooting from a normal “freestyle” stance. MDFI required all non alumni to show a graduation certificate from a qualifying “fundamentals” course. The students had to pass a MDFI qualification to participate in the class. Additionally, I’d add that the potential student should be able to hit an 8” circle at 15 yards on demand.
This seems like a great tweener class between a standard fundamentals class and practical application classes, like vehicle and structures classes. Even if you never intend to attend a vehicle/structures class, it will pressure test your fundamentals. Between fatigue, intense physicality (depending on your conditioning), rigorous shot accountability and muzzle accountability, dummy round malfunctions, and learning new techniques, many of the students were right at their max. This was particularly true for those who with less developed shooting skills.
For the target audience, the class was as intense as you chose to make it. As this was my first time doing anything like it, I placed a strong emphasis on learning the core techniques and material and maintain their accuracy and muzzle standards. That was enough. Those already familiar with the coursework competed over “bomb patches” and added dummy rounds to increase complexity.
Instructor notes
-Trek did a great job defining the goals and setting expectations, both in the beginning and throughout the day.
- He gave well articulated reasons for everything we were doing, why it was useful, and why he taught it that way (if it differed from the conventional wisdom)
-He demo’d everything we did.
-He was more interested in us learning the positions and movement than he was us actually taking the shots.
-He was more interested in accurate hits than fast hits, though fast was encouraged.
-We had a lot of active breaks. The breaks were definitely needed, as this was day three for most of the students and brains were saturated.
Gear notes
Trek encouraged us to use our EDC gear, so I started the day with my carry Beretta PX4C storm with some Langdon Tactical upgrades, including the RDS mount with a Holosun 407c. The gun generally ran fine, but by 1 o’clock the fine dusty sand fouled up my magazines so I had a bunch of magazine related issues. Additionally, we used empty cases instead of actual dummy rounds, which required a complex malfunction clearance procedure. About half way through the day, I switched to a CZ P-09 and finished the day with it with no problems. I have a lot of detail cleaning to do.
There were a few RMRs on the line, one SRO and I had the only Holosun optics. No problems that I’m aware of. After rolling around on the ground a good bit I did get some enough dust inside the optic at one point to obscure vision. I simply blew it out and it was no problem.
Several guys decided they didn’t particularly like shooting comp’ed guns from prone.
One guy with a Beretta 92G (possibly LTT) had enough gunk in it that the it would not spring back after decock.
Overall.
I highly encourage you to take this type of class. Given the opportunity, I will definitely train with Trek again.
