AAR: AFHF Charleston, RI AUG 2012.....

Yup, shame on me, it's been 3 months later, but that tells you that I still felt like I needed to post something on this very well covered class.

About me and my gear
38, regular reader/poster of PF, taken about a dozen classes over the last 3 years covering basics to home defense and 'urban pistol' skills.

I ran a HKP30 and P30L in 9mm with meprolights in a Keeper AIWB and a JRC AIWB. The Keeper on the first day and the JRC on the other. I personally didn't notice a difference in either as far as comfort throughout the day.

The Man
Todd doesn't equivocate and sometimes that may come off as insensitive, but he's not, he just doesn't want to see you get hurt or hurt anyone else. Simultaneously, he's not one to force anything on you, which is a unique teaching perspective that I've only seen in Todd and Craig/SN (not that I've taken every class on the PF list). If you don't like or desire his change (as long as you won't endanger yourself or someone else), just tell him and he'll back off-it's your money and your class. As I said, he doesn't equivocate.

He has a very good sense of humor that mitigated the mostly rainy 2 day class. Getting to know him off the range, I found that he was every bit of the man you see here on PF as you see on the range as you see at dinner. I'm a big believer that a good teacher needs consistency of character in order for a student body to trust the information, b/c it's not just words they are imparting, they are imparting life or death skills that could effect the entirety of your life.

The Class
You don't waste anytime figuring out if you should be in this class or not. Read the prerequisites! If you can't truly get through the prereqs, you will find out in front of everyone else that can and you will be doing yourself a disservice.

I've been following PT/F for about 18 months now and I've done as many DOTW as I can on my range and have put about 15-20k rounds down range over that time and read everything I could and posted every question I had, and I still had much to learn and more importantly, tons more to practice.

AFHF had some very unique, to me, drills to show the limits of your hardware and software. As someone who has some restrictive rules on his range and no ability to carry in my state, I am less likely to push myself too far without guidance and this class highlighted that it is something I should do more, b/c I surprised myself and it helped me break through some barriers.

One of the highlights for me was his ability to show you the limits of SWYNTS (http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.p...ghlight=swynts). As a perfectionist, I'm always trying to get the perfect bull's eye, which isn't always the best and most efficient way to approach a problem. Todd illuminates the need to understand the limits of your hardware and recalculate your software so that it is always adjusting to the task at hand. There is no reason to to take your time on the easy shot, push your speed there. There is no reason to get a fast miss on a tough shot...make the shot. Simple for me to understand intellectually, but Todd builds a big foundation that allowed me to be more competent about how to shoot different sized targets at different speeds and distances.

His shooting on the move segment and figure 8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlJdC...7&feature=plcp) drills really put all of your skills to test on the last day. When you feel like your skills are great when your feet are still, go push yourself and work on these drills and reassess.

Lastly, the FAST Test is another drill that has been discussed in great detail on this site, so there isn't much to say about it other than I learned that I do have the potential to get on that FAST wall, I just need to practice more and Todd's got a great piece on his blog about that: http://pistol-training.com/archives/6871

What can you expect to learn?
After all of the above experience I've had, which is not much compared to many PF members, I still received personalized tips from Todd about my reload, my weak hand, my press out and even my sights-a critique I take to heart given the time he put into the P30: http://pistol-training.com/archives/...hursday/page/5.

We had competitive shooters, guys like me, TGS, LEO and mil and I witnessed everyone there get at least one ah-ha moment where it made a dramatic improvement when implemented.

Bottom line, is I learned what I needed to learn in order to up my game, so I don't know what you'll learn, but I'm damn sure Todd will highlight something for you that will be worth the 2 days you spent at AFHF. Todd is very good at putting the lesson to the group, but then making sure that everyone's weaknesses are being pulled up to the level of their strengths.

The Press-out, Pressout ;)
This is the bread and butter technique that drives all of your lessons and as much as I practiced it on my own and with help from TGS, who I believe took Todd's SOM class prior, Todd's refinements improved my speed and accuracy downrange.

Bottom line
This was a class I've been wanting to take since I came to PF 18 months ago, so I completed one of my goals. Although I would have liked to have 'scored' better on some of the drills in class, I was greatly rewarded by the efficiencies and corrections that will allow me to 'score' better with all of my skills in the next 18 months. I think I'd like to go back to this course or perhaps his AFHS course within the next 18 months to see if I've practiced enough.