Valor Ridge Instructor Test

Hello Everyone,

I just posted this up on youtube HERE. It is a very unforgiving course of fire that I am sure many of you will get value from trying. Here it is:

Valor Ridge Instructor Test by Reid Henrichs

All stages shot from concealment/duty rig unless otherwise noted. Target is VR-16 target for stages 1-9 and 16”x9” reduced silhouette for stage 10. All body shots must be inside the 8” circle and all head shots must be inside 3”x2” triangle. Grease marks touching the line count. A miss at any time or a shot over par time results in an immediate failure of the test.

Stage one: 3 yards. Draw and fire 3 rounds to body in 1.5 seconds.

Stage two: 5 yards. From challenge, fire 2 rounds to body in .85 seconds.

Stage three: 5 yards. Draw and fire 3 rounds to body, then 2 rounds to head in 3.25 seconds.

Stage four: 7 yards. Pistol is at slidelock with empty magazine in place. From high ready, on signal reload pistol gun hand only and fire 3 round to body in 7.50 seconds.

Stage five: 7 yards. From high ready, fire two rounds to body gun hand only, switch hands, then fire two rounds to body support hand only in 4.5 seconds.

Stage six: 7 yards. Set up pistol with one round in chamber, empty magazine in place. From challenge, on signal, fire one round to body, slidelock reload, kneel, and fire one round to head in 4.25 seconds.

Stage seven: 10 yards. Draw and fire five rounds to body in 4.25 seconds.

Stage eight: 15 yards. Draw and fire 3 rounds to body in 4.25 seconds.

Stage nine: 25 yards. From challenge, fire 2 rounds to body in 4.25 seconds.

Stage ten: 50 yards. From high ready, fire 1 round to 16”x9” silhouette in 2.0 seconds

Thanks for posting this, Reid!

I can definitely see some similarities at least in par times for comparable drills, to Tom Givens instructor level scoring. While that statement could be misconstrued, I assure you I mean it as a compliment.


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Originally Posted by OnionsAndDragons

Thanks for posting this, Reid!

I can definitely see some similarities at least in par times for comparable drills, to Tom Givens instructor level scoring. While that statement could be misconstrued, I assure you I mean it as a compliment.


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Any comparison to Tom is humbling. He has taught me a great deal. Thank you for your words.

These are really tough standards to maintain 100% hits. I'll see if I have the opportunity to give it a try this weekend. I've been following your channel for a little while now and really like some of the things you have to say. You're also a very good shooter.

Those are sporty times for sure. Good shooting.

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Originally Posted by DanM

These are really tough standards to maintain 100% hits. I'll see if I have the opportunity to give it a try this weekend. I've been following your channel for a little while now and really like some of the things you have to say. You're also a very good shooter.

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Thank you very much. And also thank you for putting yourself on the line every day. I know how hard the job is.

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Originally Posted by Clobbersaurus

Those are sporty times for sure. Good shooting.

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I appreciate that. I wanted to have an "on demand" level of performance that was no chip shot. With all the good shooters on this forum, the test should prove to be a nice blend of precision and speed.

Higher standard.. Very nice!

Through all the instructor demo's when taking Rifleman 1 at Valor Ridge (which included pistol work as well) I never saw a missed shot.

David

@Reid Henrichs

Thanks very much for posting this! Looks awesome.

I decided to give these standards a try today. They’re as tough as they look. Shot with a G19-5 from concealed AIWB:
1. 1.73s clean
2. 0.77s clean
3. 2.75s -1
4. 7.97s clean
5. 4.83s -1
6. 3.10s clean
7. 3.22s -1
8. 2.76s -2
9. 1.64s -1
10. 1.69s miss

My training partner shot as well. He did a little better than I did but still couldn’t pass.

If all your instructors are expected to be able to clean this course of fire cold, that says a lot about their skill level with a pistol.

I’ll be messing around with this again.


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Forgot to attach the photo. My buddy and I shot the same target. My misses are marked with a D. His are marked with a J. Maybe he did a lot better than I did, not a little. Yes we did not use the correct head target. With the correct head zone, our scores would have likely been worse.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...3b184e86c8.jpg
The D miss in the neck area was my second shot at 25y. I rushed it waaaaay too fast and fired before my sights had fully settled from recoil.


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Shot this tonight. I failed. It was in the two spots I thought I would, and one which I didn't but it made sense because I do very little practice in that area.
Shot with my AllenM Gen5 G19 with RMR from Dale Fricke AIWB holster and t shirt concealment.

Stage 1: 1.61 (Fail on time, I knew this would be one of the problem areas.)
Stage 2: .85 pass
Stage 3: 2.97 pass
Stage 4: 7.91 fail This one surprised me, but I guess it shouldn't. It takes a while to reload a gun with one hand if you don't stay current with it.
Stage 5: 4.32 pass
Stage 6: 3.87 pass
Stage 7: 3.95 pass
Stage 8: 2.89 pass
Stage 9: 2.00 Pass got a little lucky here, should have used more of my time.
Stage 10: Miss. Not a big surprise. I am not even sure where this gun hits at 50 with random practice ammo.

I decided to shoot this today as many of the stages are similar to staples in my practice regimen. Not having a VR-16 target, I used a Jericho Defense target. I gave myself the reduced A for the body at 25 yards and in, the credit card for the head and the full A-zone at 50 yards.

Made the times. Pushed one head shot low; FAIL.

Attachment 28085

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Originally Posted by MVS

Shot this tonight. I failed. It was in the two spots I thought I would, and one which I didn't but it made sense because I do very little practice in that area.
Shot with my AllenM Gen5 G19 with RMR from Dale Fricke AIWB holster and t shirt concealment.

Stage 1: 1.61 (Fail on time, I knew this would be one of the problem areas.)
Stage 2: .85 pass
Stage 3: 2.97 pass
Stage 4: 7.91 fail This one surprised me, but I guess it shouldn't. It takes a while to reload a gun with one hand if you don't stay current with it.
Stage 5: 4.32 pass
Stage 6: 3.87 pass
Stage 7: 3.95 pass
Stage 8: 2.89 pass
Stage 9: 2.00 Pass got a little lucky here, should have used more of my time.
Stage 10: Miss. Not a big surprise. I am not even sure where this gun hits at 50 with random practice ammo.

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Very good shooting. You have a nice foundation and a well-blended skill set. Stay with it. You can get this with some work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kevin B.

I decided to shoot this today as many of the stages are similar to staples in my practice regimen. Not having a VR-16 target, I used a Jericho Defense target. I gave myself the reduced A for the body at 25 yards and in, the credit card for the head and the full A-zone at 50 yards.

Made the times. Pushed one head shot low; FAIL.

Attachment 28085

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Solid shooting. Very good accuracy.

Kevin B. is an excellent shooter. And MVS. I've had the pleasure of shooting with both of them in class.

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Originally Posted by Reid Henrichs

Hello Everyone,

I just posted this up on youtube HERE. It is a very unforgiving course of fire that I am sure many of you will get value from trying. Here it is:

Valor Ridge Instructor Test by Reid Henrichs

All stages shot from concealment/duty rig unless otherwise noted. Target is VR-16 target for stages 1-9 and 16”x9” reduced silhouette for stage 10. All body shots must be inside the 8” circle and all head shots must be inside 3”x2” triangle. Grease marks touching the line count. A miss at any time or a shot over par time results in an immediate failure of the test.

Stage one: 3 yards. Draw and fire 3 rounds to body in 1.5 seconds.

Stage two: 5 yards. From challenge, fire 2 rounds to body in .85 seconds.

Stage three: 5 yards. Draw and fire 3 rounds to body, then 2 rounds to head in 3.25 seconds.

Stage four: 7 yards. Pistol is at slidelock with empty magazine in place. From high ready, on signal reload pistol gun hand only and fire 3 round to body in 7.50 seconds.

Stage five: 7 yards. From high ready, fire two rounds to body gun hand only, switch hands, then fire two rounds to body support hand only in 4.5 seconds.

Stage six: 7 yards. Set up pistol with one round in chamber, empty magazine in place. From challenge, on signal, fire one round to body, slidelock reload, kneel, and fire one round to head in 4.25 seconds.

Stage seven: 10 yards. Draw and fire five rounds to body in 4.25 seconds.

Stage eight: 15 yards. Draw and fire 3 rounds to body in 4.25 seconds.

Stage nine: 25 yards. From challenge, fire 2 rounds to body in 4.25 seconds.

Stage ten: 50 yards. From high ready, fire 1 round to 16”x9” silhouette in 2.0 seconds

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So if I may ask...how did you come up with the time standards when you developed the CoF?

Thanks

Interesting drill.

I will have longer time limits for myself when I shoot this in practice . . . .

Whew.... So I finally got to go out and give this a spin. Thankyou to Reid for posting them and his unedited video cleaning them. Obviously nobody would believe you can shoot like that unless you do :) Lots of "instructors" can't shoot. I recall Matt Sera on UFC saying once that you don't learn to be an Olympic swimmer from somebody that's never jumped in a pool.... So Reid, I enjoyed your video. Thanks.

I went out with the intent of having a start to finish video of me shooting this and as of Friday I thought I did. I only edited a "fast forward" through the lame parts of me talking and posted the video.... Only to realize then I skipped two staged and did another one incorrectly (confused it with one from the Glock Instructor Test). OK, so not an official version of course :) My two takeaways. 1: The test is legit. 2: I don't like proprietary targets or special targets... I get discarded LE/USPSA Targets from the same range @Mr_White does...and I have to wake up pretty early in the morning and get them before he does :)


So here's my vid, hope you like it.


https://youtu.be/p2JiH0gmjUA

Wow this was humbling. Pretty difficult but will certainly give this another run. Ran my g19x from aiwb. Been 2 weeks since at the range and ran cold (although it was 106 degrees today so wasn't exactly cold)

1. 1.89 clean hits but to slow. Fail
2. .75 clean
3. 2.88 clean
4. 7.62, 1 miss. Fail (fumbled this one pretty good, need some practice here for sure)
5. 4.72 clean but failed on time.
6. 4.30 clean but failed on time
7. 3.67 failed, 2 miss
8. 3.97 failed, 1 miss
9. 4.10 clean. shocked on this one. I got lucky
10. I don't have 50 yards on my range so couldn't do this one.

This is really challenging, but is a pretty fun drill, but as I said, pretty humbling. I'm going to run this with the rest of my glocks, will be interesting to compare.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nwhpfan

Whew.... So I finally got to go out and give this a spin. Thankyou to Reid for posting them and his unedited video cleaning them. Obviously nobody would believe you can shoot like that unless you do :) Lots of "instructors" can't shoot. I recall Matt Sera on UFC saying once that you don't learn to be an Olympic swimmer from somebody that's never jumped in a pool.... So Reid, I enjoyed your video. Thanks.

I went out with the intent of having a start to finish video of me shooting this and as of Friday I thought I did. I only edited a "fast forward" through the lame parts of me talking and posted the video.... Only to realize then I skipped two staged and did another one incorrectly (confused it with one from the Glock Instructor Test). OK, so not an official version of course :) My two takeaways. 1: The test is legit. 2: I don't like proprietary targets or special targets... I get discarded LE/USPSA Targets from the same range @Mr_White does...and I have to wake up pretty early in the morning and get them before he does :)


So here's my vid, hope you like it.


https://youtu.be/p2JiH0gmjUA

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Very nice work. You have some serious skills man. Smooth draw, good follow up shots.