AAR: RUNENATION: FUNCTIONAL PISTOL APPLICATION 1, Hudson, MA 7/11/20
FUNCTIONAL PISTOL APPLICATION 1
RUNENATION, LLC, runenationllc.com
July 11, 2020, Hudson, MA
CLASS REVIEW, AAR
Instructor: Ian Strimbeck
Weather: Hot, humid, Sunny, 88°
Location: Riverside Gun Club, Hudson, MA
Class size: 12
Round Count: 500 +/-
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Ian introduced himself with a short background and his theory of “coaching” us for the day. He stressed induvial self-improvement, and for us not to compare ourselves to the person next to us. We all started somewhere and all have room for improvement. This class was for us to learn and improve our skills, our confidence this was a safe place for us to push ourselves to the point of failure to see where our skill wall was. We were encouraged to go past our skill level in the training environment so we would understand where our skills were if we needed to use them in a real word situation, WE WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERY BULLET THAT LEAVES OUR GUN out in the real world. We did our medical briefing, assigned individuals with medical training as well as runners to meet first responders in the event we had a training mishap.
0900: Admin time
0930: Class starts
1230-1230: Lunch
~1730: Class ends.
AAR, out counseling
Leave range (1800)
Off to the 3-yard line for his cold opening drill. Once we were on the line, Ian gave us a safety briefing and explained his version of a cold start. “You’re only as good as your last cold start.”
From Ian website:
What exactly is a “cold start?” In reality, it’s any drill that you decide to do as soon as you show up to the range that has a definable time standard and can measure your performance. No warm-ups, no dry-runs…just posting up the target, jam your mags, and get after it. It’s all too easy to gain a false sense of security when you do a drill five times in a row to get it “right.” Outside of the confines of your range, there is no “bad run.” It’s either you perform to the high-performance standard you’ve practiced, or face the dire consequences.
The Runenation Cold Start is a low round-count drill that focuses on low/high probability targets, focal shift, reloading, recoil management, and can be easily modified to enhance your cognitive processing abilities.
The pistol is started at the 3-meter line. The pistol starts in the holster and rifle starts in the ready position of your choosing. The par time for pistol is 12 seconds, a perfect run is 16 total rounds
Magazines are staged as (1) of 8 rounds, (1) of 8 rounds, and (1) full.
When you receive slide/bolt lock at the end of the drill, perform another reload so as to not get into the mindset of leaving the gun empty.
On the buzzer/start draw and fire 1 round into any of the low-probability shapes.
Immediately transition to the high-probability logo circle and fire 3 rounds.
Move to the next low-probability shape of your choosing and fire 1 round. Move back to the high-probability logo circle and fire 3 more rounds.
Repeat until all 4 shapes have 1 round and the logo circle has a total of 12 rounds. Reload as necessary.
I did well until the third low probability shape. It took me four shots to break the line. Don’t remember my time, but it was NOT the par time!
Ian broke down the parts of the shot, sight alignment, trigger press, and grip. We did induvial drills isolating each of the three parts of the shot. We did a few drills starting from low and high ready, just getting the gun up to our sights breaking the shot without disturbing the sights. We did a drill where we prep to the trigger wall, your partner would tap your shoulder, and instantly you were to break the shot and immediately get the trigger back to the wall and wait for the next tap by your partner. Interesting drill. The standout in this block of instruction for me was during the grip portion. Ian had us press our palms together around the grip and not use our finger so much. That was new to me, I tried it and found it to be useful but awkward as I have so many reps with gripping the f*** out it using my fingers. I will be experimenting with this more. I liked it a lot.
We went over drawing from the holster, Ian broke it down in steps and we drilled shooting from the holster into the A zones of a USPCA target for a while. All drills for the rest of the day would start from the holster.
We integrated movement in our draw to get off the X and did a variety of moving and shooting drills, from left to right, forward and backward and some running drills to get our heart rates up while making accurate hits into the chest and head of the target. We did drills with multiple targets while moving, it identified the weakness in my support hand as some of my shots were left of the intended impact point while I was moving and shooting. Most of the drills were new to me, Good stuff!
We broke for lunch for an hour and we all rested in the shade, hydrated, and talked among ourselves. The morning was brutally humid, I noticed during the lunch break the wind picked up substantially. It felt great and seemed to reduce the impact of the heat fatigue we were all feeling.
After lunch, we traded out the USPCA targets for DSQ-1A, or colloquially as an “Izzy” target. (history behind this target: We Found Him! The True Story Behind the "Izzy" DS Target -) We got back into the swing of things with some drills into the heart and face of the IZZY target. What I like about this target is that you cannot see the scoring lines from a distance and you needed to aim for vital areas on a humanized figure. Up close you can see if your shots were inside the intended areas.
We continued with moving and shooting drills into the IZZY target for the rest of the day refining our technique and pushing ourselves to failure. Ian pushed us to go faster than we could handle so we could see the results and pushed us out of our comfort zone. Good instructors will do that in training.
We ended the range portion of the day with a “top shot” face-off. Two groups would go against each other for time and accuracy. 6 shot Bill Drill and about 18yards, run to the 10-yard cone, two in the center A box, run to the 5-yard line, reload, and one headshot. The winner of the round would go on to the next iteration, we did this until there was one winner. It was fun!
We ended the day around 6ish with a debrief, certificates were handed out and we shared something we liked or learned in the class. Each of us made improvements throughout the day, it is amazing to watch other students listen to Ian coaching, apply his suggestions, and watch their confidence grow when they improved. Very cool to observe.
This was my first class with Ian, I really like his teaching style. He describes the drill, demos the drill, and then describes the drill again. He is very personable, approachable and likable. He has the personality to coach his students in a way that makes them want to succeed. He treats his students with respect and is polite. Not all instructors are like that. I will be taking more of Ian’s classes in the future, he is one of the better instructors that I have trained with.
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https://i.imgur.com/YLWA7iG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/cPYPKWj.jpg
The IZZY Target
https://i.imgur.com/7GoI87v.jpg
