Training with Manny Bragg

[GJM]

My wife and I are down in Florida, to train with our friend, Manny Bragg, today and tomorrow. We haven't seen Manny since we all attended the Rogers School together this past April. The Universal Shooting Academy recently hosted the IPSC World Shoot, which was a major undertaking. The stages are still up, and it looked like quite a show. Frank Garcia told me the economic benefit to the county, as a result of the shoot, was estimated to be $24 million.

Our dog, Astro, couldn't wait to reunite with Manny and his laser, which she chased around the Pro Shop. My wife did an alligator check, and determined the two major water areas each had a 'gator -- one five feet and the other six feet long. She kept Astro close during the day, and always had a spare mag of carry ammo on her belt.

We started with the standard, shooting Garcia dots to warm up. I chose support hand only to start, using my one press method to good effect. After a bit on the plate rack, we dove right into the draw, which was a priority for my wife. To a close target, she started out at 1.20 and with Manny's coaching, worked down to her personal best of .92. This is a major accomplishment for her, as only a few years ago she would have started out at 1.80. I came out of the box at .82-.84, and planned not to focus much on my draw, as other parts of my game needed more work. Manny thought I had my hands a bit forward, and described his method for locating his hands "at his side" per USPSA rules. He starts with his gun hand on the grip, releases, runs his hand down the holster (holster shape must be vertical), then drops his hand down to his starting position. Doing this, I immediately took .10 off my draw, and got my draw to an A zone on a five yard target to .72-.74. If you haven't tried this, it might be worth messing with.

Manny being Manny, he then had us drawing to a five yard target, firing twice, and then doing a brutal transition to an eight inch plate at 25 yards. Here is what that looks like, with times of .84, .20 and a .90 transition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlch...XxGDvFO4WuUuvw

Manny next had us drilling draws. I have been bringing my pistol fairly far down, closer to the magazine, thinking that worked well in dry fire. Manny thought that had me moving two things at once, the pistol and the magazine, and asked me to stop the pistol higher. That got my reloads down in the 1.20's, which is definitely good for me. I will try to work this more in dry fire to confirm/burn in. I have been wearing my mag pouches bullets out, and Manny thought that would deb fine for the first magazine, but more awkward for successive magazines.

Back in the Pro Shop, there were a number of very fun pins. I really liked this one:



THat made me think of a friend and PF member who used a Meg-Gar +2 magazine, to no round count advantage in Production at an area match and got bumped to Open. Manny came through with a pin for him:



After reloads, we shot one stage of the Bianchi Cup, with the Virginia count six plates at 10, 15, 20 and 25 with fixed par times of 6, 7, 8 and 9 seconds. I found it incredibly hard to use all my time. My wife kicked my butt on this. Here she is cleaning it at 25 yards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKBv...XxGDvFO4WuUuvw

Manny said to absolutely NOT pick up and shoot any 9mm rounds on the ground, as many of them were 9 Major left over from the world shoot. However, we did recycle them. Manny has us stick them in a target, and the three of us would each go one shot in sequence, and when you hit them they blew up impressively. I managed to clean that contest today.





Bianchi led into all of us shooting the plate rack support hand at 40 yards, and nearly going one for one. At first my Aguila 115 ball was not doing great beyond 25, and we decided to shoot groups at 50 yards to check. Here was my Aguila 50 yard group:



I had brought just a few boxes of 115 Lawman along, and for reference shot this group at 50 with the Lawman:



Sometimes, it seemed like the Aguila dribbled out of the barrel feeling and sounding like a .22. I didn't have a stoppage all day in my 17, but my wife had a number in her 34, apparently related to low power factor in this ammo. My recollection of Aguila 124 is much better.

Manny got their robot out, but first tried it on Astro. She wasn't impressed and seemed to wonder why we were not protecting her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BZz...XxGDvFO4WuUuvw

Here is Astro showing off some of the leftover stuff from the World Shoot:





We worked transitions by shooting a double plate rack, going outside to outside, then with several wide target arrays. Manny working on us snapping our eyes aggressively. There was a left over stage from the World Shoot with a very fast swinger at 12 yards. First we shot it, by tracking, using both hands, before progressing to support hand only. None of us, including Manny could track it with one hand, but he showed us how to ambush it support hand. You waited in the center of the target, and fired as soon as brown appeared on one side. It worked great. Here is a target typical of my wife, support hand only on this fast swinger.



Here is movement drill, where I do a good job of keeping my finger high and tight against the slide, but a lousy job with my weight shift to add moving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuHM...XxGDvFO4WuUuvw

[GJM]

In no time, it was 4:30 pm, and we had shot 1,800 rounds between my wife and I, and started to wind down. With a plate rack, and ammo, it is hard to leave. Even though being tired, we finished up with all of us shooting the plate rack, what else, support hand at 40 yards. Some more Bianchi runs, and with diminishing trigger control, plates close.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq-u...XxGDvFO4WuUuvw

With darkness approaching, and hunters at the nearby wildlife area we elected to exercise Astro there at Universal instead of amongst those after bambi. The alligators were still in position, each in their own pool. Epic training day with Manny, can't wait for tomorrow.

[Lon]

Good thread. im gonna have to check out his training schedule.

[taadski]

That made me think of a friend and PF member who used a Meg-Gar +2 magazine, to no round count advantage in Production at an area match and got bumped to Open. Manny came through with a pin for him:

Enough time has passed that I suppose I can take the ribbing in good spirit.

My range bag has some available real-estate. I'm not sure if "wear it proudly" is precisely accurate, but I'll put it on there.


Good write up. The class sounds awesome.

[MDS]

Thanks for the detailed write up, GJM. I think I'd get a lot more from some time with Manny or Frank now. I spent a day with Frank some years ago, it was my first real class, and a lot of it went over my head. I'll see if I can get the timing to work some time next year.

[David B.]

Looks like fun. Makes me want to go out tomorrow and try some of those drills.

Thanks for sharing.

God Bless,
David

[GJM]

Something else I forgot to mention, both my wife and I thought all the recent experience we have shooting fast groups was extremely helpful in giving us confidence at challenging targets at speed. For example, I was able to draw and fire two A zone hits at 25 in a two second par on demand yesterday. 25 yards just felt close, and when we went to shoot 50 yard groups it seemed comfortable as opposed to being intimidating. Conversely, if we had spent a bunch of time shooting slow fire groups, I feel like it would have the opposite effect, because having to do it at speed would have felt uncomfortable and rushed. We plan to continue a fair amount of this fast group shooting at distance as part of our regular program.

[JHC]

Great thread. I'll have to cycle back a few times for closer study. I scored a few boxes of Lawman 115 and 124 to try out for precision. It's been quite a while since I've shot any in 9mm.

Did you get into any deep discussions on the trigger press/stroke methodology you've been keying in on of late?

[GJM]

Did you get into any deep discussions on the trigger press/stroke methodology you've been keying in on of late?

Briefly, with Frank and Manny first thing yesterday morning. Caveat -- neither Frank nor Manny are Glock enthusiasts for USPSA, and both thought the Glock trigger should be treated somewhat different. Complete agreement to keep the trigger moving, with stopping it mid-press almost always leading to a worse result. Interested in one press for the first shot. On successive shots, different levels of prep necessitated by different shots. The prep was not necessarily related to the wall, but a function of keeping the trigger moving, and not disturbing the sights by delaying release of the trigger. Ongoing discussion and experiment.

[Matt O]

Conversely, if we had spent a bunch of time shooting slow fire groups, I feel like it would have the opposite effect, because having to do it at speed would have felt uncomfortable and rushed. We plan to continue a fair amount of this fast group shooting at distance as part of our regular program.

That's a good point - even when I was spending a lot of time doing slow fire and had no problem shooting mid 90's on a B8, I was struggling with shooting all alphas on a 25 yard bill drill and couldn't really figure out why. Looks like I definitely need to speed up my shooting on far/difficult targets during practice.