http://sobtactical.com/
http://sobtactical.com/classes.html#availableclasses
Pistol taken: Sig P226 SCT
I also took my P229 in case the P226 puked, but didn't need it.
Rounds fired: 200-ish.
Cost $300
On 05/19/2015 I attended John McPhee's 1 day pistol Video Diagnostics class. I learned more about how I shoot in 4 rounds than I've learned in years. I wish I'd has this class 20 years ago as a foundation.
The class was original .mil/LE only so everyone in the class was LEO except for one person. Everyone there was a good shooter with reasonable fundamentals and the ability to run the pistol. We were, in John's words, 70-80% shooters. As such he was tweaking our presentation, grip, stance, and reload for more efficiency. To do this you start with a magazine of 2 rounds in the gun and a reload of 2 rounds. He has you point at the target, gets his video set up so you are taking up most of the frame, and then tells you to start whenever you are ready. I volunteered to go first. We shot from about 7 yards on a half size steel target.
John then shows you the video in super slow motion and runs things back and forth. He uses a program called Coach's eye that lets him both record audio as he talks and you ask questions and also allows him to draw on the screen. The program then saves that as one file. You end up with a video for presentation, a video for grip, and a video for reload. He says within a day or two he'll send a dropbox link and you can download them and that many people find it helpful to continually review their own videos.
John tailors advise to you, your size, your issues, etc. He stated that with my size stance wasn't going to be much of an issue, as as long as you aren't being pushed back you have enough stance. He told me to lean forward about 3", and that was enough for me. I will now be slightly whiny and make excuses for myself in that I normally do lean forward but I'm rocking a lovely fever to the point of shivers and my lower back feels like midgets are punching me with brass knuckles. As such my posture was horrendous. Still, its good to be aware of and seeing it on video made it stick with me.
My personal feedback was very lengthy. He spends a lot of time with each student, and then you can go off and dry fire to practice what he's taught you. I learned many things, but to hit some of the high points I was pushing my left hand down with my right thumb as I shot. After 5-6 quick rounds I was subconsciously readjusting my grip because my left hand was too low. My indexing was poor as I was canting the pistol slightly left on the draw, costing me time as I fished for the front sight, and my left hand was late to the party to complete the grip. With the adjustments me made for me, 90% of it seemed to click immediately. It took me some time to work on my right thumb, though, to the point he had me talking out loud to myself to remind myself. Finally he asked if I ran a carbine. I stated I did. He asked if I ran the safety with my thumb. I stated I did. He said so when you shoot a carbine your thumb is high and neutral. Shoot your pistol like a carbine. CLICK! That then fell into place as well. He drew a mark on my hand so that I could work on getting a proper index, which took much less time than I thought it would. It was simply a matter of cocking my wrist a fuzz more as I made the initial grab of the pistol. He showed me specifically what to do to get my left hand up and to the party in time, etc.
Initially I was having issues getting my Sig to lock back due to the new grip. It worked and was rock solid, I've never been able to see my front sight as earlier or to keep it in view as easily during firing...but it came at the cost of locking the slide back on an empty mag. More on that later.
So after everyone got their video and personal feedback we went to some demonstrations and drills. His variation on the Mozambique so there is no pause between the body shots and head shots made so much sense I nearly smacked my forehead. We worked on "stitching" targets and then worked on horizontal transitions. There was still plenty of one on one time. He told me to get my grip right for shooting and then we'd tweak it little by little until the slide release wasn't an issue. We did. I ended up sliding my left hand just a fuzz forward and that solved the issue, so I had no further lock back issues.
The final excercise was moving back to 100y 25y at a time and firing one round with both hands, if you missed that you had to fire one round strong hand only, if you missed that you had to fire one round week hand only. If you missed all 3 you were "out" but still got to shoot at the 100y line. I was "out" at the 75, but hit my 100y shot with the first try shooting double action. I'll take that.
All in all, I think John's class is phenomenal. He works with your natural body movements and what humans do under stress anyway to get you more efficiency out of the gun. The honest feedback was incredibly helpful, and the format it is presented in makes it stick. John's class is like learning from an expert friend, there was no ego in how he taught. After the class he invited everyone to dinner and I intended to go but thought better of being the Typhoid Mary in the restaurant and my back was about to have one of those little alien things pop out so I reluctantly passed.
I will certainly take his carbine class at some point, and if he returns to do a 2 day pistol class I'm there.
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Originally Posted by Chuck Haggard
