This is going to be a brief one ‘cause I suck at writing long AARs, Todd’s classes have been reviewed extensively, and I am short on time. However, I want to address a specific point of “taking a class as a returned customer”.
Before I go there, I want to thank Mike D for bringing Todd to Utah. I absolutely want to thank Mr. and Mrs. SecondsCount for making this happen at the range of our preference - it was very convenient and allowed for a much better efficiency. Having just taken a class at a location 40 minutes away from a nearest fast food joint, I could certainly appreciate that.
Another word of appreciation goes to fellow students. I adopted a policy of putting a vest/IBA at a beginning of every class I go to. Whether it stays on of comes off depends on my assessment of fellow classmates’ safety. The kevlar went away at a first lunch break during this class.
I also appreciate being in a class with good solid shooters. While Todd’s supply of coins was in no risk of being depleted, there were sub-7.0 runs, one ran of a sub-6.0 F.A.S.T. which unfortunately was “off-record”, there were four perfect scores on dot torture drill and several 49s. For several shooters, progress was evident as class went on.
Now, the “repeat customer”. When I took my first class with Todd, I said I would take another - after I had done my homework, progressed on my own and am ready to take the class again. I am actually quite impressed that Todd remembered me saying it. This is exactly what happened; the timing of Todd coming here was a fortunate happenstance.
Running a risk of being not very original, I am going to quote myself - I will take Todd’s class again after I’ve done my work at this next step. I believe that Todd as an instructor is capable of advancing my learning every time I take his class - if I do my part in the interim. I’ve taken classes from many dudes and there may be one more guy who I think can give me a qualitative push forward every time I train with him, provided I am ready for the push. Some trainers don’t pay much individual attention, often times because they can’t due to class structure; some don’t diagnose errors accurately; some say you have a problem but don’t tell you how to fix it. Whether one subscribes to what Todd is teaching is a matter of personal choice, but you can’t argue with professionalism, efficiency, high levels of individual attention, immediate error recognition with suggestions how to correct them, and constant validation of taught material by showing that it works. This concludes my AAR/endorsement/whatever you call it.
Side “project”: owing in part to discussions about sticking to one gun vs. “rotation”, I planned a potential side project if my performance with a primary were reasonable. This partly materialized after we ran one unofficial round of F.A.S.T. at the end of day one, and after I sneaked in just under 7 on the first F.A.S.T. of day 2. This allowed me to run an unofficial F.A.S.T. with a P30, and then use my 1911 for the rest of day two. Just to make sure, I don’t have a daily rotation pattern, I bring only one gun to the range, and I always have a designated primary. In practical sense, I shoot 1911 a few months per year ‘cause a) I like 1911, b) I can’t shoot Glock 19 as well as 1911 when I go long, c ) I convinced myself that shooting a harder recoiling gun is beneficial to my overall skill set. Otherwise, I shoot my primary unless it is down for maintenance or there is another reason. In objective terms, YTD round count for 1911 is 1500, for P30 is 900, and for primary (G19) is close to 7000. Last time I shot P30 or 1911 was in May.
Result: 1.7 second drop on F.A.S.T with P30 , clean run. 1 second drop on F.A.S.T. with 1911, one head miss (really shouldn’t be held against, it was a close miss low and is fully explained by POA/POI similarities and differences between the three guns). I had bad reloads on both runs owing to different mag pouches and different mag pouch position, and overall suckage of my reloads. Interpretation is left to reader’s discretion. One can say that there was a significant drop in performance, and it is true. An opposite opinion is that I was able to turn in an intermediate score with two guns other than my primary, all with different ergos and triggers, without having shot those two for five months.
P.S. I was a lucky one to get a tiny preview, so to say, of upcoming CUSS class http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.p...-November-2011. I wish I could take it.