This class was held at the New Holland Rifle and Pistol club in Gap, PA, April 30, May 1, 2016. I was already scheduled to be back east when I heard about this class. The timing worked out and I was able to attend.
This was my first class with OpSpec Training. Taking a class with Bruce Gray has been on my bucket list for a lot of years. Not only due to his prowess and achievement in the shooting sports, but also for his renowned excellence as a gunsmith and, specifically, his history with the Sig Sauer brand of handgun. Accolades for his system of teaching trigger control are all over the internet and I wanted to experience them for myself.
When I first read the name Bruce and crew had chosen for their training company years ago, it made me scratch my head a little. Not that I'm averse to the concept of tactics and the operational implementation thereof; I'm a full time cop with a bunch of years on the job. But in an industry that has been stupefied with "tactical" this and "Black ops" that, it made me wonder a bit what user group they were aiming for. The first morning in the classroom, however, it became immediately clear that "operation specific" references exercising the shooting fundamentals (the mechanics; the 'operations') to achieve performance excellence.
This concept turned out to be one of THE common threads that was visited repeatedly throughout class. And while this was an "advanced" class, Bruce hammered home the fact that it's these fundamentals (and in particular an exquisitely performed trigger press) done consistently across a wide range of scenarios and conditions that makes for an "advanced" skill set.
Meeting Bruce for the first time I was struck immediately by the fact that he's obviously very analytical and intelligent. I realized he has a very quick wit and possesses a very funny and enjoyable self deprecating sense of humor. Obviously an intense and motivated fellow, but I quickly came to learn he's extremely good natured and fun also. The whole class had smiles on their faces all weekend.
The morning began with introductions and a well put together and thoughtful safety briefing. Like the rest of his teaching, it was harmonized by a strong feeling of integrity and legitimate concern.
The AM lecture consisted of building the student's understanding of the OpSpec training and performance theory. Not only the mechanics but the mental game and the emotional elements involved in shooting and specifically competition. Personally being a bit of a training weanie and a long time student of performance, his lecture consisted of many very familiar points. The following may be a bit jumbled or out of order (I'm not a great note taker), but some gold nuggets I jotted down were:
FAITH...
"We're looking to build 'Process based shooting'."
"Downplay the concept of speed and time and steer the focus toward the PROCESS" (operation).
"Success is executing the process we've trained. Have FAITH in your process!"
"TRAINING is the bridge between 'trying' hard and 'results'"
"The struggle is not to try...Take the 'trying' out."
A match is "...not time to try, it's time to rely".
Allow yourself the VISUAL PATIENCE to watch the process (as we've learned it) unfold.
"You HAVE to take the EGO out of the picture."
Choose to define success appropriately. Our definition of success needs to reflect what we've accomplished in our training.
VISUALIZE. Visualize visually, tactilely, and emotionally.
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"THERE IS NO NECESSARY TRADEOFF BETWEEN SPEED AND ACCURACY..."
"I'm NEVER going to ask you to slow down!"
Focus on the (trigger) prep. (Again, the 'process').
"The faster you go, the smaller the targets get"...and the more discriminating your trigger press must be.
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Reactive vs PROACTIVE shooting....
Aggressively driving the gun and PREPPING the trigger.
But proactive refers as much to MINDSET as it does the physical elements. Don't be "relaxed", be "poised".
I'd come to realize the mental and emotional game was to be as integral a part of Bruce's class as it is the competition world in general.
DUH.
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Day one shooting...
Drills. The technique bread and butter.
For those familiar with Bruce's background, it should come as no surprise that dryfire was implemented heavily during his class. Both at the beginning and throughout. As remediation for folks occasionally, but also as a means for familiarizing with new drills and feelings.
Bump drill. In SA add pressure, then back off. Start pressing again, adding a little more...then back off. Again with a little more pressure, then back off. Like peeling an onion; each time go a little further and see how thin you can shave the layers until you eventually get the hammer/striker to fall.
Wall drill; emphasized observing the front sight in as much detail as possible (serrations, shading, subtleties of color, etc...) as the trigger is pressed dry with a completely blank background. Key is that it forces the eye to focus up close without anything in the background to draw it away. Bruce mentioned the eye's "accommodation".
There was discussion re the belief that a lot of the time trigger control is what creates error, not sight alignment. We did an exercise where Bruce walked shooter to shooter and shot a group. The shooter aimed the gun while he operated the trigger. Group size was noted and were for the most part impressively small.
We shot small 1/2" pasters at each A zone corner. The task was shooting them in sequence clockwise or counter clockwise. 5 yards. No time limits but it really emphasized the necessity of stopping the gun and pressing the trigger in a fashion adequate to hit the dot.
Dry Bill drills. Practice pressing the trigger as rapidly as possible against a dead trigger and observe the effect that has on the front sight, even with minimal or zero trigger weight it'll wobble around if you're not pressing it straight to the rear.
Intensive mechanics session:
Bruce asked us to scribe a shooting zone on our paper targets into which we thought we could shoot all our shots. When asked "at what distance", he smiled and effectively said "yes". :-) And made an Enos-like comment to the effect of "You don't always get to choose the target. Sometimes the target chooses you".
We began at 7 yards. Draw to single shot. Draw to two shots. Draw to a bill drill (6 shots).
We then shot the same sequences with strong hand only, then support hand only.
This was taken incrementally all the way back to 40+ yards with both freestyle and individual hands. The one handed shooting at that distance was HARD! Folks managed better than I thought though.
We continued shooting bill drills on the three targets arrays. Changed up the orders, the distance AND the required hand(s) for each string and emphasized VISUALIZATION of each iteration to ensure the string was shot correctly.
Bruce also emphasized VISUALIZING the PROCESS of the required trigger manipulation; This was used as a means for ensuring adequate trigger control was utilized for the respective strings, their respective difficulties, etc. He also spoke about imagining/visualizing the desired emotional state during this process. Super valuable stuff.
Transition work:
This series of drills started with the middle target (t2) at 7 yards which left T1 and T3 at 12 or 15 yards.
On the same three staggered targets, we shot a Bill drill on the first target. Then in the next iteration, 4 on the same target, two on the next. Focus was on keeping the CADENCE the same. The third iteration was 2 on the first, 2 on the second and 2 on the third, again trying to keep the cadence between shots and transitions the same as the initial 6 shot bill drill; essentially building up to a Blake drill. DRIVING the gun hard and PREPPING the trigger hard was emphasized yet again.
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Day Two:
Day two was met with some heavy rain expected in the region. The club was able to secure some tents and the decision was made to use steel targets. In the end it mostly just drizzled and was hazy, but the additional gear was nice to have as a precaution in the event things really let loose.
We started the day again with an indoor didactic session. There were multiple checks for understanding with the students. A good portion of this was spent revisiting some minor clarifications and was based predominantly on student's questions.
A lot more depth to the MINDSET equation was explored and a lot of us revisited the understanding that the shooting game is truly 90% or more mental/emotional.
When we ventured back outside, we spent a lot of time on distance change up type drills. That is, drills that involved transitioning between targets of varying size, distance and difficulty. This required the shooters to evaluate said target and then respond with the appropriations level of credence given to visual attention and trigger control elements. Mileage was mostly on a rotating line of fire in front of the rest of the group. So it was a good (mild) performance-stress environment for folks. ;-)
Round count for me was just shy of 1400 rounds for the two days.
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Summary:
On day one we shot almost until dark trying to squeak in as much material as possible with the knowledge the weather was likely to shut down on Sunday.
Sunday, with the weather holding off for the most part, we still shot until 1600 or so. So in the end it turned out to be two VERY full days of shooting and learning.
As an aside, there were several Team Sig shooters in attendance at the class. To include a couple of pretty well known USPSA Masters and Grandmasters. The majority of other folks were also at least veterans of OpSpec's Fundamentals program. And while it didn't necessarily come as a surprise, I think this was the largest assembly of the new P320 striker pistols I've yet witnessed. Pretty much everybody was shooting one.
Over the weekend, Bruce and the other team members were extremely forthcoming with info re the new Sig platform. And went so far as to include some close held details regarding their relationship with the Sig mothership, some new upcoming advances that are in the wings, the release of the new Grayguns drop-in kits for both the 320 AND the P series (DA/SA) guns, etc...
There was also the opportunity to spend some time shooting some of the team guns and those equipped with the new fire control parts. Pretty awesome sauce. Folks can rest assured they'll be getting a very polished/finished (pun) final product when they go to production.
I WAS a bit surprised that I was the ONLY DA/SA shooter present, but for a shooter ensconced in the Sig brand (because of work) the ability to speak at length to THE MAN behind the gun was absolutely invaluable. I was tickled to get to pick Bruce's brain. He also assured me he was more than willing to field additional questions and assistance if I had any at a later time.
Bruce Gray, his cadre and his team are all consummate, respectful and good natured professionals. I'd highly recommend the OpSpec offerings to anyone looking to gain an appreciation of the finer points of the shooting game.
Thanks for reading.
t
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I made an extra point of jotting some notes, but with the weather and all, didn't have a camera up and running.
Originally Posted by LSP552
