AAR CTT solutions - Basic Pistol - May 21, 2016

[CARD]

AAR – CTT Basic Handgun
May 21, 2016
Host: Alias Trainging through SMGLee
Location: Prado Olympic Shooting park
Instructor: Mike Pannone
Pistol: Glock 35 with lone wolf conversion barrel 9mm. (zero malfunctions for the day, no malfunctions prior with stock 40 barrel ~400)
Mags: 8 oppressed 9mm 10 round mags
Holster: Safariland GLS 578
Belt: HSGI Duty belt
Mag pouch: blade tech double stack and HSGI LT taco
Dump pouch: HSGI belt mount
Ammo: Lawman TMJ 115 gr 600 rds. (class requirement 500)

Range impression: I had never been to Prado, compared to other places I have shot it seemed nice overall. Multiple shooting bays. We were on a 50 yard pistol bay. One port-a-potty, no hygiene stations etc. I was not expecting hotel quality. Ample parking, most importantly to my self the parking seem secured in the sense that they were not down rand or on the side direct to the range.
Safety brief: Four rules discussed. Big boy rules, don’t do stupid shit with guns. Don’t point guns at stuff that don’t need to guns pointed at.

Class description – some parts left out (take a class with Mike)

Started with B8 slow fire for groups at 5 yards. We did this in strings so that Mike could watch the line. He explained what the sight picture is suppose to look like, and at a certain distance even if the front sight was slightly out of position A-zone hits can be made.

Mike talked about grip strength – people talking about 60/40 or 100/100 and he basically said grip the gun so that you can hold it and do what you need to do with it (no magical formula)

We talked about body mechanics and how your hips position will affect your shooting. No need for aggressive lean in as popularized on you tube.

Draw stroke – Mike watched me on the line and he came up up to me and cleaned up my draw stroke as I had a tendency to pause once my hands came together.

Reloading drills – with an emphasis on tactical reload.

Mike went over shot cadence and the importance it plays with becoming faster. He demonstrated that even in transition drills which we did next that a shot cadence is still kept. At first I had some issues with this as I slowed down in between targets but as I shot the drill more it started to clean up.
\We had plenty of time to load mags and ask questions.

After extended breaks, we would shoot another b8. Mike likes to start and end session with accuracy, and as the day goes on the distance increases.
We then started shooting strong hand only. At this point I wished I had shot one handed more often, as it really shows with my groups opening up. And of course we did this with the support hand which only emphasizes the point that I need to shoot more strong/support.

After the various grips we started shooting three grip drill – basically starting freestyle-strong-support. This really stacks on the content in my opinion. I see the sight picture in every grip and I get to work on the weak points continuously. I like this stacking approach to teaching as it does not allow my brain time to wonder off.

The steel came out and now it was time to shoot against others. We shot a Rabbit drill – one person is the rabbit and one is the coyote, a shooting string is decided upon and the rabbit initiates the drill. First one to successfully complete the string wins. This drill not only put on the stress of the speed, but now you have another person to shoot and against and people watching, and it really shows. First few strings, I was fast out of the holster and even faster to miss. I needed to settle down and I kept telling myself what Mike said earlier. Sights-trigger. So I got my self together and said sights-trigger before every string, everything started to clean up for me. Of course with more complicated strings I needed more reminding. We continued this competitive portion and walked back making it even harder with increased distance.
We then did walk back drill shooting steel targets with the 3 grips all the way back to the 50yard line.
We ended with a b8 at 10 yards – even though I was tired I definitely improved by the end of the day.

I had the opportunity to ask Mike a question about his preferred fiber optics – he said that on a bright day red fiber optics are the way to go, because the green ones could be washed out. I definitely noticed my green fiber optics and at times for follow ups it did seem a little washed out. On a gloomier day he did say that the greens work better.

Overall the class was an awesome. I really like the stacking approach for this class - my brain did not have a chance to wander, lots of content was processed through out the day. If you get a chance you should take a class from him.

Lesson learned: everything about the class was a lesson. But something that really stuck with me – Mike mentioned that in SOCOM there was study of all the guys in the community. They were evaluated and studied under stress – to paraphrase the findings, these elite warriors were able to operate at 70% of their ability under stressful conditions. If these guys are at 70% understress, I must be at a 10% on my best day. My conclusion from this my 10% needs to become a bigger percentage of the pie, and my pie’s content needs to become larger so that my output is more. This class really opened my eyes to vetted training and proper practice and I definitely want to start shooting competition to get my fundamentals improved and obviously get more training.

[Casey]

Good AAR. I took Mike's Covert Carry class last year and took away quite a bit from it. I'd definitely recommend it as a follow-up to his Basic Pistol (which I have not taken), as it sounds like it builds on the drills you did in that class. I use a modified version of his 50 round exercise almost every time I shoot pistol.