I am very excited Gabe has filled another class, and am hopeful he will be taking his show on the road regularly. Several folks have asked me about some of the fine points of Gabe's school test, so I thought I would put my thoughts down here, before they fly out of my head forever.
A small subset of Gabe's overall class is the testing, consisting of four tests, each run twice. If you want a turbo/beast pin, you need to shoot at least four out of the eight runs of the test at the turbo level. It doesn't have to be at least one of each test, just four or more out of all eight runs. While each of the tests is slightly different, they all break down to three subcomponents -- a 1.0 draw from open carry, .20 splits to the body at seven yards, and .50 splits to a four inch circle on the head box at seven yards. If you shoot the test from concealment (or a real duty holster), you get an extra .25 second deducted from your raw time. A "C" costs you .25 second, a "D" costs you 1.0 second and a "miss" costs you 2.0 seconds. I will address this later, but you will likely have to shoot all, or substantially all, A hits to make the turbo standard.
The very first thing you need to figure out is whether you should shoot the test from concealment or not. If you have a fast appendix draw from concealment, the .25 bonus for concealment may help you. If you shoot IWB concealed, it will be the rare person that is able to cleanly draw from concealed IWB in .25 more than their open draw. Open front concealed OWB is probably a wash to slightly positive if you have a good open front OWB draw, and are willing to accept the greater disaster factor that goes with a concealment draw. Since there are no reloads on the clock, closed vs open front is not a consideration, like it is with the FAST, for example.
Here are the tests:
Test 1 -- Bill Drill
Draw and shoot six A hits in 2.0 seconds or less (or in 2.25 from concealment). If you calculated a USPSA hit factor for this test, it would be 30 points/2 seconds = 15 HF. Shooting major, in USPSA, a C would cost you .066 seconds, and in minor, a C would cost you .133 seconds. So Gabe's penalty for less than perfect accuracy is 2-4 times more punitive than in USPSA. Nobody in our class, including Gabe, shot the Bill drill at the turbo level, and I think it is the single hardest of the four tests. Gabe's best run was 2.04, but he had a C, giving him a final, adjusted score of 2.04. My buddy, Skootz, who is a very talented shooter, had a 2.08 and 2.12 in raw time, but got sunk by just one C on each run.
To consider the strict accuracy requirement, consider that if shooting the Bill from open carry, you would need a Bill drill time faster than 1.75, to meet turbo standard, if you shot 5 A and 1 C hits.
Test 2 -- 2+1
Draw and shoot two A hits to the body, and one to the four inch circle in the head box in 1.7 seconds open carry or 1.95 concealed. Shooting the USP Expert, there is no way I could make the .20 body split, so I needed to make up time on the draw and transition to the head. As an example, my successful run was 1.82 raw, 3 A hits, adjusted to 1.57. If I had 1 B or C, it would have put me at an adjusted time of 1.82, ,or .12 slower than turbo standard. Skootz, who with his Sig, shoots much faster splits than me with the HK, rocked this hard with times of 1.56 and 1.57 before adjustments. Assuming a 1.0 second draw, that worked out to a .20 body split and .36 or .37 transition to the head.
Test 3 -- 2 CNS
Draw to two A hits to the four inch circle in the head box in 2.0 seconds from open carry or 2.25 from concealment. I found this to be the most doable of all four tests, no doubt because of the many FAST tests I have shot in previous years. This is one test, where some strategy may come in. Shooting from concealment, you can actually shoot just two B hits to the head, as long as you do that in 1.75 seconds or less. If you shoot one A, one B, you need to do that in 2.0 seconds or less. I tried to go fast on run one, and it almost bit me. On run two, I actually flubbed my draw, but stuck it and managed to shoot two A hits in an adjusted 1.85. YVK nailed this drill with two turbo level runs.
Test 4 -- 4/2
This is draw, four A hits to the body, then two A hits to the head in 2.6 seconds open carry or 2.85 concealed. I found this to be a hard test, because it essentially combines a four shot Bill drill with the two to the CNS, and obviously each additional shot and/or transition creates risk. Flub the draw, the body splits or the head transition, and you are done. I knew the .20 splits to the body put me into a deficit that I had to make up with the draw and head hits. My successful run was 2.67 raw, all A hits, adjusted to 2.42.
To best prepare for the four tests, you will need just a timer and one USPSA target at seven yards. Put each element of the test on the timer. Figure out whether you go open or concealed, and whether your draw is going to make up time for you or cost you time. Measure your splits to the body, and see how they shake out compared to the .20 standard. Then measure your splits to the four inch circle in the head compared to the .50 allowed. If you are superhuman and can rock all three elements on demand in front of an entire class, your job is easy. If one or more of the three elements is less developed, train that or those elements, or figure out what you can do better than standard to save time to apply to where you are not as strong.
I am in no way trying to reduce Gabe's class to the testing, because it is so much more than that. Much of that was covered in the various class reviews submitted. This is intended as a supplement for those interested in the testing part.
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Originally Posted by Luke
