This is a class summary for Accident Avoidance class taken at BSR in West Virginia on 10/22/2016. I know normally people are sharing self-defense type AAR's, but I think this might be of interest to some people.
What is this class, why did I sign up for this class?
I believe that there are certain skills that are worth acquiring or certain risks worth mitigating that, statistically, may be more likely than the need to use combatives. That's why I took the medical class earlier this year, and why I initially signed up for this class. This idea is captured by Dr. Sherman House's article on becoming the civilian defender. I spend a significant amount of my life driving, so I figured this would be useful for my life. A key selling point for me was that the driving skills taught in this class probably need to be learned with hands-on experience, and not something easily learned through book study alone. It was also nice that they provide the cars so you don't destroy your own brakes/tires.
It also means if you lose control, you won't wreck your own car. Someone wiped out on a swerve and avoid drill. I think they didn't brake enough, and then was too aggressive and lost traction, spinning out into the wall. Luckily no one was seriously injured.
Finally, I didn't initially sign up to take the class for this reason, but it was REALLY FUN! It was fun enough I'd be willing to take this class or another driving class again in the future.
What this class is not - in the words of Dr House, find something that's more than drivers ed but less than Jason Bourne
This class won't necessarily teach you how to be a safe driver, though there are definitely key points they stress that overlap. To be fair, they are focusing on the avoidance of a potential accident, and the intent is to complement traditional driving safety classes. The one thing they do stress is looking where you're going, and generally having very good awareness far out in front of your car, as well as 360 degree awareness.
This is also not a stunt or racing class. You do go over some similar skills, but you won't be learning how to do J turns. I think what we learned is the same module that the LE/Mil guys start out with, before learning more advanced stuff specific to their mission.
Summary of class structure
We had several 'blocks' of instruction, with short lectures for the concepts. Then, we'd get in our cars, and the instructors would take us out on the track and demonstrate the skills. Finally, we'd get multiple reps in the driver seat with instructor feedback and correction. We also had 2-3 students per car, and initially I was worried about all the downtime when not driving, but I found the instructor feedback to other students was useful learning for me as well.
My instructor was Sergio Pena. He's done some professional driving, so it was great having someone with his level of skill teaching us. He was also extremely high energy through the whole day, and kept things fun, which made a big difference. Even though we didn't learn how to do J-turns, I asked him if he could do some for us and he did 2-3, which was a blast in the car. If you take the class, you won't go wrong requesting Sergio as your driving instructor.
In terms of skills, I feel much better prepared to face a variety of situations. This includes general manuveuring of the car in conjunction with steering, braking and accelerating, as well as how to recover off road or from a front or rear skid.
In terms of drills, we did work on serpentine cones, emergency braking, and correcting for skids on the brake pad, offroad recovery, braking in turns, swerve and avoid, and some basic driving in reverse. We also got to test the effects of ABS while driving on the skid pad, including how to recover if ABS fails mid-turn, and experience the effects of traction control on the skid pad.
There was a final "test" that took us through the entire course and covered a lot of the skills we learned during the day. I felt comfortable going through that more aggressively than I would have at the beginning of the day.
Key takeaways for me:
-Look where you want to go, drive smooth, and don't brake and steer at the same time.
-Take this class in addition to a general safety class. Ideally, one would take the class again in 1-2 years to really engrain those skills.
-ABS and traction control are surprisingly effective, but not 100% foolproof.
-In terms of practice, this is something harder to do on your own. I will do some basic practice driving/parking in reverse. Even though it's lower importance, it is still part of the driving skillset and something I can easily do in my car and on my own.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by SLG
