AAR: ECQC NOV 11-13 2016

[The Apprentice]

Ok so the short of it is if you are serious about self defence take the class it is worth it. If you are on the fence take it now. If you think you'll take it but want to feel prepared forget that and take it now.

Going into the class I wasnt entirely sure what to expect. I watch all the stuff I could find on the youtubes to try and prepare and let me tell you it is way more than guys wrestling and shooting each other with sim guns.

Night one we started with the introductions, a little bit of Craigs background, and brief overview of the course work which is basically fighting from 0 to 5 feet. From there we were into Managing Unknown Contacts which is basically trying to keep strangers at a distance that will allow you time to react. This was a lot of roleplaying and was completely awkward for me but a very important part of the class. This is about staying out of the shit show that is a contact distance fight. We worked on spotting some basic pre-assault ques while managing distance and conversing with someone. The next part of the class was drilling some basic greco-roman wrestling which Craig likes for the stand up grappling. We ended the night with a review of the material covered that evening.

Day two starts with a safety breif for the live range work. Craig does a great job at running the line we had about 19 people in class so there was a so there was an AI. Now something to keep in mind is this is not a shooting class there is no fundamentals of shooting. Here Craig breaks down how we need to be drawing our guns and building up to shooting from 2. Which is a good example of his teaching style he demos then breaks it down and then he has you start putting the pieces together building up to the full movement. After about 100 round we headed back to grappling using more wrestling. Grappling is broken into learning technique and then competative non-consensual train were each partner is trying to win. After the stand up we start some ground grappling which follows the same template as the rest of Craigs template. Class ends with our first evo and everyone exhausted.

Day 3 once again begins with the live fire where we cover shooting while incorporating an arm shield and then managing distance while moving either away or closer to the target. Then it was time for the 2 on 1 evos which was a lot of fun. Then it was weapon retention followed by the final evo where each person had a hand on the others gun and you tried to retain control of your own and get your partners.

Craigs as a teacher is excellent. He has a great way of deconstructing his material and then helping you put the pieces together. He is very approachable and spends time with all his students. Also he is 100 percent focused on his students I don't think I saw him on his phone once. He builds a great comradery with everyone even after hours we had a great group dinner with the class on Saturday night. Craig is truely a master of his subject matter and a great asset to our community I can not recommend this class enough. I am already planning on attending next time he is in the area.

[xmanhockey7]

Nice review. What's your name? This is Xander. I wrote an AAR for the class as well.

[Al T.]

I "think" Tamara did a mini-review on that class as well. Thanks for yours.

[The Apprentice]

Its Carl hows it going Xander