Originally Posted by
Rich_Jenkins
Ok, in terms of things that could be improved or constructive criticism:
While overall I thought it was a good class, and I'm glad I went, two things contributed to it not being as effective as it could be "for me":
With only Frank teaching, and 20 students, it was perhaps not as personal a class as it might have been. I've seen AARs where folks indicated the one-day course is really the two day course crammed into one day. I believe that could be true.
By my notes, we went through 9 blocks of instruction. Each block was presented well, with adequate and effective explanation. However, after the instruction portion, we were generally left to work out how to apply it individually, with minimal feedback (again, due to 20 students on the line, I felt.) The feedback I did get was useful, and on point; there was just not a lot of it.
The other was the absence of any emphasis on shot accountability. Contributing to this was the above student to instructor ratio, but also the fact we were shooting at paper targets (blank, 8 1/2 x 11 paper on an IPCS cardboard) which were not replaced except at lunch. Meaning that after a single mag, it was pretty much impossible to tell where your shots were going. Now, I understand that I should be negative taping, and shooting into a single ragged hole, but honestly, at 8-10 yards I'm not there, and judging by the state of the backers and targets after 10 minutes, neither were any of my fellow students.
While I felt was that I received good instruction, there was not enough time during the class to adequately perform any remediation drills, with coaching, to ensure knowledge transfer and reinforce the teaching points. Perhaps in a two day class, or with fewer students, this might have been ameliorated to some degree.
Ok, so these are fairly minor points, however. I absolutely did feel like I got what I paid for the class ($275) and the information was useful and I can apply it. I also think it was a good class for my skill level, and came at a good time in my training. I am an 'ok' gun handler, but I was challenged during the class (a good thing) with several useful concepts to internalize.
Clearly Frank has thought about the process of shooting and he is worth listening to.
If you are an independent thinker and willing to do the work to follow up and apply the concepts in subsequent practice, I would highly recommend this course.