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Thread: AAR - Pistol Shooting Solutions, Arcadia, OK, September 16th and 17th, 2017

  1. #1
    Leopard Printer Mr_White's Avatar
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    AAR - Pistol Shooting Solutions, Arcadia, OK, September 16th and 17th, 2017

    I wanted to get this thread going specifically to post my general congratulations to the class - one of the strongest overall so far - and especially to a couple of individual students.

    Most importantly, all the students in class were very safe and competent. It is such a joy to share an activity with others who love it just as much as I do. The class also walked away with thirteen total performance pins (one Turbo, five Light, and seven Dark), which is a VERY strong showing. Great job to everyone! The listings on my Performance Awards page have been updated: http://www.gabewhitetraining.com/performance-awards/

    Next, a huge congratulations to "Kirk", for winning the second-ever Turbo Pin in class! Outstanding shooting, Kirk! It was really fun to get to meet you and watch you shoot - you are completely awesome. Kirk is the first to choose the Alligator pin.

    [img]Alligator670x484 by OrigamiAK, on Flickr[/img] alligator

    Big thanks to Spencer Keepers (Prdator on PF and TPI) for hosting the class! It wouldn't have happened without you. It was awesome to finally meet my friend Spencer after all these years on the internet. Spencer got the Light Pin in class (only one run shy of Turbo), but we also had a private range day scheduled on the Monday after class, and he handily won the Turbo Pin that day! Congratulations Spencer! Way to go! Spencer is the first to choose the Elephant pin.

    [img]Elephant670x484 by OrigamiAK, on Flickr[/img] elephant

    Finally, it was a great joy to get to meet so many in the class who I at least kinda knew from PF and TPI. Prdator, MDS, LOKNLOD, Bratch, EricM, FOG - it was GREAT to meet and train with all of you! Apologies if I forgot anyone who is on the forums.

    Spencer and I are already working on scheduling another Pistol Shooting Solutions class at the same range for next year. Hopefully we can get the dates announced soon.

    Congratulations again to everyone!!!

    Gabe
    Technical excellence supports tactical preparedness
    Lord of the Food Court
    http://www.gabewhitetraining.com

  2. #2
    Congratulations to the two turbo pin winners and everyone else is this extremely talented class!
    Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.

  3. #3
    Id like to thank the class and all the help they more than willing to help in the class set up and tear down and that meant a Ton to me as I was Really hurting after the fall I took two days before class. And a huge thanks to Mrs Prdator for picking up Gabe wile I was in the ER getting the hip and back checked out.

    Gabe was able to give me some real tips to make be a better faster shooter!!! Now I gotta Do The Work.
    Founder Of Keepers Concealment and Lead trainer. Affiliate of CCW Safe, Use discount code ( KC10off )Sign up here https://ccwsafe.com/ref/B65241653

  4. #4
    Classy post from a gifted instructor.
    #RESIST

  5. #5
    Site Supporter LOKNLOD's Avatar
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    Oklahoma
    If I let on just how pumped I am about the class and the amount of learning that occurred, you'd all just think I was being suck-up fanboy.
    I'll just say that Gabe runs a great class and the amount of energy and effort he pours into it is much appreciated and downright infectious.

    Big thanks to Spencer for all the coordination efforts of bringing Gabe to town. Looking back without Spencer's work I wouldn't have been able to train with Todd, Craig, Tom, Ernest, Gabe... all right here in my backyard.
    --Josh
    “Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws.” - Tacitus.

  6. #6
    Site Supporter EricM's Avatar
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    I'll repost the AAR from my journal here so it's all in one place...

    Quote Originally Posted by EricM View Post
    It's clear that Gabe has put just as much effort into this class as he has into his own training. He was very well-prepared for the lecture segments and is an excellent speaker. Drills/tests were well-organized with clear purpose, and run very efficiently -- when targets were to be changed/taped was planned in advance and communicated clearly, negative taping was used when appropriate, etc. He instantly made adjustments to minimize the impact of some bad weather on our training. Everything in the class was structured for effective learning, practice, refinement, and pressure testing (scored tests/competitive exercises).

    Much of the material on Day 1 would be familiar to those who have been following Gabe online for several years. That's not a bad thing in the least; it was really impressive that he's condensed so much of what I've picked up here over the past 5 years on this forum into one day of class. And there were multiple things that, while familiar, were expressed in a new way, or that I perceived now a little differently. In my opening post of this journal, for example, I referenced a quote from Bruce Lee: "Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick." The journey described in that quote is a big part of what drives me. In class, Gabe explained it this way: if you're an untrained person, you just "do things"...poorly (like draw a gun, or whatever). With some training, you experience the "burden of technique" (love that term!). Achieving automaticity (look up John Hearne's posts and podcasts), you come full circle to where you again "just do it", but now with speed, reliability, and precision. "Shooting without doubt."

    Range time on Day 1 centered around the draw and the first two tests of Gabe's standards, the Bill Drill and Failure to Stop. I was frustrated with my performance, with only 1/4 runs at the light pin level. I think I had one C on each of my Bill Drills, and may have been a few tenths too slow for that to matter anyway, I can't recall for sure. I thought during my outdoor range trip last weekend I'd finally pushed through that, but it remains a weakness. Plenty of the practice runs felt good, but I think I had passed my personal point of optimal performance...sometimes it becomes really hard to run the trigger fast enough. It doesn't have anything to do with the DA pull and can happen even in dry fire with my Glock...say I have an array of 5 targets, and with LASR I'm practicing 2 shots each with quick transitions, it doesn't take too many back-to-back runs before my trigger finger starts to get sluggish and out of time with what my eyes and mind are wanting it to do. Whether it was the cooler temperatures, more intense mental focus, or just having more sleep, I fortunately shot better on Day 2, going 4/4 to earn a light pin.

    It would have been worth the trip and the cost of the class just for the movement and cover sections on Day 2. We've all seen Gabe's videos where he explodes laterally while drawing and gets impossibly good hits. I've never attempted anything like that, sure it looked like a good skill to have but there are so many other things I need to work on...hmmm, kinda sounds like an excuse to stay in my comfort zone. Gabe broke this complex drill down to its elements and then worked individually with each student on a USPSA target around 5 yards or so. I was absolutely stunned at what I was able to achieve in a very short period of time. No doubt I'll be working on it for the rest of my life..."learn to love the process", as Gabe would say, and in this case the process was pretty damn fun. We later did some competitive exercises with each student exploding in the opposite direction from center trying to hit their own piece of steel first, and I did reasonably well, getting a lot of first-round hits.

    The cover section was also extremely valuable. Not having a military background or anything, the details of how to utilize cover and movement, taking into account human performance factors, were completely new to me. Gabe discussed several different ways an engagement could evolve and how to achieve or maintain an advantage. Ultimately it forms sort of a system where you know what options you have and how/when to choose between them. He emphasized the importance of "fluid use of cover" freeing you to take in and process more information, enabling you to make split second decisions at moments of opportunity and remain aware of what your adversary may be doing. As with everything throughout the class, we did multiple drills that you could easily set up yourself for practice. Sure, the odds of becoming involved in a protracted engagement are low for an armed citizen, but I shudder to think of how utterly unprepared I would have been in this regard. To me this rises to the level of stuff anyone who carries a gun needs to know.

    I'm very glad to have attended this class, many thanks to Gabe for taking the time to come out and to Spencer for hosting. Really solid group of students too, hope to see you all again next time.

  7. #7
    Site Supporter EricM's Avatar
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    Slight tangent...does anyone know what type of steel it was that we were shooting on Day 2? I thought it was one of the better designs I've seen, I liked the cap on the 2x4 and how the steel hung on it. Looked around online and couldn't find anything that looked quite like it.

  8. #8
    Site Supporter LOKNLOD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by EricM View Post
    Slight tangent...does anyone know what type of steel it was that we were shooting on Day 2? I thought it was one of the better designs I've seen, I liked the cap on the 2x4 and how the steel hung on it. Looked around online and couldn't find anything that looked quite like it.
    I believe it’s these:
    https://www.defensetargets.com/product/066-NONER.html
    --Josh
    “Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws.” - Tacitus.

  9. #9
    ^. That's it!!
    Founder Of Keepers Concealment and Lead trainer. Affiliate of CCW Safe, Use discount code ( KC10off )Sign up here https://ccwsafe.com/ref/B65241653

  10. #10
    Member
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    Oklahoma
    I signed up at the last minute and frankly, this class was above my current skill set and experience level but I learned a ton and enjoyed being around a group of top shooters. Being a driven individual, I took away plenty of motivation to improve and there's much room for that.

    Can't say enough about Gabe-- his energy and passion was very evident and contagious. Everything was very well structured and organized. Thanks again to Gabe and Spencer for the experience.

    Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk

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