Shooter's Summit

[Cory]

I think a lot of it depends on how many of the folks you have heard of before, or heard from before. Another major barrier is the fact that many of them want to help people out without giving away to much of the information/service they charge for.

Ben's point about thinking of your skill as either your worst time or average time of several runs on a drill or stage was a huge point. He also seemed to emphasis honesty in dry fire. He also mentioned how it's easy for people to press so hard to meet a par that they miss the process. This leads to them being dishonest with themselves during dryfire, thus lowering it's effectiveness.

Wayne Dobbs talked about the 4th rule of firearms. Know your target, what's beyond it, and whats around it. It may have been phrased differently. Essentially he was talking about how the rule that is not applicable very much when on a square range becomes incredibly important when officers (or civilians) are involved in shootings. He also spoke a lot about trouble that many departments have with training programs.

I liked Tim Herron's as well. His talk was mostly about dry fire and having a solid routine for it. If we think of shooting practice like exercise and we schedule it and make it part of our daily routine with goals for each day than it becomes easier to stay constant with it. That also helps build reps and solid core skills while keeping your dry fire diverse enough for you top remain interested. Great stuff.

John Johnston and Melody Lauer discussed their Armed Parent/Guardian course. They tried very hard not to give away to much "free chicken" from the class. In their defense, the answer to most of the questions about what you should do during a violent situation is "It depends". They talked about how child (or unarmed adult) age, ability, location, all can affect what the right choice may be. They basically said we don't give you TTPs, we give you some ideas about how things work, what core principles to keep in mind and help you realize you need to do what you can in the situation to best meet those principles. It really gave a good outline of what to expect when going to the class, and what your take aways and what you'll learn during.

John Lovell's was good. Not really for the information that was presented so much, but because of his demeanor. I had never heard of him so I got an idea of who he is, and his approach to everything. I really liked how laid back he was, but how serious he was about the defensive topic. He clearly tailors his information to the everyman not someone who has spent a ton of time "Doing good things to bad people" as some have put it. I haven't yet, but I intend to see more of what he has to say and will see what I think.

Langdon's was exactly what you would expect. Arik talked to him about the benefits of the DA/SA and about pinning the trigger. Honestly, I think that is a great point that Ernest is probably one of the best to discuss. But it seems that every time he gets interviewed they seem to only discuss the benefits of DA/SA or triggers. I was hoping to hear more about other aspects of shooting. At this point his "Fear Not" series and other interviews have covered the DA/SA ground and trigger pinning more than once. Still worth the listen on why TDA is a valid choice, and why many are migrating toward it.

There were other good ones but these are the ones that I can think of at the moment, and I've got the run out the door.

-Cory

Tried to edit, but missed the time window.

EDIT:

Branca's interview on self defense law was good. Honestly, his Firearm's Nation podcast interview contained the same information, plus more. It is always great to hear from Branca about what we should know as far as legalities when it comes to self defense, but the moral of the story is know the law and you will know what you can do. Knowing the law will take some research.

Will Petty's summit talked obviously about VCQB. He essentially discussed how police vehicle tactics have stagnated and not advanced over time. So he discussed what positions on the car act as the best defensive position (the back) and how using the door's V as a position is based on compliant suspects and it fails when suspects press against it. He also discussed how vehicles act when shot, and how certain angles deflect or change in trajectory. The results are actually predictable after seeing enough cars get shot. He also talked about how cars don't stop bullets, they just prevent them from hitting you and that cars as cover can break down. He discussed how cars should be thought of as structures when working outside them. He also spoke about institutional dogma with LE training. A lot of this information was new to me.

BJ Norris talked a lot about steel challenge. My major take away from listening to him was that everything that isn't actually breaking the shot and getting recoil is something you can practice in dry fire. The other big thing was that if it comes down to very small margins to determine who wins, than your draw becomes that much more important. If you have X number of draws in a match, then becoming consistently .1x faster on your draw can add up enough to make the difference. He spoke also about how working any pistol sport will improve you overall at any other pistol sport. He was really laid back, but clearly had a very strong grasp on shooting and what was important for dry practice to develop skill for steel challenge (although also applicable to USPSA).

Keith Garcia talked about the balance between skill and gear. He mostly spoke about starting off with quality gear will set you up for success. You need the skill to win, but if you don't have quality gear it will hold back your skill development. He gave a breakdown of what he uses for competition and for duty. He has his preferences obviously, but what he had to say about the relationship between skill and gear was the real take away for me. Skill wins, and gear just has to facilitate the skill's development. It does that through consistency and dependability.

Hana Bilodeau of Sig Sauer spoke about concealed carry choices for women. This mostly boiled down to helping women (or men) choose a firearm that they can reach controls on, that they will actually be able to carry and fit into their lives. She also spoke about belt and holster. The differences in carry positions between men and women were discussed as well. To be honest, this wasn't recorded with me in mind as the audience. Quality information for newer shooters both men and women was covered.

I think that's pretty much a brief synopsis of each session I've listened too, and my take aways. I'm listening to Steve Anderson right now before I have to start work. Working form home gives me the ability to take in more of this stuff than I could otherwise, so that's cool.

-Cory

[orionz06]

Solid content but if you follow any of the guests it's likely a rehash of stuff you've already heard.

[gtmtnbiker98]

I reviewed the line up of instructors and find myself scratching my head on a few that were selected as "experts" without the prerequisite background. Others on the other hand, are becoming the new legends.

[YVK]

If you've not heard of a C-clamp grip before, listen to Mike Hughes interview. This is something I found about relatively recently and have been playing with a bit. Not sure yet but I think it has merits. A dude who I learned it from is a local GM who splits major PF faster and more accurately than I do with minor.

[Clusterfrack]

I’m looking forward to listening. Especially to Steve Anderson minus the Van Halen [emoji1]

[cheby]

Hwansik Kim's interview is the best so far

[YVK]

Interesting that you said it. I didn't get much out of that interview. I thought that it showed very strong Oriental roots in his approach, very analytic and with emphasis on a process rather than result. However, the main conclusion that I got out of it was that if you are young, unbiased, dry fire 2 hours daily and Iive fire often, you can become a national level contender in 3 years.

My favorite interview was Grauffel's. Every thing he was asked about, the answer was the opposite of commonly accepted norm. Grip form and pressure application, one vs two eyes, eye work and sight tracking, finger placement, sight and load preference, I forgot what else. At some point I almost felt he was fucking with Arik, but it seems like he wasn't. Yet some of it was just hard to believe. "I just shot 500 rounds in 25 minutes and my hands are not tired. Can you do this with your grip?" was awesome.

[David S.]

Sorry I missed it then.

Its been a decade or so since I’ve trained with him, but I seem to recall Bruce Gray saying that good shooting didn’t require a particularly hard grip. Consistency > pure strength.

That may or may not a justification for my weak grip.

[Cory]

Sorry I missed it then.

Its been a decade or so since I’ve trained with him, but I seem to recall Bruce Gray saying that good shooting didn’t require a particularly hard grip. Consistency > pure strength.

That may or may not a justification for my weak grip.

He basically said what amounts to the following:

-He positions his hands to cover the backstrap completely, with his heel of the SH and WH both meeting tightly. High grip.
-He does apply pressure with his hands, but is not actively flexing his hands.
-Push/pull technique is used relying on chest/shoulder tension more than hands. Thus less fatigue.
-Because hands have less tension he can run the trigger better. He does not make full contact with the face of the trigger, instead has a finger placed in the trigger guard at an angle, and pushes it to the rear while his finger is still angled, using the portion between middle and last knuckle, nut isn't really wrapping his finger around the trigger.
-Bullseye shooter's close one eye when they need extreme accuracy, so why not do the same. Difficult shots, or shots past 15-20yds he closes the non-dominate eye to gain better focus on the top edge of the front sight.
-He says his stance/grip/trigger work together, and that while the perceived kick of the pistol may be harder, it is just as easy to run. He prefers 124gr instead of 147gr for the same reason. Faster slide motion and faster shots at the cost of "comfort" during recoil.
-He doesn't worry about sight tracking. He says you don't call the shot with the sights rising, you call it with where they are when the trigger releases. He goes sights to target, to sights again. He said looking for the sight in that time is useless because you can't do anything while the pistol is still cycling.

I hope all that is right. It's a paraphrase on what I heard over a day ago. He might have said some more stuff that was controversial as well. Essentially he does a ton of stuff different from mainstream, but he does so based on a lot of seemingly valid reasons and has an overarching system that works together for him.

It was a pretty interesting discussion, mostly BECAUSE of the fact he does so much differently and looks at things from a different perspective. I feel like I glean a lot of information from those with differing techniques when it comes to pistol shooting.

-Cory