AAR: Pistol Shooting Solutions with Gabe White(Who?), McHenry, IL, Jan 2018

[LittleLebowski]

After seeing the energy level and work Gabe puts into a class, I don't know how he could do it in extreme heat. And that is coming from someone who loves heat.

Extreme is putting mildly. A more apt description for his first VA class might be “hotter than two mice fucking in a wool sock,” but Gabe manned the fuck up and put on a hell of a class. I’d like to catch another class from him when I’m not sweating buckets and suffering from jungle taint.

[JHC]

I took this class primarily because my only training before it was the IL CCW class. 16 hours of mostly nothing interesting and a few shots from a range stall. I figure if I'm going to suggest to people to buy a Glock 19, a case of ammo, and a class with a good instructor, I probably ought to do that myself. So I also ran my Gen 5 Glock 19 from appendix. I figured, "technical timmie class=technical timmie gear".

I don't have a lot of experience with training classes so i don't feel like I have a lot of perspective from which to judge but I figured I'd tack on my take.

I found Gabe to be energetic and intelligent. Like Les was saying, the portion on drawing from AIWB and "gliding" into a shooting position was well worth the price of admission. Even more so was the shooting on the move section of the class, which I have never trained before. Even as a casually interested gamer, I am more of a "run to the places, then shoot the things." or a "Scoot and shoot" kind of gamer. The man on man steel challenges were pretty awesome and there was also a section on the use of cover which was a very intelligent discussion about the use of cover (turns out, it's harder than IDPA makes it seem), but my one huge takeaway was this...

As far as a discussion of sights and sight focus goes, I always figured I got a decent front sight in focus when I was shooting. Turns out, the level of focus I had on the front sight was much less than it could have been, and that kinda came to be a lightbulb moment to me after a discussion by Gabe about vision, I kinda dicked around with the idea of focal depth shifting on a few drills we did, and I found that ultimately, I really like the technique and it could very well lead to some gains in my shooting game with more practice on the subject. I really think this new lightbulb could lead to me really starting to enjoy the process of getting better, as opposed to being goal oriented.

It was super cool meeting Gabe and shooting with some of the P-F crew and the rest of the class, who were a bunch of very solid shooters. Alpha is an awesome range, and the members there are awesome people, who ware very welcoming, even of non members (like myself). There was coffee and donuts both mornings, which was awesome, and I wound up with the light pin. I definitely felt a little inconsistent in a few drills and and could definitely see where my weaknesses are. Cleaning up the draw a little, running a little faster on the splits and sharpening my front sight focus. Fortunately, there are some good drills to practice and some new dry fire techniques to practice and matches to shoot while I wait for it to warm up enough that I can practice at my main range.

Great comments.
And congratulations on the Light Pin!

[Mr_White]

The McHenry class, and Les, are now listed on my Performance Awards page. Congratulations to all!!!

http://www.gabewhitetraining.com/performance-awards/

[Matt Little]

I missed turbo by .02. Damnit. I’ve got to come out for some redemption...

I’ve taken a LOT of classes. Gabe is now on my very short list of favorite instructors. I would want to repeat the class even if I hadn’t blown my shot at Turbo. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

[Chance B.]

Congrats Les!!!! Just goes to show the Pizza guns can be shot fat and accurately !!!!!

Dude... Les is a little sensitive about his figure. Just because he eat's donuts for peak performance doesn't mean that it's okay to mock him for being "tactically padded."

[Sal Picante]

We need a rule like at Paul's gym: "No fat shaming!"

[MVS]

AAR Pistol Shooting Solutions with Gabe White


When and Where; Jan 20-21, 2018 in McHenry, IL


Who: Gabe White


What: From Gabe’s description, Contextual shooting agility- the development of core shooting skills in conjunction with spatial management –movement, barriers, bystanders, maneuver- in an attempt to allow the defensive handgun practitioner to credibly attempt the best-practice answer they can discern, when shooting is an appropriate solution. Actively apply and manage Rule 4.

Intro: This is a class I have been looking forward to taking for quite some time. Though Gabe White is maybe not well known nationally I think that is bound to change. I knew Gabe as a great shooter with innovative ideas on training to improve, but didn’t know he would be such a good teacher. Spoiler, I was more than satisfied with the class.


Conclusion: (For those with a short attention span)
Somebody told me I need to be more concise, so Coach, here you go. I had high expectations for this class and after 2 long days and 925 rounds, those expectations were met and exceeded. Gabe White is a HIGH energy, articulate instructor with the heart of a teacher who is hell bent on giving students their money’s worth. We spent a lot of time on technical shooting skills which we then applied during two good segments on movement and cover at a high level. One Turbo pin was awarded in class to Les, who happens to be a USPSA Grandmaster. I was happy to earn a light pin and go home with enough information and motivation to keep me improving for some time to come. If you want more details, read on.


Training Day 1
Class was already scheduled to start early at 8:00 am but for me it started around 6:30. Upon arriving at the lobby of the hotel to grab breakfast I ran into Gabe and he invited me to sit with him. He filled me in on his training background, the day ahead, and how he liked his new Gen5 G17. After breakfast I made my way to the range which I had checked out the night before and found it to be less than 10 minutes from the hotel. Once there I found it to be a nice, if somewhat small 2 bay private range. Most of the students appeared to be members or at least know each other. The few of us that were strangers were welcomed by Herb, the range owner, and Les,the host of the class. We were shown where to put our stuff and asked to gear up in the safe area. The class then started promptly at 8:00 am after filling out the requisite waivers.


The lecture began with Admin issues and of course safety. Gabe explained that throughout the class he would be using an inert orange training gun for demos. In what would become a recurring theme we went over the 4 rules in detail. We covered trigger finger in register, and dropping the gun if you started to bobble it or otherwise lose control. Something I don’t remember other instructors talking about that Gabe covered was what to do if you began to fall with the pistol in hand. Keep the muzzle downrange, finger straight, and try not to get hurt in the fall. There was a lot of emphasis on holster safety as we would be pushing speed. Range protocol and the medical safety plan were covered at this time as well.


Gabe then discussed the class philosophy as well as giving credit to people who have influenced him. He described the minimums for the class, to be able to hit a USPSA head box at 10yards on demand, have a solid draw stroke, and be able to clear malfunctions. He described the class as not being for beginners, but enthusiasts.


After this Gabe talked about his background and had students introduce themselves and mention what they would be shooting. Of the 13 students brought Beretta 92’s, 2 XD’s, one 9mm 1911 with the rest being various Glock’s. I used my Glock 17MOS with Leupold Delta Point Pro red dot and my Carry Optics gear.This was my first pistol class of the many I have taken that I did not use my everyday carry gear. It felt a little dirty.


We talked more about the class focus and philosophy, to include, growth mindset vs. fixed mindset, and process focus vs. outcome focus. A lot of ground was covered in this lecture. This was also the first, though not only time Gabe talked about the idea of conceptually divorcing speed from accuracy. Don’t think in terms of faster or slower, but in levels of care. Time is a byproduct of correct application. This would be a narrowly focused class. The class covers situations where pistol shooting is the solution in beyond arms length encounters. It is the 2 day version of Gabe’s journey from Tactical Timmy to Technical Timmy.


It was explained that we would cover technical skills first and then go back and forth between technical skills and tactical applications. Gabe also gave a detailed explanation of how he arrived at the times for his Performance Awards . We were also at this time given a nice 11 page handout which would nicely supplement my 13 pages of notes.


On to the range where we split up into relays and shot some warm ups with Gabe observing. We then had a lecture on the importance of Grip, sights, and trigger in detail. One take away from this for me was Gabe’s preferring to call it a sight movie instead of a sight picture and how important shot calling and sight tracking are to being process focused.


After doing some deliberate sight misalignment drills we worked on some dry fire for trigger control. At this point we worked on improving our draw. As usual Gabe gave a lot of points in detail. Gabe described the draw to be more like Tai Chi than Krav Maga, In other words though you want to be fast, you want to be smooth not choppy, especially at the end of the draw stroke where it should glide to extension ready to press the trigger with the appropriate amount of care for the situation at hand. We also went over start positions and clearing concealing garments. There was a lot more to this section, but I am running out of room.


Back at the firing line we did some more dry drills to work the mechanics of the draw with the reminder to carefully reholster. This was followed by live fire drills and then two different but similar shot calling drills. Time for a working lunch break where Gabe gave his lecture on vision. It made more sense to me to hear it in person rather than reading his paper on it.


After the lunch break it was back to the range and some more dry fire drills. For live fire we did Bill drills with Gabe giving tips as we went from pushing speed to dialing back for control. It was now time to run the first of the performance tests.These would be the worst showing for me only managing Dark Pin runs.


It was now time for a drill Gabe has named the 2+2=Rule 4 drill. This of course was a drill which involved moving and shooting when there is a need to mitigate foreground and background concerns. Following this it was time for more dry work to prep for the next performance award drill, failure to stop. We followed the progression formula up to two timed practice runs and then shot for score. I ended up with 1 Light pin run and 1 Dark Pin run. So ended day 1 at 6:00 pm.

Training Day 2

On the range at 8:00 am for some live fire warm up. Gabe gave his opinion on the use of head shots as a primary target. Gabe opined that it would be nice if everyone was a good enough shot to target the head under a wide variety of circumstances as he believes it would be safer for the good guy (puts bad guy out of the fight quicker) and bystanders (less rounds flying around).

Live fire drills next revolved around immediate incapacitation. This is 2 rounds to a 4 inch circle in the head at 7 yards. While I did manage a Turbo level practice run of 1.87 seconds my for the record runs were both at the Light Pin level.

Gabe now put on a lecture about the benefits of dry fire and the need to be brutally honest in your grip, sights, trigger control and shot calling. Gabe then gave us 3 core dry fire drills.We of course talked about the need for strict safety protocols in dry practice and how to accomplish that.

Moving along, we got to what Gabe calls shooting on the move in an open space, or what I refer to as dynamic movement. Gabe points out that his type of shooting and moving is highly contextual taking into account not only environmental concerns but the shooters skill level as well. Gabe White gave Gabe Suarez credit for introducing him to this material and I see that influence, however Gabe White has highly refined the concept and application. This is one of the only portions of the class where there was much downtime. After instruction and dry work, Gabe worked with each student individually. It was time well spent. A couple of take aways from this section were that this type of movement based shooting emphasizes the movement while dragging the shooting along with it, but a high level of hit accountability is still required. (You don’t see that last part from most people who teach this style IME)

Lunch was mostly dealt with while other people were taking their turn with the shooting on the move. When everyone was back together Gabe ran some man on man drills emphasizing dynamic movement. This led to drills and instruction on a more controlled type of movement that Gabe refers to as shooting on the move in a confined space. This type of movement prioritizes a more conventional shooting posture and is better suited for confined spaces where movement is still beneficial.

At this point it was time to prep for the final Performance Award drill. Gabe calls this one the split Bill Drill, firing 4 rounds to the body and 2 rounds to the head. Using the now familiar format we worked our way to the testing runs. I was able to make 2 light pin runs here. The pressure was off now. Although there would be no Turbo pin for me, Light Pin is still respectable.

Again with the details and this time they applied to the use of cover. Gabe “covered” all of the usual material and added in quite a bit more. This is a large section and took a good portion of time. I enjoyed hearing Gabe’s ideas on this subject and working through various drills including some more man on man (or woman) work. I will not go into detail on this section as Gabe clearly put a lot of work into it and is stuff I haven’t seen everywhere.

That’s a rap. Class ended around 6:30 pm with pictures, a debrief, and the Performance Awards being handed out. As I mentioned earlier, Les won a Turbo Pin, the fourth given out by Gabe. IIRC there were 8 Light Pins and 4 Dark Pins awarded. This was Gabe’s best performing class to date. I look forward to getting another shot at the Turbo Pin in the future. Pistol Shooting Solutions 2 perhaps??

[Mr_White]

MVS, thanks so much for that review!!! It was great to get to train with you!

[miller_man]

So much good reading in here. Makes me stoked for my future class.