I haven’t done much of productive writing on this site, or any site for that matter, for some time, so I decided to bring this thread up and admire my own work from one year ago.




Also thought maybe to add a couple of notes after taking two more classes with Ben last week. I went to Atlanta to take his more advanced class, skills and drills. That was followed by the fundamentals class, which I decided to take too since I was already there and I thought it would be good for me. He had enough demand that he added another skills and drills class after the fundamentals, and the host let me choose which class to take first. I made an uncharacteristically smart decision to do it the way I did; more on that later.

You’re given a task. You have an idea how to shoot it. You shoot it the best you can. Either before or after, but almost always before that you’re shown how it is shot the way that maybe twenty - thirty people in the world can do consistently and on demand, and you’re given an explanation what goes into making that happen on that level. He watches you execute it, multiple times, and corrects you. That is it.

Your ability to ask questions is only limited by your thought process and capabilities of generating intelligent questions. As I wrote in my original review, if you’re a basic shooter, you leave the instructor no option but provide basic level instruction. Same goes for Q/A portion of it. I asked stuff that was not anywhere the curriculum content but something that I felt may have been more important to me than what he had to say to everyone. That alone made me feel empowered to practice better and, hopefully, perform better when I return back to my own practice and matches.

About returning back to practice. Nobody made me shoot two classes back to back, it was my choice. I also pushed pretty hard, didn’t think it was worth it otherwise. There were no parts of my body that didn’t hurt after day 2 of skills and drills. There were just parts that hurt less. Tylenol, aspirin, hydration, sleep and [temporary] alcohol abstinence got me through but my legs are still in pain now. I can’t imagine to taking skills and drills when not being physically fresh and that’s what I meant about the sequence of taking classes if somebody wanted to do them back to back. Day 1 of fundamentals is relatively static and it allowed for some recovery. You don’t need to be a stud to take either but being in shape is helpful.

Skills and drills is more about movement, transitions, shooting in and out, positioning etc, but some fundamentals. With six students in the class, I shot 1950 rounds during those two days. With Production Nationals in 2 weeks, I thought that Ben might practice with us a little, doubt anybody would have said anything. He practiced, during the lunch break.

Fundamentals is all about fundamentals, less time on movement related stuff and transitions. 12 students, 1000 rounds total. Should have been more if not for rain. Day 1 was the most miserable training day I ever had, with a never ending rain all day. My order at the coffee shop during the lunch break was a biggest cup of coffee and a dry T shirt from their window. Main reason I brought up the rain is that I learned something: a) I discussed with Ben what he does when he has to shoot in shitty weather and b) no way, ever, will I have a Deltapoint, and most likely any open emitter optic, on anything that I would carry unconcealed. Those who say that it works in rain needs to stay out there in the rain just for a little longer, maybe eight hours but two will suffice, and fire the gun just a little more.

Ben is a highly intelligent person who has demonstrated an ability to be self-disciplined and work hard. He will be successful in any other field of his interest. I will not be surprised if in 8- 10 years he is into something that doesn’t involve competing or teaching at all. This isn’t any sort of insider info, just my feeling that he will try something else in his life, but based off that feeling and assuming that my shooting is going anywhere other than down, I intend to retake skills and drills in 2-3 years.