Gabe White's Pistol Shooting Solutions, Phoenix, January 5-6, 2019.
I just completed Gabe White’s (@Mr_White) Pistol Shooting Solution class that was held here in Phoenix on January 5-6, 2019. You can get a detailed curriculum and his philosophy at his website. It was hosted by John Correira of Active Self Protection at Ben Avery Shooting Facility in North Phoenix (DPS range). Short story: it was an outstanding class and you should take it if you ever have an opportunity to do so. Below are my observations.
Statistics:
The class consisted of 12 shooters including John. Three of the shooters were instructors at Gunsite including Ken Campbell and Steve Tarani. Representing Nevada was @Tony Mayer of JMCK and his friend Randy. There was one Yavapai Co. Sheriff’s deputy and the rest were private citizens. Cecil Burch was supposed to attend but fell ill. He must be really sick to miss this class. Everybody had Glocks except for 2 XDMs and a H&K VP9. Ken was shooting a Glock on day 1 but switched to his 1911 day 2. Half of the class were wearing Tony’s holster; the other half were chided by Tony.
The only things I didn’t like about the class:
First, it rained all day on TD2 and it kind of cut into Gabe’s excellent instruction on shooting on the move. We still ran it and learned a lot. Second, we had to pick up all the brass in the muddy ground per DPS range rules on the last day. Twelve shooters x 950 shots = suckage.
My Observations:
Gabe is an extremely organized and relentless instructor. His plan of instruction (POI) was well laid out and built to connect every piece of instruction with the next. This was a key factor for me as to why I understood his message clearly. As far as relentless: Gabe spent every second of the class instructing the students. He gave his full effort to the class. When it was raining all day, he was out there getting wet and teaching and not short cutting anything. I never saw him take lunch break during the 2 days and I think he may have only peed only twice for those 2 days.
The thing I love about his POI is that it gives a road map that I can take home and grow with. He gives you a supplemental printed manual that tells you all the drills and exercises that were done. Along with his insightful in person instruction, this POI gives me reasonable tools to use on my own range and home. I truly believe I will be a better shooter if I follow his advice.
Though Gabe goes through every technical aspects of shooting; to me the biggest factor in shooting well was trigger control. Gabe emphasized “aiming” and getting good first hits. This was reflected in his timed tests and man-to-man competitions. I had a red dot on my gun so aiming wasn’t an issue; that trigger control….man.
Gabe pressure tests you by doing timed runs for score on 4 drills: Bill drill, failure to stop, immediate incapacitation and split Bill drill. He also have us compete against each other on man-to-man competition. He records all of your times for future reference. If you excel in those tests, you can earn a dark pin, light pin or the vaunted Turbo pin. One class mate Scott, got the lone Turbo pin. He was awesome. I got a dark pin. He also recommended competition shooting as stressor to improve your growth.
Besides being my favorite holster maker, Tony is a pretty damn good shooter!
Ken Campbell is the COO of Gunsite and an absolute gentleman. You would never picture him as a guy who has smoked some bad guys in his days as an Indiana sheriff. When I asked him how dogmatic is Gunsite these days in regards to the Cooper doctrine. He said Gunsite was “evolving” as evidenced by sending 3 instructors to learn from Gabe.
Best thing ever: during a timed session for the split Bill drill, Ken’s 1911 failed to feed. After it failed to resolve with immediate malfunction clearance, he flashed out a J frame with his left hand and finished it. I was watching him and I didn’t know WTF he got he got that gun from. We were all surprised. It turns out he had it IWB hidden behind his mag pouches. He is a straight up OG baller.
Steve Tarani is big dude and I would never, ever, want to fight him hand to hand or God forbid with a knife. However, he is the nicest guy ever. He gave me a signed copy of his latest book called: Your most Powerful Weapon - Using Your Mind to Stay Safe. You can get it on Amazon. I plan to read it. If I don’t Steve said he was going bisect me completely with one of those karambit thingys.
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Originally Posted by Mr_White
