AAR Practical Fundamentals - Ops Spec Training
03/16-17/2019 San Antonio, TX
TLDR: I highly recommend this class for people who have already taken a Rangemaster Combative Pistol, or equivalent class, and become reasonably proficient with that material. I do NOT recommend it as a first multi day class.
Inst: Jerry Jones
10 students, 9 dude shooter, 1 lady shooter
Guns: mixed: Several SIG P320s and a P226, a VP9, 2-3 Glocks, CZ P-09 (me), a Beretta 92 LTT and a PX4CC. 1 RMR, SIG Romeo and a DPP.
Malfs: Generally very good. One shooter had an EGW optic mount came loose and switched to backup gun. That same gun had issues running very light loads.
Weather: Cool for us wimpy southerners, but otherwise great.
Round count: a bit over 900 rounds.
Experience level: This wasn’t anybody’s first class, and it showed. It was the right class for everyone, so we were able to really move through the material at a pretty comfortable pace. Three students were had taken the class previously.
What it is and what it’s not.
This class really focuses on prepping the trigger and process-oriented shooting. Of the fundamentals (grip, stance, sights, trigger control, etc.), this class focuses very narrowly on one type of one fundamental. THAT’S IT. I don’t remember hearing the words “slapping” or “jerking” even mentioned, though I’m sure the Jerry would consider slapping a valid technique under certain circumstances, but that’s beyond the scope of this class. It’s really that narrowly focused. This class is NOT a tactics class. The instructions were to wear an OWB kydex holster with no concealment. No AIWB allowed or necessary. This was NOT a hair-on-fire performance class. We developed a couple specific foundational techniques at a moderate pace that could be later developed in to high speed skills.
TD1
About two hours of classroom time.
-Instructor and student introductions
-Discussion on setting goals for the class and making them as specific as possible. My personal goals for the class were specifically to (a) learn trigger prep, (b) see dot lift in recoil, (c) call my shots. The latter two were briefly mentioned during the classroom time but that’s it, which is fine. I understood the concept, I just haven’t reliably experienced it.
-Focus on the process, the results will take care of themselves. You pay attention to front sight back, everything from the front sight forward will take care of itself.
-Brief discussion of Grip, Stance, Sight Alignment and Picture, Breathing, Follow Through,
-Discussion of Pin & Reset vs Reset in Recoil and the benefits of prepping the trigger.
-4 rules of gun safety, 3 conditions when allowed to engage the trigger (target is safe and available, legal and moral, conscious decision to fire) medical brief.
All of range time would be run as two lines. A shooter and a “coach.”
On the range.
Review of safety rules and 3 conditions.
5 shot group at 7 yards. (The whole class was run from the 7 yard line, IIRC)
Bump drill. Goal is to learn the fine motor skill. Learn the trigger. Learn the wall. What’s the minimum amount of trigger pressure to make it go off.
Second 5 yard group. Everyone significantly improved.
Partner drill. shooting partner racks the slide for you so you can learn the timing of resetting the trigger in recoil.
Press out. OST uses a classic “sideways L” TLG Press Out. The finger got on the trigger as the horizontal portion of the press out and continued to apply pressure.
Students were instructed to say, out loud, “prep, confirm [the sights], roll” as the pressed out, so that they rolled through the wall (or DA hammer fall) at full extension. Follow that up with Reset and Prep (take up slack and apply pressure on wall without releasing a second shot) and getting a second sight picture.
We finished the day with doubles. Same as above, except rolled through the trigger a second time. We were instructed to include more verbalization between shots to develop a shot cadence and then how to adjust that verbalization to get a faster cadence.
5 shot group. Some noted further improvement, others noted degradation based on fatigue.
He sent us home with “homework.” 5 minutes of Bump Drill, 5 minutes of Partner Drill (except you reset the trigger yourself), 5 minutes of draw and press out.
TD2.
Review of TD1.
We spent about a half hour reminding us of theory, safety and medical brief.
5 shot group
Short repeat of TD1 material to get everyone warmed up.
Introduced 3, 4, 5 and 6 round strings.
Introduced multiple target transitions.
Concluded with a final 5 shot group.
During the closing comments and review, Jerry asked each of us how we felt we did with the goals that we set at the beginning of TD1. I definitely met and exceeded my goals. Everyone else said they did too.
Review.
There was no “That Guy” in the class. There were no safety issues. We were continuously complemented for that.
Demo-ing seem to be a hot topic de jure. Jerry demo’d everything. The class structure and progression builds in a very methodical way. Each progressive layer was given enough reps that we really got comfortable with the skills. I’m guessing we did at least 15-20 reps of each progression. Using the two lines (shooter/coach) was well run and effective.
I’ve trained with quite a few of the P-F favorites, including HiTS, Rangemaster, Modern Samurai Project and Langdon Tactical. Everyone briefly discusses trigger control and prepping the trigger. They tell you to do it and may mention how to do it, but the broad scope of their classes do not allow them to go into this kind of depth. (Observation, not criticism.) I think a lot of shooters will find this deep dive very valuable.
The class was great. If CHL and NRA classes are 101 level, Combative Pistol is a 200 level class, then would highly recommend this as a 250 level class. I'd also recommend FPF Training's coursework at the 250 level, but for different reasons. I’d follow that up with a 300 level course, like LTT Tactical Pistol Skills or Gabe White class (I haven’t attended Gabe White’s class, so I’m speculating).
Cheers,
David S.