(please note, I copypasta'd (sic) the official course description at the bottom of this post). I apologize if i don't do this excellent course justice in this AAR lite, and apologies for typos and word omissions.
tl: dr - If you are anywhere near Portland, OR, and want to train with a first class instructor, Mr. Gabe White, at a great facility; especially if, like me, you wanted to kind of follow a course of study or curriculum starting at the beginning, find the Public Safety Training Center online, look at the course offerings and determine where you should start (and can test into, where applicable), and take advantage of it. Even if you start at or near the beginning, as I have / did, I can't stress enough how nice it is to have an actual curriculum to follow, and a teacher like Gabe to work with. He can and will meet you where you're at, and show you how to move forward from that. I feel like everyone here knows how skillful he is at the very highest and most advanced levels, but I'd just like to vouch for his teaching skill for those of us at lower levels as well. That's not always something one finds.
I took the above class, a two day, roughly intermediate level, defensive carry oriented class, on 9/14-15 2019, at the excellent Public Safety Training Center in Clackamas, OR (basically in the Portland area, about 40 mins from Salem). Gabe White was the instructor, assisted by 2 skilled volunteers on each day of the class.
We had about 7 or 8 students; myself and one other woman (a friend from two USPSA oriented classes with Keith Tyler and USPSA matches) and the balance were guys. As it happened, I'd taken 101a with another student whom I've also shot IDPA with, and then the student who got top shot is someone I've autocrossed with and knew in passing from that; so it was a collegial environment. Gabe has a dry sense of humor I appreciate, to go with his immense knowledge, and his respectful, encouraging approach.
I used one of my Elite LTT's (the one I carry), and used a JMCK Wing Claw 2.5 AIWB holster with some JMCK mag carriers.
We had a classroom session that was largely a recap of stuff we'd covered in 101a, but with some additional wrinkles - everything from safe storage to use of force decision making and thought process to legal framework combat breathing. When we went to the range, there was a safety briefing first, and then onto many many drills.
Each training day runs from 8 AM to after 6 PM each day. You get an hour for lunch and a couple of small breaks, but you stay busy and on your feet just about all day. We expended about 800 rounds of the must-buy-at-PSTC-and-really-spendy Lawman ammo in total, about 400 rounds a day.
One of the things I like about the PSTC curriculum is that there is literal "testing" to go on to the next class. And Gabe does a good job of giving you a few chances to past the test, I think four in all, two on day one and two on day two (so you don't get gotcha'd). For this kind of intermediate level class the testing was more difficult than the for 101A, including some malfunction clearance under time pressure (FTF, FTE, and double feed malfunctions). What's nice is everything is drilled and practiced under various time standards, including some that are harder than the test standards, so that people get a sense of what's possible and that the test standards are very doable (remember, this is an intermediate class, I am aware most who read this are beyond this level).
Here are the things we did I got the most out of :
*Malfunction Clearance - always worth practicing, especially the double feed ones that are a bit more difficult to resolve than tap-roll-rack
*An actual run through of the Tueller Drill - sure we have read about it and have drawn the appropriate conclusions, but it's just good to really go through it, as knife wielder and as defenders multiple times to really bring the book knowledge to life for the armed civilian
*Low light work - drills on shooting in low light / dark just with sights, seeing what you can and can't identify, threat wise in low light without and with a flash light (class members rotate through various t-shirt clad targets; some threat, some no threat), and a couple of flashlight techniques that involved SHO shooting and the light very much on the support side (FBI and Temporal Index is how I mentally filed them). We had to make shoot / no shoot determinations and explain our reasoning, then confront how reality stacked up against our reasoning when the lights came on.
*Strong hand only draw techniques from concealment and shooting. Yeah, I compete so I shoot and dry fire SHO (and WHO) a fair bit, but what I hadn't been doing was working SHO draws aiwb from concealment, and Gabe demonstrated a few techniques for that.
*Shooting on the move plus reloads and malfunctions - yes, I have trained on shooting on the move before, and I even took a seminar this summer at FAS on moving targets, but we had one drill in particular where we were moving within a triangular area, limited rounds in mags and at least two dummy rounds in our mags. Gabe would tell us where to go, the triangular area marked off by barrels, and then we had to shoot while moving to / from and around the barrels - Gabe would tell us when to move to different barrels, what direction to rotate the barrels, and then to reverse, with intermittent "UP" commands to engage the target while moving and reloading / clearing malfunctions. I certainly found that challenging and instructive.
Class ended with a debrief and we gained a sense of what our progress through the curriculum opened to us - eligibility for the next class for most of us (and yes, I signed up for 103), eligibility to participate in the Practical Pistol League that meets on Wednesday Evenings (yep, signed up for that too), provisional Green Deck access at the PSTC range. I can't stress enough how much I appreciate that sense of progression, as someone who only decided to really try to be a better student of the pistol this year.
Official Course Description Follows -
PST 102: Defensive Handgun Skill Development
Cost
$299.00
Dates
no dates available
This intensive 2-day course (minimum 16 hours) is the starting point for realistic self-defense preparedness. If you keep or carry a handgun for defensive purposes, you need this training. You will learn the professional attitudes and personal habits needed to keep you safe - as well as gain a unique understanding of some of the legal and personal responsibilities you assume as a gun owner. You will learn to safely and efficiently draw from concealment, re-holster, reload and clear your malfunctions. You will increase accuracy and speed through coached and supervised systematic, repetitive drills. You will develop your ability to safely operate your handgun with control, precision and speed.
Topics covered
Firearms safety
Defensive handgun fundamentals and principles
Ready positions and the use of movement
Speed and tactical reloading
Clearing malfunctions
Rapid fire and failure to stop engagements
Verbalization in defensive simulations
The defensive draw stroke
Introduction to index firing
Equipment needed:
Defensive handgun with slide lock (.380ACP caliber or larger)
Strong-side, bely-secured, molded or semi-rigid holster and heavy duty belt
Minimum of 5 magazines or reloading devices and carrier
Minimum of 5 magazines or reloading devices and carrier
Minimum 600 rounds of ammunition to be purchased from PSTC (.380/9mm/.38 special minimum)
Wrap-around eye protection
Muff-style hearing protection
Overgarment (jacket/sweater)
Successful completion of this course confers the provisional privilege of:
Use of the PSTC"s Tactical Training (Green Deck)
Eligibility for enrollment in PST103
Prerequisites:
PST101A Qualification
CHL or current background check
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