Short AAR Hearne's Cognitive Pistol w/ Tactical Anatomy

[Randy Harris]

On Sunday July 17 2022 I (along with my assistant instructor at Harris Combative Strategies AJ Holst and Al Swymer ) attended John Hearne’s (Two Pillars Training- https://www.facebook.com/TwoPillarsTraining/) Cognitive Pistol with Tactical Anatomy class at Royal Range in Nashville TN. This is the shooting part of John’s Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why” class. In that class was offered on Saturday but AJ and AL and I had all done that one back in February when John and I teamed up to teach a combo class called “Saving Your Life with a Pistol, What Matters and What Doesn’t “ in Dayton TN where he did the 8 hour “Who wins” lecture and I covered the shooting (and low light shooting) portions of that class. So we were just there for Sunday this time.

This is not a “teaching you to shoot better” class. It is a teaching you where to shoot and how to think with a gun in your hand (or in your holster). Everyone can easily find classes to teach them how to shoot but not everyone teaches how to make better decisions under stress or cognitive load. That is what this one is all about.

This is not going to be an exhaustive review, but we essentially covered classroom material on “Tactical Anatomy” which is what shot placement tends to get best results in making people stop what they are doing (as much as that can be done with a pistol) and John provided some videos of why what you have been conditioned to think about the effectiveness of certain firearms through TV and movies is not how they work for real. Essentially pistols are pathetic little pop guns that require correct bullet placement (and often several of them) to FORCE someone to stop. Half (or more) of the time when people stop what they are doing when shot with a pistol it is because they simply CHOOSE to stop. The bullet did not stop them. That is why we sometimes see dedicated opponents fighting on after being shot numerous times. So it is best to plan for the worst and pray for the best case.

On the range we shot a few “ pulse check” drills so John could get a feel for the shooting ability of the class. This was a high achieving class with several people I either know personally or by reputation or have been in class with before. Some of these were Aqil Qadir of Rangemaster and Citizens Safety Academy and Chris Baker of Lucky Gunner . Not sure who else wants to be named so I’ll stick to just those guys and my crew. Because of the high level of gun handling and accuracy shown by the whole group John was able to push the curriculum a little faster than normal. We did numerous drills that all started with a visual cue instead of an audio cue. That is important as you are generally LOOKING for someone’s actions to cause you to draw not listening for an audio cue like a shot timer. John employed turning targets and a light system (with a roving light bearer) so you would have to scan for visual info on when and how many rounds to shoot.

In the Anatomy department we used 3D targets to see what track bullets take from different angles. John used metal rods to show the wound tracks and angles from entrance wound to exit on the TacMan targets. He also included an anatomical overlay on the back and a “spine” One of the pics I have included shows 9 holes (3 groups of 3 ) that I shot from different angles to the target and all 9 perforated the “spine”. If you are to one side or the other of the target you will need to aim differently than if you are facing it straight on. At those angles aiming at the sternum would have simply cut through the other pectoral muscle but aiming at the close side pec punched through heart lungs and spine.

We also did a block on safely moving around others with a gun in hand and did a man vs man shoot on steel with the go signal being the appropriate colored light.
We finished up with a run on the Farnam spinner target which is harder to spin than it looks.....at least my reload was fast...😎
All in all it was a great presentation from a good friend of mine and an opportunity to shoot drills that you cannot get just anywhere and was held at a world class facility. If you are at the level where you are looking for a class that teaches you how to think with a gun and where to shoot for best results and then testing those skills then catch John’s class when he comes to your area.

And just in case you were wondering I get no monetary consideration for this review and in fact I paid to attend the class.

Pics and videos can be found here......https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=...48017177850927

[Leo Daher]

Probably the best AAR I've ever seen, including the photos and videos on Facebook. Thanks for sharing. Clearly a great class.