If you don't train weekly, bi-weekly at the least, you probably suck as badly as I do. Sure, you can stand on a line and put holes in a defenseless sheet of paper with the outline of a bad guy on it, but forget performing during a dynamic situation where you may actually be called upon to use that weapon you carry around with you everywhere.

That's my biggest fear. I have the gun, I have some modest training, but all that training has done is put me on notice -- I'm not as good as I thought I was (and I never thought very highly of myself as a shooter to begin with). At least, I thought to myself, I'm *mentally* prepared, which is half the battle, right? Wrong again.

Until you're pressed into some simulated situation (where you know your life is NOT on the line) you don't know what you don't know, which is likely to be somewhere in between little and nothing when the dust settles. Talk is cheap, and we seem to naturally talk ourselves into feeling comfortable with having a deadly weapon on our person or by our bedside even though we've never been trained to employ it outside of the occasional range visit. If I can reliably put holes in a small circle on paper I should naturally be able to repeat that in real life, shouldn't I?

Then you make the smart decision to take a quality training class, like Lighthorse Tactical's "Home Defense 1" course I took yesterday with seven other students (8 students is their max). That's their entry-level HD course, and after 8 hours of very basic training I'm amazed at how much I didn't know or even consider (most people think I'm a reasonably bright guy, suckers). Having a loaded .45 on your nightstand is little more than useless without having at least this one course under your belt. It hasn't yet been 24 hours and I already feel the skills going stale.

I guess I'm just ranting / pontificating here, but I'm beginning to realize the more classes I take the more classes I need to take. I personally view carrying or using a gun for home defense without training as owning a plane without a pilot's license. If you're not a pilot, you shouldn't be flying. If you're not training, you shouldn't be carrying, or be put into a position to use, defensive guns.

I've seen a bunch of different courses and instructors / instruction companies. I'm sure many of them are good, but most also charge egregious prices and are run by guys who took a few courses themselves but were never in a real-world team or on a job where those skills were actually used on a daily basis.

Lighthorse is a bit of a hike for me, but many of their guys are former or current active SWAT. They're not clearing caves of Taliban in Afghanistan, they're in the US facing the very same threats that you and I would face and have developed tactics designed specifically for those threats we're likely to face, if that fateful day ever comes.

I don't need to know how to run body armor and a chest rig with a ballistic helmet and shoot from "dynamic prone" (though I want to, but that's another day). I just need to be trained on a practical skill-set for the time I'm out with my wife at a movie, or in a restaurant, or when we're in bed and some gang-banging meth-head breaks into my house at 2 AM with a knife or a .38 and doesn't care who he has to go through to get his next score (or 2 or 3 of them). These are the scenarios these guys face day-in and day-out. These are the important skills needed to stand a chance to avoid becoming their next victim.

$125 for 8-9 hours of skills and mindset training that may save my life or that of my family one day, $250 if you're smart enough to bring your wife (some did). That's a ridiculously small investment that your average welfare recipient can afford. You can never use skills you don't have, whether stale or not.

Even if you think you suck with a gun, the reality is you're probably worse if you don't train (Newsflash: Going to the range after watching a video is not training). LHT has a magic formula with good, down-to-earth guys who don't walk around like Demigods of the firearms training world, an awesome, epic facility, real-world shooters who actually use the skills they teach to save lives every day, all at a price that seems too good to be true.

If we can get Curt to retire from his SWAT job, maybe we can get him and his boys to start teaching weekday classes, too.  

BG, thanks for the AAR. We are developing from the feedback you guys gave us last night. Stay tuned.

I took the same class a few months back, it was an eye opener.  I changed a few things after the class for sure.

Lighthorse is good to go.

I hope to take a class or twelve through Lighthorse.

Have you thought about making the quick trip to Cavern Cove and shoot IDPA on the first Saturday of each month? While it does offer a dynamic and slightly stressful event, it shouldn't be seen as training but as a game.

I'm bummed we took different classes. I was really looking forward to spending some time with you guys, and gushing over NV and deadly weapons while consuming alcohol.  

That's not far from me. I didn't even know about it. I'd like to give it a whirl, even though I'm pretty high-drag.

Fairly easy drive. Head to Grant, drop down the mountain on the main drag, turn right after the general store, turn left at the signs, go past the sheds and hang a right.

Let me know what questions you have with IDPA. It is basically draw from concealment, engage targets in tactical sequence and priority.

Yeah, that's how it started for me too... Then one day you look and you've taken more than 12

Which lends itself to Curt retiring and classes during the week...

Things are looking up. Those of us without real jobs like playing on weekdays.  

Question.

I've always wanted to take some structured training, but don't get to the range much.

My skills are pretty rudimentary.

What's a good, basic, "new guy" class to start with?

Basic pistol. Basic carbine. The basic classes are not " this is a gun, it goes boom" type of stuff. The basic classes are what everything else is built on. I've taken both basic classes and plan on taking both again before I move up a level.

I agree with Kyle 100%. I took "Basic Pistol" recently and I'd take it all over again tomorrow if it were available. In fact, I'd take that over again before I stepped up to more advanced classes. It's an 8-hour class that assumes you have most of the very fundamental etiquette rules already under your belt, and that you've been to the range a few times and are comfortable with your pistol. That's not an absolute prerequisite, as there were some older women there who had never fired a gun before (and didn't even own one, but were provided one), as the first hour or so goes into those basics but more as a refresher.

Eight hours and 300 rounds later you've received a library worth of info and experience and get a very good feel for just where you sit on the curve and wish it didn't have to end.

I would recommend it to everyone except for the most experienced shooters. Just bring a good gun with decent capacity (Glock 19 is always a good choice), a GOOD holster, not some generic, cheap-ass POS (a HUGE deal), and as many LOADED magazines as you can afford (at least 5 -- I brought 12 x 15-round G19 mags). The rest of the gear recommended is sent via list from Curt.

Some of our basic and intermediate stuff coming up:

24JAN15
Street Level 1st Aid- CIV Edition
Double Tap Training Grounds LLC in Calera, Alabama
8:00am

14FEB15
Basic Carbine Class
Double Tap Training Grounds LLC in Calera, Alabama
8:00am

14MAR15
Basic Handgun Class
Double Tap Training Grounds LLC in Calera, Alabama
8:00am

21MAR15
Intermediate Carbine Class
Double Tap Training Grounds LLC in Calera, Alabama
8:00am

02MAY15
Street Level 1st Aid- CIV Edition
Double Tap Training Grounds LLC in Calera, Alabama
8:00am

02MAY15
Intermediate Handgun Class
Double Tap Training Grounds LLC in Calera, Alabama
8:00am

16MAY15
Basic Handgun Class
Double Tap Training Grounds LLC in Calera, Alabama
8:00am

Looks like I'll be busy on some Saturdays coming up!

In case anyone wants some light reading, here are some AARs of a few of the LHT classes I've taken. Don't let my current location fool you, there was a time where the LHT AO was a pretty easy drive for me and I spent quite a few Saturdays on the range with them. Cannot recommend them enough.

Max Pistol
GUNS-3
Concealed Carry
GUNS-4
Low Light Handgun

Where are the tactics classes?  Seems to me that civilians get tired of weapons manipulation and shooting drills on a timer at some point, but that's all that is available for them.

Any ideas or classes in the southeast???

BB

The LHT classes we're all talking about are just south of Birmingham, in Calera just a few minutes off I-65.

http://doubletapal.com

See my post right above yours. There are "tactics" taught in the classes, but not sure exactly what kinds of things you're after.

GUNS or CCW or Home Defense or Defensive HG or FNL or Defend & Evacuate...all had force on force scenarios included.