Chief, I'm interested.
I'll check with my teammates and wife then let you know if I haven't any plus ones.

D/S 7mm

Bump.

.

There is still time to get in on this, and Sparrow Defense is teaching a low light course a little later on the same range.  He has a thread started here.

I always enjoyed doing these.

I'm down

Chief, email sent.
7mm

Sorry for my ignorance but I've got to ask - What is judgmental shooting ?

 

Good class . I wish this was my sheriff

Thanks to all of those who came to the class.  I'm going to publicly discuss where I think we need improvement.

1- setup.  The setup of the targets delayed the start of the class, and of course, the reactive system didn't work.  We are ditching the reactive system, at least as it was attempted on Saturday.  The setup of the targets may still be an issue as we will not have the opportunity to get on the range ahead of time at the conference.

2- technique.  We spent so much time on techniques that we never got into decision making and target discretion.  This was in part due to the setup issue and in part due to the number of techniques being presented.  We will be adjusting this.

3- discussion points.  One student privately told me after the class that as a citizen, he wouldn't issue verbal commands in that if it was a situation that had reached a point for him to draw it would be to use force.  This is one area where I think we could have a good class discussion.  We also should have discussed the techniques for moving through a crowd in a more contextual way.

4- legal.  Maybe this should be under item 3, but we didn't delve into the legal aspects of deadly force.  Keeping in mind that the conference will be attended by people from numerous states and thus different laws, as this group were all GA residents, we could have and perhaps should have spent at least a few minutes on GA law.

Sounds like a good course

Hey chief, check your IMs

Received from a participant:




hey Chief, again, good course. I enjoyed it and any day on the range beats any day elsewhere.

I wanted to address some stuff as a third party after I had a day to decompress and think things over again.

Some points, nothing wrong with showing different methods and ways of doing something, but it needs a context and needs to be understood that it is a niche technique and is probably not going to be applicable in the majority of use of force encounters, as a civilian. Its not that its not very good to know and its a great thing to be able to use the technique, its a time issue, we didnt have enough to cover every possible way to skin this particular cat.  As an instructor you need to pick one, teach it and drill it, this is not burger king and you as a student don't get to have it your way.

One thing you could consider, and this is class size and makeup dependent, have the student try and make his way through an unfriendly crowd with the green gun or such, hit on why weapon retention is so import and show the student how easy it is to be disarmed unawares in a crowd.

As far s the targets and range mechanics are concerned, I get it that Murphy had his say with the reactive targets and no issue there, consider other alternatives to adding a down range distraction, partially obscured targets or targets not in the usual orientation, sideways, tilted, not face on the the shooter ect. This is one thing that I really like about USPSA matches, alot of the time you dont not have a full target to get a sight picture on. Also, in regards to targets and target selection, it was touched on but maybe need to be touched on more, choosing your target, CNS versus Center mass versus pelvic. A good judgement call and how and why it is important to target selection. But you did cover this aspect pretty well and having the ER nurse there was a great boon to the course as taught.

A few things that I feel dont belong in the course, basic shooting technique, this is not a basic handgun shooting class so dont treat it as such. Maybe run a qualifier first thing or add prerequisite to attending the course. But show up knowing how to place rounds on target quickly and accurately. Unless there is a observed need to retouch on the basics just roll on with the meat of the course. Following that, dont touch on state laws or use of force law, it changes state to state and that isn't your responsibility in this aspect to teach, and in the end, you dont have time to get into it.


Otherwise it ran pretty well and I think the majority of shooters did well and had a net benefit from the course. Personally I wanted to thank you for letting me and John run the qual course, that aspect alone was worth the day. I started typing this up on the HTF posting but thought it better to send it to you personally. Do with it as you see fit, feel free to post it publicly or not.

My reply:




All great points, and thank you very much for taking the time to write it up.  I posted my own critique hoping that it would encourage others to do so, and everything you wrote is spot on.

Shane said immediately after the course that the basic shooting stuff (grip, stance, etc) was out.  We are also going to reduce the defensive technique stuff significantly.

Prereqs are something that I would definitely include in a regular course.  However, we are teaching this at a conference and won't know the makeup of the class until we are on the range with them.  This also impacts the target array as we will not have access to the range until the actual start of the class, and I'm not certain what all will be available to us.  It may come down to using spray paint to obscure targets.