Had the pleasure to get out & do some shooting last weekend with a few new & old friends.  First off, thank you to Mike and the hosts at NPR&G for the use of the facilities, and to Chris & Joel for running a safe, fun, yet challenging class.  All the participants were friendly & conducted themselves in an extremely safe fashion, which makes the class 10x more enjoyable.  Also thanks to the weatherman who cleared the skies just in time & provided a beautiful fall day.  Too bad the weatherman had such bad luck later on.

We started off with a brief into & safety points, then got right into the action. The class was split into two: one unit shooting a qualification course with Joel based on CP1&2’s skills, the other working on weapon retention techniques with Chris Fry. The Qual course was an eye opener, and the scoring pure evil, and that’s all I’ll say about that. The weapon retention block was great in that Chris discussed the options & techniques from the citizen’s concealed carry perspective, rather than the typical military/police version.  An entire class could (and should)be devoted to this alone.

Shooting drills began with single hand manipulations. (Both primary & support sides). Suffice it to say it is challenging to draw, shoot, reload & clear malfunctions using your support side hand only.  We all learned a few things about ourselves & gear. Grounded shooting positions were next, from speed kneeling through urban prone.

Single hand drills:


Grounded:


Then there was a section on ECQC pistol work. The use of lifelike targets and shirts made the evolution as realistic as possible. It is quite unnerving to fire a weapon so close to your body/face, even if it’s not the first time. Shooting from compression through extension was also done. This all lead up to the introduction of Chris’s moving target (the weatherman) Using a training aid that moves at you was an eye opening experience over the typical static targets. It is easy to forget what you just went over when the target starts closing the gap. The breath of Chris’ knowledge of “street smack” was also impressive.

ECQC:


During a break for lunch Chris presented a quick lecture on the current strategies for the treatment of wounds, specifically gunshot wounds. This was merely an introduction, and just to get everybody thinking about having more than band aids on them while at the range, traveling in a vehicle, or expecting trouble.

After lunch we started shooting at stacked targets (clean front, clean back) With two targets directly aligned with each other, stepping to one side or another so as to hit only the intended target gets you thinking in 3 dimensions. The more movement was introduced moving laterally, front to back, and orienting on the threat from different positions.  (Facing left, right, away, etc.)  

All this culminated in the “figure 8” drill. Four targets are setup with numbers & colors on them, some directly behind others.  The student walks a figure eight pattern around 2 staggered cones. At random Chris gives the command and calls out a number, color, etc. You orient, draw, and solve the problem. This gives plenty of tasks to process all at once, and creates quite a challenge.

After we all ran through this we had pushed our time, Mike however kindly extended our range use a bit so we could get a taste for the Second party protection module. Chris presented a (my guess) compressed demonstration and then we were thrown right into the figure 8 drill again, except this time we had another person to keep track of!  All very demanding stuff.  The entire class did a great job of covering the basic safety rules first while completing the drill.  

This was the second or third time I have taken this class with MDTS over the years. I was most impressed in how the course topics have expanded beyond the advanced pistol handling skills to include material pertinent to the average CCW holder. I would highly recommend it to anybody who carries on a regular basis, and will take it again myself.

Nice writeup, you beat me to my AAR so I just referenced yours instead.
http://threadlessnut.com/2010/10/22/aar-mdts-combative-pistol-34/
At least you had the courtesy to include a couple of pictures of me ;)

As always, great class, learned a ton, both humbling and empowering.
Definitely don't want to be a weatherman during an MDTS class.
Thanks to Chris and Joel and all who attended.

Great pics and AAR!

Again, thanks to Chris and Joel for a great day of training and Mike for hosting.  We did have a great group of shooters, and safety was paramount. This was my fourth class with MDTS and I always walk away amazed with Chris's knowledge and how much he packs into a course.

That qual course was a beast! Just goes to show you can never train too much.

Ahhh yes, the poor weather man. I don't think anyone will forget that! My other favorite was " Is that 4G?" Chris really knows how to mix it up and his word play is epic. This just goes to show how much training starts in the mind.

I strongly urge anyone who has not gotten any training to check out MDTS if you are in the North East or NY. I know most of us are in the mindset of " I don't need some dude to tell me how to shoot" , but you don't realize how much some good training can open your eyes. It could be the difference between being an asset or being a statistic.

Did anyone else think of Isaiah Mustafa

during the ECQC portion?

Look down at your muzzle,
now up to your arm
now down to your muzzle,
back to your arm,
Now back to me,
I'm on a horse.