Date: 4/2 - 4/3
Where: Triple C Tactical - Cresson Texas - Great Location
Weather: Cool with a slight chance of awesome.
# of Attendees: 7
Round Count: 600 Rifle;250 Pistol (It's not about burning it down)

Synopsis: This class focuses on the specific skill sets necessary to successfully enter into a CQB Environment, focusing on the fundamental aspects of weapon manipulation, shot placement, target discrimination, moving while maintaining natural point of aim, target discrimination, self assessment, and target discrimination.

I won't go through a play by play but rather describe methodology. This class follows the same linear progression/building block mentality used by Eric's former Unit, yep, that one, albeit mucho condensed into a two day class. He stated that each of these phases represented days and weeks of honing in OTC.

Eric did a quick evaluation of everyone's pistol draw from holster while aiming at the A group on a standard IPSC target. Next was same idea with Rifle. Making sure everyone was confident in their holds, target was the Head A Box on the IPSC target.

From here Eric started from the foundation. Safety Manipulation, Trigger Pull/Followthrough, Natural Point of aim, stance. Reps on Target aiming at the A box. Working through any mag changes, working through malfunctions, concentrating on seeing your sights, seeing your target and shot placement. From 15 yards acceptable groupings were within 2". We concentrated on Control Pairs, not double taps.

Once everyone was showing proficiency in that stages given task, Eric would add one element to introduce complexity. IE from the previous description, instead of one target, there were two and the transition between the two. This modus operandi would continue throughout the day. This is where you can really see the expansion of the skill set building upon the previous skill set. It was all about maintaining the foundation you started with and natural point of aim and applying it to different scenarios. You had to incorporate every purposeful task consideration from the stages before to the new stage +1.

For my money, the most challenging part was target discrimination towards the end of the day where the targets had depth and overlap. Targets were manipulated in such a way as to change whether they were a threat or not, each shot target you had to have a cognitive decision on why you made the shot and defend it to Eric. Each rep was reviewed as to how you performed with shot placement, did you shoot through to another target, were they a threat, and was your shot incapacitating?

Eric would construct courses of fire that would include all these phases. Stationary stations, run to next station, moving forward with shot placement, moving laterally with target discrimination.

It was important to note that this was not a tactics class but a fundamentals class to be able to properly use tactics. You got to learn to dribble the ball before running the triangle offense. Eric would emphasize not to do things hurriedly, but rather perform your tasks sooner. People would start to get flustered  performing all the specific tasks at one time and groupings and targets would go to hell fairly quickly. Eric was there to ask, why did you do that? You are in charge of every shot you take, don't train your brain to see you taking poor shots. Slow down and build consistency, speed is a natural byproduct of efficiency of task execution.

I would highly recommend this class. The instruction is great, there's a great atmosphere between participants, and you can maximize your ability to grow as a marksman.

'Merica.