Pat MacNamara Sentinel Course - March 26-27,

ShootLogic LLC, Reevesville, SC

Weather 60-80, cloudy, humid, and/or pouring down rain
BCM 14.5 Middy, KMR ELW upper, Aimpoint ACO, PSA SOPMOD lower, ALG ACT Trigger, Silencerco Specwar 556K, Inforce WML with HSP mount, Arisaka handstop, BCM panels, Magpul MS4
Glock 19 with AmeriGlo sights, HSP INCOG Holster, Inforce APL

Velocity Sytems LWPC, Haley Strategic DC34, 5.11 Battle Belt with HSGI Tacos and KT Mech holser.

I am writing this AAR because I spent months trying to find one on this course, and couldn't. So for all you people out there wondering what the course is all about and how it is different from TAPS, etc, this is for you.

TD 1

ShootLogic Range brief
• They emphasized no handling of weapons behind the firing line, I appreciated this as "show and tell" can easily lead to safety issues.

Sentinel Philosophy Overview
• Agent in charge of your own protection detail
• Fail to plan = plan to fail
• You are your own first responder
• Performance vs outcome based training
? Making improvements to your house and you. Identify where you are, and make incremental improvements to your house, instead of getting hung up on metrics
? "How many how much how fast"  (outcome based) vs "how well can I perform a task?" (performance based)
? "The probability of achieving the goal you desire will exponentially increase once you let go of the need to have it."
? As applied to a drill…focusing on x number of clean hits versus a time
? All training systems and methodology must be comprehensive, systematic, progressive

PatMac Safety Brief
1. Know condition of your weapons system at all times (vs all weapons are always loaded…"uh, no they're not." - Goal to encourage cognitive engagement
a. Have your own combat ritual. Same way to load, press check, mental checklist, etc.
b. Many students throughout the day ended up at the firing line and got a click on their first trigger pull.
2. Trigger safety - flicking off safety is first step of trigger pull (for AR or pistols with safeties)
3. Target surrounding, not merely beyond. Be aware of target, behind, and on either side and all motions. Focal shift from just beyond the target, full focal spectrum awareness. This is the "coach for real life" stuff, where most things are in motion…what is moving near your target? Away or towards? Etc. I learned this the hard way shooting next to Pat on one of the zeroing courses of fire. I definitely shot his target…twice. That went well.
4. Muzzle awareness

Pat emphasizes the regular 4 rules, but added to them in common sense fashion.

External Ballistics Brief - 10-15 minutes: what is your bullet doing at what range and what should you do about it, if anything.

Battle Zero - 50 yard zero (for out to 200 combat effective hits)
• Multiple five round groups until eating out the x ring of an NRA 8 inch bull at 50 (last two groups for me were all in the x ring)
• Shot from the prone, using mag monopod (didn't see any malfunctions, despite hearing people tell me this causes them countless times)
• Key takeaway, letting shoulder and magpod create a vise like stablilty, you can easily find your natural point of aim, I didn't have to muscle the gun into position
• Once zeroed, practiced calling shots on quadrants of the target from the ready position while standing/kneeling
• Drill run several several times until people were dialed in

4 position rifle shoot
• 50 yds, 20 rds
• 4 NRA 8 inch bulls on the stand, forming a large square
• 5 rounds to each target, from standing, kneeling, sitting, prone (5 shots per position)
• Standard scoring via the bulls.
• Drill run twice, with the goal of incremental improvement, ie beating your score for accuracy on the second iteration

LUNCH

Pistol Basics
• When you can go slow…GO FREAKIN SLOW. Several students tried to rush this basic, warm up type drills. They were coached against this.
• 1 mag, from the ready, present out, sight sight squeeze squeeze sight sight squeeze squeeze etc BOOM. Slowly bring the gun back to the ready. Begin again.
? Slow slow fire, taking time, and grouping around your first hole
• 1 mag, draw, present out,  sight sight squeeze squeeze sight sight squeeze squeeze etc BOOM. Reholster. Begin again.
? Drawing is holstering in reverse (Rob Leatham)
• Pat considers presentation a fundamental of pistol shooting, along with sight alignment, trigger control, breathing, and follow through
• Two sight pictures for one shot. Always be ready to take one more than the drill calls for. BOOM, reset, sight picture. No "snatching"
• Check your work through your sights

5 second drill
• 2 rounds from the draw, from the ready, and strong hand only from the draw at the 7,10, 15, 20. 5 seconds max time each for screwing with people's heads. Using a shot timer to force errors
• Note this is an example of outcome based training, and was noted as such, and had results one would expect from outcome based training. This was a great illustration.

Accuracy Test
• 15 yards - 5 ready, 5 support hand, 5 strong hand draw at the head of an IPSC target
• From this you deduce your scoring rubric for the next drill (A vs C zone or an IPSC target, 130-150 points, 130 being the whole target). I opted for 140, and got all my hits in the C zone. I was happy with this as I had never really shot support hand only much.

Pick Your Poison Drill
• 20 yards freestyle. (at the size from accuracy test), 10 rounds
• 15 yards strong hand - 10 rounds
• 10 yards support hand - 10 rounds

Vehicle Instruction Block
• When you first enter a vehicle - check the doors, open and close a bunch of times, to ensure you can do it under pressure (ex go off a bridge, carjacking, fire, accident, etc)
• Always 3/4 tank when you park for the day
• Always back in
• Rifle and bail out bag in the trunk
• Basic get home/crisis bag as well. Non mil looking, not tactical per se, but more useful (water, light, first aid, map, notepad, snacks, etc. Think Atlanta 285 snowstorm a few years ago)

HD Block
• Line of delineation for family defense, in defillade if possilble
• Be unpredictable (ex come around corner in a crouch)
• HD handgun must have light
• Accountability for every round
• Almost all of a house is concealment, not cover
• Have plan to consolidate family members (precious cargo of your protection detail)


TD 2

CST (Combat Strength Training) - 2 hours

Combatives Block - 1.5 hours
• Forward flinch
• Basic boxing 1-2
• Footwork and body language for avoiding confrontation

Rifle Barricade Practice - 15 rounds, 3 mags of 5 from cover
• Pop out some place difference after reloads
• Communicate with buddy
• We ran through this several times, we had 2 or 3 barricade setups. We just kept a line going

Round Robin
• Set it off - 3 mags of 3, 5 hits, starting facing away from target)
• Bilateral (20 rds switch shoulders every shot with carbine)
• Scrambler - mag of 2, 3, 4
? Two barricades
? 1          2  1  2
? Must shoot identical numbers from the same barricade, leftmost 1 must be shot 4 times, all others shot once.
? Mag of 2, mag of 3, mag of 4
? FOR TIME
? First round (Practice) 22 seconds, for real I did a 19:22. Most people in the class ended up DQing themselves on the drill. My time wasn't really that fast, I just didn't screw up. Remember that whole outcome based training thing earlier? I thought to myself "7 clean hits" and just relaxed and it went fine. Most other students were psyched out of their mind and screwed up accordingly. I don't say this to pat myself on the back, but to affirm the effectiveness of the performance mindset of incremental improvement vs the outcome based.

Pistol Round Robin
• Blaze X Drill
• Grid of Fire
• Delta 7
• The Grinder
• One other I can't remember with special targets and conflicting descriptions. It was super hard.


Overall, I felt this class was an outstanding value. There are many different courses out there for about this price range and this round count. There are many qualified instructors out there as well. What I appreciated the most about the Sentinel Course was that it was specifically tailored to civilian mindset, equipment, and situations. That is not to say it wasn't a "tactical" class, but it emphasized skillsets applicable to the civilian specific situations that weekend warriors run into every day. Not many classes have this much knowledge transfer about skills other than shooting. I felt like I was more prepared to defend my family across different environments, from a planning and execution standpoint, as opposed to shaving 1 second off my draw and double tap. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just a broader focus to the course.

There was a huge emphasis on round accountability. Every single shot had to be evaluated as we were shooting. Most of the drills don’t involve a lot of rapid fire, but rather a single or handful of shots on a relatively small target, but including either a mental challenge to solve, a longer range than you would expect, or movement before and after your shot. Occasionally someone would do something stupid, and Pat would just say "Guys…this is a sentinel course. It's a sentinel course..." As in, "you are a responsible and trained gun handler, get your crap together because people in your shoes have to be good and not suck!"

Often times MIL/LE types look down on civilian gun handlers, and I understand why, but Pat's philosophy is that the whole nation is stronger if all gun handlers are better. There are entire forums out there dedicated to only full time gun type people, and I totally get that. BUT, Civilians don't get to lay down blankets of suppressive fire when we are in a tough spot. We have to shoot, shoot fast, and not miss, because the consequences for missing a shot in a store or in your house are much different than having a shot go high in the Hindu Kush. Precision is actually a safety concern for the Sentinel. In addition, if you fail, it isn't soldiers that will die, it is your family or loved ones at stake. Competence and proficiency has to be viewed in personal terms for the Sentinel. We think to ourselves that civilians can't/don't need to be as good as MIL/LE. There are tons of classes out there that are "MIL/LE only", or you have to have creds, etc. Pat, although he has the resume to think that way, is committed to helping everyone get better. He wasn't wearing a plate carrier and multicam, he was wearing what he wears to the grocery store and local watering hole, because he is a civilian now. I chuckled at this, because how many times have you shown up at a course where it's the weekend warrior civilian who is decked out in multicm head to toe. I just wore hiking pants and a long sleeve Columbia shirt both days, and all my draws and reloads were from concealment with the pistol, because that is how I go to the grocery store. I found this non gear-centric attitude refreshing and insightful.

This class was also very diverse. The shooting was interspersed with non-shooting blocks of instruction (CST, vehicles, combatives, and home defense). These non shooting blocks were actually where I took the most notes and learned a ton. It was great to see the concepts from the book explained with physical demonstrations.

This was not a manipulation heavy class. There weren't blocks on clearing malfunctions and speed reloads, and crazy positions. The emphasis was on getting your weapon on target quickly from the holster or from the ready, and NOT MISSING. There was a good bit of shooting, but there were no drills with more than 5 rounds from any position. No mag dumping, no shooting 10 rapid fire rounds at anything.

In summary, this course is basically some of the TAPS course (about which much more has been written by others) married to blocks of instruction on civilian applicable topics: Home defense strategy, vehicle planning (get home bag, active shooter response, contingency planning, safety), Combat Strength Training and fitness (the most informative block, and many many many civilian gun owners don't do squat in this area), and basic combatives. I recommend the Sentinel book as well.

Pat's attitude is contagious. If you don't know what I mean look up his new series from Pantaeo or his Youtube channel. The guy is just insane. I am 100% glad I trained with him, and would do so again.

There is no time like the present to get up to speed skillet wise. Look at Orlando.Civilians don't get to wait 3 hours for SWAT to storm the building. It's your family in there, not theirs. Train hard and shoot straight and get it done!

After this class I am confident that if I have to clear leather on any threat inside of 30 yards, I'm getting a first round hit, and getting it fast. I have been running most drills from the class at my monthly range days and the sustainment is awesome. Relatively low round count and high yield drills.

If you are civilian, and want to be the best you can be...get after it!!

Bgrav321

Great writ-up. Pat is an excellent instructor! You ever get that chance to train with Pat, do it.

I really wish he had a schedule up so I could see where courses were being held......Ever since the Alias bullshit no idea when or where.....