It’s the beginning of 2022 and we’re all lying to ourselves about the things we want to accomplish this year. I’ve been contemplating trying to achieve the Modern Samurai Black Belt Standards. I have no idea if I can do it even if I practice a bunch this year. However, I am going to try. I’d like to take a Modern Samurai class at some point. I understand that to get an official score, you need to do it in one of his classes, but this will be practice on my range in efforts to improve my own shooting.

A little background on me, I’ve taken two Thunder Ranch classes, a Tactical Response class, and another local class. My wife and I shoot some local pistol matches on the weekends but are consistently in the middle of the pack. Most of the training I’ve taken is all self defense focused. I’ve never focused on speed, it’s something Clint Smith harps on. Speed will come with your adrenaline pumping in the moment, focus on fundamentals. While I completely agree, fundamentals will only take you so far. I want to start focusing on shooting faster. I try to focus a year to trying something new. A good example is my time with carrying a 1911 (See my journey HERE).

If you are not familiar with the Black Belt standards I’ve outlined them below (SOURCE):

3&2 Drill
  3 yards
  3 shots to the COM Alpha 6”x11” then transition to 2 rounds on a 3”x5” card in the head box
  Black Belt - Par is 2.0 seconds
  Brown Belt – Par is 2.15 seconds
  Purple Belt – Par is 2.5 seconds
  Blue Belt – Par is 3.0 seconds

7yrd 1 Shot Drill
  7 yards
  1 shot to COM Alpha 6”x11”
  Black Belt - Par is 1.0 second
  Brown Belt – Par is 1.1
  Purple Belt – Par is 1.3
  Blue Belt – Par is 1.5

Bill Drill
  7 yards
  6 shots to COM Alpha 6”x11”
  Black Belt - Par is 2.0 seconds
  Brown Belt – Par is 2.15 seconds
  Purple Belt – Par is 2.5 seconds
  Blue Belt – Par is 3.0 seconds

25yrd 1 Shot Drill
  25 yards
  1 shot to COM Alpha 6”x11”
  Black Belt - Par is 1.5 seconds
  Brown Belt – Par is 1.65 seconds
  Purple Belt – Par is 2.0 seconds
  Blue Belt – Par is 2.25 seconds

Since I broke my extractor to my 1911, I have transitioned back to carrying Glocks. Primarily my G17 w/ X300U and RMR. I plan to do most of my Black Belt practice with my my carry gun. I will mix and match practice with a IWB 4 o'clock holster and a 6360RDS on a belt rig. I might mix up my practice using my Roland Special-ish G19 and an all factory G17.

I wanted to start this thread to get it going and I will post my results and targets here. Be aware that I plan to post the good and the bad. I'm confident this will be a humbling experience. I really am focused on trying to achieve Blue Belt, but maybe, just maybe Black Belt one day.

Samurai and "belts"?

MSP Black Belt standards are extremely difficult to achieve. Especially on “game day” after sinking an incredible amount of time into becoming proficient at them them beforehand. That said, go for it!  They are not impossible by any means.

Whether you think you can achieve them or not you should seek out Scott’s knowledge.  He is an amazing teacher. I have been to two of his classes. They are awesome!  And no, I didn’t come anywhere close to any belt standard. Well, I did shoot the 3x2 clean in something like 2.26 last year. Then, shanked it from there.

Excellent goal for 2022!!!

Yeah, Scott pokes fun at himself for this as well.

Very nice OP, i've been carrying my 19x this week so I’m in!!

Looking forward to this thread as much as I enjoy the 1911 posts.

Nice.  Good luck.

I've started focusing on some of this too coming into the year.   Specially the 7y and 25y draw bits.   I need to work on my draw process speed (efficiency) while hitting my best grip and dot picture consistently, as well as my gas and brake control on the shot.  Knocking off time here should help me on virtually ever other drill I chase.    Ideally I want to be able to do these two consistently on B8 5.5" 9 rings instead of Azones eventually because I'm more of the defensive mindset and put a lot of emphasis on that accuracy requirement.  That's my goal anyway.

I took Jedi's class once about 4 years ago but didn't put a lot of time into working what was taught to the fullest.    I have another class with him coming up later this year.   I don't think I will be any kind of black belt candidate by then either but this is about personal improvement and the journey of improvement.

Oh heck yea.

I have been wanting to get into one of his classes but my schedule never lined up.

Well… I ran a few drills this evening. I gotta say. Im embarrassed and fairly pleased at the same time. I think the blue belt standards are a great achievement to aim for. Black belt seems unattainable at this point, but I can still have goals!



Got a target setup real quick and after reviewing the drill a few times finally decided to give it my first go.



Whooohooo! I didn’t drop a single shot. Through the first run. Here are the results from the cold drill:

3.51s
1.60s
3.82s
2.01s - Blue Belt Score

The red dot is SOOO nice with the 25yrd target. However offset is important on the 3x5 card. My initial thoughts were I left a lot of time on the table with the Bill Drill. I felt really slow. Also I felt that I got lucky with the 7rd and 25yrd single shot stages as far as my hits.

So I decided to run it again. Here are my results from the second drill:

2.73 w/ 2 misses (remember your offset idiot)
1.52
3.43
1.92 - Purple Belt Score!

I know I have time to shave if I find my cadence. The ALS Safariland is easy to draw from. I’d like to dial in my results and see how much time drawing from the 4 o’clock adds.

I ran the drills a few more times to work out kinks. Overall, I’m very pleased. I got a long journey to improve, but it excites me to get practicing again!



Thanks for the words of encouragement. I like hearing what others that have tried it have found.

Nice.

Jedi will tell you that the best way to gain time is to work on your draw. Your draw is where you can shave a lot of time and then focus on the shot(s).  I can’t tell from your photo but if you’re not running a nub mod on that ALS I’d highly recommend one.  

Cheat code. Since the 3/2 is so close I just use my backplate for the three and then use the dot for the two small targets.

Another cheat code. For the bill drill pick a point 1/3 up from the bottom and focus on that. That way if you squeeze off a shot a little early your gun/dot is still tracking inside the A zone.

Jealous of that nice warm climate you have there. It was -11* and snowing on this morning’s nvg walk.

Good job red beard!

I would really like to take an MSP course, thanks for laying these out.

Speed has been difficult for me to increase the last year or so.

My training buddy has the sub 1 second draw down with A box hit.

I float around 1.5 or so. It’s because I have a tendency to confirm my flash sight picture.

My accuracy is on point but his speed crushes me sometimes.

The struggle continues....

Defoor hat quals at 25y

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Great tips! I just ordered a Nub mod to try out. I’m currently only using the ALS draw. I’m keeping my SLS hood forward. I’m confident there’s a lot of time to shave everywhere, but my draws always feel like there’s extra unnecessary movement.

Southern Indiana weather is crazy. This morning at 3am its 45*F, while yesterday around 3pm it was down in the 20*Fs. It’s far from negative temps though!

Ive never videoed myself shooting. I highly expect at some point I’ll do this to identify where the ‘extra time’ is at. I can hear Clint Smith yelling at me that he’s never seen a stopwatch in a gunfight. I think these drills are valuable though. I know practicing them will make me a better shooter.

Those black belt standards seem extremely challenging (suppose that's the point!). Best of luck to you OP and thanks for sharing some benchmark data.

Seems that the only way anyone gets in that ballpark is with an exceptionally fast+efficient draw/presentation. The fastest I can manage I about 1.4 for the first shot, and that's absolutely outdriving my headlights. 1.5ish is more comfortable and consistent for me, but clearly that's not going to get it done.

Only word of caution, and you're probably well aware...don't try and speed things up so fast that fundamental accuracy becomes poor or your draw stroke becomes sketchy (bad grip etc). Speed matters! But not at the expense of acceptable shot placement or safety.

Awesome!

I'm attending his class.in October, can't wait!

Jedi’s dry practice goal is a .6 first shot so that when time comes to perform .9 feels like he’s moving at a turtles pace.

When I get a sub one second A zone hit at 7 yards (from concealed or with retention) I feel like the pedal is to the metal. I need to carve out more time for dry practice.

I think .8 hits are Grandmaster territory if I’m not mistaken.

Excellent goal to work towards those standards.... gonna be tough.

Best of luck to you Sir

I'll probably get a new shot timer something month so I'll post up my times as well

Do you have a classification or an idea on how much “heat” is in the pack? Big pond vs small pond, etc.

My 2¢ for free: Continue with competitions and vary your practice. I think most would agree that Eric Grauffel might be the best practical pistol shooter and Herschel Walker may be one of the most athletic athletes out there… and both stress the importance of variety in training. Walker focused on his weaknesses/and what he felt gave him a workout and Grauffel never shot the same drill twice. I think most amateurs (for lack of a better word) miss that and want to do the same thing over and over again (which can work) but variety can keep things fresher and may work faster overall in the end, speaking from experience. I’ve done the grind of dry fire and live fire repetitious practice.

If you are interested you can research motor learning but here’s a quick example, one study showed that in learning or refining the free throw, subjects improved their accuracy and consistency by varying the distance from the basket - they improved more than the subjects that shot free throws only at standard 15ft the whole training cycle.

Re: equipment switching I only know of Josh Waitzkin would switch briefly and not often as kind of a reset for his water sports adventure.

Holy hell.  1.0s

Can anyone link a video of this being done by someone NOT carrying AIWB?  I’ve seen it done AIWB and I still am amazed at the speed and economy of movement.

I have done a sub second or two but I can never consistently do it and get A zone hits.  It is a goal of mine to be below 1 second but I do not have the time and ammo budget to get there especially with ammo prices right now.

Good job, OP.  A worthy goal/standard to shoot for.

I have made 'black belt' standards in each one of the drills individually--but never back to back (all one after another), and not at his class--I think I only made two of them at his class.  The requirements are no joke.

That is not my problem my problem is a almost 1 year old little girl that takes so much of my attention.  Things will get better when she can join in on the fun with me at the range some day.  Teaching her to shoot and drive are things I honestly cannot wait to do.

The trick is to do it during nap time or after she goes to bed.

OP - the black belt standard is flipping difficult.  No way around it.  In order to actually get the patch you get to do it near the end of day 2 of Jedi's course, in front of everyone.  One thing you didn't mention is that for slick or open-top holsters you add .1 seconds to time.  If you're drawing from concealment or a holster w/retention your time stands as-is.  

One of the dudes in my class came so damn close but dropped a round on his bill drill.  A year later I saw on FB that the same guy ended up getting the patch.  

When I tested for it, I shot a G19 from AIWB.  I got black on two of the standards, but missed the others.  I cleared the 3x2, and the 25 yard hit (that was a bit of a fluke, but a close line break is still a break!).  Shot a clean bill but couldn't make time, and the sub second draw was close but no cookie (something a hair under 1.2).  Highly recommend Jedi's class.  The man is a helluva instructor.  he somehow is able to make a 20+ person course seem personable and manages to get everyone some private instruction.  

Good luck!

Holy hell has player 2 entered the game with that bombshell! I'm still in, and I think I'm close (not to black, like I was thinking) but I'm using an app on my phone as a shot timer. It's not 100%, guess I need to fix that.

Good information! I’m not confident that I’ll be able to achieve the black belt standards, but if I consistently practice I’d love to be able to get blue belt scores cold.

I know about his holster penalties, I’m drawing from an ALS holster so there is no penalty. I’d like to try to do ALS and SLS, but I fumble it often. Just another thing to practice. I’ve been dry firing each day. I’ll post another practice target either this afternoon or tomorrow ??

I took Scott’s class a few years ago. He taught me what I needed to know to use the dot effectively.

I would not want to face him in a gun fight!

I can shoot sub 1 second 1 shot drills at 7 yards fairly easily (competition holster).  Now add 2 or 3 more shots to that string and it slows down to 1-1.2.

It's easy to go fast and have a sloppy grip with one shot drills.

Finally got around to loading more 9mm. I broke the index ring on my 650 and didn't have a spare.

Anyways, I promised the ugly, so here it is. Boy was I struggling this evening. Here are my results:



Absolutely embarrassing:






Obviously, I’m driving much faster than I should be. I need to slow it down and focus on making hits.

Right on. Scott would say, “Don’t slow down, just be more careful.”  

I’m all ready to try this, just have to get a range setup and time!

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I was having issues today and started skipping chambers but this was a run that I didn't have any issues. That last miss was trying to repeat #4. I was shocked I got my hit. I tried again and it was a miss I then did a bunch of singles and got down to 1.07 with a bunch in-between 1.1 and 1.15.

This was with 158gr swc @1200fps to from a jmcustom AIWB holster.

Shit, I just realized that #1 was supposed to be at 3 yards. I was at 7.

Lol well done sir!!

Notice on his website everyone listed (except one I think) used a full sized gun. Also, they all used red dots. What are the rules for hand position if doing it AIWB?

Wait until you buy her 3 guns and a suppressor and after shooting through 100 rounds she decides she doesn’t like it:(

Did 2 runs today
1-2.39
2-1.31-miss
3-2.71
4-1.61

1-2.51
2-1.28
3-2.70
4-1.79
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hell of a standard. I used to be solid in that range but with a competition rig, OWB kydex and a full custom 2011. And my shoulders were a decade fresher

I think the thing that helps most is eliminating wasted movement. video your draw from other angles, see what weird stuff you're doing that you don't need to be doing. figure out what you absolutely need to see in your sight picture and what you don't. for that 3 yard I wouldn't even use sights, just flash down the top of the slide. You obviously need more focus as you're going for the small one but otherwise you can blaze.

Also helps to understand your recoil control and know how fast you can "double" or the right cadence to dump rounds and have them end up in about the same spot. But all that comes from practice and practice and practice...

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Some good shooting on here. Anyone have links to some targets?

I drew boxes and copied them at work

If you have a room that you do your dry fire practice in, post-it notes and multi-colored 3x5 notecards make for phenomenal practice targets.  

Otherwise, USPSA/IPSC targets are the way.

MSP targets

I’m one of those 3/4 guys Bryan watched. Here’s an AAR I did about my experience w Jedi’s 3 day class. Since then I’ve hosted him quite a few times at my PD range. Still working towards that BB patch.

AAR

Tagscribe

Thanks 03

OST

Took his class years ago.
The instruction was good but tbh I think the standards on the bb patch are unrealistic.  The par times are so short that I think whether or not you make it depends heavily on luck and taking shots that are unaimed.  I don't believe that there are many who can reliability repeat the standards.  I think there are other standards that would be better used as a measure of pure skill.

IIRC one guy in my class got the patch but he was not in my observation the best shooter or even one of the top 5 in the class.

I thought I’d give this a try today, I’ve never tried it before. I’ll be doing it some more. I’d like to try it with my Safariland ALS

Yes, the first time I screwed up the first course of fire!






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Right on!  Bold move posting a video.  

Please don’t take this the wrong way, I’m only trying to help. You and I suffer for the same problem. You have a lot of unnecessary upper body movement in your draw. Don’t drop your shoulder when drawing your gun and don’t droop/slump your upper body on presentation. Those are hard habits to break. Ask me how I know. .

“Speed through efficiency and technique. Being ahead will always be the fastest.”  -Scott Jedlinski