Just a little background about me, I am an active LEO working here in NY (Yes a Yankee
) and have taken several Pistol, edged weapon and a few other courses outside the Department. Basically I love training. I was looking to get some additional training in pretty much everything from Empty Hand to Shotgun and had some vacation time (and an understanding Wife
) so I did a pretty thorough search for an instructor/institution that would fit my needs. My buddy recommended Mathew over at MAST and lets just say I would have been pretty dumb not to consider this individuals recommendation so I gave Matthew a call. After talking to him for a while I decided he was definitely the man for the job. We decided on an "Advanced Combined" course which basically means it was geared towards my needs on the job and at home. It was a 4 day course.
On Day 1 we started with safety (Obviously) then moved on to basic skill sets with such things as mental readiness and mindset which in MY personal opinion is the most important. Then we moved on to firearm basics such as grip, stance, trigger control, draw, Emergency/Tac reloads, malfunction drills etc. After Mathew had an idea were I stood things started getting interesting extremely fast!
Days two to four were absolutely amazing to say the least. Its not even that I learned all new things. I learned slight variations in currently known techniques that dramatically improved their effectiveness. I would have flown all the way over there only for that. Despite this, I learned many techniques which I never learned before which I have already used on the job and lets just say they work quite well. Mathew already helped me stop more then one situation on the spot without having to escalate the use of force when normally I would have been forced to.
As far as Pistol I started with lets just say not such great groups even from a static position (for me as I am a perfectionist) but by day three I was shooting 3"X5" index cards while moving with quite some external "pressure."
Day Four was the shoot house which put everything together. Wow was that an eye opener! One second your in the house dealing with a regular situation next thing you know you partner is gone, your getting shot at (Airsoft with full safety gear) you can barely breath due to the smoke and you cant leave without your partner (Well unless your a quitter
.) That was just ONE of the multiple scenarios in the house.
Bottom line is if there is anyone wanting to take any type of defensive course, especially if your from the Houston area give Mathew from MAST a call, you will not be disappointed! I'm talking to Civilians and MOS as the entire time I used a regular pancake holster due to my needs. Also, in the house we focused a lot on home defense in addition to team and LE oriented scenarios.
I'm obviously not a writer but I can write forever about the class. Also, I just got back from a rather long tour so sorry if some parts aren't too coherent. I can work sleep deprived but definitely cant write!