Posted: 8/12/2008 8:19:28 AM EDT
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Class was organized by Jay Cunningham Hosted at Forest Grove Sportsman Assoc. which is about 15 minutes from Pittsburgh Int'l Airport Instructed by Todd Louis Green Instructor Bio: Todd Louis Green has worked in the firearms industry for the past ten years as well as instructing for the NRA Range, Beretta, and SIG. He has received over 700 hours of professional firearms and combatives training from such prestigious trainers as Ken Hackathorn, Ernest Langdon, Larry Vickers, Special Tactical Services, Simunition, SIG Academy, and Blackwater. A three-time “Advanced” rated shooter at Rogers Shooting School, Todd is also a graduate of the NRA Tactical Pistol Instructor Development program and a Master-ranked shooter in three divisions of International Defensive Pistol Association competition. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University as well as a Juris Doctor from Catholic University. Todd is a certified SIGARMS, Beretta, and Glock armorer; certified Simunition force-on-force instructor; and a presenter at numerous IALEFI Annual Training Conferences. Todd made no bones about it, the class was to hone your ability to shoot fast and hit what you are aiming at. It was not a 'tactical' class as much as honing your skills with a pistol. TD -1 I arrived at the hotel, checked in, etc. Once we all had gotten settled and unpacked the entire class, as well as Todd, went out to eat. This is something that I like when I go to a class, as you can get a feel for your classmates and the instructor before you hit the range. Todd came off as a wealth of knowledge on the pistol and the firearms industry, thanks to his years with Beretta and SIG. TD1 Started off with a safety briefing, paper work, etc. We then hit the range and shot our first of attempt on the FAST drill, a good yard stick for this class. The drill makes you switch gears and is good for showing you your weak points. Worked the morning on getting our minds wrapped around the idea that you can get a good enough sight picture and a good trigger press and shoot very fast with acceptable accuracy. This had us shooting some high round count drills, 2-3 magazines fired in one drill. Some of us were point shooting and not realizing it, so we then worked on a few more drills that were accuracy driven. Afternoon we worked on press-outs and our draw. This was a rough part of the class for me, as I had discovered that my draw was AFU. I was trying to process too many things at once and my accuracy suffered. We also did some more speed drills as well. I was well and truly fried when we halted the class at 5 ish. Hit the hotel and then went out to eat as a group again. This is where, during discussion with Jay and Todd, that I figured out how I was screwing up on my draw and why I needed to fix it, clicked. Went back to the range for a bit of off syllabus low-light shooting. One thing new I got from this, in the dark the strobing lights will screw with you more than you think they will. Tod was walking towards me in a straight line and I was calling out the distance I thought he was from me. I thought he was 2-3 yards away, he was within arms length. That was an eye opener. The M&P I had borrowed for the class had the brightest rear tritium sights on the planet, it had to get some marker loving to be shootable. If you own an M&P for a defensive weapon and do not have the Crimson Trace grips on it, you do not know what you are missing. Stupidly easy to hit with in the dark. I knew this from previous experience, but it was reinforced as I have not been shooting in the dark recently. Hit the hotel, hung out and BS'ed until much too late. TD2 Again kicked off with the FAST drill, I got slower  We then did some more speed work, and then went to strong hand, weak hand only shooting. The strong side offhand shooting made me feel pretty cocky, I was hammering that evil little dot. The Weak hand... well lets say I scared it really badly. That is a skill that many of us suck and and so we avoid practicing. Did a back-up drill and then took lunch. The Taco Bell screwed up drive through order  Got back and started working on shoot on the move. had some new drills I had not seen before. Did your standard straight line advance/retreat drills and then progressed to retreating off line and then to advancing/lateral/retreating off line. Todd's approach to the sight picture will help me out a great deal on this once I get more practice time on it. We then did a little cover work, just to get you thinking about it. After this we did two drills that were wake up moments for me. One was the pitbull drill, Moving milk jugs will kick your butt. The other was a number progression drill. This drill really showed that you do not have to have it perfect to have it good enough. Personal impressions. Jay did a great job organizing the class. Todd is a very good instructor, he caught a couple flaws in my technique that were deadend approaches and gave me ways to fix them PDQ. This is NOT a beginner's class, I would call it mid to high intermediate class. You were expected to be able to shoot well at a normal pace before you got there. • Fire and hit a 3x5 card at 7 yards on demand (both double and single action as appropriate) • Draw, fire 1 round, reload, fire 2 rounds (3 hits on 8” circle) at 7 yards in seven seconds Individuals who cannot meet these requirements at the beginning of class will not be able to keep up with the fast and demanding pace of instruction That is from the course description sheet, he wasn't kidding. While this is a high roundcount class ~1200 syllabus fired rounds in two days. Accuracy was always expected to be maintained enough to achieve the goals of the drills. We only straight out blasted ammo once, and it had a teaching point. Once I have practiced what I picked up at this class, I would definatly take another class from Todd |