First off, let me state from the outset that this will NOT be an AAR like esrice produces. I am neither that talented nor that disciplined. I don't take notes, I absorb ... and then forget, sadly. So, it will be brief and contain whatever high points I can recall.
That said, I have trained with Dave before. He was the Law Officer Trainer of the Year for 2010, and has written books on his experiences and philosophies. His website (Home) contains a lot more info than I will try to impart here. Suffice it to say that, as a career LEO in the Dayton, OH, area, he brings insight into the criminal mindset that we normal people just can't appreciate. In his career, he took time to get to know the bad guys on the street, as well as in the jail, and it was enlightening -- and downright scary -- to see into a criminal's mind. More on that later.
Dave's presentation began with discussing the essentials of encounters in low-light situations. Rarely are we ever in total darkness, and it's the variations in light and dark in a typical low-light encounter that can spell danger to the unwary. Bad guys generally seek out darkness, so each dark area in a room or on a street corner should be considered areas of threat.
After consideration of the legal and civil costs associated with even a valid self-defense shooting, options to an armed encounter should always be considered -- avoid and evade. If avoidance or evasion are no longer viable options, then violent encounter is the only path left.
Dave avoids the term "defensive" in his presentations, because as soon as a bad guy makes an offensive move, we are naturally on the defensive. He feels that we should train NOT to just survive, but to prevail. That means that we must shift from being on defense to becoming effectively offensive in order to prevail in a violent encounter. And sometimes becoming effectively offensive entails behavior that is foreign to civilized humans, but natural to criminals. As he put it, "The winner in a knife fight is the guy who gets to go to the hospital!"
A point that Dave made about his experience in all departments -- jail, patrol, homicide, SWAT, vice -- is the importance of interviewing the bad guys. He spent time interviewing them, finding out what makes them tick, and impressed upon us that they just don't think like we do. They not only often have nothing to lose, but have street smarts and some experience in attacking those unwilling to effectively defend themselves. And while the training we as civilians often take hones our shooting and tactical skills, it often does little to foster a true combat mindset -- one that will do whatever it takes to prevail, not just survive. The harsh reality is that most of us will never know if we have developed a combat mindset until we are forced into a real-life situation that demands it.
On to the range ...
Dave had us warm up with a "fade-back" drill -- shooting 3 rounds into a 3" square, dropping back a few yards after each set, until we were far enough away (about 15 yards) that our front sights completely covered the square. This got us working on breathing, trigger control and sight picture, as Dave made the rounds and assessed everyone's progress.
There were something like 18 in the class, so we ran the exercises in relays. The course called for about 600 rounds of ammo, and I'd say we ran through that and more. Dave has an impish personality on the range, often challenging students with a deadpan look and then breaking into a grin.
We spent the majority of the first day learning various ways to use a tactical flashlight to investigate surroundings and identify threats, and then various holds for the flashlight that allow a shooter to illuminate possible threats and engage while maintaining control of our weapons. We practiced these on the range with the lights on first -- Harries, FBI, syringe, neck index, etc. -- and then with the lights reduced, then finally in near-total darkness. Having taken some low-light training before, I know how easily we revert to the path of least resistance when under stress -- flashlight in one hand, pistol in the other, and neither working effectively, let alone together. However, Dave didn't really induce any real stress in this course, so most of us were able to see which hold worked best for our individual needs and equipment.
Day Two started with a mini-lecture on the combat mindset, which I have already covered a bit.
And the following slide is reflective of some of the content:
That pretty much sums up the combat mindset. We must be willing to do whatever it takes to prevail, not just survive -- even if that means plucking out the eyeballs of an assailant, or using a ballpoint pen as a weapon.
Back to the range. We did the same fade-back warmup drill, concentrating on the fundamentals of marksmanship. Once warmed up, barricades were erected and the lights were extinguished. The relays worked both sides of the barricades, engaging targets without (hopefully!) shooting holes in the barricades.
I managed to draw blood -- I always do that somehow -- on one of the particle board barricades, and after dripping here and there, got a Band-Aid for it and carried on. The purpose of this exercise was not only to get more experience using the various holds, but to find out what worked in weird situations -- like shooting through a rectangular opening where the light and gun had to be stacked, or shooting around the left side of a barricade, where shooting with the assist hand might be more effective. The targets were scored (somewhat), and multiple hits outside the critical zones often garnered a comment from Dave like, "Son, are you sure you can see your front sight? Can you see the target? Can you see ANYTHING??" And then a slight smile as he walked on to the next student.
We practiced using our flashlights to identify a possible threat to our sides and behind us, using the light first and then turning to address a threat, first with lights up and then in darkness. Then Dave lined us up by relays and did a "twinkle drill," using his light to light up each of our targets randomly, simulating muzzle flash directed by a threat toward us. We would illuminate the threat and fire (standing or kneeling), kill the light and move laterally, usually running into the guy next to us.
While we were topping off mags, Dave was silently arranging barricades and targets by himself.
Then he picked up benches and placed them seemingly at random on the range. Then he kicked brass into the area. And tossed brooms and anything else that wasn't nailed down, until it was apparent that there were two distinct fire lanes littered with junk and stuff. The exercise was to start behind a barricade, traverse the mine field of debris and engage the targets from a distance established by glow sticks about 5 yards from the targets. The targets were three bad guys, one behind a barricade, one exposed, and one hiding behind a hostage. Two effective shots on each bad guy. In less than 15 seconds.
It wasn't a difficult task, and most completed it without issue. The notable exception was a married couple who accidentally each shot the hostage. We all just assumed that it was a lovers' spat.
As is Dave's custom, the class finished with what he calls the "2 x 2 x 2" Drill. Two shots, from concealment, into a 3"x5" card in 2 seconds or less from 20 feet. Why it's not "2 x 2 x 20," I can't tell you. Its roots are in an exercise that a training school for SpecOps and SWAT types did, where an instructor could grab a student at anytime during training and demand that the student perform that drill. On demand. No warning, no warmup. On demand.
Dave hands out challenge coins to anyone who can successfully perform the task. He has had thousands try, and to date only 6 have succeeded. He showed us coin #007, but that's as close as any of us came to earning it. Coin #007 is safe for another class.
In all, it was a good class. For someone with zero experience with shooting at night, I'm sure it would have been plenty challenging. Moreover, it was just a fun class with good students, and an instructor who is good at what he does -- teaching others how to shoot.
The venue was good. Kodiak Firing Range is a unique facility, with a great setup for teaching. In addition to the standard public range with 10 lanes, a couple of them with steel targets set up, there is an adjacent range just for classes that is equally large, with a rubber floor covering about 1/3 of the range, making speed reloads easier on mags. The lighting is adequate for training, but a couple of drawbacks are their ventilation system and the noise from the public range. By the time we would run a drill, there was a significant amount of smoke in the range, and I'm still wheezing today from it. I hear that they will be installing more fans soon, and perhaps that will improve the ventilation.
Also, there was a significant amount of debris ricocheting off the ballistic mats at the end of the range, and everybody got hit with some small pieces. Eye pro is a MUST!
I'll be taking another of his courses in June, and hope that we will have enough time for him to spend a few minutes critiquing my skills (or lack thereof.) I'm pretty sure that if I asked him, he would just look at me with that deadpan look and say something like, "Why? You can't shoot for **** anyway, and there's nothing I can do that will change that."
And then he'd smile and say, "Sure. What do you need?"
That said, I have trained with Dave before. He was the Law Officer Trainer of the Year for 2010, and has written books on his experiences and philosophies. His website (Home) contains a lot more info than I will try to impart here. Suffice it to say that, as a career LEO in the Dayton, OH, area, he brings insight into the criminal mindset that we normal people just can't appreciate. In his career, he took time to get to know the bad guys on the street, as well as in the jail, and it was enlightening -- and downright scary -- to see into a criminal's mind. More on that later.
Dave's presentation began with discussing the essentials of encounters in low-light situations. Rarely are we ever in total darkness, and it's the variations in light and dark in a typical low-light encounter that can spell danger to the unwary. Bad guys generally seek out darkness, so each dark area in a room or on a street corner should be considered areas of threat.
After consideration of the legal and civil costs associated with even a valid self-defense shooting, options to an armed encounter should always be considered -- avoid and evade. If avoidance or evasion are no longer viable options, then violent encounter is the only path left.
Dave avoids the term "defensive" in his presentations, because as soon as a bad guy makes an offensive move, we are naturally on the defensive. He feels that we should train NOT to just survive, but to prevail. That means that we must shift from being on defense to becoming effectively offensive in order to prevail in a violent encounter. And sometimes becoming effectively offensive entails behavior that is foreign to civilized humans, but natural to criminals. As he put it, "The winner in a knife fight is the guy who gets to go to the hospital!"
A point that Dave made about his experience in all departments -- jail, patrol, homicide, SWAT, vice -- is the importance of interviewing the bad guys. He spent time interviewing them, finding out what makes them tick, and impressed upon us that they just don't think like we do. They not only often have nothing to lose, but have street smarts and some experience in attacking those unwilling to effectively defend themselves. And while the training we as civilians often take hones our shooting and tactical skills, it often does little to foster a true combat mindset -- one that will do whatever it takes to prevail, not just survive. The harsh reality is that most of us will never know if we have developed a combat mindset until we are forced into a real-life situation that demands it.
On to the range ...
Dave had us warm up with a "fade-back" drill -- shooting 3 rounds into a 3" square, dropping back a few yards after each set, until we were far enough away (about 15 yards) that our front sights completely covered the square. This got us working on breathing, trigger control and sight picture, as Dave made the rounds and assessed everyone's progress.
There were something like 18 in the class, so we ran the exercises in relays. The course called for about 600 rounds of ammo, and I'd say we ran through that and more. Dave has an impish personality on the range, often challenging students with a deadpan look and then breaking into a grin.
We spent the majority of the first day learning various ways to use a tactical flashlight to investigate surroundings and identify threats, and then various holds for the flashlight that allow a shooter to illuminate possible threats and engage while maintaining control of our weapons. We practiced these on the range with the lights on first -- Harries, FBI, syringe, neck index, etc. -- and then with the lights reduced, then finally in near-total darkness. Having taken some low-light training before, I know how easily we revert to the path of least resistance when under stress -- flashlight in one hand, pistol in the other, and neither working effectively, let alone together. However, Dave didn't really induce any real stress in this course, so most of us were able to see which hold worked best for our individual needs and equipment.
Day Two started with a mini-lecture on the combat mindset, which I have already covered a bit.
And the following slide is reflective of some of the content:
That pretty much sums up the combat mindset. We must be willing to do whatever it takes to prevail, not just survive -- even if that means plucking out the eyeballs of an assailant, or using a ballpoint pen as a weapon.
Back to the range. We did the same fade-back warmup drill, concentrating on the fundamentals of marksmanship. Once warmed up, barricades were erected and the lights were extinguished. The relays worked both sides of the barricades, engaging targets without (hopefully!) shooting holes in the barricades.
I managed to draw blood -- I always do that somehow -- on one of the particle board barricades, and after dripping here and there, got a Band-Aid for it and carried on. The purpose of this exercise was not only to get more experience using the various holds, but to find out what worked in weird situations -- like shooting through a rectangular opening where the light and gun had to be stacked, or shooting around the left side of a barricade, where shooting with the assist hand might be more effective. The targets were scored (somewhat), and multiple hits outside the critical zones often garnered a comment from Dave like, "Son, are you sure you can see your front sight? Can you see the target? Can you see ANYTHING??" And then a slight smile as he walked on to the next student.
We practiced using our flashlights to identify a possible threat to our sides and behind us, using the light first and then turning to address a threat, first with lights up and then in darkness. Then Dave lined us up by relays and did a "twinkle drill," using his light to light up each of our targets randomly, simulating muzzle flash directed by a threat toward us. We would illuminate the threat and fire (standing or kneeling), kill the light and move laterally, usually running into the guy next to us.
While we were topping off mags, Dave was silently arranging barricades and targets by himself.
Then he picked up benches and placed them seemingly at random on the range. Then he kicked brass into the area. And tossed brooms and anything else that wasn't nailed down, until it was apparent that there were two distinct fire lanes littered with junk and stuff. The exercise was to start behind a barricade, traverse the mine field of debris and engage the targets from a distance established by glow sticks about 5 yards from the targets. The targets were three bad guys, one behind a barricade, one exposed, and one hiding behind a hostage. Two effective shots on each bad guy. In less than 15 seconds.
It wasn't a difficult task, and most completed it without issue. The notable exception was a married couple who accidentally each shot the hostage. We all just assumed that it was a lovers' spat.
As is Dave's custom, the class finished with what he calls the "2 x 2 x 2" Drill. Two shots, from concealment, into a 3"x5" card in 2 seconds or less from 20 feet. Why it's not "2 x 2 x 20," I can't tell you. Its roots are in an exercise that a training school for SpecOps and SWAT types did, where an instructor could grab a student at anytime during training and demand that the student perform that drill. On demand. No warning, no warmup. On demand.
Dave hands out challenge coins to anyone who can successfully perform the task. He has had thousands try, and to date only 6 have succeeded. He showed us coin #007, but that's as close as any of us came to earning it. Coin #007 is safe for another class.
In all, it was a good class. For someone with zero experience with shooting at night, I'm sure it would have been plenty challenging. Moreover, it was just a fun class with good students, and an instructor who is good at what he does -- teaching others how to shoot.
The venue was good. Kodiak Firing Range is a unique facility, with a great setup for teaching. In addition to the standard public range with 10 lanes, a couple of them with steel targets set up, there is an adjacent range just for classes that is equally large, with a rubber floor covering about 1/3 of the range, making speed reloads easier on mags. The lighting is adequate for training, but a couple of drawbacks are their ventilation system and the noise from the public range. By the time we would run a drill, there was a significant amount of smoke in the range, and I'm still wheezing today from it. I hear that they will be installing more fans soon, and perhaps that will improve the ventilation.
Also, there was a significant amount of debris ricocheting off the ballistic mats at the end of the range, and everybody got hit with some small pieces. Eye pro is a MUST!
I'll be taking another of his courses in June, and hope that we will have enough time for him to spend a few minutes critiquing my skills (or lack thereof.) I'm pretty sure that if I asked him, he would just look at me with that deadpan look and say something like, "Why? You can't shoot for **** anyway, and there's nothing I can do that will change that."
And then he'd smile and say, "Sure. What do you need?"
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Great review!
