I first met Shay VanVlymen back in 2008 when INGO first opened its doors. He was a fellow Moderator with a background as a Tactical Response instructor who later served as their President. In 2009, after hanging up both his INGO Mod hat and TR hat, he formed his own training company Mindset Laboratory.
With a background based in Martial Arts, Shay has a very holistic approach to training. Although this course was specific in nature, his approach is one considering both mind and body. If there are "evangelists" in the training world, he is at the top of that list. Every social encounter I've ever had with Mr. VanVlymen has included the question "so, why haven't you come to class with me yet?"
I finally ran out of excuses.
Students arrived at the indoor training facility between 8:30a and 9a, and the classroom portion started promptly at 9am. We had a small class size (3 students, 2 instructors) which made for excellent discussions and lots of training time. In attendance were INGOers esrice, VERT, and MangoTango. The largest class Shay teaches is capped at just 8 students.
We started by introducing ourselves and backgrounds, and then moved into a safety lecture. I tend to first judge a training outfit by the thoroughness of its safety lecture, and Mindset Labs' is top-notch. Not only did we go over a complete medical action plan, but we later conducted pat-downs and were wanded prior to entering the actual training environment. I felt safe the entire time.
Flashlight Combatives is a seemingly niche course designed for folks who need a force option in non-permissive environments somewhere between empty hands and edged weapons. I say "seemingly" because I now realize that this material would be beneficial to EVERYONE-- from gun-toters to grandmas, teenagers to tactical ninjas. The information was not rocket science, was not difficult to incorporate into daily life, and was plenty effective along a wide array of assaults and situations.
The biggest portion of the "tactical puzzle" is mindset, and the classroom portion was heavy in this regard. We covered not only the mindset of the good guy, but also of the bad guy who just got a face full of light. We addressed the non-threatening nature of a flashlight, and why that is its key advantage in many aspects. Cooper's Color Codes of Awareness were also presented.
The core of the course is the flashlight, and what advantages it offers its user in terms of utility, blinding light, and striking ability. Oddly enough, we didn't cover desirable flashlight attributes until after our first round against the pads. I later realized how much talking this saved the instructors, as we figured out VERY QUICKLY which features worked and which ones caused problems.
Anyone whose known Shay for more than 5 minutes probably knows his distaste for "clicky" tailcaps on flashlights. Although I had intellectually disagreed with his position on the matter, I got a chance to see first-hand the disadvantage such clickology offers. I liken a simple push-button tailcap to the manual-of-arms of a Glock, and a clicky tailcap to a 1911. They can both get the job done, but using the clicky tailcap requires the user to incorporate an additional step into the procedure (such as flicking off a thumb safety) which can become problematic under stress. It sounds petty, but doing it while hitting pads is enough to quickly see how easily it can become muffed. Unfortunately Surefire is the only game in town with such switchology, and their offering that also contains the other features that are personally desirable runs about $200 (Surefire LX2 Lumamax).
The course format was broken into alternating blocks of classroom material and practical applications of the techniques taught. This not only kept student fatigue at bay, but it gave us time to evaluate what we learned in the "warehouse" (the training environment). We broke for lunch around Noon (Subway) and resumed back in the warehouse at 1pm.
I snapped some pictures and videos to give INGOers a better perception of what actually happens in a class like this.
Shay wands VERT before entering the warehouse.
Demo lights- check. Spare batteries- check. Training analogs- check. Hello Kitty Bandaids- check.
Power bar in tactical power bar pocket- check.
We started out learning a basic index and a basic strike. Luckily for me I already use a neck/jaw index when using a light while shooting a firearm, so this method incorporated seamlessly into what I'm already used to. I love it when one technique works across many platforms.
We tested and tried each technique with a training partner holding a pad. Each student got a chance to not only strike, but to be on the receiving end of strikes.
We then progressively moved to 1-2 combination strikes, and incorporating a kick into our initial strike.
Here's MangoTango kicking and striking her way through an attacker.
VERT working on the mechanics of kick-strike-strike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTXVCw4tIOw
Toward the end of the day we put everything we had learned together against a live attacker in a FIST suit. We each went for 2 30-second rounds and 1 final 45-second round. This is where the learning REALLY took place.
For each of us, our first round effectiveness was HORRIBLE. For me, all I saw was a flailing black suit. I was hesitant to strike and unsure of my targeting areas. Andy (Mr. FIST suit) was going super easy on me and I was still getting pummeled. I felt completely out of control of the situation and everything happened very quickly.
With the helpful critique of Shay and the other students I was able to adapt my technique and I started seeing improvements immediately. This held true for the other two students as well.
Here is VERT going at a 30-second round with Andy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGo1ZwdLiaI
And MangoTango taking her turn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsAF0BehL7g
The final round was increased to 45-seconds. Although this fatigued me more than the others, I felt MUCH better about my personal performance. I felt more in control of the situation, and my perception of time slowed down, allowing me to make more conscience decisions. The same held true for VERT and MangoTango, as Andy commented the the difference between our first round fights and our last round fights were like night and day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0ov-IPR2Ws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWXKIWPp6_Q
I feel like I got much more than what I paid for in this class. The opportunity to test out techniques in near-real speed is invaluable. I learned more about myself than I had known prior to walking through the classroom door. I will be taking more Mindset Laboratory courses in the future. I'm especially interested in his force-on-force offerings coming up in 2012. Be sure to check out course announcements at Mindset Lab | Real Training + Real Testing and right here in the INGO T&T subforum.
Feel free to post your questions or comments here in this thread. I'd be glad to answer them as a student, and I'm sure Shay could answer them as the instructor.
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Strike bezels have several negative consequences and no positives (other than they do look mean 
).
