Never A Victim
Marksman
Below is my review for "The Fight!" with Tactical Response in Camden, TN. For those of you who haven't trained with this company, you are missing out.
Tactical Response-The Fight!
The following review is for a force on force course taught by Tactical Response titled “The Fight!” This is a two day course that was taught at Tactical Response in Camden, TN. This course was on September 26-27, 2015. Gear used was a blue Glock 17 “sim” pistol, NSR C4 IWB holster, personal gunshot trauma kit, and I was carrying my spare reload from the “magazine” pocket of a pair of 5.11 pants. The instructors were Tim Morris and Dave Biggers.
For those who aren’t aware, force on force training uses trainer pistols that shoot small paint rounds. The pistol itself functions just like any other Glock except it doesn’t shoot lethal rounds. This is the most realistic training available for a gunfight. While this is not a replacement for live fire training, force on force training brings a new level of realism to the student.
The night before class I lodged in the Team Room, which is located at the private residence of James Yeager. This free lodging is open to the first 12 students that sign up for a course with Tactical Response. On Saturday I awoke and headed to class. I have taken other force on force classes with different companies, so I was excited to see some similarities and differences between them. In typical Tactical Response fashion, within thirty minutes of a safety brief and lecture, we were jumping head first into the first scenario. On top of that, over two days, I completed 16 scenarios. I never expected to be faced with 16 different scenarios that tested not only my emotional abilities, but my ability to make quick life-changing decisions. Time between scenarios was not wasted either. While waiting for the other students to complete the scenarios, the instructors discussed different shooting incidents and used online videos of actual gunfights to reinforce their teaching points.
Being in a gunfight is more than just shooting. It’s about the before, during, and after. All too common do shooting courses only train you for the “during” phase. When in reality, you have just as much (if not more) of a chance for really bad things to happen before or after a gunfight. This course prepares you for the before and after, as well as a high emphasis on the debrief after each scenario. During a debrief, you find yourself asking “Why did I even put myself in that situation?” I also found myself at many times questioning my “line in the sand” when it came to particular situations. Not all scenarios have shooting outcomes in this course. In fact, many of the scenarios let you decide what the outcome is. I won’t get into specifics about the scenarios-it’s kind of the unwritten rule of force on force training. Telling you about each scenario and the mistakes or successes I had would only take away from your experience if you took this course. Just know that I evolved on many different levels because of this course.
In conclusion, I would recommend this course without hesitation. I would tell anyone to take this course, regardless of their level of training. Everyone can learn something from this course. But why don’t more people take force on force training? Because it’s an ego-killer. This course is emotionally draining-there were times I was disappointed in myself and other times I was very satisfied with the decisions I had made. This course prepares you to win not only the gunfight, but to win then ENTIRE violent encounter.
Tactical Response-The Fight!
The following review is for a force on force course taught by Tactical Response titled “The Fight!” This is a two day course that was taught at Tactical Response in Camden, TN. This course was on September 26-27, 2015. Gear used was a blue Glock 17 “sim” pistol, NSR C4 IWB holster, personal gunshot trauma kit, and I was carrying my spare reload from the “magazine” pocket of a pair of 5.11 pants. The instructors were Tim Morris and Dave Biggers.
For those who aren’t aware, force on force training uses trainer pistols that shoot small paint rounds. The pistol itself functions just like any other Glock except it doesn’t shoot lethal rounds. This is the most realistic training available for a gunfight. While this is not a replacement for live fire training, force on force training brings a new level of realism to the student.
The night before class I lodged in the Team Room, which is located at the private residence of James Yeager. This free lodging is open to the first 12 students that sign up for a course with Tactical Response. On Saturday I awoke and headed to class. I have taken other force on force classes with different companies, so I was excited to see some similarities and differences between them. In typical Tactical Response fashion, within thirty minutes of a safety brief and lecture, we were jumping head first into the first scenario. On top of that, over two days, I completed 16 scenarios. I never expected to be faced with 16 different scenarios that tested not only my emotional abilities, but my ability to make quick life-changing decisions. Time between scenarios was not wasted either. While waiting for the other students to complete the scenarios, the instructors discussed different shooting incidents and used online videos of actual gunfights to reinforce their teaching points.
Being in a gunfight is more than just shooting. It’s about the before, during, and after. All too common do shooting courses only train you for the “during” phase. When in reality, you have just as much (if not more) of a chance for really bad things to happen before or after a gunfight. This course prepares you for the before and after, as well as a high emphasis on the debrief after each scenario. During a debrief, you find yourself asking “Why did I even put myself in that situation?” I also found myself at many times questioning my “line in the sand” when it came to particular situations. Not all scenarios have shooting outcomes in this course. In fact, many of the scenarios let you decide what the outcome is. I won’t get into specifics about the scenarios-it’s kind of the unwritten rule of force on force training. Telling you about each scenario and the mistakes or successes I had would only take away from your experience if you took this course. Just know that I evolved on many different levels because of this course.
In conclusion, I would recommend this course without hesitation. I would tell anyone to take this course, regardless of their level of training. Everyone can learn something from this course. But why don’t more people take force on force training? Because it’s an ego-killer. This course is emotionally draining-there were times I was disappointed in myself and other times I was very satisfied with the decisions I had made. This course prepares you to win not only the gunfight, but to win then ENTIRE violent encounter.
