Ah, the “big weekend”. KR Training can only do this twice a year due to the logistics of daylight, and it’s always a long but satisfying day.
We ran Defensive Pistol Skills 2, AT-2: Force-on-Force scenarios, and AT-1A Low Light Shooting. Had lots of severe rain threats, and while it was windy and cloudy all day, the rain didn’t happen. How typical. 🙂
I’m pleased to see more women seeking advanced training, with about 1/4 to 1/3 of the students in each class (depending upon class) being women. Ladies, do not fear force-on-force – it’s where you’ll get some of your best knowledge and training. It was cool to see Mr. & Mrs. Groundhog again, a few other familiar faces and friends, and also meet some new folks too!
All in all, the classes ran as these classes tend to run, so I will address some specifics for the folks in those classes.
Move Fast(er)
Y’all need to move faster. The intent of these classes and these skills is to keep you alive in a life-threatening situation. If you were one of the people that stayed all day long, remember how quickly everything unfolded in the AT-2 scenarios? Once it was time to move, it was over in seconds. If it’s time to start shooting, you do NOT have time to waste. You need to move (off the X) quickly. You need to get your gun out fast. But then yes, slow down just a bit so you can ensure acceptable hits.
Watching y’all shoot throughout class, I know you have the skills to shoot really well — I saw it all morning long. When it came time to shoot the “3 Seconds or Less” drill, there were too many shots coming in more than 3 seconds. So y’all are close, and now you know what to work on. Yes, you still have to remain accurate enough (use a 6″ paper plate as a target, and hits on that plate are acceptable), you just need to move faster.
There’s a few specifics here:
Get out of the holster
Get a shot timer. If you have a smartphone, there are apps out there for this, so grab one.
Set the timer to go off at a random time (e.g. somewhere between 2 and 5 seconds after you press the “start” button). When the buzzer goes off, MOVE immediately and quickly to draw and present (i.e. all 4 steps of the draw). Don’t be sloppy, don’t throw the gun out there, be sure to acquire a good (enough) sight picture. You want to do it right. Start out doing it right, even if it’s slow, and work to bring up the speed.
Use the timer app and set a par time; that’s where there’s a second beep. The drill we ran had a par time of 3 seconds, so you can start there. On the start beep, draw and present, and get it done before the second beep goes off. If you cannot get it done in time, bump the time up and find out how long it takes you. If you can get it done, drop it down and find where you cannot do it any more. The point is, never rush it, always do it right. You are trying to find out how long it takes you to react, draw, and present — it’s just not easy to have something stop the timer (e.g. no “shots” to pick up, and it’s not good enough to have a second person watch and hit the stop button because their reaction time factors in). Once you know how long it takes you, work at that pace for a little while. Then drop it down a tenth of a second, and keep going. You must push yourself to go faster, and you may surprise yourself that you can go faster than you thought you could. Keep working from there. As Karl mentioned, a 1.5 second draw from concealment is great.
Another thing to help on time? slowing down to go fast. Click/tap, read.
Get rid of your crappy holster
Gear matters. You need good holsters, good magazine pouches, good belt, good gear helps. Bad gear hinders.
When in doubt, try Comp-Tac. They aren’t the only game in town, but if you’re not sure what else to try, try them, especially since they have a wide variety and fairly quick turnaround time.
Play the “what-if” game
For those that ran scenarios, be sure to play the “what-if” game. Start to create your rolodex of situations and responses, and remember that everything isn’t a nail.
Remember, maximize enjoyment of beer and tv.
Get rid of your crappy flashlight
You never cared or thought much about flashlights, until now. 🙂
Surefire, Streamlight, Fenix. There are others, but these will give you a good place to start. My current EDC is a Surefire E2D.
Anyways, a long but good day. We’ve all got some homework to do (including myself). Thank you all for coming out and spending your day with us. Hope we served you well, and we look forward to serving you again in the future.
Stuff From Hsoi 
The older (and presumably wiser) I get the more I consider learning to be a process of discovering how much you don’t know, and once again, after another day of training, while “debriefing” the day’s lessons on the long drive home, my wife and I came to the sobering conclusion that, while our skills are improving, there is still so much we don’t know. I believe good training has exactly that effect. If you come away with the attitude ‘man I got this $#!* down’ you didn’t learn a thing. If you go home thinking ‘man I got work to do’ well, you got work to do. I am convinced more than ever that obtaining one’s CHL should only be the beginning. I tell anyone who has a CHL or is considering getting theirs that they are kidding themselves if they think having the license prepares them for the day they have to use it. You’re not as good as you think you are -get some additional training.
We took your advice to write down some takeaway lessons the following day. After getting my wife’s perspective on the scenarios, after lying in bed replaying the events in our head before going to sleep, we had a significantly different answer to the wrap-up question of “what did you learn from this class today?” We both agreed that if it’s not worth dying for, we ain’t goin’ there. As you said, not every problem is a nail. Anyway, we can’t wait for some new classes to be added to the schedule but until then we will continue to practice our skills and work on acceptable hits and speed.
PS My wife was very appreciative of the extra instruction on the low light shooting from cover exercise. We both had a hard time with it and concluded it was kind of like patting your head while rubbing your belly. Something else which can be practiced dry-fire.
I’ve come to the same conclusion: the more I learn, the less I know… or rather, I realize how little I know and that there’s still so much to learn.
You are right: a CHL is merely a beginning, not an end. It opens the doors to a world of things that people really need. Alas, too many people think once they have it, it’s some talisman of ward evil… the gun goes into the dresser drawer, and somehow that makes it all better. Y’all learned that isn’t the case. Time to spread the gospel. 😉
I’m glad you and the Mrs. got so much out of the day, and I’m thankful I was able to be a part of your experience.