okie john
11-19-12, 11:48
Overall Notes
I took Pat McNamara’s TAPs class in Eagle Creek, Oregon on 10-11 NOV 2012. I'm posting this under Miscellaneous AARs instead of Grey Group because Mac has since moved to Alias Training (http://aliastraining.com/).
I chose to train with Mac after a lot of research. I studied the SME forums here, read hundreds of AARs from other trainers, and researched trainers on other sites. I also talked on the phone with forum members who have trained with him and others to get their perspective on what they learned and how it improved their skill sets over time.
DISCALIMER: When I was in the Army, Mac and I were in the same battalion for a year or so, and I ran into him occasionally before he left for more interesting places. But aside from a few PMs and questions on the SME Forum this year, I’ve had no contact with him since the late 80s. I was intrigued when I heard that he had written a book and was a trainer, but having known him slightly a quarter of a century ago is not the reason I chose to train with him.
Once I decided to train with Mac, I read his book, “TAPS: Tactical Application of Practical Shooting” (http://www.amazon.com/T-A-P-S-Tactical-Application-Practical-Shooting/dp/1440109591). I read every thread I could find about training with him. I also read every thread on his SME forum, and posed questions there myself.
The reason I chose Mac was to learn about performance-based training by comparing it to the kind of outcome-based training that I’ve been doing. In performance-based training, you master a skill or set of skills at slow speed, then gradually increase their speed and complexity. It requires a willingness to let go of the need for a fast run to get a perfect run. It sounds easy, but you have to put your ego aside before you can do it, and that’s a bitch.
Class Notes
Weather was cool and cloudy all weekend, with light rain toward the end of TD2.
Only two of 23 students were civilians, but both were squared away. Roughly 18 were LEOs. The rest were current/former military or contractors.
One guy used a SCAR-L on TD1 and a SCAR-H on TD2. Everyone else had an M-4, with a few cops carrying SBRs. Most pistols were Glocks, with one SIG, and a few 1911’s. I did not notice an M&P, but I was too busy hanging on to my ass to be sure. Only one guy had M-4 trouble, which was cured with a different BCG. He may have been shooting a Frankengun. As far as I could tell everything else ran properly.
As we trained, several themes came out again and again.
First, simplicity: don’t overthink grip, stance, draw stroke, turns, transitions, etc. When you have to move, do it instinctively like a child. You can add variations or complexity IF it’s a force multiplier in a fight, but you’ll find a notable lack of complex, flashy stuff in Mac’s POI.
Second, fundamentals: solid position, natural point of aim, sight alignment, trigger control, and follow through. I grew up shooting four-position small-bore, NRA High Power Rifle, and bullseye pistol, so I thought that I had this stuff down cold. I didn’t.
Third, accountability. Shoot as fast as you can, but no faster. We saw this in Mac’s emphasis on scoring each run to develop benchmarks, and in using competition to increase peer pressure.
Fourth, know your home and stay there. If your home is a 12-second El Presidente (which Mac calls a “single-wide”) then don’t try to shoot it in 8. Stay at 12 until you start to break 11, then stay there until you start to break 10. 8 will come once you let go of the need to have it. Accountability and scoring support this, but scoring has to balance accuracy with speed.
Both TDs went quickly and kept everyone busy without leaving anyone behind. They began with the famous Pat McNamara safety brief, which every shooter everywhere should receive before every range session in the world. If you want to train under big-boy rules then this is the brief for you. It comes from real gunfights, and is by far the most thoughtful safety brief I have received in over 40 years of shooting.
From there we covered Basic Rifle Marksmanship. Mac went over natural point of aim and the prone position, and showed us how to analyze a prone shooter to diagnose problems in other positions. He told us about his preference for a 50/200-yard zero and contrasted it to a 100-yard zero. Then we went live and zeroed at 50 yards, then moved to 100 to check windage.
We shot and scored several strings at 100, then shot two variations on a 4-position shoot from his book. You can see a variation on this drill at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_0i3JSNwc0&feature=relmfu
We took a break after every few runs, and Mac called the class together to point out how that drill had held us accountable and how it fit into performance-based training. He talked about different ways to score drills, how scoring helps you find your home, and how to vary each drill to fit your needs and conditions once the class was over.
We shot pistols in the afternoon. Mac covered stance and grip with a focus on logical, instinctive movement. The upshot is 1) don’t overthink it, 2) take a fighter’s stance, 3) consume as much of the gun as you can, and 4) grip a pistol tighter as you move it closer to the target.
Then we shot El Presidente and some drills from his book including 555 and Pick Your Poison altered for handguns. The focus on accountability and accuracy was constant. At intervals, Mac called us in to talk about knowing where your home is (even if it’s a single-wide like mine) and how to move beyond it.
TD1 ended about 1630 as it was starting to get dark.
TD2 began at 0830 with a Safety Briefing. We ran the Mechanics Drill as shown at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w69N5gsxvpM. Several people wanted to reshoot El Presidente from TD1, so we revisited that briefly as well.
After lunch, Mac reviewed use of barricades and expedient rifle shooting positions, and we went through them on steel targets at our own pace. Then he ran us through transitions and shooting on the move, again stressing logical, instinctive movement, and shooting when you have an acceptable sight picture. Then we ran a T-Drill to combine everything we had covered thus far.
Mac set up the Scrambler next. This drill incorporates several implied tasks including use of the safety while moving and during mag changes, use of cover and preventing predictability, communication with team mates, and generally thinking through the problem. Implied tasks forced us to think tactically rather than just hosing targets as in typical “up drills.” Several of us walked away bashful after this one, especially when Mac told us about the guy who shoots it in 24 seconds from a wheelchair.
Mac also set up two other stations so we could work on drills of our own choosing at our own pace while others were running the Scrambler.
We finished around 1600 after everyone had run the Scrambler several times. We had a quick debrief, broke down the range, policed up something like 23,000 pieces of brass, and hit the road.
Summary
Mac could train any level of shooter, but the TAPS course is not for beginners. It’s an instructor-level/train-the-trainer course. If you train others or are experienced enough to run your own training in a meaningful way, then you owe it to yourself to train with Mac. If you need help with grip, stance, draw stroke, transitions, shooting on the move, etc., then get that stuff dialed in first. If you question your ability, then see https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=84232&highlight=AAR+Pat for ways to figure out where you need to be.
Did I get what I came for? Absolutely—a full ration of performance-oriented training. I’ve already started using things I learned. I have baselines for several drills that I learned in outcome-based training, and I’m interested to see how much I can improve them with the performance-based method over the next few months. I’ll update this post regularly as I go.
Please let me know if you have questions.
Okie John
I took Pat McNamara’s TAPs class in Eagle Creek, Oregon on 10-11 NOV 2012. I'm posting this under Miscellaneous AARs instead of Grey Group because Mac has since moved to Alias Training (http://aliastraining.com/).
I chose to train with Mac after a lot of research. I studied the SME forums here, read hundreds of AARs from other trainers, and researched trainers on other sites. I also talked on the phone with forum members who have trained with him and others to get their perspective on what they learned and how it improved their skill sets over time.
DISCALIMER: When I was in the Army, Mac and I were in the same battalion for a year or so, and I ran into him occasionally before he left for more interesting places. But aside from a few PMs and questions on the SME Forum this year, I’ve had no contact with him since the late 80s. I was intrigued when I heard that he had written a book and was a trainer, but having known him slightly a quarter of a century ago is not the reason I chose to train with him.
Once I decided to train with Mac, I read his book, “TAPS: Tactical Application of Practical Shooting” (http://www.amazon.com/T-A-P-S-Tactical-Application-Practical-Shooting/dp/1440109591). I read every thread I could find about training with him. I also read every thread on his SME forum, and posed questions there myself.
The reason I chose Mac was to learn about performance-based training by comparing it to the kind of outcome-based training that I’ve been doing. In performance-based training, you master a skill or set of skills at slow speed, then gradually increase their speed and complexity. It requires a willingness to let go of the need for a fast run to get a perfect run. It sounds easy, but you have to put your ego aside before you can do it, and that’s a bitch.
Class Notes
Weather was cool and cloudy all weekend, with light rain toward the end of TD2.
Only two of 23 students were civilians, but both were squared away. Roughly 18 were LEOs. The rest were current/former military or contractors.
One guy used a SCAR-L on TD1 and a SCAR-H on TD2. Everyone else had an M-4, with a few cops carrying SBRs. Most pistols were Glocks, with one SIG, and a few 1911’s. I did not notice an M&P, but I was too busy hanging on to my ass to be sure. Only one guy had M-4 trouble, which was cured with a different BCG. He may have been shooting a Frankengun. As far as I could tell everything else ran properly.
As we trained, several themes came out again and again.
First, simplicity: don’t overthink grip, stance, draw stroke, turns, transitions, etc. When you have to move, do it instinctively like a child. You can add variations or complexity IF it’s a force multiplier in a fight, but you’ll find a notable lack of complex, flashy stuff in Mac’s POI.
Second, fundamentals: solid position, natural point of aim, sight alignment, trigger control, and follow through. I grew up shooting four-position small-bore, NRA High Power Rifle, and bullseye pistol, so I thought that I had this stuff down cold. I didn’t.
Third, accountability. Shoot as fast as you can, but no faster. We saw this in Mac’s emphasis on scoring each run to develop benchmarks, and in using competition to increase peer pressure.
Fourth, know your home and stay there. If your home is a 12-second El Presidente (which Mac calls a “single-wide”) then don’t try to shoot it in 8. Stay at 12 until you start to break 11, then stay there until you start to break 10. 8 will come once you let go of the need to have it. Accountability and scoring support this, but scoring has to balance accuracy with speed.
Both TDs went quickly and kept everyone busy without leaving anyone behind. They began with the famous Pat McNamara safety brief, which every shooter everywhere should receive before every range session in the world. If you want to train under big-boy rules then this is the brief for you. It comes from real gunfights, and is by far the most thoughtful safety brief I have received in over 40 years of shooting.
From there we covered Basic Rifle Marksmanship. Mac went over natural point of aim and the prone position, and showed us how to analyze a prone shooter to diagnose problems in other positions. He told us about his preference for a 50/200-yard zero and contrasted it to a 100-yard zero. Then we went live and zeroed at 50 yards, then moved to 100 to check windage.
We shot and scored several strings at 100, then shot two variations on a 4-position shoot from his book. You can see a variation on this drill at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_0i3JSNwc0&feature=relmfu
We took a break after every few runs, and Mac called the class together to point out how that drill had held us accountable and how it fit into performance-based training. He talked about different ways to score drills, how scoring helps you find your home, and how to vary each drill to fit your needs and conditions once the class was over.
We shot pistols in the afternoon. Mac covered stance and grip with a focus on logical, instinctive movement. The upshot is 1) don’t overthink it, 2) take a fighter’s stance, 3) consume as much of the gun as you can, and 4) grip a pistol tighter as you move it closer to the target.
Then we shot El Presidente and some drills from his book including 555 and Pick Your Poison altered for handguns. The focus on accountability and accuracy was constant. At intervals, Mac called us in to talk about knowing where your home is (even if it’s a single-wide like mine) and how to move beyond it.
TD1 ended about 1630 as it was starting to get dark.
TD2 began at 0830 with a Safety Briefing. We ran the Mechanics Drill as shown at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w69N5gsxvpM. Several people wanted to reshoot El Presidente from TD1, so we revisited that briefly as well.
After lunch, Mac reviewed use of barricades and expedient rifle shooting positions, and we went through them on steel targets at our own pace. Then he ran us through transitions and shooting on the move, again stressing logical, instinctive movement, and shooting when you have an acceptable sight picture. Then we ran a T-Drill to combine everything we had covered thus far.
Mac set up the Scrambler next. This drill incorporates several implied tasks including use of the safety while moving and during mag changes, use of cover and preventing predictability, communication with team mates, and generally thinking through the problem. Implied tasks forced us to think tactically rather than just hosing targets as in typical “up drills.” Several of us walked away bashful after this one, especially when Mac told us about the guy who shoots it in 24 seconds from a wheelchair.
Mac also set up two other stations so we could work on drills of our own choosing at our own pace while others were running the Scrambler.
We finished around 1600 after everyone had run the Scrambler several times. We had a quick debrief, broke down the range, policed up something like 23,000 pieces of brass, and hit the road.
Summary
Mac could train any level of shooter, but the TAPS course is not for beginners. It’s an instructor-level/train-the-trainer course. If you train others or are experienced enough to run your own training in a meaningful way, then you owe it to yourself to train with Mac. If you need help with grip, stance, draw stroke, transitions, shooting on the move, etc., then get that stuff dialed in first. If you question your ability, then see https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=84232&highlight=AAR+Pat for ways to figure out where you need to be.
Did I get what I came for? Absolutely—a full ration of performance-oriented training. I’ve already started using things I learned. I have baselines for several drills that I learned in outcome-based training, and I’m interested to see how much I can improve them with the performance-based method over the next few months. I’ll update this post regularly as I go.
Please let me know if you have questions.
Okie John