StrikeFace
07-30-11, 05:29
School:
Commonwealth Criminal Justice Academy (http://www.ccjatraining.com/) (CCJA)
Course Title / Cost:
Entry Level Room Clearing Class (Open Enrollment) - $250
Course Activity:
Room Clearing w/ Force on Force Simunition Weapons
Primary Instructor:
Tom Perroni
Course Date:
23 July 2011
Location:
Fredericksburg, VA
Classroom
The classroom portion started at 0900 with an overview of the day’s activities and cadre introduction. The cadre line-up for this class was particularly impressive and included, in no special order, Dave (NSW), Frank (LE), Max (LE), Tom actual (LE), Tom’s genetic sequel (security contractor) and Will (the mute medic). The classroom portion of the instruction was as advertised: a simple but thorough concept-based lecture that combined both military and law enforcement room clearance tactics. Tom had nifty binders with PowerPoint slide handouts for every student to follow along and take notes with as he and his cadre went over the fundamentals of room clearing. Class-specific topics covered during the lecture included understanding room types (corner fed, center fed, and the fact that hallways are rooms), door analysis (knob side, hinge side), the idea behind room clearing geometry (pie slicing, blind spots) and the strengths and weaknesses of various entry and clearance techniques given the aforementioned. If you had never been exposed to room clearance, it was a really solid Day 1 introduction to how a single person or two-man team should move in a building. I found it to be a very useful refresher. I will definitely reference the supplied notebook / slides in the future when practicing on my own.
Live Fire Range
The first hands-on activity of the day was what I took to be an instructor evaluation of the students. We were told to line up at the 3 yard line and get tight groups with our weapon of choice, carbine or pistol, from the high ready (must be a service-specific thing). After this, we practiced contact left/contact right while walking in a file with our weapons pointed down range. I emptied two carbine mags and half a pistol magazine when all was said and done with the live fire portion. I was running a brand new stick and optic so I’m glad I had a chance to bust a few rounds up waaay close to confirm the spitting distance holdover.
Shoothouse Dry
The dry iterations run through the shoothouse were the “crawl / walk phase” of the class and involved the student clearing a particular area of the house with a blue gun until they came across a paper target on a stand. The idea was to remove the “I’m gonna get shot in the face!” threat part of the equation and assess the student’s decision making and movement techniques. I really enjoyed doing it again. I could have run this for hours and not been bored. Having an experienced instructor observe your movements clearing rooms is a great way to get a perspective on your bad habits, as well as correct your thought process when it comes to search priorities and reaction. Again, I have to give major kudos to Tom and his salty crew for being so patient, thorough and honest with each and every student. I’ll gladly pay guys with this kind of credentials good money to tell me I’m doing it all wrong all day. It is my belief that tactical training consists of two separate but equally important aspects: endless repetition (dry fire practice, shooting drills on your own) and blunt force trauma (real world application such as-close-as-it-gets stress tests as demonstrated in this class). I attend classes to get that kick in the balls that I can’t give myself. There is no substitute for attending a good training school. CCJA offers the opportunity for Joe Civilian to test their skills in a format similar to law enforcement and military personnel. You’d be hard pressed to find a tactical training school in the area that does the same types of things with a stacked staff for such an agreeable price.
Shoothouse Live
The shoothouse portion of the class, the main event, the #1 reason why everybody paid good money to suffer in the sweltering July horribleness on a Saturday, was an excellent albeit short lived experience. Tom had two separate exercise areas, one downstairs and one upstairs, with an armed bad guy lurking in one of several rooms. Time definitely expands when you know for a fact somebody is waiting to zap you. Due to the amount of students and the time required for the scenarios, each student only went once through each of the two scenarios. I left wanting a whole lot more but I can understand why the instructors cut the class off when they did.
Thoughts & Gripes
Class definitely needs to be two days. Even with a ton of great instructors and a sweet shoothouse, there is just no way to give the individual student enough one-on-one time starting at 1500 hours. As Tom stated when we wrapped up for the day, the classroom part, Sim Glock familiarization and blue gun practice should be Day 1. Day 2 should be a quick blue gun rehearsal to get out the pregame jitters and hot-hot live fire action all day long. I look forward to taking the two day class when it is available.
Many students were not properly prepared for the class. Some lacked the basic tactical shooting skill set, didn’t have the correct equipment or weren’t comfortable with using said equipment. That has been addressed with the usual training school answer: mandatory attendance of basic level classes. I totally stand behind that position. NRA classes, a concealed carry permit, etc. are not tactical shooting credentials--they're just CYA documents. Many a green shooter learned that during the class.
I found the live fire range portion to be entirely unnecessary, especially given the tight time constraints. It took valuable time away from the primary focus of the course: room clearance. If the goal was to get rid of the jitters associated with “coming in cold,” this time would have been better spent as a chance to familiarize students to the Sim Glocks and bust a few rounds on paper with said guns. I had no idea what to expect from the training weapons and I found them to be far different than I'd imagined. I would have appreciated a chance to get used to the Sim Glocks on a one-way range (paper targets), a linear two-way range (bad guy role player pops out from behind cover) and then in the shoothouse (game on).
While this might apply to a different class, I feel like a room clearance course should involve more room clearance and less on-site debate over legal conundrums. I believe the overall intention of the class was to practice tactics so that I can be confident in a situation where I may have to use them. I think I understand why it was incorporated but I just don't believe it is pertinent in a shooting class. I'm not worried about playing Rambo or needing a lawyer during training. Anyway, there was some confusion about the legal / tactical philosophy part: “he's armed, take 'em down” versus “don’t go in there if you don’t have to” as far as the response to spotting an intruder with a weapon. Put simply: I didn’t pay $250 for 10 hours to play legal headgames in a sweaty facemask. I can (and do) practice that in the comfort of my own home. Without the mask. My goal was to practice moving, practice getting shot at and practice shooting at a live opponent in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable environment. Ugh. This sounds all wrong, like I'm a trigger happy douchebag that doesn't understand the all-too-important concept of target discrimination, but I'll just leave it as it is because my point is in there somewhere. I realize I may be way off base as far as the intent here, so maybe I just signed up for the wrong thing with the wrong expectations. Either way, you definitely can't complain about the A+ training setup (getting shot at in a sweaty crackhouse) and Tom's guru crew.
Overall
In conclusion, I believe that the CCJA Open Enrollment Room Clearing Class was a little like trying to cram 50 pounds of awesome into a 10 pound bag. Too much to drill and not enough time. It has a lot of potential. I came to the class wanting to practice all the above aforementioned things as much as possible given that I would have top notch instructors critiquing my every move as live opponents shoot at me, something that is incredibly rare for civilians to come across. If you want a good primer on room clearance, take the 2-day class in the future, guys. Spread to 48 hours, I think it'll be the perfect introduction to surviving a gunfight indoors.
Commonwealth Criminal Justice Academy (http://www.ccjatraining.com/) (CCJA)
Course Title / Cost:
Entry Level Room Clearing Class (Open Enrollment) - $250
Course Activity:
Room Clearing w/ Force on Force Simunition Weapons
Primary Instructor:
Tom Perroni
Course Date:
23 July 2011
Location:
Fredericksburg, VA
Classroom
The classroom portion started at 0900 with an overview of the day’s activities and cadre introduction. The cadre line-up for this class was particularly impressive and included, in no special order, Dave (NSW), Frank (LE), Max (LE), Tom actual (LE), Tom’s genetic sequel (security contractor) and Will (the mute medic). The classroom portion of the instruction was as advertised: a simple but thorough concept-based lecture that combined both military and law enforcement room clearance tactics. Tom had nifty binders with PowerPoint slide handouts for every student to follow along and take notes with as he and his cadre went over the fundamentals of room clearing. Class-specific topics covered during the lecture included understanding room types (corner fed, center fed, and the fact that hallways are rooms), door analysis (knob side, hinge side), the idea behind room clearing geometry (pie slicing, blind spots) and the strengths and weaknesses of various entry and clearance techniques given the aforementioned. If you had never been exposed to room clearance, it was a really solid Day 1 introduction to how a single person or two-man team should move in a building. I found it to be a very useful refresher. I will definitely reference the supplied notebook / slides in the future when practicing on my own.
Live Fire Range
The first hands-on activity of the day was what I took to be an instructor evaluation of the students. We were told to line up at the 3 yard line and get tight groups with our weapon of choice, carbine or pistol, from the high ready (must be a service-specific thing). After this, we practiced contact left/contact right while walking in a file with our weapons pointed down range. I emptied two carbine mags and half a pistol magazine when all was said and done with the live fire portion. I was running a brand new stick and optic so I’m glad I had a chance to bust a few rounds up waaay close to confirm the spitting distance holdover.
Shoothouse Dry
The dry iterations run through the shoothouse were the “crawl / walk phase” of the class and involved the student clearing a particular area of the house with a blue gun until they came across a paper target on a stand. The idea was to remove the “I’m gonna get shot in the face!” threat part of the equation and assess the student’s decision making and movement techniques. I really enjoyed doing it again. I could have run this for hours and not been bored. Having an experienced instructor observe your movements clearing rooms is a great way to get a perspective on your bad habits, as well as correct your thought process when it comes to search priorities and reaction. Again, I have to give major kudos to Tom and his salty crew for being so patient, thorough and honest with each and every student. I’ll gladly pay guys with this kind of credentials good money to tell me I’m doing it all wrong all day. It is my belief that tactical training consists of two separate but equally important aspects: endless repetition (dry fire practice, shooting drills on your own) and blunt force trauma (real world application such as-close-as-it-gets stress tests as demonstrated in this class). I attend classes to get that kick in the balls that I can’t give myself. There is no substitute for attending a good training school. CCJA offers the opportunity for Joe Civilian to test their skills in a format similar to law enforcement and military personnel. You’d be hard pressed to find a tactical training school in the area that does the same types of things with a stacked staff for such an agreeable price.
Shoothouse Live
The shoothouse portion of the class, the main event, the #1 reason why everybody paid good money to suffer in the sweltering July horribleness on a Saturday, was an excellent albeit short lived experience. Tom had two separate exercise areas, one downstairs and one upstairs, with an armed bad guy lurking in one of several rooms. Time definitely expands when you know for a fact somebody is waiting to zap you. Due to the amount of students and the time required for the scenarios, each student only went once through each of the two scenarios. I left wanting a whole lot more but I can understand why the instructors cut the class off when they did.
Thoughts & Gripes
Class definitely needs to be two days. Even with a ton of great instructors and a sweet shoothouse, there is just no way to give the individual student enough one-on-one time starting at 1500 hours. As Tom stated when we wrapped up for the day, the classroom part, Sim Glock familiarization and blue gun practice should be Day 1. Day 2 should be a quick blue gun rehearsal to get out the pregame jitters and hot-hot live fire action all day long. I look forward to taking the two day class when it is available.
Many students were not properly prepared for the class. Some lacked the basic tactical shooting skill set, didn’t have the correct equipment or weren’t comfortable with using said equipment. That has been addressed with the usual training school answer: mandatory attendance of basic level classes. I totally stand behind that position. NRA classes, a concealed carry permit, etc. are not tactical shooting credentials--they're just CYA documents. Many a green shooter learned that during the class.
I found the live fire range portion to be entirely unnecessary, especially given the tight time constraints. It took valuable time away from the primary focus of the course: room clearance. If the goal was to get rid of the jitters associated with “coming in cold,” this time would have been better spent as a chance to familiarize students to the Sim Glocks and bust a few rounds on paper with said guns. I had no idea what to expect from the training weapons and I found them to be far different than I'd imagined. I would have appreciated a chance to get used to the Sim Glocks on a one-way range (paper targets), a linear two-way range (bad guy role player pops out from behind cover) and then in the shoothouse (game on).
While this might apply to a different class, I feel like a room clearance course should involve more room clearance and less on-site debate over legal conundrums. I believe the overall intention of the class was to practice tactics so that I can be confident in a situation where I may have to use them. I think I understand why it was incorporated but I just don't believe it is pertinent in a shooting class. I'm not worried about playing Rambo or needing a lawyer during training. Anyway, there was some confusion about the legal / tactical philosophy part: “he's armed, take 'em down” versus “don’t go in there if you don’t have to” as far as the response to spotting an intruder with a weapon. Put simply: I didn’t pay $250 for 10 hours to play legal headgames in a sweaty facemask. I can (and do) practice that in the comfort of my own home. Without the mask. My goal was to practice moving, practice getting shot at and practice shooting at a live opponent in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable environment. Ugh. This sounds all wrong, like I'm a trigger happy douchebag that doesn't understand the all-too-important concept of target discrimination, but I'll just leave it as it is because my point is in there somewhere. I realize I may be way off base as far as the intent here, so maybe I just signed up for the wrong thing with the wrong expectations. Either way, you definitely can't complain about the A+ training setup (getting shot at in a sweaty crackhouse) and Tom's guru crew.
Overall
In conclusion, I believe that the CCJA Open Enrollment Room Clearing Class was a little like trying to cram 50 pounds of awesome into a 10 pound bag. Too much to drill and not enough time. It has a lot of potential. I came to the class wanting to practice all the above aforementioned things as much as possible given that I would have top notch instructors critiquing my every move as live opponents shoot at me, something that is incredibly rare for civilians to come across. If you want a good primer on room clearance, take the 2-day class in the future, guys. Spread to 48 hours, I think it'll be the perfect introduction to surviving a gunfight indoors.