CQC.45
09-29-11, 08:55
AAR: VSM Handgun Basic 09/25/11 Albion, MI.
Instructor/Host: Matt Schultz
Background: This was my third time taking a class with Matt Schultz (twice as a VSM instructor, once as a host w/ LAV). I brought along two good friends for their first formal handgun class (Matt C. and Josh). Being a good opportunity to get some more VSM training, I jumped at the opportunity to join them. Since we had two Matts in the class, I will refer to Matt Schutlz as “Matt” and my buddy Matt as “Matt C.”
Equipment: I ran my Glock 17 + X300 w/ grip reduced by gripreductions.com. The G17 performed flawlessly, as expected…the grip reduction (1911 angle) yielded as significant improvement in pointability. Holster and mags were PSS gear which were also solid, retention and draw were perfect. Ammo was cheap Blazer. The rest of the guns at the course involved Glocks, M&Ps, and 1911s. One or two of the 1911 guys had some issues getting their guns to run toward the later part of the class, but besides that there were no major issues.
The Class: Being a basic level class, most were relatively new shooters. As far as I am aware, I was the only one there who had taken VSM/Vickers Tactical classes before. Class began at 9:30am with the standard safety brief as well as a brief introduction from Matt. Matt spoke to the philosophy behind the VSM, and emphasized the class would focus on accuracy over all else (“Accuracy is Final”). Initially, a few of the students showed up with SERPA holsters which made me a little nervous, luckily Matt took this as a great opportunity to point out the potential issues with these holsters and provided the students with some pancake-style kydex holsters instead.
With that out of the way we made our way to the range for some dry fire practice. As in previous classes, Matt went over trigger control and explained how central it was to everything in shooting. We started out with the “casing-on-front-sight-post” drill (I know there is a name for it..) to demonstrate/learn what good trigger control actually was. Most of the students faired pretty well, though there were certainly a fair amount of remedial dry-fires occurring as casings fell off here and there.
From there we moved on to the ball and dummy drill. One of my personal favorites, it consists of having a partner randomly loading (or unloading) your pistol so that you have no idea whether or not there is a round in the chamber. El Snatcho reared his ugly head as the flinching began (especially in some of the new shooters). My buddy who ran a CT laser, became particularly frustrated when he saw his laser flying across the paper on a snatched pull lol. As we went along, snatching and shots gradually improved across the board. From there we moved on to timed ball and dummy which simply involves pulling the trigger within a certain timeframe. Pretty basic stuff, but I’m a believer that fundamentals win fights.
The next stage was the walkback drill, in which you are simply taking shots from various distances…progressively moving back. All of the students did quite well as I recall on this one.
My memory is a little sketchy, but I think around this time we worked in draws and reloads (speed and tactical). Matt explained the different applications of speed and tactical reloads…that in a real gunfight, the chances of doing a speed reload are much greater than a tactical as you will most likely be going to slidelock.
At this point we broke for a quick (30 min) lunch. With only one day to work with, we wanted to cram as much learning and shooting as possible into the time we had. Many of the students took this opportunity to chat with Matt about gear, drills, etc. Being used to the time luxuries of “Larry Lunches”, I planned on running out to subway and did not bring anything substantial to eat…instead I just ate the shit out of the massive amount of power bars I brought along. At this point my buddy was complaining about his SureFire earpros tickling in the inside of his ear…graciously Matt lent him a pair of ComTac’s to wear for the remainder of the course. With that we went back to the range.
Up to this point I had been doing pretty damn good on the drills, I don’t know if it was the lunch or the 3lbs of power bar sitting in my stomach…but I sucked it up big time on the 10-10-10 drill. For those who don’t know, it involves 10 shots and 10yds within 10 seconds. As Matt knows my biggest issue is around shot timers, my first few shots are fine, but then I feel the need to race against the timer (in fear I would run out of time). As I sped up, my shots started dropping low and left (aka El Snatcho). After the drill, I just reminded myself to slow down and pace my shots. On a better note the class as a whole did pretty well on the drill.
Point shooting is always fun. We taped up our sights and Matt explained the technique and its application in the real world. It is particularly interesting seeing some of the students shooting better without sights than with (unfortunately, I was not one of those individuals lol). This is primarily due to the increase in concentration on trigger pull.
We did one more 10-10-10 drill at this point. Reminding myself to slow down and pace myself, I faired significantly better than the first. Lastly, we drilled shooting on the move. This is always my favorite part of the class. First, we practiced parallel and perpendicular movement. Matt described the techniques for minimizing bounce when walking. I was able to keep all shots in the black both moving forward and back. I found the increased concentration in moving helped with trigger manipulation as well. From there we practiced moving in various patterns while putting shots on target (square, triangle, and figure 8). We were instructed to take 1 shot on each of three targets for each side of the shape you were on (12 shots for square, 9 for triangle, etc.). As always, it’s black or bust.
A mere one shot on target was clearly not enough for Matt C. however, as he proceeded to pound each target with 6 or 7 shots each lol. He was just a little too focused on the shooting, so that the instructions went out the window.
Important lesson learned when trying to move backwards: watch where you are going. Many of the students (including myself) bumped into our barriers (used in forming the movement shapes).
We wrapped out with the handing out of certificates and saying of goodbyes. Everyone had a great time and learned quite a bit.
Instructor: As I said, this is my 3rd time with Matt. He’s an excellent instructor (and a good dude) who truly understands the material he teaches. He takes the time to demo every drill and explains the reasoning behind each. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending him to anyone in the MI area.
All of the students were good people, hopefully we'll see each other again at future classes.
Pictures will be up soon. Hopefully a few others from the class will chime in and fill in any gaps I may have missed.
Instructor/Host: Matt Schultz
Background: This was my third time taking a class with Matt Schultz (twice as a VSM instructor, once as a host w/ LAV). I brought along two good friends for their first formal handgun class (Matt C. and Josh). Being a good opportunity to get some more VSM training, I jumped at the opportunity to join them. Since we had two Matts in the class, I will refer to Matt Schutlz as “Matt” and my buddy Matt as “Matt C.”
Equipment: I ran my Glock 17 + X300 w/ grip reduced by gripreductions.com. The G17 performed flawlessly, as expected…the grip reduction (1911 angle) yielded as significant improvement in pointability. Holster and mags were PSS gear which were also solid, retention and draw were perfect. Ammo was cheap Blazer. The rest of the guns at the course involved Glocks, M&Ps, and 1911s. One or two of the 1911 guys had some issues getting their guns to run toward the later part of the class, but besides that there were no major issues.
The Class: Being a basic level class, most were relatively new shooters. As far as I am aware, I was the only one there who had taken VSM/Vickers Tactical classes before. Class began at 9:30am with the standard safety brief as well as a brief introduction from Matt. Matt spoke to the philosophy behind the VSM, and emphasized the class would focus on accuracy over all else (“Accuracy is Final”). Initially, a few of the students showed up with SERPA holsters which made me a little nervous, luckily Matt took this as a great opportunity to point out the potential issues with these holsters and provided the students with some pancake-style kydex holsters instead.
With that out of the way we made our way to the range for some dry fire practice. As in previous classes, Matt went over trigger control and explained how central it was to everything in shooting. We started out with the “casing-on-front-sight-post” drill (I know there is a name for it..) to demonstrate/learn what good trigger control actually was. Most of the students faired pretty well, though there were certainly a fair amount of remedial dry-fires occurring as casings fell off here and there.
From there we moved on to the ball and dummy drill. One of my personal favorites, it consists of having a partner randomly loading (or unloading) your pistol so that you have no idea whether or not there is a round in the chamber. El Snatcho reared his ugly head as the flinching began (especially in some of the new shooters). My buddy who ran a CT laser, became particularly frustrated when he saw his laser flying across the paper on a snatched pull lol. As we went along, snatching and shots gradually improved across the board. From there we moved on to timed ball and dummy which simply involves pulling the trigger within a certain timeframe. Pretty basic stuff, but I’m a believer that fundamentals win fights.
The next stage was the walkback drill, in which you are simply taking shots from various distances…progressively moving back. All of the students did quite well as I recall on this one.
My memory is a little sketchy, but I think around this time we worked in draws and reloads (speed and tactical). Matt explained the different applications of speed and tactical reloads…that in a real gunfight, the chances of doing a speed reload are much greater than a tactical as you will most likely be going to slidelock.
At this point we broke for a quick (30 min) lunch. With only one day to work with, we wanted to cram as much learning and shooting as possible into the time we had. Many of the students took this opportunity to chat with Matt about gear, drills, etc. Being used to the time luxuries of “Larry Lunches”, I planned on running out to subway and did not bring anything substantial to eat…instead I just ate the shit out of the massive amount of power bars I brought along. At this point my buddy was complaining about his SureFire earpros tickling in the inside of his ear…graciously Matt lent him a pair of ComTac’s to wear for the remainder of the course. With that we went back to the range.
Up to this point I had been doing pretty damn good on the drills, I don’t know if it was the lunch or the 3lbs of power bar sitting in my stomach…but I sucked it up big time on the 10-10-10 drill. For those who don’t know, it involves 10 shots and 10yds within 10 seconds. As Matt knows my biggest issue is around shot timers, my first few shots are fine, but then I feel the need to race against the timer (in fear I would run out of time). As I sped up, my shots started dropping low and left (aka El Snatcho). After the drill, I just reminded myself to slow down and pace my shots. On a better note the class as a whole did pretty well on the drill.
Point shooting is always fun. We taped up our sights and Matt explained the technique and its application in the real world. It is particularly interesting seeing some of the students shooting better without sights than with (unfortunately, I was not one of those individuals lol). This is primarily due to the increase in concentration on trigger pull.
We did one more 10-10-10 drill at this point. Reminding myself to slow down and pace myself, I faired significantly better than the first. Lastly, we drilled shooting on the move. This is always my favorite part of the class. First, we practiced parallel and perpendicular movement. Matt described the techniques for minimizing bounce when walking. I was able to keep all shots in the black both moving forward and back. I found the increased concentration in moving helped with trigger manipulation as well. From there we practiced moving in various patterns while putting shots on target (square, triangle, and figure 8). We were instructed to take 1 shot on each of three targets for each side of the shape you were on (12 shots for square, 9 for triangle, etc.). As always, it’s black or bust.
A mere one shot on target was clearly not enough for Matt C. however, as he proceeded to pound each target with 6 or 7 shots each lol. He was just a little too focused on the shooting, so that the instructions went out the window.
Important lesson learned when trying to move backwards: watch where you are going. Many of the students (including myself) bumped into our barriers (used in forming the movement shapes).
We wrapped out with the handing out of certificates and saying of goodbyes. Everyone had a great time and learned quite a bit.
Instructor: As I said, this is my 3rd time with Matt. He’s an excellent instructor (and a good dude) who truly understands the material he teaches. He takes the time to demo every drill and explains the reasoning behind each. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending him to anyone in the MI area.
All of the students were good people, hopefully we'll see each other again at future classes.
Pictures will be up soon. Hopefully a few others from the class will chime in and fill in any gaps I may have missed.