Hi everyone, on 14 April I attended a private class with Kenan Flasowski of Field Advisory Services & Training(FAST) Inc. While I’m not normally an internet AAR guy, I really liked what went on in this class and I thought I’d spread the word so others could check it out as his training company is new and hasn’t yet had a whole lot of press. Bear with me as I suck at writing and storytelling and will undoubtedly miss a lot of detail that made this class great.
Here is a bio from his website, www.fast762.com: “FAST is owned and operated by a retired U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant Major whose service included many years as an Assaulter, Sniper, and Combat Leader in the Army’s highest priority Special Mission Unit. He has been employing a variety of weapons in training and combat for over 25 years in Central and South America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and most recently Iraq and Afghanistan. As a long time member of America'’s premier Hostage Rescue Unit he attended many training courses taught by top competitive shooters and trained and worked alongside some of today’s most sought after instructors. Members of this Unit are world renowned for being both excellent marksman and extremely safe, practical trainers. He has trained and advised hundreds of U.S. and foreign students around the world as a soldier and as a contractor for various government agencies and private companies.”
Here is a link to his Facebook, he occasionally writes for Shooting Illustrated and posts that as well: https://www.facebook.com/pages/FAST-Inc/218702678167821
I had originally heard about Kenan in October 2011, “Dalton Fury” had made a post on Facebook announcing that Kenan was offering free classes to military personnel. At the time I was busy getting out of the Army and honestly it went to the back of my mind for a while. Fast forward to March and I was in a Kyle Defoor Advanced Handgun class. He and I were discussing who was doing training in Texas and Kenan’s name came up again along with a personal recommendation from Kyle. Since I had plenty of free time and two great guys recommended Kenan, I decided to make it a point to sign up for a class with FAST Inc. and see what they were about. My first class with him was a carbine course which delivered tremendously, I learned a lot and was pushed hard there. Kenan was a fantastic instructor so I decided to return for a pistol class- what this AAR is about.
This was a private class, just I and one other shooter. This is a rarity and was seemingly a great idea as I knew it meant we’d both get plenty of attention from the instructor. Now, most of the classes I’ve attended have been much larger and while I’ve absorbed a lot of info, the truth is that an instructor can only provide feedback in certain amounts to so many people at once. I felt I still had a few minor issues as far as pistol fundamentals and really wanted to get some personalized instruction in order to clean that up, so taking this class was a no brainer.
The class began with a brief introduction, the SGM providing an overview of his background, assessing what type of shooting/training we as students had done, as well as providing an overview of what we’d be doing in the class.
From there followed a medical and safety brief. Kenan’s med brief is probably the best I’ve seen. While a lot of people would like to think that something like that would never happen to them, accidents can happen to any of us. He made sure students knew where med supplies are, and showed us the layout of his aid bag so we wouldn't have to figure it out while someone is bleeding to death. He briefed casualty plans well and designated primary and support personnel based on medical training. Attached to his bag is an info card with an outline of what you’d need to call in an emergency, those in the military could think of this as a “civvie” type of MEDEVAC request. Almost seems like he did this kinda thing for a quarter century. This might sound like no biggie but I’ve taken classes with some big name trainers who have simply mentioned “if somebody gets hit, here’s the med kit” or not even discussed the topic at all..... Medical procedures, just like gun fighting, are not things you want to try and figure out as they actually occur.
As for safety, something that he mentioned which I enjoyed was: "most negligent discharges occur with unloaded guns". Throughout the class he clearly advised us what the status of our guns would be, and has some pretty neat and easy to remember "tricks" like making sure nobody is in your periprial vision when you're admin loading/unloading. That way, should you launch a round into the ground, the risk ricochet and debris splash hitting another shooter is reduced.
From there we had immediately gone into a brief maintenance portion. Kenan mentioned that he previously did this later in the class, but was switching to the beginning because so many students were having issues with guns he thought it prudent to get it out of the way so students could learn how to fight instead of fighting their equipment.
(showing a student lubrication points)
Once on the firing line, we were instructed on the proper drawstroke, stance, trigger control and sight alignment. We started at around 10 yards on NRA bulls. The focus here was for us to focus on the draw stroke and basic marksmanship. This allowed the instructor to help us iron out any issues before going on to more in depth training. The marksmanship portion continued out to 25 yards and I believe this was to establish a baseline performance to be reference later on. In between events Kenan provided lectures on proper application of the fundamentals and throughout the day he would personally demo each drill for us. Dude is a wizard with a pistol or carbine, seriously. Given his background, I suspect he’s pretty damn handy with a precision rifle as well.
(Sight alignment)
Moving on from there, we went into multiple shot strings and multiple target engagements. Between the timer and Kenan stressing accuracy, we were pushed pretty hard and surprisingly, it didn’t take long for the accuracy wheels to fall off. At this point I’d already applied some of his tricks and was finding myself shooting more quickly and accurately in his cadence drills. I'd shoot too fast, dial it back and do it right. Then, try it faster. It worked and I was pleased to feel myself performing better. This also means more confidence for low probability shots, and as I've come to learn: visualization is key.
(Kenan demos a drill)
Next was more weapons manipulation, working malfunctions and reloads. We worked a version of the classic "ball & dummy" drill which not only allowed us to identify any anticipation issues, but gave us some malfunction practice as well. One thing to note is that unless you’re doing something downright stupid, Kenan does not force you to use his way. Rather, he discusses several different techniques, where they came from and encourages students to try them for themselves. A small example of this is how to release the slide during an emergency reload. He showed us to slingshot or use the support hand thumb or strong hand thumb to activate the slide release. Basically, I know I’m much faster using the strong hand thumb and don’t have issues missing the lever so I rock that. However, if it was a 1911 I’d probably be using my support hand thumb. If I was wearing gloves on my tiny girlie hands, I’d be racking the slide via slingshot or coming over the top. The other shooter in the class was using a Beretta with a slide mounted safety, and Kenan offered him several solutions to avoid accidentally placing the gun on safe during manipulations.
(Kenan observing a student)
During a short break for lunch, we sucked down our chow and Kenan kept answering any questions we had. One thing I’ve noticed about him, he’s a goldmine of information and is more than willing to share. He’s a damn humble guy and repeatedly encouraged us to ask questions.
After lunch, we continued to build on the skills we’d worked and really began to work on developing speed. It was time to bring it all together. We shot a few modified versions of the el-pres and began shooting on the move. I learned that making good headshots on the move with a pistol blows; I got pretty frustrated with that quickly as Kenan again led by example and made it look easy. He somehow brought me to be relatively proficient at it, but would definitely require maintenance training and unfortunately most of the ranges I now shoot at aren’t really set up for shooting on the move.
(once again, showing us how its done)
While there was not a night shoot in this particular pistol class, we did cover use of the flashlight and shot one handed drills and reloads as such. Again, he provided us with several different methods for use of the light and encouraged us to experiment to see what worked for us. Surprise for me, one handed headshots on the move! This was another big learning curve; I really need to start visualizing better. I was frequently doubting myself while trying to apply these new skills and my initial performance reflected that. After a few runs I was really getting dialed in and felt pretty good about it! This is a very challenging skill and something I will work hard on maintaining.
Going back in close, we worked on shooting from retention. After a few dry runs to ensure safety and proper technique, we went live. Shooting from retention while moving to the rear followed.
After that was a nice, humbling walk back drill. I managed to take the cake on that one with a first round hit at 90 yds. I should probably mention that SGM broke out his brand new long range gun (Glock 26) for this drill and it was shooting way high and to the left. Though the walk back drill was over, we continued a couple mags of slow fire from the 100 yd. line and he was putting down some hate on the steel at that distance. Lucky for me, we didn’t repeat the walk back once he had POI figured out.
For the final portion of the class we worked shooting from barriers, moving to/ from cover and shooting on the move. The final few drills incorporated everything covered in the class to include multiple shots, surgical shots, reloads and multiple target engagements. Shooting from cover, working corners and proper use of cover was thoroughly addressed as well.
Since we were now running low on ammo and already were past our end time, the class concluded. Kenan held a hotwash along with a final mindset lecture. I'm pretty big on mindset, and really enjoyed the chance to hear him touch on some of his experience and philosophy as it pertains to prevailing in a fight. Somebody needs to write a book!
This class exceeded my personal expectations and I’d gladly take it again. I will certainly be training with Kenan in the future! His shooting performance and ability to give feedback as an instructor is a direct reflection of his experience level. Many students have commented that they enjoy simply hearing him talk, as he’s one of those guys who is constantly providing “golden nuggets” of wisdom.
In closing, I highly suggest you check out his classes regardless of experience. You won’t be disappointed and I highly suspect that his rates and ease of scheduling won’t be the same once his new company catches more exposure.
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Originally Posted by SeriousStudent
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