In my county (and the surrounding counties), there is a huge lack of training options available. While everyone has their CCW (or is getting it), there is nothing else available for them to grow as a defensive shooter.
Because of this, Sgt. Watson of the Tuscarawas County S.O. and myself have started to teach Defensive pistol, carbine, shotgun and AK at the Tusco Rifle Club (http://www.tuscorifle.org/).
Yesterday was our first class (Defensive Pistol). We had about 26 shooters come out for the free training.
After the safety brief and a short discussion on our backgrounds, we got right into the drills.
Because of the limited time (two hours), we started off with Larry Vickers “ball and dummy” drill. We are able to cover the first two stages of this drill and could really see the eyes opening of new shooters and old shooters alike. Some never realized that they had a flinch as bad as they did.
We also covered grip, stance and weight balance. It is always amazing to me to see what people will come up with on their own. Adjusting grips and stances was a constant thing.
At the end of the training, we ran the Delta 10-10-10 drill. The purpose of which was to show them what we wanted them to be able to complete by the end of the year. Very few to none passed it, but it was another good eye opener for them.
Thanks. This has been a goal of mine for awhile and I finally got motivated to create a training curriculum, work with the gun club to set it up and get the members interested in it.
The feedback we received was great and everyone learned something from it.
Use an NRA 25yd pistol target (with the rings numbered). You count the rings for score. Passing is 100, but if you can shoot a 90 and above, you are pretty good. I have never shot above a 97 on it (FYI).
Grant;
I can’t thank you enough, It was indeed a humbling experience… I learned I’m nowhere near as good as I thought I was…I picked up a few things, I can’t wait until the next class.Needless to say, I want/need to learn more. I will say the 10-10-10 drill caused me to reevaluate my choice of a ccw, I noticed twice during the drill I missed the trigger reset, Had this been for real, I would have been in trouble…Anyway I’m going to practice the 10-10-10 drill with my M&P9 and pit it against what I was using, (P-2000 LEM),After I got home last night, I measured the triggers on both from all the way back in the triggerguard to the reset point, and the M&P has the HK beat…badly… ditto from the reset point to sear engagement, I figure I’ll get a good idea which is better when shooting live ammo…The ruler told me plenty…
We commonly believe that we are better than we are. Shooting in groups/classes will often show you where you are in relation to where you THINK you are. This is a good thing.
One of the things I noticed during the ball and dummy drill was that most people only know their gun and are NOT familiar with other type and brands of weapons.
For instance, I had an XD shooter coupled with an HK USP shooter. The XD shooter had ZERO idea on how to get the mag out. His partner told him that it was on the triggerguard and turned back around. I watched this guy attempt to break the triggerguard with his thumb as he pushed down on it (at the wrong spot). Even after I came up and pointed out where it was, he still spent another 2 minutes fumbling with it and eventually got it (dumping the mag on the deck).
After that mess was over, I told him to make sure to decock it before handing it back. You would have thought I was asking him to build a rocket ship right there on the range as he was NEVER going to find it. After 5 minutes of messing around with this HK, he looked back at me and said, “I think I will stick with my XD.” I thought to myself, I wouldn’t.
Of course we had a mix of 1911’s (mostly those little micro Springfield thingy’s), XD’s, one or two Glock’s, over ten M&P’s, one High-Power, one Taurus 24/7’s, one Sigma, two HK’s and…wait for it…Para Warthog (which didn’t run).
I think that some form of a “battlefield pick-up” drill will be happening at a later class so people can learn about other weapon platforms.
