Darth Tater
Regular Member
Name of Company/Course: Manny Bragg (mannybragg dot com)
Type of Course: Competition-Focused Practical Pistol
Date: February 25, 2016
Location: Private Facility, FL
Weather: The day started in the high 40s and finished in the high 60s.
Round Count: Approximately 650 rounds of 9mm Blazer.
Equipment: Gen 4 Glock 34 with Taran Tactical connector, sights, and extended baseplates, and Blade-tech and Comp Tac kydex gear
Manny Bragg needs no introduction in competitive shooting circles. He has won over 300 major matches, to include 4 consecutive world titles. More importantly, he has a tremendous ability to break down the smallest movements, tasks, and concepts specific to the individual shooter’s needs.
This class was a private class for my 3 gun competition team, designed to be a pistol tune-up before the 2016 season kicks off this weekend. We had six students, all of whom are cops or firefighters. Although it was competition-focused, there was specific carry-over into face-shooting for virtually everything we did. I’ve been carrying a gun for a living for nineteen years now, with the opportunity to learn from some great trainers. This was hands-down some of the most effective skill-building training I’ve done. Every single round was fired on the timer, with many of them either in head-to-head competition or in front of the others, to add pressure. We elected to eat on the go between drills, to maximize our training time.
We ran a hot range, but otherwise followed USPSA style safety rules. Medical supplies and personnel were located/designated, and with all students skilled in GSW treatment, we had solid safety plan.
Manny likes to start and end classes with the same drill, to benchmark student skill and improvement. In this case, he started us off with his Brain Scrambler drill. This drill requires the student to move explosively across short distances while engaging a 10” plate from 20 yards. The penalties for misses were significant. This drill incorporated accuracy while getting smoked, agility, acceptable sight picture/trigger press, and speed of breaking the shot as soon as able upon moving.
We spent some time discussing and working on sight lift, follow through, and trigger control/trigger prepping. I worked to adjust my trigger prep and shot break a bit and saw some excellent results in short order.
We moved on to draw work, and Manny’s attention to detail on small elements of the draw and grip came into play for every student. I made minor adjustments to my draw stroke and grip that made major improvement. I moved my time for an A-zone hit at 7 yards from the holster from 1.2 seconds to 0.7-0.75 seconds in short order. (Before you scream “GAMER”, I was using a kydex tension-screw retained belt holster that retains the pistol at a dead sprint, not a race/ghost holster.) We spent some time discussing and working through how to practice some of these skills with dry-fire in a manner that builds and reinforces good habits without developing “beat-the-buzzer-trigger-crush” that often comes from improper dry-fire practice.
We moved to target transitions, alternating between 8” steel plates or USPSA silhouettes at 10-15 yards. The goals were to differentiate between acceptable sight picture/trigger press for target size and distance, as well as to keep pushing splits between target transitions and build good mechanics for driving the gun aggressively. We worked varieties of this with consistent and random ordering to keep the brain engaged.
We then moved to speed drills, focusing on A zone hits and recoil management doing variants of Bill Drills out to 20 yards. Everyone was pleasantly surprised to see how fast we could make consistent hits at an extended distance.
We spent a lot of time on movement drills, first moving into and out of shooting positions/cover, and then working on shooting on the move. Then we combined these concepts into some great head to head competition drills involving hard and easy entries and exits, target transitions between easy and tight shots, and shooting on the move. Manny worked us through a great evaluation drill to determine at what distance engaging specific targets on the move becomes counter-productive.
We culminated with some competition on a practice USPSA-style stage that incorporated all the skills we had worked through that day. We wrapped up with the Brain Scrambler, where we all noted marked improvement from the day’s training.
What went wrong: One student’s Akai Custom 2011 had some issues stemming from worn parts which needed replacement. He was mocked mercilessly.
What went right: Student and instructor attitudes were awesome. Everyone made substantial strides and learned how to more efficiently train.
Type of Course: Competition-Focused Practical Pistol
Date: February 25, 2016
Location: Private Facility, FL
Weather: The day started in the high 40s and finished in the high 60s.
Round Count: Approximately 650 rounds of 9mm Blazer.
Equipment: Gen 4 Glock 34 with Taran Tactical connector, sights, and extended baseplates, and Blade-tech and Comp Tac kydex gear
Manny Bragg needs no introduction in competitive shooting circles. He has won over 300 major matches, to include 4 consecutive world titles. More importantly, he has a tremendous ability to break down the smallest movements, tasks, and concepts specific to the individual shooter’s needs.
This class was a private class for my 3 gun competition team, designed to be a pistol tune-up before the 2016 season kicks off this weekend. We had six students, all of whom are cops or firefighters. Although it was competition-focused, there was specific carry-over into face-shooting for virtually everything we did. I’ve been carrying a gun for a living for nineteen years now, with the opportunity to learn from some great trainers. This was hands-down some of the most effective skill-building training I’ve done. Every single round was fired on the timer, with many of them either in head-to-head competition or in front of the others, to add pressure. We elected to eat on the go between drills, to maximize our training time.
We ran a hot range, but otherwise followed USPSA style safety rules. Medical supplies and personnel were located/designated, and with all students skilled in GSW treatment, we had solid safety plan.
Manny likes to start and end classes with the same drill, to benchmark student skill and improvement. In this case, he started us off with his Brain Scrambler drill. This drill requires the student to move explosively across short distances while engaging a 10” plate from 20 yards. The penalties for misses were significant. This drill incorporated accuracy while getting smoked, agility, acceptable sight picture/trigger press, and speed of breaking the shot as soon as able upon moving.
We spent some time discussing and working on sight lift, follow through, and trigger control/trigger prepping. I worked to adjust my trigger prep and shot break a bit and saw some excellent results in short order.
We moved on to draw work, and Manny’s attention to detail on small elements of the draw and grip came into play for every student. I made minor adjustments to my draw stroke and grip that made major improvement. I moved my time for an A-zone hit at 7 yards from the holster from 1.2 seconds to 0.7-0.75 seconds in short order. (Before you scream “GAMER”, I was using a kydex tension-screw retained belt holster that retains the pistol at a dead sprint, not a race/ghost holster.) We spent some time discussing and working through how to practice some of these skills with dry-fire in a manner that builds and reinforces good habits without developing “beat-the-buzzer-trigger-crush” that often comes from improper dry-fire practice.
We moved to target transitions, alternating between 8” steel plates or USPSA silhouettes at 10-15 yards. The goals were to differentiate between acceptable sight picture/trigger press for target size and distance, as well as to keep pushing splits between target transitions and build good mechanics for driving the gun aggressively. We worked varieties of this with consistent and random ordering to keep the brain engaged.
We then moved to speed drills, focusing on A zone hits and recoil management doing variants of Bill Drills out to 20 yards. Everyone was pleasantly surprised to see how fast we could make consistent hits at an extended distance.
We spent a lot of time on movement drills, first moving into and out of shooting positions/cover, and then working on shooting on the move. Then we combined these concepts into some great head to head competition drills involving hard and easy entries and exits, target transitions between easy and tight shots, and shooting on the move. Manny worked us through a great evaluation drill to determine at what distance engaging specific targets on the move becomes counter-productive.
We culminated with some competition on a practice USPSA-style stage that incorporated all the skills we had worked through that day. We wrapped up with the Brain Scrambler, where we all noted marked improvement from the day’s training.
What went wrong: One student’s Akai Custom 2011 had some issues stemming from worn parts which needed replacement. He was mocked mercilessly.
What went right: Student and instructor attitudes were awesome. Everyone made substantial strides and learned how to more efficiently train.