Blue 10 Defensive Applications- Defensive Handgun 03March2018

ImBatman

I'm on a boat!
Blue 10 Defensive Applications- Defensive Handgun Applications 03 March 2018

-DISCLAIMER-
My spot in this class was comped with the request I write an AAR. This did not affect my thoughts on the class, as I knew Jim and he is one of my local tribe. I knew ahead of time what the class was going to be about which directly impacted my expectations.
-END DISCLAIMER-

Gear- I shot my EDC, Fauxland Special #01. Reloads were managed with RCS Copias, belt was Mean Gene Barbarian, and holster a Keroman V2 from CNC Holsters with Phlster Flex holding OC spray. The gun was fed 124 grain S&B and magazines were Magpul Glock PMAGs.

Expectations- From previous discussions with Jim I expected this to be a a course in thinking, not shooting. Problem solving was the name of the game.

TD1 Morning- We started the day with the obligatory safety brief, covering emergency responders and all students pulling tons of medical in case of emergency. Shooting started with Tom Givens 5x5x5, from concealment, as a warmup and a breakdown of the accuracy standards we were expected to meet. This segued into a breakdown of why Jim believes in the accuracy standard he does, why he prioritizes the upper chest, and terminal ballistics. Jim broke down all shooters splits, covering what he wanted to see from shooters at our level and the real life ramifications of over running the ability to think between trigger presses. It’s Jims (and my) opinion that faster than 0.3 splits start to be problematic, as you cannot get off the trigger should another bullet not be the solution. We segued into another iteration of 5X5X5 this time two sets of targets each getting five rounds, with more diagnostics being given to shooters to make sure when the difficulties escalate we knew what was expected of us. As we chocked mags to prep for the next CoF Jim gave a breakdown on the psychology of task saturation, working over task stacking and how we train to insure our brains processing power can be focused away from the essential tasks of working the gun and onto the more complex problems. We started escalating the complexity of the drills at this point, running VTAC 1-5, and then a variation of “numbers” from Tom Givens. Jim was quick to credit all those he took drills from, explaining not just the background but why he chose to include those drills. Next came another iteration of numbers, with the targets stacked in array and the shooter needing to deconflict downrange and uprange, while being shot with the VTAC shooting sequence between 3 targets identified at random. The problem solving came out in shooters, as some would take a single position to hit all three, some iterations calling for movement, or in one of my reps taking all head shots to minimize the chance of shoot throughs. Every run would get debriefed, with shooter explaining what they did and why they did it, while Jim offered critique and praise. At this point we broke for lunch, enjoying a quick one together on the range.

TD1 Afternoon- After lunch we ran through an hour of close contact gunfighting, retention shooting and the reasons we needed it for our problem solving. With this wrapped up we downed all weapons/tools and got safety gear out for sim guns. The class ran 3 reps for each shooter, covering short distances with the problems of getting a gun into play, an iteration of the tueller drill, problem solving using the array previously run for numbers as no shoots, and the same array run with other students acting as additional unknowns to manage. The last dril was the biggest take away, with role players acting out concerned carriers, cops, friends to the shot, and anything else needed to test the one running the drill.

Takeaways- Problem solving is harder to simulate than anything else, it’s more than just stress on the shooter but it’s pushing the information gathering and processing capabilities of the shooter. That was shown time and time again, that the good reps are the ones we managed that information input and shaped the encounter to give us the most chance to get ahead of bad actors. Along that line, a shooter NEEDS to know their capabilities cold. As the stress ramped up we saw shooters getting too fast, getting sloppy with accuracy, and default to previous less than ideal shooting, all of which means they couldn’t make informed decisions as to what they were actually capable of. In one instance of this I threw a shot through a non-threat, because I over estimated my capability to bang out the five shots needed with 0.2 splits with the slim margin of clearance I had.

TL;DR- This classes force on force component alone would be worth the cost of admission, with the psychology lecture and emphasis on scaled learning it would be an outstanding step up for anyone looking to start deepening the skills needed outside just marksmanship.

Blue 10 can be found here https://www.facebook.com/Blue10DefensiveApplications

If you want to read more from me, and see videos from the class, follow me at https://www.facebook.com/theobscenesailor/

IMG_9166.jpg
 
Top