victran
Amateur
20161103 Metcalf Shooting Range 0800-1600
Instructor: Frank Proctor; 18 year US Army Veteran, 11 years in Special Forces. Grand Master in USPSA Limited division and Master in Stock Service Pistol division for IDPA.
Introduction: Frank's reputation in the training industry and competition circle as a whole is well known and all around great guy. This one day class sought to be an accelerated course of his two day format class, essentially a preview of what he has to offer in his longer length classes.
Equipment: Beretta 92G Elite II
Blade-Tech Beretta Brigadier Tek-Lok holster with 3 Off the Grid Concepts Eggroll mag pouches.
Ammunition: 600+ rounds of Freedom Munition American Steel cased 115gr 9mm.
Beginning of Class: We had a slight delay due to the inability for the gate for our class to be opened. The class collectively had their stuff set up as soon as they parked and Proctor went around introducing himself and getting the class excited to start instructions.
Proctor then went over introductions and we went around the group putting name tapes on our hats and shirts so every student and Proctor would know each other on a first name basis. Each student then introduced themselves and say something that they wanted to improve on. In a class of about 14 students; I would say that there was 3-5 novices, people who were there as their very first class. Once finished introductions, Proctor went over the safety brief with us and we immediately went into talking about eye dominance. We pointed out to targets and objects to see where our dominant eye is focusing at. Frank the had us put a piece of tape over our dominant eye and attempt to do the same thing we did before, put our finger out on target to see how long it would take our brain to process that we effectively have one eye and shift focus. We all experienced a pause and our brain immediately picked up where our finger was and subconsciously put our finger and focus onto what we were pointing at.
Dry Runs: Frank moved us up to the line, facing the steel. He wanted us to work our draws and trigger press, to process the movements in our draw stroke and sight alignment/sight picture as we press our shots. Frank went down the line observing our draw stroke and body mechanics. Then he took us back and talked about how shooting has to be subconscious. How shooting as a whole begins with the conscious decision and thought of drawing then sight picture/alignment and shooting is all fed from the subconscious part of our brain. So we got back up to the line and again, Proctor went down the line to observe what we were doing. He was observing our hand speed/movement and how smooth we came up onto the gun presentation. Overall, we spent a good portion of the beginning of class dry firing and simulating how our pistol presentation would be.
Live Fire: We loaded up and practiced our draw and shoot. Got us comfortable shooting onto steel. We were all paired up and observed our partner's performance onto steel at 10 yards. Proctor wanted the non shooting partner to observe the presentation of the gun, overall timing and follow through after breaking the shot. The shooter has to be observation of their performance of their grip, draw stroke, sights, shot, and follow through. It really helps to have a partner to go through the motions and observe your performance. Accountability is key. Whenever someone misses a shot, the shooter would know where their last sight picture was and the observer would know somewhere in their mechanics was off. Very effective learning.
Proctor went down the line making the same observations as the non shooting partner would, an extra pair of eyes and knowing what to look for always helps in the learning process. From here, Proctor had us go at our pace with our partner and fellow peers. Observing the other students, I could see some frustration in a number of them when they could not connect on steel. It's really common to see students rush from the holster to breaking the shot. Each string of fire would entail about 2-4 mags per exercise, no exact round count, Proctor wanted us to go at our own pace. So, depending on how experienced shooters are, the shooters on my side of the class worked faster and went through their ammo quicker, but being completely accountable on their shots since every mistake was caught by both the shooter and observer. Again, free flow of learning and processing.
Grip: Grip is something that would make or break someone's shooting entirely. I will say; over the 6 years of shooting a handgun, in this class, Frank Proctor has changed what was incredibly comfortable and fundamentally sound to me, to something even better. Holy. $hit. Did he change my perspective and approach as a whole.
When I first encountered Proctor's teachings online all those years back, he talked a whole lot about leverage. Maximizing the efficiency in controlling force. Showed me a way and opened my horizons on shooting entirely. Since then, I have applied what he taught to be my staple shooting technique. When Proctor talked about leverage, I was quite excited to see that everything I have been doing over the years was validated in the previous classes and before Frank. The notes I wrote down from his explanation, mirrored what I had been doing over the past recent years of shooting. Opening the hand up for more leverage, instead of death gripping it. Establish more surface area for the support hand to work on and cover. Opening up the elbows to allow recoil to flow through instead of crash. The works. I was exposed to it then, crafted it over the course of years and classes, and validating it before him now.
We got back onto the line and began shooting from the ready position that Proctor had taught. Until recently, I have always had my gun at a high ready with the gun itself compressed into me and with the muzzle pointed upwards. Proctor advocated for the compressed ready with the muzzle pointed down range. The important part is to take out the excessive movement of aligning the sights upon presentation by maintaining parallel muzzle to the ground. It was all so simple and fundamentally sound with the muzzle being parallel to the ground upon presentation because upon presentation, I just have to wait for the sights to align with minimal movement and press the trigger.
Trigger: Frank briefly went over trigger prep and press with us. A majority of the class were running striker fire pistols in the Glock, M&P, and VP9 variety. There was one P226, an HK P2000, and my Beretta Elite II. Frank touched on how to prep the double action trigger and how he did not believe in the traditional doctrine of prepping the trigger while presenting the gun to take out the weight. He said, with the correct grip, taking out the prep and travel during presentation is no longer needed and wanted us to try it out (for the hammer crowd). I tried this on the subsequent draw and shoot onto steel, but could not shake what Ernest Langdon calls "NOW syndrome" or I had to slow down the trigger press and movement in its entirety of the draw stroke and shoot.
Enlightenment: Going back to how I proclaimed Frank Proctor changed my shooting technique entirely with a simple grip change. Proctor asked the class, how many of us had a callus on our shooting hand middle finger. Majority, if not all of the students had a built up callus on the side of our middle finger. We all had been shooting with an overbearing grip to control our pistol. Proctor brought it to our attention that if we simply moved the point of contact where the trigger guard underside had been pressing at the middle finger joint to above where that callus is, our grip would open up and our control would be a whole lot better.
It f*cking did.
At first I was skeptical, I noticed that my trigger finger placement on the trigger had moved from being sunk into the trigger to my first joint (picked up from Langdon and Pat Mac) to work through the long double action trigger and to maintain a straight press to the rear. Once I adjusted my grip and started to press the shots out. Yeah. I am a believer. I noticed my palm having more pressure onto the back strap of the gun and the leverage between my trigger finger was efficient upon pressing the shots. I felt more control and stability overall. I went back and forth with pressing the shots with both grips and immensely impressed. Some major Proctor magic right there.
Exercises: Proctor had us focus more on our upper body in controlling the pistol. We leaned up against the blue barrels in order to take away the lower body stability factor to shoot. We then transitioned to shooting multiple targets in a string. Starting from the draw; engage two targets at your own pace. Again, no specific round count for the exercise, Proctor wanted us to go through a few magazines and switch between mags with your partner. With the new grip and trigger finger placement, I felt a whole lot more confident in my shooting. Of course I would out run my sights, Proctor corrected me that it was not me going too fast, it was me not seeing my sights. Made a ton of sense over the next exercises.
Proctor setup his Time Machine exercise for us to run. The whole exercise invoked getting the rhythm and tempo down for shooting a solid string of fire with minimal pause between targets. It was a high round count exercise that burned through a lot of ammo fast, so I noticed a lot of students taking it slow. Again, not an exercise to go slow on necessarily.
We then had targets at different distances, this time to test our target transitions. Again, a high round count exercise as we then had to engage each target with their respective ordered number. Varying distances from 7 yards to 25 yards. Slowing down, only makes most shooters over anticipate the shot by my observation. Proctor talked about varying degrees of recoil anticipation and how people put too much or too little into their trigger press. A key note here was to be accustomed and know your gun's trigger weight in terms of the appropriate amount of weight/energy transfer.
Final Exercise: We then set up the targets are varying distances and setups. Pulled all the steel to set up one close engagement then transitioned to the Time Machine, engage a 25 yard steel, move around barrel to put two into each 3 targets, then pivot and engage steel moving forward at 25 yards. By this part of the class, a majority of the class was low on ammo so at most, I watched two runs from a few students. The final exercise incorporated everything we have done throughout the class and added movement. Movement, in my opinion, is a whole section that should be covered in nearly half a day of instruction, but due to the format of the class being one day its good to get the reps in. When I shot the exercise, I was not following and focusing my front sight enough upon steps. Break the shot only when you have an acceptable sight picture or you will just be making noise. My second run, I felt a whole lot more comfortable and had a few misses while moving and got 5/5 onto the last 25 yard steel.
Closing Thoughts: By the time we had finished our runs, the range was closing down and we had to pack up and get going. Proctor rallied us outside of the range after we packed up and went over an AAR of the class. In a span of one day of instruction, everything went by like a blur but the knowledge transfer was all there. Frank Proctor has already been a huge influence in how I shoot in the recent years, greatly influenced me to look more into competitive shooting and the different shooters throughout the industry that we talked about after class at dinner. Taking this one day class with him and learning so much from him was sort of like a teaser for a full length film. His approach towards teaching and interacting with students is incredibly relax and easy going. How he went around the lot and greeted each student, just a little thing like that goes a long way for the novices I saw at the class. In a span of a few hours, I solidified so much that was tested and exposed to me from him. The simple change of the grip by moving my finger and overall forced my trigger finger placement blew my mind to this day. I cannot recommend Frank Proctor highly enough, ever. Just bring at least a thousand rounds (per day) to get more solid reps in. It was a great pleasure and privilege.
Instructor: Frank Proctor; 18 year US Army Veteran, 11 years in Special Forces. Grand Master in USPSA Limited division and Master in Stock Service Pistol division for IDPA.
Introduction: Frank's reputation in the training industry and competition circle as a whole is well known and all around great guy. This one day class sought to be an accelerated course of his two day format class, essentially a preview of what he has to offer in his longer length classes.
Equipment: Beretta 92G Elite II
Blade-Tech Beretta Brigadier Tek-Lok holster with 3 Off the Grid Concepts Eggroll mag pouches.
Ammunition: 600+ rounds of Freedom Munition American Steel cased 115gr 9mm.
Beginning of Class: We had a slight delay due to the inability for the gate for our class to be opened. The class collectively had their stuff set up as soon as they parked and Proctor went around introducing himself and getting the class excited to start instructions.
Proctor then went over introductions and we went around the group putting name tapes on our hats and shirts so every student and Proctor would know each other on a first name basis. Each student then introduced themselves and say something that they wanted to improve on. In a class of about 14 students; I would say that there was 3-5 novices, people who were there as their very first class. Once finished introductions, Proctor went over the safety brief with us and we immediately went into talking about eye dominance. We pointed out to targets and objects to see where our dominant eye is focusing at. Frank the had us put a piece of tape over our dominant eye and attempt to do the same thing we did before, put our finger out on target to see how long it would take our brain to process that we effectively have one eye and shift focus. We all experienced a pause and our brain immediately picked up where our finger was and subconsciously put our finger and focus onto what we were pointing at.
Dry Runs: Frank moved us up to the line, facing the steel. He wanted us to work our draws and trigger press, to process the movements in our draw stroke and sight alignment/sight picture as we press our shots. Frank went down the line observing our draw stroke and body mechanics. Then he took us back and talked about how shooting has to be subconscious. How shooting as a whole begins with the conscious decision and thought of drawing then sight picture/alignment and shooting is all fed from the subconscious part of our brain. So we got back up to the line and again, Proctor went down the line to observe what we were doing. He was observing our hand speed/movement and how smooth we came up onto the gun presentation. Overall, we spent a good portion of the beginning of class dry firing and simulating how our pistol presentation would be.
Live Fire: We loaded up and practiced our draw and shoot. Got us comfortable shooting onto steel. We were all paired up and observed our partner's performance onto steel at 10 yards. Proctor wanted the non shooting partner to observe the presentation of the gun, overall timing and follow through after breaking the shot. The shooter has to be observation of their performance of their grip, draw stroke, sights, shot, and follow through. It really helps to have a partner to go through the motions and observe your performance. Accountability is key. Whenever someone misses a shot, the shooter would know where their last sight picture was and the observer would know somewhere in their mechanics was off. Very effective learning.
Proctor went down the line making the same observations as the non shooting partner would, an extra pair of eyes and knowing what to look for always helps in the learning process. From here, Proctor had us go at our pace with our partner and fellow peers. Observing the other students, I could see some frustration in a number of them when they could not connect on steel. It's really common to see students rush from the holster to breaking the shot. Each string of fire would entail about 2-4 mags per exercise, no exact round count, Proctor wanted us to go at our own pace. So, depending on how experienced shooters are, the shooters on my side of the class worked faster and went through their ammo quicker, but being completely accountable on their shots since every mistake was caught by both the shooter and observer. Again, free flow of learning and processing.
Grip: Grip is something that would make or break someone's shooting entirely. I will say; over the 6 years of shooting a handgun, in this class, Frank Proctor has changed what was incredibly comfortable and fundamentally sound to me, to something even better. Holy. $hit. Did he change my perspective and approach as a whole.
When I first encountered Proctor's teachings online all those years back, he talked a whole lot about leverage. Maximizing the efficiency in controlling force. Showed me a way and opened my horizons on shooting entirely. Since then, I have applied what he taught to be my staple shooting technique. When Proctor talked about leverage, I was quite excited to see that everything I have been doing over the years was validated in the previous classes and before Frank. The notes I wrote down from his explanation, mirrored what I had been doing over the past recent years of shooting. Opening the hand up for more leverage, instead of death gripping it. Establish more surface area for the support hand to work on and cover. Opening up the elbows to allow recoil to flow through instead of crash. The works. I was exposed to it then, crafted it over the course of years and classes, and validating it before him now.
We got back onto the line and began shooting from the ready position that Proctor had taught. Until recently, I have always had my gun at a high ready with the gun itself compressed into me and with the muzzle pointed upwards. Proctor advocated for the compressed ready with the muzzle pointed down range. The important part is to take out the excessive movement of aligning the sights upon presentation by maintaining parallel muzzle to the ground. It was all so simple and fundamentally sound with the muzzle being parallel to the ground upon presentation because upon presentation, I just have to wait for the sights to align with minimal movement and press the trigger.
Trigger: Frank briefly went over trigger prep and press with us. A majority of the class were running striker fire pistols in the Glock, M&P, and VP9 variety. There was one P226, an HK P2000, and my Beretta Elite II. Frank touched on how to prep the double action trigger and how he did not believe in the traditional doctrine of prepping the trigger while presenting the gun to take out the weight. He said, with the correct grip, taking out the prep and travel during presentation is no longer needed and wanted us to try it out (for the hammer crowd). I tried this on the subsequent draw and shoot onto steel, but could not shake what Ernest Langdon calls "NOW syndrome" or I had to slow down the trigger press and movement in its entirety of the draw stroke and shoot.
Enlightenment: Going back to how I proclaimed Frank Proctor changed my shooting technique entirely with a simple grip change. Proctor asked the class, how many of us had a callus on our shooting hand middle finger. Majority, if not all of the students had a built up callus on the side of our middle finger. We all had been shooting with an overbearing grip to control our pistol. Proctor brought it to our attention that if we simply moved the point of contact where the trigger guard underside had been pressing at the middle finger joint to above where that callus is, our grip would open up and our control would be a whole lot better.
It f*cking did.
At first I was skeptical, I noticed that my trigger finger placement on the trigger had moved from being sunk into the trigger to my first joint (picked up from Langdon and Pat Mac) to work through the long double action trigger and to maintain a straight press to the rear. Once I adjusted my grip and started to press the shots out. Yeah. I am a believer. I noticed my palm having more pressure onto the back strap of the gun and the leverage between my trigger finger was efficient upon pressing the shots. I felt more control and stability overall. I went back and forth with pressing the shots with both grips and immensely impressed. Some major Proctor magic right there.
Exercises: Proctor had us focus more on our upper body in controlling the pistol. We leaned up against the blue barrels in order to take away the lower body stability factor to shoot. We then transitioned to shooting multiple targets in a string. Starting from the draw; engage two targets at your own pace. Again, no specific round count for the exercise, Proctor wanted us to go through a few magazines and switch between mags with your partner. With the new grip and trigger finger placement, I felt a whole lot more confident in my shooting. Of course I would out run my sights, Proctor corrected me that it was not me going too fast, it was me not seeing my sights. Made a ton of sense over the next exercises.
Proctor setup his Time Machine exercise for us to run. The whole exercise invoked getting the rhythm and tempo down for shooting a solid string of fire with minimal pause between targets. It was a high round count exercise that burned through a lot of ammo fast, so I noticed a lot of students taking it slow. Again, not an exercise to go slow on necessarily.
We then had targets at different distances, this time to test our target transitions. Again, a high round count exercise as we then had to engage each target with their respective ordered number. Varying distances from 7 yards to 25 yards. Slowing down, only makes most shooters over anticipate the shot by my observation. Proctor talked about varying degrees of recoil anticipation and how people put too much or too little into their trigger press. A key note here was to be accustomed and know your gun's trigger weight in terms of the appropriate amount of weight/energy transfer.
Final Exercise: We then set up the targets are varying distances and setups. Pulled all the steel to set up one close engagement then transitioned to the Time Machine, engage a 25 yard steel, move around barrel to put two into each 3 targets, then pivot and engage steel moving forward at 25 yards. By this part of the class, a majority of the class was low on ammo so at most, I watched two runs from a few students. The final exercise incorporated everything we have done throughout the class and added movement. Movement, in my opinion, is a whole section that should be covered in nearly half a day of instruction, but due to the format of the class being one day its good to get the reps in. When I shot the exercise, I was not following and focusing my front sight enough upon steps. Break the shot only when you have an acceptable sight picture or you will just be making noise. My second run, I felt a whole lot more comfortable and had a few misses while moving and got 5/5 onto the last 25 yard steel.
Closing Thoughts: By the time we had finished our runs, the range was closing down and we had to pack up and get going. Proctor rallied us outside of the range after we packed up and went over an AAR of the class. In a span of one day of instruction, everything went by like a blur but the knowledge transfer was all there. Frank Proctor has already been a huge influence in how I shoot in the recent years, greatly influenced me to look more into competitive shooting and the different shooters throughout the industry that we talked about after class at dinner. Taking this one day class with him and learning so much from him was sort of like a teaser for a full length film. His approach towards teaching and interacting with students is incredibly relax and easy going. How he went around the lot and greeted each student, just a little thing like that goes a long way for the novices I saw at the class. In a span of a few hours, I solidified so much that was tested and exposed to me from him. The simple change of the grip by moving my finger and overall forced my trigger finger placement blew my mind to this day. I cannot recommend Frank Proctor highly enough, ever. Just bring at least a thousand rounds (per day) to get more solid reps in. It was a great pleasure and privilege.
