Haley Strategic Adaptive Handgun

victran

Amateur
20170510 Metcalf Shooting Range 0800-1600

Instructor: Travis Haley of Haley Strategic Partners

Introduction: Haley's reputation is something of a house-hold name in the gun community and industry. This was a private class that was essentially a 30 hour block compressed into a span of less than 8 hours. Basically a crash course of what a 3 day D5 course would be.

Equipment: Beretta 92G Elite II, Off the Grid Concepts Eggrolls, Blade-Teach OWB holster.

Ammunition: Freedom Munition steel cased 9mm 500+ rounds

Beginning of Class: We all helped setup targets and Travis gathered us to do an introduction on what we will be learning for the day and the safety brief. Travis had us recite his safety rules and articulated detailed explanations of each rule with us. We then went around the class introducing ourselves and what were our objective out of the class and what we needed to work on. Total of 22 students, varying degrees of skill level and all civilian backgrounds. Majority shooting Glocks, a VP9, a 1911, a Sig, and an M&P. John Jardine and Troy Garr were RSO's with their custom 9mm 1911s.

CET: We began with a discussion on Deliberate Practice and began his CET exercise that is meant to be shot cold starting at the 3 yard line. Timer set at 2 seconds and from the low ready position we fired three strings into the center black circle of what is usually a traditional NRA B8 from 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, and 25 yards. By the time we shot at 25, we were given 10 seconds for 5 rounds. I knew I had pulled my shots a bit high and they landed high on the left when we were shooting at 25. I knew I had a tendency to hold high at longer distances. Overall score, 82/100 with points down when they land outside of B8 circle.

Setting Goals: Travis then went over building an overall plan and base model for our training foundation. This all made very sense and its a very efficient model for not only training regiment, but also business models.

Setting Goals -> Process -> Practical Application -> Feedback/Review -> 20/80 rule -> (Practical Application, if needed)/Mastery

Grip: Travis then discussed about grip. A lot of students were found still "milking" their grip between cadences of fire, obviously inefficient. Travis talked about utilizing the bones in the hands as pins to set them along the grip to have the best grip for recoil control to prevent them from milking their grip between cadences of fire. Travis also disproved locking the elbows out and relying on the upper body to possibly tame recoil. Essentially, we have to allow recoil to happen instead of actively trying to beat it back down. Reliance on proper grip and stance by keeping the body symmetric to control recoil from cadences of fire.

Stance/Trigger: Travis talked about having a slight aggressive stance, utilizing the hips to stabilize and control the gun, creating natural point of aim. We never want to overtake or be completely bladed to take the shot as not only our grip would be compromised but our mobility would be hindered.

Travis then went over trigger control. He prefers to pin the trigger and feel for the reset, he does not advocate for taking the trigger out or slapping it in any sense. Something I personally grown out of but he demonstrated in full speed what he meant. He also ran through the concept of trigger pull distance. Explained why he designs his triggers to mimic a 1911 pull and again why he does not advocate taking the finger away from the trigger.

Feeling exercise: We then pasted up targets with 3" circles and 1" circles. We began by aiming into the HSP dragonfly center of four 3" circles. To establish our natural point of aim, Travis had us square up into our stance, present our pistol at the dragonfly and close our eyes for a few seconds and open our eyes again to see if we had moved or shifted. We did this a few more times and then Travis had us move our pistol to the left and right and reestablish our natural point of aim with our eyes closed.

Then we fired 5 rounds with our eyes closed. He wanted us to feel for pressing the shot in our natural point of aim (aimed at the dragonfly) and put the gun back onto our target under recoil. I felt that this exercise was very useful of subconsciously getting into and remaining in our natural point of aim.

We then went onto the next target Feel| Eyes | Finger (FEF) and Travis had us present the gun and shoot into the 1" circle three times with three presentations then three times with a single presentation at 3 yards. It was really difficult to abide by Haley's instruction of pinning the trigger to the rear and feel where the gun and sights were after the shot broke and seeing where my shot had landed, but it was rewarding enough to be able to diagnose what I was doing.

Travis then had us play HORSE, where we chased our partner's shot. Travis and I demonstrated the drill on a FEF target where we can take our time to press the shot into our partner's bullet hole then we upped the tempo by firing our shots consecutive to one another. The first portion, I personally wanted to practice and demo my trigger control by pulling only double action shots (Beretta) then subsequent shots in HORSE round was with single action.

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We then broke down for lunch with a 30 minute window and went back on line for the weapons manipulation portion of the class.

Reloads: Travis went over the mechanics of why we would conduct a "tactical" reload or magazine exchange. The overall mindset and proper thought process was something I already knew, but is always great to hear it again from someone who can instill that mindset into others. There is no "lull" in the gunfight or critical incident, there are only opportunities. Ammunition management, orientation of magazines, indexing magazines, all addressed to the class. We set up the drills and Travis gave us par times of five down to two seconds to conduct our magazine exchange.

Emergency/Speed reloads, Travis explained the mechanics of how to conduct the reload. We over what he talked about in the past on power stroke, firing hand thumb, and support hand thumb. We practiced each a number of times. I found it odd that Haley still mentioned and suggested the magazine bump method (commonly found on early M&P models), something proven not to be always reliable even in that specific platform itself.

Drawstroke: Travis went over the numbered drawstroke, down to three counts. He made it relatively simple for everyone to understand and to follow. Adding the timer to time our draw speed really made me think on maintaining tempo of presenting the gun. I already knew that I was capable of drawing and breaking a shot comfortably under 1.5 seconds consistently. Yet, counting out loud with long par times starting at five seconds down to .90 seconds made a lot of sense. It goes back to deliberate practice. It took me one slip to figure that I was still rushing onto the trigger too aggressively when were practicing on the five second par time. A tendency from shooting double action guns. I slowed it down and squared my shit up. Having a rhythmic tempo on drawing the gun similar to how we usually clap and timing our trigger speed tempo in a similar manner to marry it up with trigger speed by deliberate repetitions of slow cadences of fire.

Conclusion: We finished the day with a walk back competition onto steel, similar to an Indian Run. I shot from 15, 25, and 55 yards onto the IPSC reduced sized steel. We policed up the brass, packed our kit, and had our debrief. Travis talked more about mindset, his philosophy of training, and the future for HSP and what to expect in the future.

He addressed the time constraint that we had with the format of the class being rushed and I honestly cannot compare a single day class to his entire curriculum that is usually in a three or five day format. I also was coming off two days of training with Ron Avery and the curriculum was very similar to one another (as both men used to work together some time ago). A lot of things I agree with both men, a few things I could not see to change my opinions on with Haley such as trigger manipulation. Things that I probably would get a lot more insight if I was in his three day class. His overall mindset and talk on morality is something that I took more of than the shooting. I felt that this class was not only a refresher of the material I had attained from Ron Avery just hours prior, but to reinforce the concepts that the two men were able to give me. This class I felt, was really best suited for those already familiar of what and where Travis would be teaching from in order to refine and hone down the skill set laid out. I was already interested in taking a full D5 class, this class had only driven that desire further.

I've grown up on watching, listening, and practicing whatever Travis Haley had to say and give to the world. He really did not disappoint me, even with certain methodologies I necessarily do not agree with, I'm still willing to understand the why and how as what he does those things. A major thing that Travis said that I really wish more people would understand is that his concepts are always changing. His work, his methods, his approaches are always going to change some time in the future, as it can always be further developed and improved. What we learned today, can definitely change in a span of months and years later. Which is why Travis always says that he wants to be empty inside whenever he wakes up, so he can fill it with new knowledge.

Going back to his logo of the dragonfly; how a dragonfly's lifespan is a mere month, our lifespan is just as minuscule in the grand scheme of things. Which should motivate us to constantly improve and foster as shooters and tacticians.

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Thanks Travis.
 

whit77

Newbie
I took the full 3 day class last year and saw major improvement with my shooting and how I practice at home now with more focus. I don't care what anyone says Travis is good at imparting knowledge. Good write up.
 
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