Bryan V
Newbie
Course Overview
Sage Dynamics is offering a three day Defensive Handgun format (at least at the time of this AAR) to allow students to rapidly progress though all regularly offered Sage Dynamics Defensive Handgun Courses without a break in training. This format allows for a solid stream line process through each level off Defensive Handgun course, such as fundamentals, level 1 and level 2. It allows for contemporaneous learning of the Sage method, but allows students to get the most bang for their buck.
Exercise Overview
Three Day Defensive Handgun
Instructor: Aaron Cowan
Dates: 03/31/17-04/02/17
Time: 0800-1700 roughly
Location: Eagle Lake, TX, Falcon Tactical Facility
Weather: Bipolar
About: Instructor Aaron Cowan
Aaron began his career in the United States Army (11M) in 1999, serving 3 years active duty and an additional 4 in the National Guard (11M). During his time in the military he served as a rifleman, squad automatic rifleman and designated marksman; receiving training in small unit tactics, close quarters combat and ballistic and mechanical breaching. After leaving active duty, Aaron worked as a private security contractor both CONUS and OCONUS; conducting convoy security, close protection details, static security and relief security during natural disasters. Aaron joined the ranks of federal law enforcement in 2009 with the Department of Defense; serving as a patrol officer. Within a year, Aaron assumed the position of In-Service training officer. Aaron held the collateral duty of Special Reaction Team member in 2009 and was promoted to Special Reaction Team Leader in 2011. Aaron was responsible for Special Reaction Team training and qualifications as well as instruction and control of the SRT Sniper Section. Aaron is a member of the National Tactical Officers Association and the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors. (Taking from Sage Dynamics website)
Gear/Equipment Overview
Handgun
Primary: Glock 17, Roland Special, Trijicon RMR06, TBRC Micro Comp, Agency Arms Trigger, Surefire X300U
Backup: Glock 19, Blacked out rear w/Red fiber optic front (WOTG Sights, Frank Proctor, Agency Arms Trigger, Surefire X300U
Holster/Belt: Gcode OSH RTI Holster OWB & Two mag caddies, Ares Gear Ranger Belt
Ammo: Stand One Armory, 115gr, 1500 rounds minimum. (Only used 1k rounds)
Sharpie Marker, don’t forget one!
Day One, 0800-1700
Introduction & Safety Brief
Aaron did a quick introduction off himself along with his background then dived into the safety brief along with the medical plan in case anyone decided not to follow the firearm safety rules. Aaron covered his version of the four firearm safety rules as the Life Firearm Safety Rules. As we train on the range, but when in reality were training for life.
Know the condition of your weapon.
Keep the weapon indexed in the safest direction possible. (Up, down, left, etc. this all depends on the situation and context)
Consciously work the safety and triggers.
Know your target, angle of engagement and offset.
The goal is to create safe shooters, in a non-safe environment.
Range
Grip
We started the day off by going over the basic shooting fundamentals, starting with Grip. Aaron harped on the importance of a strong grip. How most accuracy problems stem from the lack of a strong grip whereas it’s commonly misperceived through improper trigger control. Aaron explained that if you placed a handgun inside a vice torqued it all the way down and “slapped” the trigger you would still obtain accurate hits on target. Reason being that you are not allowing the handguns recoil impulse a place to escape in your grip or commonly known as the path of least resistance. He also explained that both hands should be placing equal pressure on both sides of the handgun and the old rule of “60/40” grip pressure is inaccurate because there is now way to gauge that. Place your hand up high as possible on the back strap of the frame, form a master grip around the handgun while maintaining that same grip throughout a string of fire without giving up you’re grip.
To illustrate this Aaron had students shoot a three-five round string of fire center mass of their intended targets starting at the 5-7 yrd line. Once the students engaged their targets Aaron walked down the line checking each of the student’s accuracy and having them illustrate their grip on the handgun. At this point Aaron was able to ensure if a student’s grip was proper or not, but with that said Aaron also explained if a students is accurately getting hits, but his grip is not “proper” per say who is he to fix that on that person “If it’s not broken don’t fix it.” Aaron also touched on over extension or “torqueing” of the wrist/elbow tendons which can cause injuries over time. Some people can reach further out along the frame of the handguns compared to others, what’s comfortable to one person may not be to another. So simply put find a grip that best works for you, grip is a personal thing. Aaron than had students engage the target again, this time as fast as they could while maintaining a master grip on their handgun. Work was checked showing a big majority of improvement on accuracy.
Draw
Aaron then covered the Draw process and the importance of ensuring a proper grip out of the gate. Meaning whatever amount of the frame you purchase on the draw is what you get. This will either hinder or aid in your first shot on target, recoil control and follow up shots. Depending on your lifestyle and duties Aaron covered the draw process for both the concealed carry & outside the waistband/ duty belt setups. This being a three day course Aaron encouraged students to train how they typically carry every day or switch up carry styles if they so wished.
Sight Alignment / Sight Picture
Next up Aaron covered sight alignment & sight picture specifically what is acceptable sight deviation. Aaron asked the question what sight picture is and what dictates you’re sight picture? This being a self-defense handgun course the threat dictates what you’re sight picture is and how it can constantly change. Aaron explained how the draw & sight alignment are somewhat tied together, meaning if a person has a poor draw presentation this also affects the time it takes to align the sights and in a self-defense situation time is crucial.
This is also where Red Dot handguns have an advantage in the sense you can and more than likely will be threat focused in a use of force situation thus losing your ability to near focus on your traditional sights. Red dot handguns give us the advantage of being able to focus on the threat, they help us to potentially see any weapons if they’re not already brandished and as long as we place the red dot on the intended target, and ensure the proper use of the fundamentals we’ll get our hits. This isn’t to say it’s not possible to see you’re front/rear sight, buts it’s something that comes with time, experience and stress inoculation training (force on force.)
Aaron explained depending on your distance from the threat you can have acceptable sight deviation. He demonstrated this by aligning the front sight of his handgun up, down, left & right out of the required normal rear sight alignment such as equal height and light. This was done at the 5, 7 and 15 yard line. From the 5 & 7 line hits were in the thoracic cavity and at the 15 line they were still on target, but were not striking any critical vital organs. This was shown to illustrate that in a critical self-defense situation we may not have the time or be able to acquire perfect sight alignment, but we have the ability to obtain accurate hits with a “good enough” sight picture depending on distance of course.
I noticed during this drill that the RMR is truly not parallax free. I’m no scientist, but parallax free basically means that as you move your eye around behind the glass of the optic, the point of aim does not change. I noticed a POA/POI change between the 10-15 yard line. I discussed this with Aaron quickly after checking my hits and he mentioned that nothing is truly parallax free. Some food for thought that’s all. After that drill we marked hits and got ready for the next exercise. Aaron brought out one of his Glock 17’s, but this one however did not have a rear or front sight installed. He talked about kinesthetic shooting or point shooting, whatever name you fancy.
He stated that most of us have decent hand/eye coordination and we’ve been pointing at things since the Stone Age. The Spartans and Templar Knights got work done with hand/eye coordination only and it wasn’t until the modernization of firearms did sights become invented. Humans are hardwired to be threat focused. Aaron explained that it’s possible to obtain accurate hits with kinesthetic shooting. He demonstrated this starting from the 5 yard line pushing back to the 20 yard line and was able to achieve accurate hits on the thoracic cavity. Of course the further Aaron pushed back the accuracy started to expand, but this was to demonstrate that you can still get good hits. It’s important to note that Aaron does not instruct this as you should shoot this way all the time, but simply to show students their capabilities. Keep in mind that we can see our hits and adjust on the flat range, but in the real word we can’t see our hits and rely on the feedback a threat gives us such as; giving up, dropping to the floor, grabbing or touching where they have just been shot etc.
Stance
Let’s move on… lol Aaron simply stated you’ve been standing and walking since you’ve been able to. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be, you won’t get a perfect stance in the real world. Do what’s comfortable for you and work from the position you find yourself in.
Trigger Control
Last but not least trigger control. Aaron again mentioned that if students ensured they had a proper strong grip this would help alleviate any potential inaccuracy problems. It was explained that finger placement on the trigger shoe of the handgun is very personal. Handgun size, fit and ergonomics play a role into it as well. No one’s hands are the same size and length therefore we can’t expect everyone to have the same finger placement on the trigger. Some people will have more finger on the trigger and others won’t. I’m sure we’ve all seen the image of the target with three different finger placements on the trigger showing three different accuracy results if not check below. Aaron talked about what’s most important is how you manage the trigger, not the placement of the finger. You want to do this by pressing the trigger to the rear as straight as possible in one fluid motion without disturbing the sighs until the shot breaks and maintaining a good grip throughout the process. As myself when I first started shooting I was taught to always place the pad of my finger on the trigger, it wasn’t until last year where I learned about placing the first distal joint of my finger on the trigger instead which has greatly improved my accuracy. Find what works best for you is what Aaron explained.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iuugzavxq8ojyhl/Trigger Placement.jpg?dl=0
We then tore down targets to setup the 3-D targets for the next block of instruction coming up which was Human Anatomy.
3-D Target/ Human Anatomy
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2a6cyglueemn501/Sage Dynamics.jpg?dl=0
Aaron explained how most instructors are teaching on a 2-D based target, but in reality if we ever have to use lethal force against another that person is a 3-D subject. This changes our sight picture, angles and how we have to engage the threat if we want to strike vital organs. Not every bad guy is going to just stand there squared away saying “here’s the A zone bro”. Aaron used 3-D targets called UTC Tacdrop Target in case anyone was interested. Aaron explained were aiming for what’s inside the body and we have to visualize where you need to hit in order to break the body and stop the threat as quickly as possible. A 3-D target challenges you in the sense of having to visualize where you want to hit. For example a threat is at an oblique angle or completely sideways. The traditional “center mass” of the threat has now been changed. If we wanted to strike the heart we would more than likely need to aim for the arm pit / upper rib cage area.
Aaron has a great understanding and knowledge of the human anatomy, explaining the vital organs, loss of consciousness from blood loss and types of incapacitations. How a threat can either give you three types of responses ranging from an immediate response, delayed responses and no response depending on shot placement and health/intoxicated/mental status of a subject. We then first positioned our targets in a 45° angle and then complete flanked targets. This helped introduce the visualization aspect of engaging a 3-D subject in this case a target to ensure you are striking vital key areas at different angles on a threat. We started at the 7 yrd and pushed back to the 15 yrd line to ensure student’s accuracy standards are being pushed.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kepan7darrs653p/Oblique Targets.jpg?dl=0
Verbal Commands
Next up Aaron covered pre/post use of force and how training courses rarely implement verbal commands because they may feel silly/stupid. However verbal commands help us in a potential legal use of force situation. They allow witnesses to hear/know of a potential shooting, they identify you as a good guy (hopefully) or someone who was trying to protect themselves or family; instead of just some guy/girl smoking another human being. Whether you give verbal commands or not will be based off personal training, the time and distance of a threat. Aaron also mentioned how it’s important to have a possible plan (until Murphy’s Law shows up) when giving verbal commands if the subject listens to you. How are you going to call the police? What if I need to secure the weapon? Are you confident in you’re one handed shooting skills? What do I do when the police show up etc. all important questions to ask you’re self. Aaron was great about explaining and answering any questions students had in regards to what type of commands to give, process of securing a weapon possibly etc.
Aaron explained and demoed to students what was required of them for the upcoming drill. Aaron would call out the word “challenge” students would issue verbal commands and go through their own procedure or process of compliance. If during the challenge command a “target” did not comply or a threat command was called students would engage the target, do a proper follow through (ensuring subject is no longer a threat at that point), scan the area for family members, witnesses and any other threats. Aaron demonstrated his scan of the area by bringing handgun muzzle up and doing a full 360° turn to check for any other potential threats, why because bad guys usually come in pairs.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3j8d989khmjuc7v/Sage, Creating Distance.mov?dl=0
Day 2, 0800-1700
Day 2 started off with Close Retention shooting and the importance of trying not to allow yourself to be caught in this type of situation, but sometimes it may be unavoidable. Aaron talked about how when most people practice close retention shooting the shots go low into the stomach/pelvic area. This is mainly due to the fact of range limitations i.e. berm clearance, height etc. In reality we would want to cant our gun upwards to strike more of the thoracic cavity. Aaron showed two ways to accomplish this.
Thumb to ribcage: Simply put you place your thumb along/under your chest/ribcage, keeping the handgun tucked close along you’re body and fire shots as needed.
Magazine to ribcage: Basically the same as above, but you “cant” you’re handgun outward and press the magazine inward against you’re body and fire shots as needed.
Due to the range setup we stayed in the lower stomach/pelvis area, but performed a few iterations of both methods within a foot of the target.
Aaron also showed students how to keep the gun in battery in case they found themselves in a situation where they needed to press the gun against another person; which can cause the handgun to be out of battery. Aaron demonstrated this by placing his thumb behind the slide of the handgun. This would allow the handgun to stay in battery for one shot ONLY then immediately tap, rack and re-asses/engage if need be. This would hopefully stop the threat or give you time to create some distance.
Now I know the internet says that if you do this type of close retention shooting with Comped guns you’ll probably get yourself killed. Well I’m still alive…with all my fingers intact, sorry internet.
One Handed Shooting
Aaron is really big on one handed shooting and believes you should practice strong hand only/support hand only just as much as you’re normal two handed grip. Reasons being you may find yourself in a situation where you may not be able to use you’re support hand at the exact time you want to. Support hand either feeds, fixes or aids in recoil control IF available. Aaron pose a question in the manner of what happens if you’re support hands been injured, maybe your holding onto your kids hand or any other situation you can think of.
Aaron explained that you would need to really double down on your grip when shooting one handed and guys running red dot guns could have a harder time tracking the dot if they didn’t do this. He then demoed having a lax grip vs a strong grip one handed only which was evident that he’s very proficient shooting both support/strong hand only. Aaron mentioned that he drives his thumb forward as if he’s trying to touch the front end of the frame and crushes the grip. I tried this during the following one handed work and worked really well for me and I was able to track the dot pretty well.
Handgun Malfunctions
After lunch we dove into malfunctions both two handed and one handed variations. Aaron covered the common associated malfunctions such as: failure to fire or feed, stove pipes and double feeds. I’ll be specifically covering the double feed process on this AAR as the other malfunction clearances are pretty straight forward. Aarons take on the clearance of a double feed is pretty simple and effective. Instead of the traditional lock slide back, strip mag or retain it if it’s the only source of ammo you have; rack slide 2-3 times to clear stoppage and reinsert magazine, rerack slide and re-asses target (5-6 steps depending how you work it.)
Aaron instructs students to simply hold onto the magazine release and strip the mag at the same time; retain mag if needed, reinsert magazine, rerack slide and reassess target. To illustrate this Aaron demoed both methods and his preferred method was significantly faster. It was also brought up that guys using aftermarket magwells without extended base pads on their magazines could possibly have a harder time pulling this off and was something to be mindful of. Aaron then had us set up our own double feed malfunctions using spent brass of your caliber. Aarons method of the double feed clearance was indeed so much simpler and efficient for me so ill definitely be sticking with that method for a while.
I’m not going to touch on the one handed malfunctions clearances as that is quite a bit of information to jog down and something you should definitely attend a class for. However my RMR makes racking off pretty much anything quite easily. After malfunctions Aaron covered alternate shooting positions.
Alternate Shooting Positions
There is quite a bit of different shooting positions we covered that day ranging from kneeling, supine, fetal position (left/right side). Aaron explained why or how we could find ourselves in these positions such as: needing to change the angle of shot(kneeling), using cover/concealment, possibly pushed on our backs or shielding ourselves as best as we can from multiple attackers(fetal position). Aaron went over each position explaining the pros vs cons to each one, particular methods to draw you’re weapon without sweeping any of your body parts and how to fight from recovery.
Fighting From Recovery
Depending on the individuals body size, health and mobility this would dictate how well a person could recover from the ground; while either maintaining both hands on the handgun or using one hand to help to push off the ground. Yet, another reason why you should practice one handed shooting. Aaron stated that if you can keep both hands on the gun during a recovery that is going to be more beneficial to you as you will have more control over the handgun; compared to having one hand planted on the ground. Aaron had students try both methods if possible to see which worked better for them and allowed them the greatest accuracy possible while recovering from the ground.
Students would place themselves on the ground (supine or fetal) and on the threat command would draw and engage their target. Conduct a sit-up traditionally or bring one leg and plating one hand if they needed as they recovered from the ground to a kneeling position. Then come to a standing position, create distance and a proper follow through process. I can’t speak for the rest of the class, but I preferred and was able to maintain both hands on the gun during recovery. It just comes down to what works best for you and is most efficient.
Cover Work
After that we moved onto cover/concealment work. As I’m sure we all know cover is something that will effectively stop, deviate or deflect incoming rounds (for how long that depends on your type of cover) whereas concealment is simply hiding you, concealing your location; but for those who don’t know there you go. Aaron encouraged students to mindful of their surroundings in their everyday lives and pay attention to what types of cover are actually available in real life. Unfortunately in the real world there aren’t VTAC barricades or blue barrels lying around everywhere (which aren’t cover). Aaron gave examples of what could be cover such as: vehicles(calm down my non VCQB brethren), trees, light post(maybe), pillar columns located inside buildings etc and you can think of the rest. We then worked through shooting/positioning around a VTAC barricade for those who weren’t familiar with working around cover much. We then hopped into a drill called The Judgment Drill if I’m not mistaken.
Judgement Drill
https://www.dropbox.com/s/338sksb3ke7gqr0/Judgement Drill.jpg?dl=0
Was definitely a favorite drill amongst the students. The drill itself covers multiple aspects ranging from positive threat id, movement, use of cover, working angles of threats and being aware of what’s in front/behind you’re target. This drill was run on a one students bases only by having one student starting with their back facing the targets. Other students would position the non-shoot targets and threats that had cutout weapons using the 3D UTC Tac Drop system in various positions. Aaron would call threat or simulate gun fire in which the student would turn and scan the targets for the right threat while working back to a piece of cover. Once behind cover they would engage the threats IF they had the correct angle ensuring they were not hitting no shoot targets. Then continue to work rewards to other pieces of cover that were staggered several feet apart. Once a student was finished the class would go check his work ensuring hits were on intended targets and change positions of targets again. That way the next student up could not “game” the drill. I included my run of this drill below, hopefully the link works.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lyw6wbu7o6587g8/Judgement Drill .mov?dl=0
Day 3, 0800-1200
Day 3 started off with the usual Texas bipolar weather of thunderstorms/tornado warning when the previous two days were nice and hot. The day before we decided to stay in class longer just in case the weather was pretty bad during the last day in order for us to finish up quicker. Apparently there was a tornado about 20 miles from us, but of course we kept shooting like no biggy and it rained on/off so wasn’t too bad.
Support Hand Only Work
Aaron started off the day covering support hand draw clearances and reload methods from both AIWB and OWB setups. Aaron stressed the importance of not flagging yourself or placing you’re finger in the trigger guard during the draw process. Aaron instructed that guys running AIWB would be able to get to their handguns easier and form a normal (dominant hand) grip whereas guys running OWB setups would have to reach across their body and form a backwards grip (usually). This is all dependent on body shape and flexibility of each shooter, I was running an OWB setup and had no problem reach across my body for the handgun, but did have to form backwards grip. Think of it as you trying to pull back on a lever. Once un-holstered students would have to rotate the handgun against their chest, reestablish a proper support hand grip and engage targets. Aaron covered this from standing, kneeling and supine position. The kneeling draw process was the same as the standing process. Drawing from the supine was a little different as we were instructed to lay the handgun down on the ground and pick it up. This actually works really well and was pretty efficient compared to having to rotate the gun against out chest etc. That would take more time compared to simply laying down the gun and forming the grip you need.
We repeated the above process, but this time strong hand only which is no one had a problem with. Then we jumped into reload processes.
Primary/Support Hand Only Reloads
Aaron quickly covered the primary hand only reloads as it tends to be easier compared to support hand only. Our support hand is a luxury like mentioned earlier it can be tied up by holding onto a loved one, flashlight or could be injured.
Primary Hand Only: Aaron simply instructed guys to place their handguns back in the holster, reinsert a fresh source of ammo and send the slide forward by either using the slide release or racking the rear sights against your body or holster.
Support Hand Only: This wasn’t much different from the primary hand only method except the fact that you would usually have to rotate you’re gun backwards into the holster (which didn’t work for me) or shove the handgun into your belt line (which worked fine for me).
Aaron did mention the method of placing the handgun between your knees to reload, but doesn’t prefer that methods as it reduces you’re mobility and if you have to quickly move there goes your gun on the floor.
Injured Shooter
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ikwmt8a868ycd67/Photo Apr 02, 12 53 46 PM.jpg?dl=0
After the students were familiar with primary and support hand only work Aaron brought a bag of whiffle balls and duct tape. As I’ve done quite a bit of injured shooter work from previous courses I knew what was about to commence (insert evil emoji face). Each student was given a whiffle ball to hold onto as Aaron proceeded to walk down the line and tape either a primary or support hand; even at times wrapping tape around a student’s body trapping his arm against his body. Aaron knew I had done some injured shooter work in the past so he quickly taped up my whole primary hand and placed a piece of tape on my left eye, luckily it wasn’t my dominant eye.
Aaron had students engage targets from standing, kneeling and supine again, ranging from the 5-10 yard range. As reloads and malfunctions happened students were to fix them on their own and re-asses. This ended our three day training with Sage Dynamics.
Debrief/Thoughts
After range cleanup, Aaron thanked all the students for their time and hard work they put in during the three days of class. Students shared thoughts, concerns and overall satisfaction with the class and instruction provided by Aaron. After Aaron talked about how he likes to give certain patches to students. The Red Sage patch was passed out to a few students, but not all. Those who showed overall good fundamentals and the ability to apply techniques/instruction that was taught during class received a Red Sage patch. Then Aaron explained his Black Sage patch that is earned by a student who best demonstrates techniques instructed in the course and inherent skill brought to class. I was surprised when Aaron handed me the Black Sage patch as this was my first ever Sage class not to mention the class itself was filled with good shooters.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i4x85d3jcxktzla/Black Sage Patch.jpg?dl=0
Overall I had a great three days of training with Aaron from Sage Dynamics along with a great group of shooters as well. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who’s looking for solid training regardless of their profession; be it Leo/Mil or a responsible armed citizen. This course is great for new to experienced shooters looking for solid instruction or a different view of viewing/working a handgun in potential real world environment. This surely won’t be my last Sage Dynamics class.
Sage Dynamics is offering a three day Defensive Handgun format (at least at the time of this AAR) to allow students to rapidly progress though all regularly offered Sage Dynamics Defensive Handgun Courses without a break in training. This format allows for a solid stream line process through each level off Defensive Handgun course, such as fundamentals, level 1 and level 2. It allows for contemporaneous learning of the Sage method, but allows students to get the most bang for their buck.
Exercise Overview
Three Day Defensive Handgun
Instructor: Aaron Cowan
Dates: 03/31/17-04/02/17
Time: 0800-1700 roughly
Location: Eagle Lake, TX, Falcon Tactical Facility
Weather: Bipolar
About: Instructor Aaron Cowan
Aaron began his career in the United States Army (11M) in 1999, serving 3 years active duty and an additional 4 in the National Guard (11M). During his time in the military he served as a rifleman, squad automatic rifleman and designated marksman; receiving training in small unit tactics, close quarters combat and ballistic and mechanical breaching. After leaving active duty, Aaron worked as a private security contractor both CONUS and OCONUS; conducting convoy security, close protection details, static security and relief security during natural disasters. Aaron joined the ranks of federal law enforcement in 2009 with the Department of Defense; serving as a patrol officer. Within a year, Aaron assumed the position of In-Service training officer. Aaron held the collateral duty of Special Reaction Team member in 2009 and was promoted to Special Reaction Team Leader in 2011. Aaron was responsible for Special Reaction Team training and qualifications as well as instruction and control of the SRT Sniper Section. Aaron is a member of the National Tactical Officers Association and the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors. (Taking from Sage Dynamics website)
Gear/Equipment Overview
Handgun
Primary: Glock 17, Roland Special, Trijicon RMR06, TBRC Micro Comp, Agency Arms Trigger, Surefire X300U
Backup: Glock 19, Blacked out rear w/Red fiber optic front (WOTG Sights, Frank Proctor, Agency Arms Trigger, Surefire X300U
Holster/Belt: Gcode OSH RTI Holster OWB & Two mag caddies, Ares Gear Ranger Belt
Ammo: Stand One Armory, 115gr, 1500 rounds minimum. (Only used 1k rounds)
Sharpie Marker, don’t forget one!
Day One, 0800-1700
Introduction & Safety Brief
Aaron did a quick introduction off himself along with his background then dived into the safety brief along with the medical plan in case anyone decided not to follow the firearm safety rules. Aaron covered his version of the four firearm safety rules as the Life Firearm Safety Rules. As we train on the range, but when in reality were training for life.
Know the condition of your weapon.
Keep the weapon indexed in the safest direction possible. (Up, down, left, etc. this all depends on the situation and context)
Consciously work the safety and triggers.
Know your target, angle of engagement and offset.
The goal is to create safe shooters, in a non-safe environment.
Range
Grip
We started the day off by going over the basic shooting fundamentals, starting with Grip. Aaron harped on the importance of a strong grip. How most accuracy problems stem from the lack of a strong grip whereas it’s commonly misperceived through improper trigger control. Aaron explained that if you placed a handgun inside a vice torqued it all the way down and “slapped” the trigger you would still obtain accurate hits on target. Reason being that you are not allowing the handguns recoil impulse a place to escape in your grip or commonly known as the path of least resistance. He also explained that both hands should be placing equal pressure on both sides of the handgun and the old rule of “60/40” grip pressure is inaccurate because there is now way to gauge that. Place your hand up high as possible on the back strap of the frame, form a master grip around the handgun while maintaining that same grip throughout a string of fire without giving up you’re grip.
To illustrate this Aaron had students shoot a three-five round string of fire center mass of their intended targets starting at the 5-7 yrd line. Once the students engaged their targets Aaron walked down the line checking each of the student’s accuracy and having them illustrate their grip on the handgun. At this point Aaron was able to ensure if a student’s grip was proper or not, but with that said Aaron also explained if a students is accurately getting hits, but his grip is not “proper” per say who is he to fix that on that person “If it’s not broken don’t fix it.” Aaron also touched on over extension or “torqueing” of the wrist/elbow tendons which can cause injuries over time. Some people can reach further out along the frame of the handguns compared to others, what’s comfortable to one person may not be to another. So simply put find a grip that best works for you, grip is a personal thing. Aaron than had students engage the target again, this time as fast as they could while maintaining a master grip on their handgun. Work was checked showing a big majority of improvement on accuracy.
Draw
Aaron then covered the Draw process and the importance of ensuring a proper grip out of the gate. Meaning whatever amount of the frame you purchase on the draw is what you get. This will either hinder or aid in your first shot on target, recoil control and follow up shots. Depending on your lifestyle and duties Aaron covered the draw process for both the concealed carry & outside the waistband/ duty belt setups. This being a three day course Aaron encouraged students to train how they typically carry every day or switch up carry styles if they so wished.
Sight Alignment / Sight Picture
Next up Aaron covered sight alignment & sight picture specifically what is acceptable sight deviation. Aaron asked the question what sight picture is and what dictates you’re sight picture? This being a self-defense handgun course the threat dictates what you’re sight picture is and how it can constantly change. Aaron explained how the draw & sight alignment are somewhat tied together, meaning if a person has a poor draw presentation this also affects the time it takes to align the sights and in a self-defense situation time is crucial.
This is also where Red Dot handguns have an advantage in the sense you can and more than likely will be threat focused in a use of force situation thus losing your ability to near focus on your traditional sights. Red dot handguns give us the advantage of being able to focus on the threat, they help us to potentially see any weapons if they’re not already brandished and as long as we place the red dot on the intended target, and ensure the proper use of the fundamentals we’ll get our hits. This isn’t to say it’s not possible to see you’re front/rear sight, buts it’s something that comes with time, experience and stress inoculation training (force on force.)
Aaron explained depending on your distance from the threat you can have acceptable sight deviation. He demonstrated this by aligning the front sight of his handgun up, down, left & right out of the required normal rear sight alignment such as equal height and light. This was done at the 5, 7 and 15 yard line. From the 5 & 7 line hits were in the thoracic cavity and at the 15 line they were still on target, but were not striking any critical vital organs. This was shown to illustrate that in a critical self-defense situation we may not have the time or be able to acquire perfect sight alignment, but we have the ability to obtain accurate hits with a “good enough” sight picture depending on distance of course.
I noticed during this drill that the RMR is truly not parallax free. I’m no scientist, but parallax free basically means that as you move your eye around behind the glass of the optic, the point of aim does not change. I noticed a POA/POI change between the 10-15 yard line. I discussed this with Aaron quickly after checking my hits and he mentioned that nothing is truly parallax free. Some food for thought that’s all. After that drill we marked hits and got ready for the next exercise. Aaron brought out one of his Glock 17’s, but this one however did not have a rear or front sight installed. He talked about kinesthetic shooting or point shooting, whatever name you fancy.
He stated that most of us have decent hand/eye coordination and we’ve been pointing at things since the Stone Age. The Spartans and Templar Knights got work done with hand/eye coordination only and it wasn’t until the modernization of firearms did sights become invented. Humans are hardwired to be threat focused. Aaron explained that it’s possible to obtain accurate hits with kinesthetic shooting. He demonstrated this starting from the 5 yard line pushing back to the 20 yard line and was able to achieve accurate hits on the thoracic cavity. Of course the further Aaron pushed back the accuracy started to expand, but this was to demonstrate that you can still get good hits. It’s important to note that Aaron does not instruct this as you should shoot this way all the time, but simply to show students their capabilities. Keep in mind that we can see our hits and adjust on the flat range, but in the real word we can’t see our hits and rely on the feedback a threat gives us such as; giving up, dropping to the floor, grabbing or touching where they have just been shot etc.
Stance
Let’s move on… lol Aaron simply stated you’ve been standing and walking since you’ve been able to. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be, you won’t get a perfect stance in the real world. Do what’s comfortable for you and work from the position you find yourself in.
Trigger Control
Last but not least trigger control. Aaron again mentioned that if students ensured they had a proper strong grip this would help alleviate any potential inaccuracy problems. It was explained that finger placement on the trigger shoe of the handgun is very personal. Handgun size, fit and ergonomics play a role into it as well. No one’s hands are the same size and length therefore we can’t expect everyone to have the same finger placement on the trigger. Some people will have more finger on the trigger and others won’t. I’m sure we’ve all seen the image of the target with three different finger placements on the trigger showing three different accuracy results if not check below. Aaron talked about what’s most important is how you manage the trigger, not the placement of the finger. You want to do this by pressing the trigger to the rear as straight as possible in one fluid motion without disturbing the sighs until the shot breaks and maintaining a good grip throughout the process. As myself when I first started shooting I was taught to always place the pad of my finger on the trigger, it wasn’t until last year where I learned about placing the first distal joint of my finger on the trigger instead which has greatly improved my accuracy. Find what works best for you is what Aaron explained.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iuugzavxq8ojyhl/Trigger Placement.jpg?dl=0
We then tore down targets to setup the 3-D targets for the next block of instruction coming up which was Human Anatomy.
3-D Target/ Human Anatomy
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2a6cyglueemn501/Sage Dynamics.jpg?dl=0
Aaron explained how most instructors are teaching on a 2-D based target, but in reality if we ever have to use lethal force against another that person is a 3-D subject. This changes our sight picture, angles and how we have to engage the threat if we want to strike vital organs. Not every bad guy is going to just stand there squared away saying “here’s the A zone bro”. Aaron used 3-D targets called UTC Tacdrop Target in case anyone was interested. Aaron explained were aiming for what’s inside the body and we have to visualize where you need to hit in order to break the body and stop the threat as quickly as possible. A 3-D target challenges you in the sense of having to visualize where you want to hit. For example a threat is at an oblique angle or completely sideways. The traditional “center mass” of the threat has now been changed. If we wanted to strike the heart we would more than likely need to aim for the arm pit / upper rib cage area.
Aaron has a great understanding and knowledge of the human anatomy, explaining the vital organs, loss of consciousness from blood loss and types of incapacitations. How a threat can either give you three types of responses ranging from an immediate response, delayed responses and no response depending on shot placement and health/intoxicated/mental status of a subject. We then first positioned our targets in a 45° angle and then complete flanked targets. This helped introduce the visualization aspect of engaging a 3-D subject in this case a target to ensure you are striking vital key areas at different angles on a threat. We started at the 7 yrd and pushed back to the 15 yrd line to ensure student’s accuracy standards are being pushed.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kepan7darrs653p/Oblique Targets.jpg?dl=0
Verbal Commands
Next up Aaron covered pre/post use of force and how training courses rarely implement verbal commands because they may feel silly/stupid. However verbal commands help us in a potential legal use of force situation. They allow witnesses to hear/know of a potential shooting, they identify you as a good guy (hopefully) or someone who was trying to protect themselves or family; instead of just some guy/girl smoking another human being. Whether you give verbal commands or not will be based off personal training, the time and distance of a threat. Aaron also mentioned how it’s important to have a possible plan (until Murphy’s Law shows up) when giving verbal commands if the subject listens to you. How are you going to call the police? What if I need to secure the weapon? Are you confident in you’re one handed shooting skills? What do I do when the police show up etc. all important questions to ask you’re self. Aaron was great about explaining and answering any questions students had in regards to what type of commands to give, process of securing a weapon possibly etc.
Aaron explained and demoed to students what was required of them for the upcoming drill. Aaron would call out the word “challenge” students would issue verbal commands and go through their own procedure or process of compliance. If during the challenge command a “target” did not comply or a threat command was called students would engage the target, do a proper follow through (ensuring subject is no longer a threat at that point), scan the area for family members, witnesses and any other threats. Aaron demonstrated his scan of the area by bringing handgun muzzle up and doing a full 360° turn to check for any other potential threats, why because bad guys usually come in pairs.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3j8d989khmjuc7v/Sage, Creating Distance.mov?dl=0
Day 2, 0800-1700
Day 2 started off with Close Retention shooting and the importance of trying not to allow yourself to be caught in this type of situation, but sometimes it may be unavoidable. Aaron talked about how when most people practice close retention shooting the shots go low into the stomach/pelvic area. This is mainly due to the fact of range limitations i.e. berm clearance, height etc. In reality we would want to cant our gun upwards to strike more of the thoracic cavity. Aaron showed two ways to accomplish this.
Thumb to ribcage: Simply put you place your thumb along/under your chest/ribcage, keeping the handgun tucked close along you’re body and fire shots as needed.
Magazine to ribcage: Basically the same as above, but you “cant” you’re handgun outward and press the magazine inward against you’re body and fire shots as needed.
Due to the range setup we stayed in the lower stomach/pelvis area, but performed a few iterations of both methods within a foot of the target.
Aaron also showed students how to keep the gun in battery in case they found themselves in a situation where they needed to press the gun against another person; which can cause the handgun to be out of battery. Aaron demonstrated this by placing his thumb behind the slide of the handgun. This would allow the handgun to stay in battery for one shot ONLY then immediately tap, rack and re-asses/engage if need be. This would hopefully stop the threat or give you time to create some distance.
Now I know the internet says that if you do this type of close retention shooting with Comped guns you’ll probably get yourself killed. Well I’m still alive…with all my fingers intact, sorry internet.
One Handed Shooting
Aaron is really big on one handed shooting and believes you should practice strong hand only/support hand only just as much as you’re normal two handed grip. Reasons being you may find yourself in a situation where you may not be able to use you’re support hand at the exact time you want to. Support hand either feeds, fixes or aids in recoil control IF available. Aaron pose a question in the manner of what happens if you’re support hands been injured, maybe your holding onto your kids hand or any other situation you can think of.
Aaron explained that you would need to really double down on your grip when shooting one handed and guys running red dot guns could have a harder time tracking the dot if they didn’t do this. He then demoed having a lax grip vs a strong grip one handed only which was evident that he’s very proficient shooting both support/strong hand only. Aaron mentioned that he drives his thumb forward as if he’s trying to touch the front end of the frame and crushes the grip. I tried this during the following one handed work and worked really well for me and I was able to track the dot pretty well.
Handgun Malfunctions
After lunch we dove into malfunctions both two handed and one handed variations. Aaron covered the common associated malfunctions such as: failure to fire or feed, stove pipes and double feeds. I’ll be specifically covering the double feed process on this AAR as the other malfunction clearances are pretty straight forward. Aarons take on the clearance of a double feed is pretty simple and effective. Instead of the traditional lock slide back, strip mag or retain it if it’s the only source of ammo you have; rack slide 2-3 times to clear stoppage and reinsert magazine, rerack slide and re-asses target (5-6 steps depending how you work it.)
Aaron instructs students to simply hold onto the magazine release and strip the mag at the same time; retain mag if needed, reinsert magazine, rerack slide and reassess target. To illustrate this Aaron demoed both methods and his preferred method was significantly faster. It was also brought up that guys using aftermarket magwells without extended base pads on their magazines could possibly have a harder time pulling this off and was something to be mindful of. Aaron then had us set up our own double feed malfunctions using spent brass of your caliber. Aarons method of the double feed clearance was indeed so much simpler and efficient for me so ill definitely be sticking with that method for a while.
I’m not going to touch on the one handed malfunctions clearances as that is quite a bit of information to jog down and something you should definitely attend a class for. However my RMR makes racking off pretty much anything quite easily. After malfunctions Aaron covered alternate shooting positions.
Alternate Shooting Positions
There is quite a bit of different shooting positions we covered that day ranging from kneeling, supine, fetal position (left/right side). Aaron explained why or how we could find ourselves in these positions such as: needing to change the angle of shot(kneeling), using cover/concealment, possibly pushed on our backs or shielding ourselves as best as we can from multiple attackers(fetal position). Aaron went over each position explaining the pros vs cons to each one, particular methods to draw you’re weapon without sweeping any of your body parts and how to fight from recovery.
Fighting From Recovery
Depending on the individuals body size, health and mobility this would dictate how well a person could recover from the ground; while either maintaining both hands on the handgun or using one hand to help to push off the ground. Yet, another reason why you should practice one handed shooting. Aaron stated that if you can keep both hands on the gun during a recovery that is going to be more beneficial to you as you will have more control over the handgun; compared to having one hand planted on the ground. Aaron had students try both methods if possible to see which worked better for them and allowed them the greatest accuracy possible while recovering from the ground.
Students would place themselves on the ground (supine or fetal) and on the threat command would draw and engage their target. Conduct a sit-up traditionally or bring one leg and plating one hand if they needed as they recovered from the ground to a kneeling position. Then come to a standing position, create distance and a proper follow through process. I can’t speak for the rest of the class, but I preferred and was able to maintain both hands on the gun during recovery. It just comes down to what works best for you and is most efficient.
Cover Work
After that we moved onto cover/concealment work. As I’m sure we all know cover is something that will effectively stop, deviate or deflect incoming rounds (for how long that depends on your type of cover) whereas concealment is simply hiding you, concealing your location; but for those who don’t know there you go. Aaron encouraged students to mindful of their surroundings in their everyday lives and pay attention to what types of cover are actually available in real life. Unfortunately in the real world there aren’t VTAC barricades or blue barrels lying around everywhere (which aren’t cover). Aaron gave examples of what could be cover such as: vehicles(calm down my non VCQB brethren), trees, light post(maybe), pillar columns located inside buildings etc and you can think of the rest. We then worked through shooting/positioning around a VTAC barricade for those who weren’t familiar with working around cover much. We then hopped into a drill called The Judgment Drill if I’m not mistaken.
Judgement Drill
https://www.dropbox.com/s/338sksb3ke7gqr0/Judgement Drill.jpg?dl=0
Was definitely a favorite drill amongst the students. The drill itself covers multiple aspects ranging from positive threat id, movement, use of cover, working angles of threats and being aware of what’s in front/behind you’re target. This drill was run on a one students bases only by having one student starting with their back facing the targets. Other students would position the non-shoot targets and threats that had cutout weapons using the 3D UTC Tac Drop system in various positions. Aaron would call threat or simulate gun fire in which the student would turn and scan the targets for the right threat while working back to a piece of cover. Once behind cover they would engage the threats IF they had the correct angle ensuring they were not hitting no shoot targets. Then continue to work rewards to other pieces of cover that were staggered several feet apart. Once a student was finished the class would go check his work ensuring hits were on intended targets and change positions of targets again. That way the next student up could not “game” the drill. I included my run of this drill below, hopefully the link works.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lyw6wbu7o6587g8/Judgement Drill .mov?dl=0
Day 3, 0800-1200
Day 3 started off with the usual Texas bipolar weather of thunderstorms/tornado warning when the previous two days were nice and hot. The day before we decided to stay in class longer just in case the weather was pretty bad during the last day in order for us to finish up quicker. Apparently there was a tornado about 20 miles from us, but of course we kept shooting like no biggy and it rained on/off so wasn’t too bad.
Support Hand Only Work
Aaron started off the day covering support hand draw clearances and reload methods from both AIWB and OWB setups. Aaron stressed the importance of not flagging yourself or placing you’re finger in the trigger guard during the draw process. Aaron instructed that guys running AIWB would be able to get to their handguns easier and form a normal (dominant hand) grip whereas guys running OWB setups would have to reach across their body and form a backwards grip (usually). This is all dependent on body shape and flexibility of each shooter, I was running an OWB setup and had no problem reach across my body for the handgun, but did have to form backwards grip. Think of it as you trying to pull back on a lever. Once un-holstered students would have to rotate the handgun against their chest, reestablish a proper support hand grip and engage targets. Aaron covered this from standing, kneeling and supine position. The kneeling draw process was the same as the standing process. Drawing from the supine was a little different as we were instructed to lay the handgun down on the ground and pick it up. This actually works really well and was pretty efficient compared to having to rotate the gun against out chest etc. That would take more time compared to simply laying down the gun and forming the grip you need.
We repeated the above process, but this time strong hand only which is no one had a problem with. Then we jumped into reload processes.
Primary/Support Hand Only Reloads
Aaron quickly covered the primary hand only reloads as it tends to be easier compared to support hand only. Our support hand is a luxury like mentioned earlier it can be tied up by holding onto a loved one, flashlight or could be injured.
Primary Hand Only: Aaron simply instructed guys to place their handguns back in the holster, reinsert a fresh source of ammo and send the slide forward by either using the slide release or racking the rear sights against your body or holster.
Support Hand Only: This wasn’t much different from the primary hand only method except the fact that you would usually have to rotate you’re gun backwards into the holster (which didn’t work for me) or shove the handgun into your belt line (which worked fine for me).
Aaron did mention the method of placing the handgun between your knees to reload, but doesn’t prefer that methods as it reduces you’re mobility and if you have to quickly move there goes your gun on the floor.
Injured Shooter
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ikwmt8a868ycd67/Photo Apr 02, 12 53 46 PM.jpg?dl=0
After the students were familiar with primary and support hand only work Aaron brought a bag of whiffle balls and duct tape. As I’ve done quite a bit of injured shooter work from previous courses I knew what was about to commence (insert evil emoji face). Each student was given a whiffle ball to hold onto as Aaron proceeded to walk down the line and tape either a primary or support hand; even at times wrapping tape around a student’s body trapping his arm against his body. Aaron knew I had done some injured shooter work in the past so he quickly taped up my whole primary hand and placed a piece of tape on my left eye, luckily it wasn’t my dominant eye.
Aaron had students engage targets from standing, kneeling and supine again, ranging from the 5-10 yard range. As reloads and malfunctions happened students were to fix them on their own and re-asses. This ended our three day training with Sage Dynamics.
Debrief/Thoughts
After range cleanup, Aaron thanked all the students for their time and hard work they put in during the three days of class. Students shared thoughts, concerns and overall satisfaction with the class and instruction provided by Aaron. After Aaron talked about how he likes to give certain patches to students. The Red Sage patch was passed out to a few students, but not all. Those who showed overall good fundamentals and the ability to apply techniques/instruction that was taught during class received a Red Sage patch. Then Aaron explained his Black Sage patch that is earned by a student who best demonstrates techniques instructed in the course and inherent skill brought to class. I was surprised when Aaron handed me the Black Sage patch as this was my first ever Sage class not to mention the class itself was filled with good shooters.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i4x85d3jcxktzla/Black Sage Patch.jpg?dl=0
Overall I had a great three days of training with Aaron from Sage Dynamics along with a great group of shooters as well. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who’s looking for solid training regardless of their profession; be it Leo/Mil or a responsible armed citizen. This course is great for new to experienced shooters looking for solid instruction or a different view of viewing/working a handgun in potential real world environment. This surely won’t be my last Sage Dynamics class.