“Better Than I Used To Be”
by Harley A. Cardwell
August 13, 2012
Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a defensive pistol course given by Armed Dynamics, sponsored by AGS Armament & Consulting. Armed Dynamics is run by Jeff Bloovman and some dude named Marc.
Brief Background
I have been around firearms since I was a very small child, and have been more of a collector than a really active shooter. Basically I get out to the range a couple times a year to have some fun, keep up basic marksmanship and relieve some stress.
I carry a handgun every day of every week everywhere I go (within the law, of course…), for personal protection. Even though I have it, I have never felt like it was "enough", I've never had the feeling that I was prepared enough for a deadly encounter. The last month we have seen three major spree shootings, resulting in many dead and wounded. To me, this means that there is a great need for prepared, armed citizens in case a lunatic decides to go crazy in your neighborhood.
I started to ask myself the following questions:
· "How would I respond to an active shooter?"
· "Would I be able to accurately engage a threat without harming innocents?"
· "Would I have the ability to protect my loved ones and take out the bad guy at the same time? How would I know when to do what?"
· "How would I perform at night?"
· "How do I deal with multiple threats?"
· "How do I react to weapon malfunctions?"
· "How do I stay in the fight if I get hit?"
These are pretty complex questions, and there are many, many more. What I learned from a few minutes meditating on them was that I was completely unprepared for an active shooter situation.
When we don't know something, and need to learn it we must seek out those that possess the desired knowledge. My friend Jahred Gamez from AGS Armament & Consulting pushed me to take the Armed Dynamics courses, so I signed up for Defensive Pistol I. This is my AAR, and I write it only for the "regular guy" with a handgun and carry license that wants to protect themselves and families. You are unprepared to use it effectively. I didn't say that you might be, I'm telling you that you ARE unprepared to use that pistol effectively.
Classroom
We start out the morning at the range in a classroom setting, everyone being a stranger to each other. Jeff and Marc introduce themselves and start in with the course material. Jeff was trained in the theatre, so his communication and improv skills make the information he teaches very clear and fun at the same time.
We start out with the basic safety rules; a good reminder anytime you touch your firearms. Then we move into the more technical aspects of what we will be doing later. Again, the information is presented in a manner that you can remember, and visual demonstrations helped to lock in the lessons as well.
Live Fire
We finish up with the written material (don't worry, there's no pop quiz at the end) and move to the firing area of the range. We get our gear situated and move to the line. At this point we repeat the safety rules again, and load our firearms.
An interesting point about the Armed Dynamics class is that your handgun is always loaded. I really liked this for a couple of reasons:
1. Most accidents happen when we think our weapons are unloaded. If we know that the gun is loaded we greatly reduce the confusion associated with constant loading and unloading.
2. Having your firearm constantly loaded is more realistic than only loading it when you step in front of a target. Isn't your handgun loaded when you leave the house? Go out to eat? Go to the park? Of course it is, so why do we train that our guns should be empty?
At this point I’m not going to insert any spoilers and tell you specifics of the training, that’s AD’s job. My job is to tell you my experiences with the training. We start out working on the proper grip and drawstroke. This is one of the fundamentals for accurate shooting. The other major building blocks we focused on were focusing on the front sight and trigger reset.
Trigger reset is key to quick, accurate follow-up shots. When you fire your weapon, hold the trigger all the way to the rear, the slide will cycle and load a new round; now let the trigger out just until you hear a click. At this point the trigger is reset. Now let the trigger out further paying attention to the distance from the click to where the trigger stops. See how much take-up you’re saving yourself on follow-ups?
At this point we have practiced drawing our weapon from the holster while maintaining the proper grip; focusing on the front sight and building trigger-reset discipline. What am I thinking at this point? We’ve received a lot of instruction and I’m soaking it up like a sponge. The only problem is that once I hit “overload” I start skipping steps, or making mistakes, the good news is AD has a solution for this.
We hit the line and Jeff breaks out the Jedi mind tricks. This is some really cool stuff and worth the price of admission in itself. We basically meditate on what we’ve been learning and concentrate on it to help “burn” it all in. Now when I get back on the line and start drawing and shooting I can tell a HUGE difference in my technique, smoothness and confidence. I went from thinking about each single step, to becoming fluid with less thought in 20-30 minutes. Simply astounding.
Add-Ons
What happens once you shoot some bad guys? AD has the answer for that as well. I’m not going to dive in to this too deeply, but it certainly deserves mentioning. You learn to Fight, Asses what you’ve done, Scan for more scumbags, and Top-off your firearm.
Team Building
Now we work on some simple team exercises. The cool thing about this block is that it is very easy to incorporate with the people you shoot with, or your family members. We didn’t get into how to take out a Soviet tank with each other, that wasn’t the point. In a firefight you’re going to run out of ammunition, experience malfunctions, take a hit, etc. We learned how to make sure that we can do what needs done while a team member is watching our backs.
Malfunctions
We spent a considerable amount of time working with malfunctions. A firearm is a mechanical device, and as you know from automobiles, mechanical devices don’t always work the way you want them to. What happens when your gun jams? You get out of the way and work to correct it in a way that it as efficient and foolproof as possible.
When you are under stress (which you will experience in a gun fight), you loose fine motor skills, so we don’t want to train with complex tricky sequences that our body can’t process and execute under duress.
Injuries
How do you work when you’ve been injured? Draw with your left hand when your gun is on the right? How do you pull off reloads, or clear malfunctions? Can you still draw and shoot after being punched in the head a few times? These are all scenarios that we set up and worked through. Again, all of the techniques are designed to work with as few trick moves as possible.
Shoot On The Move
I love to shoot and move because that’s the way we need to train. How many of you will stand right in front of the bad guy while you reload or clear a malfunction? This was the point during the class where everything came together for me on a drill called “the box”. Imagine 4 barrels placed in a square that you have to walk around while engaging a target. We start at a rear corner advance on the target, turn the first corner and sidestep past the target. At the next corner you walk backwards, then sidestep again to the starting point.
This drill is great because you have to learn to walk smoothly, not trip over obstacles, and perform reloads on the move. The sound (or silence) of a steel target gives you instant feedback on what you do correctly or incorrectly. For me, this is the point where focusing on the front sight and managing trigger reset really clicked. My first two rounds were pathetic in terms of hit/miss ratio. With coaching from Marc I was able to have an awesome run on my third round, missing only 3 shots from 3 magazines.
Shooting From Cover
This is an interesting exercise for sure, mainly because none of us ever do it! How far away should you be from your cover? Can the bad guys sneak up on you? How do I shoot them before they see me? Are there any other sensory perceptions I have to contend with now?
Shooting At Night
Flashlights are useful for seeing in the dark. In a self-defense situation you really need to be sure that you are really shooting at the threat, and not grandma, or other innocent bystander. We covered several methods, practiced shooting with them and were left to decide what method was best for us.
The final exercise was a culmination of all the skills we learned that day, under the cover of darkness. If there was just one shooting scenario that I was not prepared for I think this was it. You can barely see right around you. Use your flashlight when you peek around cover to find your target. Shoot. Extinguish the light. Move. Use your light, shoot, extinguish, move!
Engaging multiple targets at night is really a lot of fun. You can only use enough light to identify a target, shoot and then move away in the dark. Engage another target, turn your light off and go engage a target on the other side of the line. It’s cool to see that you can easily take on multiple threats at night by merely confusing them with a flashlight!
Conclusion
I started the day wanting to absorb every last morsel of information. I also started with some bad habits, and I truly believe breaking a bad habit and replacing it with a good one is ten times more difficult than just picking up a new habit. Over the course of 13 hours I consumed 6 litres of water and 829 rounds of 9mm.
Many, many, many good repetitions are key! “Perfect practice makes perfect”, and Armed Dynamics makes sure that the students get plenty of trigger time on each training block to help them get each technique down. We are obviously not masters of defensive shooting after a single day, but are far better equipped to handle a crummy situation now. It is now up to each student to go home and develop a dry-fire practice routine and train to build up muscle memory.
As an armed citizen looking to protect myself and loved ones from deadly threats I feel that I have many more tools in my tool kit now. Am I ready for every scenario? No? Can I better answer the questions that I asked earlier? Absolutely. Is there more to learn? Absolutely; both with and without weapons. To quote a hit song, “I ain’t as good as I’m gonna get, but I’m better than I used to be.”
To anyone who has a handgun and the means (time, money) to train with Armed Dynamics: “Do it.” To have the means, and consciously decide to NOT take the course means you are quite simply a fool.
ETA
Cost of course was $225. There is a $25 discount per class if you take both the rifle and pistol course the same weekend.
www.armeddynamics.com - Home
by Harley A. Cardwell
August 13, 2012
Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a defensive pistol course given by Armed Dynamics, sponsored by AGS Armament & Consulting. Armed Dynamics is run by Jeff Bloovman and some dude named Marc.
Brief Background
I have been around firearms since I was a very small child, and have been more of a collector than a really active shooter. Basically I get out to the range a couple times a year to have some fun, keep up basic marksmanship and relieve some stress.
I carry a handgun every day of every week everywhere I go (within the law, of course…), for personal protection. Even though I have it, I have never felt like it was "enough", I've never had the feeling that I was prepared enough for a deadly encounter. The last month we have seen three major spree shootings, resulting in many dead and wounded. To me, this means that there is a great need for prepared, armed citizens in case a lunatic decides to go crazy in your neighborhood.
I started to ask myself the following questions:
· "How would I respond to an active shooter?"
· "Would I be able to accurately engage a threat without harming innocents?"
· "Would I have the ability to protect my loved ones and take out the bad guy at the same time? How would I know when to do what?"
· "How would I perform at night?"
· "How do I deal with multiple threats?"
· "How do I react to weapon malfunctions?"
· "How do I stay in the fight if I get hit?"
These are pretty complex questions, and there are many, many more. What I learned from a few minutes meditating on them was that I was completely unprepared for an active shooter situation.
When we don't know something, and need to learn it we must seek out those that possess the desired knowledge. My friend Jahred Gamez from AGS Armament & Consulting pushed me to take the Armed Dynamics courses, so I signed up for Defensive Pistol I. This is my AAR, and I write it only for the "regular guy" with a handgun and carry license that wants to protect themselves and families. You are unprepared to use it effectively. I didn't say that you might be, I'm telling you that you ARE unprepared to use that pistol effectively.
Classroom
We start out the morning at the range in a classroom setting, everyone being a stranger to each other. Jeff and Marc introduce themselves and start in with the course material. Jeff was trained in the theatre, so his communication and improv skills make the information he teaches very clear and fun at the same time.
We start out with the basic safety rules; a good reminder anytime you touch your firearms. Then we move into the more technical aspects of what we will be doing later. Again, the information is presented in a manner that you can remember, and visual demonstrations helped to lock in the lessons as well.
Live Fire
We finish up with the written material (don't worry, there's no pop quiz at the end) and move to the firing area of the range. We get our gear situated and move to the line. At this point we repeat the safety rules again, and load our firearms.
An interesting point about the Armed Dynamics class is that your handgun is always loaded. I really liked this for a couple of reasons:
1. Most accidents happen when we think our weapons are unloaded. If we know that the gun is loaded we greatly reduce the confusion associated with constant loading and unloading.
2. Having your firearm constantly loaded is more realistic than only loading it when you step in front of a target. Isn't your handgun loaded when you leave the house? Go out to eat? Go to the park? Of course it is, so why do we train that our guns should be empty?
At this point I’m not going to insert any spoilers and tell you specifics of the training, that’s AD’s job. My job is to tell you my experiences with the training. We start out working on the proper grip and drawstroke. This is one of the fundamentals for accurate shooting. The other major building blocks we focused on were focusing on the front sight and trigger reset.
Trigger reset is key to quick, accurate follow-up shots. When you fire your weapon, hold the trigger all the way to the rear, the slide will cycle and load a new round; now let the trigger out just until you hear a click. At this point the trigger is reset. Now let the trigger out further paying attention to the distance from the click to where the trigger stops. See how much take-up you’re saving yourself on follow-ups?
At this point we have practiced drawing our weapon from the holster while maintaining the proper grip; focusing on the front sight and building trigger-reset discipline. What am I thinking at this point? We’ve received a lot of instruction and I’m soaking it up like a sponge. The only problem is that once I hit “overload” I start skipping steps, or making mistakes, the good news is AD has a solution for this.
We hit the line and Jeff breaks out the Jedi mind tricks. This is some really cool stuff and worth the price of admission in itself. We basically meditate on what we’ve been learning and concentrate on it to help “burn” it all in. Now when I get back on the line and start drawing and shooting I can tell a HUGE difference in my technique, smoothness and confidence. I went from thinking about each single step, to becoming fluid with less thought in 20-30 minutes. Simply astounding.
Add-Ons
What happens once you shoot some bad guys? AD has the answer for that as well. I’m not going to dive in to this too deeply, but it certainly deserves mentioning. You learn to Fight, Asses what you’ve done, Scan for more scumbags, and Top-off your firearm.
Team Building
Now we work on some simple team exercises. The cool thing about this block is that it is very easy to incorporate with the people you shoot with, or your family members. We didn’t get into how to take out a Soviet tank with each other, that wasn’t the point. In a firefight you’re going to run out of ammunition, experience malfunctions, take a hit, etc. We learned how to make sure that we can do what needs done while a team member is watching our backs.
Malfunctions
We spent a considerable amount of time working with malfunctions. A firearm is a mechanical device, and as you know from automobiles, mechanical devices don’t always work the way you want them to. What happens when your gun jams? You get out of the way and work to correct it in a way that it as efficient and foolproof as possible.
When you are under stress (which you will experience in a gun fight), you loose fine motor skills, so we don’t want to train with complex tricky sequences that our body can’t process and execute under duress.
Injuries
How do you work when you’ve been injured? Draw with your left hand when your gun is on the right? How do you pull off reloads, or clear malfunctions? Can you still draw and shoot after being punched in the head a few times? These are all scenarios that we set up and worked through. Again, all of the techniques are designed to work with as few trick moves as possible.
Shoot On The Move
I love to shoot and move because that’s the way we need to train. How many of you will stand right in front of the bad guy while you reload or clear a malfunction? This was the point during the class where everything came together for me on a drill called “the box”. Imagine 4 barrels placed in a square that you have to walk around while engaging a target. We start at a rear corner advance on the target, turn the first corner and sidestep past the target. At the next corner you walk backwards, then sidestep again to the starting point.
This drill is great because you have to learn to walk smoothly, not trip over obstacles, and perform reloads on the move. The sound (or silence) of a steel target gives you instant feedback on what you do correctly or incorrectly. For me, this is the point where focusing on the front sight and managing trigger reset really clicked. My first two rounds were pathetic in terms of hit/miss ratio. With coaching from Marc I was able to have an awesome run on my third round, missing only 3 shots from 3 magazines.
Shooting From Cover
This is an interesting exercise for sure, mainly because none of us ever do it! How far away should you be from your cover? Can the bad guys sneak up on you? How do I shoot them before they see me? Are there any other sensory perceptions I have to contend with now?
Shooting At Night
Flashlights are useful for seeing in the dark. In a self-defense situation you really need to be sure that you are really shooting at the threat, and not grandma, or other innocent bystander. We covered several methods, practiced shooting with them and were left to decide what method was best for us.
The final exercise was a culmination of all the skills we learned that day, under the cover of darkness. If there was just one shooting scenario that I was not prepared for I think this was it. You can barely see right around you. Use your flashlight when you peek around cover to find your target. Shoot. Extinguish the light. Move. Use your light, shoot, extinguish, move!
Engaging multiple targets at night is really a lot of fun. You can only use enough light to identify a target, shoot and then move away in the dark. Engage another target, turn your light off and go engage a target on the other side of the line. It’s cool to see that you can easily take on multiple threats at night by merely confusing them with a flashlight!
Conclusion
I started the day wanting to absorb every last morsel of information. I also started with some bad habits, and I truly believe breaking a bad habit and replacing it with a good one is ten times more difficult than just picking up a new habit. Over the course of 13 hours I consumed 6 litres of water and 829 rounds of 9mm.
Many, many, many good repetitions are key! “Perfect practice makes perfect”, and Armed Dynamics makes sure that the students get plenty of trigger time on each training block to help them get each technique down. We are obviously not masters of defensive shooting after a single day, but are far better equipped to handle a crummy situation now. It is now up to each student to go home and develop a dry-fire practice routine and train to build up muscle memory.
As an armed citizen looking to protect myself and loved ones from deadly threats I feel that I have many more tools in my tool kit now. Am I ready for every scenario? No? Can I better answer the questions that I asked earlier? Absolutely. Is there more to learn? Absolutely; both with and without weapons. To quote a hit song, “I ain’t as good as I’m gonna get, but I’m better than I used to be.”
To anyone who has a handgun and the means (time, money) to train with Armed Dynamics: “Do it.” To have the means, and consciously decide to NOT take the course means you are quite simply a fool.
ETA
Cost of course was $225. There is a $25 discount per class if you take both the rifle and pistol course the same weekend.
www.armeddynamics.com - Home
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