Mountain Pistol Training AAR - Instructor Perspective

Last weekend I had the opportunity to teach the biggest class I've taught to date. I taught my family (on my wives side) and my coworkers/friends from work. There were a total of 13 shooters. I'm going to write this little AAR about my feelings as a new instructor and what I failed at, and what I thought I did well.

It was held on their land in the north Georgia Mountains. The weather went from sunny, to downpour, back to full sun. It was good training weather.

The Mountain:

The shooters skill levels varied from literally the first time shooting a handgun, to seasoned hunters (which does NOT make them combative pistol shooters btw). I knew this going in, and designed the course accordingly.

They had assorted pistols and gear carry methods. There wasn't a lot of support gear or anything, so we worked out of pockets and off the ground. No big deal.

First was the first aid, evacuation, and firearms safety rules, as always. This was a special one since I got some GPS coordinates in case an injury was so severe that it required a helicopter evacuation. But I handled that portion.

I started out with basic marksmanship on 6" circles with aiming points. I took my friend Claude Werner's tip and used cd's to make targets on cardboard. I added a Popsicle stick so I could quickly apply the spray paint onto the targets and not get my hands painted up.

We started with building the grip, sight picture, the shot cycle, good base and basic marksmanship on the targets. I also went over loading/unloading. I could clean up the progression of drills a little next time. I felt jumbled on the orders of some of the drills. I went from draw stroke and one shot, to an extension to 1 shot, and then extension to multiple shots. I realize it's probably in the wrong order, thinking back. However, they all brought holsters, so I wanted to make sure they knew how to get their guns out. I think the progression next time would be draw stroke to single shots, then multiple, then maybe a movement element to a shot. I'll think on this more.

They wanted a combative pistol type class, so I wanted to be sure to give them dynamic stuff once they proved they could handle the basics a few times. There wasn't much issue with them pointing guns at themselves, and most all of them had great trigger finger discipline.

I introduced the Wyatt protocol and the movement off line with the draw stroke, verbalization, explained the ooda loop and effects of adrenaline to them. Just as predicted, as the number of parallel tasks builds, the stress level rises, and people start feeling the pressure. My Uncle Steve mentioned that.

We did malfunction clearing, turns, and movement, strong hand/weak hand only shooting, and retention drills. We talked about picking small aiming points on the shirt or body to target, instead of 'center of mass'.

The biggest gap in logical progression that I felt was between the stationary marksmanship stuff to the dynamic movement stuff. I need to figure out a transition set of drills to bridge this gap better.

I love the 100% accountable for hits idea, and used it for the first half of the day. Then when we stapled paper plates to the chest, and worked the more dynamic drills, I reminded them that while we weren't counting holes, we SHOULD still consider that we need to make our hits. I went into the nuns and orphans and lawyers reminder on missed shots.

I think a way to keep them more accountable is to interject a drill in the middle of the this portion that holds them 100% accountable for A zone hits. Maybe a box drill or some thing.

We didn't break for lunch at all during this, so this amount of material was stretching their patience and ability to concentrate. A more defined and scheduled meal in the middle would have been better, I think. Pacing is not easy, and it is something I'll have to work on. I also need to be more accurate with my range commands, to help avoid confusion. I was conscious of this when I was issuing commands, as in "the range commands will be as follows...". But when I forgot to be deliberate, people would do something that I didn't anticipate. No big deal, but I'll work on it.

I'm already thinking of ideas for the next class. I think it will have more barricade drills, as well as seated draw stroke, and shooting left or right from seated. It will also have positional shooting.

All in all, it went very well. Everyone was safe, no one got hurt. They seemed to like it very much.

On Sunday, I did a very basic primer and familiarization with some of the wives, girlfriends, and a few guys who didn't get to shoot Saturday. I wasn't expecting this class, so I sort of winged it. I think it went well. It was probably a 40 round course of fire. I had them load only 5-6 rounds per magazine, and held them accountable for each shot. I had them work off of the ground, since none of them carry a gun, and any work would be out of a drawer or table. We did simple sight alignment, surprise break drills. I worked them through multiple shots, follow through, and recoil control. We moved into strong and weak hand shooting (limited round count), and finally a failure drill of 2body/1head a few times. They all did great, and gained some confidence.