I don't have to be better than my heroes at shooting, I don't have to be stronger than them, I don't have to be the best father or husband, and I don't have to be the best fighter.
I only have to be better than I was last week.
I'll be 30 in 5 days, and I still haven't learned that I don't have to be the best... but I'm trying to learn that. It's a hard lesson for me. It's one of the challenges that one faces when you keep the caliber of friends and mentors that I do. It's constantly facing the fact that "I'll never ever be that good". I think that's OK. Like we were talking about on Fb the other day, if you're the strongest/smartest/or cleverist person in your peer group, you're only cheating yourself out of further improvement. You can't rest on your laurels, and you can't be satisfied with what you've accomplished. Being the biggest fish in the pond doesn't mean a damn thing when there's an ocean somewhere out there.
Reaching that small group alpha status feels good, but as soon as it happens, you better be looking for the next group so that you can be the small-fry again. Try to always be the hardest working, but the shittiest person in the peer group. I think that should make for some really great personal growth. It's what I'm trying to do.
In 20 years, I might be like the monsters I look up to, and I might inspire someone to improve themselves and hold themselves to a higher standard.
But only if I do the work, and there's a lot of work to do.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Next: Mass Made Simple
So, I'm clearly on a Dan John kick. The guy's programs work and I'm a huge fan. Next on the chopping block is his 'Mass Made Simple'. It's a 6 week, intensive 'BULKAN!!!!' program. My start weight at the end of the 10,000 KB challenge was 199 lbs give or take. My goal is about 215 or 220, and as lean as I can do it. I like the fact that it's a short burst of mass gain, so you're not tempted to go on a 10 year bulk and just essentially get fat and not give a shit. The clear finish line agrees with how I like to do goals.
Here's the T-Nation article that gives a taste of the book (which is more detailed)
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/mass_made_simple
The workouts have a nice progression and are based on four 'lifts':
1: Bench Press (and bat wings): for upper body mass and the bat wings for balancing all the pushing.
2: One handed over head press (and bird dogs): for forcing strength symmetry, and to teach the athlete to lock down the body and create stability in the whole trunk. I really am starting to like one hand pressing movements.
3: Barbell complexes: for a metabolic hit, as well as getting some work on the muscles not directly worked in the other parts of the program. It goes Barbell row/clean/front squat/ overhead press/ back squat/ good morning. The bar doesn't leave your hands until the complex is done, and you don't go to the next movement until you complete the prescribed reps.
4: High rep squats: are straight forward. Time under the bar (DJ says) builds mass, so there's lots of squats!
The diet portion is pretty simple too. It goes like this:
1: Eat like an adult. Keep processed crap to a minimum, and lots of meat and veggies. Very paleo in appearance actually.
2: Eat more protein
3: Take more fish oil
4: Eat 2-3 peanut butter sandwiches a day to jam some extra calories in there.
5: Eat more fiber.
DJ recommends adding protein to different spots, adding a new spot each week. Like morning, before and post workout, and before bed. But only says you should add a new protein addition each week so you can track how it impacts you. I like the self learning aspect of that, rather than just throwing it all in at one time.
Training Log:
Workout 1 of MMS: this is the feeler workout to see the starting point for the program. I'm hoping to get to 215 or 220 during the course of the training. Start weight is 199.2
Bench starting point: 165
bat wings - 25#
one handed OHP -46lbs My left shoulder is bitch mode. I did it with 50lb dumbells, but it was too difficult w/ the left so I dropped it back to 45#.
Schkwaughts - 95x30 ouch,,,
Workout 2: Bench 170# 2-3-5 x2
batwings 20# 5secsx10
one hand OHP 45# 2-3-5 x 2
barbell complex 75# first 3 then 95# for last 3.
squat 95# 30rx2sets
Workout 3: bench 170 2-3-5 x3
Batwings 20# 5sec x 10
One hand ohp 50# 2-3-5 then had to drop back to 45 for last two sets.
Complex 95 5reps each exercise x 2 complexes
115# squats 2x30
Notes: Feeling crazy bloated from the breads and peanut butters and volume of good. Been taking 6 fish oil caps and a serving of Metamucil a day per his instruction.
Here's the T-Nation article that gives a taste of the book (which is more detailed)
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/mass_made_simple
The workouts have a nice progression and are based on four 'lifts':
1: Bench Press (and bat wings): for upper body mass and the bat wings for balancing all the pushing.
2: One handed over head press (and bird dogs): for forcing strength symmetry, and to teach the athlete to lock down the body and create stability in the whole trunk. I really am starting to like one hand pressing movements.
3: Barbell complexes: for a metabolic hit, as well as getting some work on the muscles not directly worked in the other parts of the program. It goes Barbell row/clean/front squat/ overhead press/ back squat/ good morning. The bar doesn't leave your hands until the complex is done, and you don't go to the next movement until you complete the prescribed reps.
4: High rep squats: are straight forward. Time under the bar (DJ says) builds mass, so there's lots of squats!
The diet portion is pretty simple too. It goes like this:
1: Eat like an adult. Keep processed crap to a minimum, and lots of meat and veggies. Very paleo in appearance actually.
2: Eat more protein
3: Take more fish oil
4: Eat 2-3 peanut butter sandwiches a day to jam some extra calories in there.
5: Eat more fiber.
DJ recommends adding protein to different spots, adding a new spot each week. Like morning, before and post workout, and before bed. But only says you should add a new protein addition each week so you can track how it impacts you. I like the self learning aspect of that, rather than just throwing it all in at one time.
Training Log:
Workout 1 of MMS: this is the feeler workout to see the starting point for the program. I'm hoping to get to 215 or 220 during the course of the training. Start weight is 199.2
Bench starting point: 165
bat wings - 25#
one handed OHP -46lbs My left shoulder is bitch mode. I did it with 50lb dumbells, but it was too difficult w/ the left so I dropped it back to 45#.
Schkwaughts - 95x30 ouch,,,
Workout 2: Bench 170# 2-3-5 x2
batwings 20# 5secsx10
one hand OHP 45# 2-3-5 x 2
barbell complex 75# first 3 then 95# for last 3.
squat 95# 30rx2sets
Workout 3: bench 170 2-3-5 x3
Batwings 20# 5sec x 10
One hand ohp 50# 2-3-5 then had to drop back to 45 for last two sets.
Complex 95 5reps each exercise x 2 complexes
115# squats 2x30
Notes: Feeling crazy bloated from the breads and peanut butters and volume of good. Been taking 6 fish oil caps and a serving of Metamucil a day per his instruction.
Workout 4:
Bench 185# 2-3-5 x3 and 170x9
batwings 21lbs 10secx5 holds
one hand OHP 45 2-3-5 x 3
Complex 95 (had to skip military press due to cooked shoulders), then 85,85
Squat 115 3x30reps
die.
The one armed press is really showing me how pussy my left shoulder and side of my body is in general. I need to start whacking-off with my left hand.
Wrkout 5 185 2-3-5 x 3
batwings 27s 5sec x 5
OHP 45# 2-3-5 x 3
complex 85# 3x
Schkwaughts - 95, 115, 135 - 30x
Weighed myself this morning.... 201. da fuq. I need to eat more peanut butter or something!!! Maybe another few quadruple quarter pounders?
Workout 6 185 2-3-5-10 failed a rep 7 of the 10 portion. 2 more 235's
Batwings 30# 5x5secs
OHOHP 50# 2-3-5 (7 reps only) 45# 2x 2-3-5
Complex 85# x5
Squats 95x10 115x10 135x 50. Did the set of 50 in 35,15 rep sets
Workout 7:
heaviest double completed cleanly:EDIT: it was actually 225
batwings 30# 5x10 secs
OHOHP 50# 2-3-5, 2x (failed on rep 7 of second set, so that's a strength gain)
complex: 3 with 85,95,105 skipped OHP on the last one due to faggyshoulderpower
Squats 95x10, 115x10, 135x10, 185x10, 205x5x3sets
The lower rep sets are way easier for me.
Workout 8:
BP 225 x 2 -5 sets
BatWings 30# 5 10 sec holds
OHOHP 45#kb (my sister worked out with me and we needed the extra DB)
Complex: 65,85,95,95,100
Squat: 95x10, 115x5, 135x3, 185x2, 205x50
The squat set broke down lby reps like 15,8,5,10,12
I have forgotten to check my weight. I'm eating until uncomfortably full most of the time. So I figure I'm eating enough. Doing 75g shakes in the AM/PM and 25g before training. at least 1 PBJ a day.
210# approximately.
Workout 9
Bp 205 x 3 x 5 sets
Bat wings 30# 10sec x 5
Oh ohp 50# 2-3-5 x 3
Complex 105,115,125 2 reps per movement
Squat 95x10, 115x10, 135x10, 185x10 205x5, 205x20
Eat all the turkey.
Dan John's 10,000 Kettlebell Swing Workout
From September 30 to November 1, I decided I wanted to shake things up in my training program. I had recovered from my hernia a bit (no pain, but still swollen... :-p ) and up until September 30 I was working on handstands and some basic gymnastic stuff like front levers, skin the cats and back levers. That was getting me some balance, and I was able to progress, but I wanted to get back to some weight training. This article was released at the perfect time for me:
http://www.t-nation.com/workouts/10000-swing-kettlebell-workout
A needed jumpstart to my weight training, some conditioning, and a chance to strengthen my grip and posterior chain. Why not?
I started the program with my homemade 25 lb kettlebell to get the movement down, and grease the groove. I progressed through my 45 KB and eventually moved to my T-bar which I went from 52 to 65 lbs over the final 3 weeks of the program.
I did 4 days a week. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. 500 swings each day. It took 5 weeks.
Here's my particular plan (parts copied from the above article):
Set 1: 10 reps
Set 2: 15 reps
Set 3: 25 reps
Set 4: 50 reps
You've now completed 100 reps or one cluster. Repeat the cluster 4 more times for a total of 500 swings. Between sets, experienced lifters will add a low-volume strength movement.
The Strength Movements
1. Handstands and Handstand pushups when I was fresh enough (1-2-3 rep scheme)
2. Ring Dips (2-3-5 rep scheme)
3. Front Squat 135# (1-2-3)
4. Chin-ups with some tucked front lever stuff thrown in. (1-2-3)
So it looked like this.
10 Swings
Front Squat 1 rep
15 Swings
Front Squat 2 reps
25 Swings
Front Squat 3 reps
50 Swings
Rest 30 - 60 seconds
http://www.t-nation.com/workouts/10000-swing-kettlebell-workout
A needed jumpstart to my weight training, some conditioning, and a chance to strengthen my grip and posterior chain. Why not?
I started the program with my homemade 25 lb kettlebell to get the movement down, and grease the groove. I progressed through my 45 KB and eventually moved to my T-bar which I went from 52 to 65 lbs over the final 3 weeks of the program.
I did 4 days a week. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. 500 swings each day. It took 5 weeks.
Here's my particular plan (parts copied from the above article):
Set 1: 10 reps
Set 2: 15 reps
Set 3: 25 reps
Set 4: 50 reps
You've now completed 100 reps or one cluster. Repeat the cluster 4 more times for a total of 500 swings. Between sets, experienced lifters will add a low-volume strength movement.
The Strength Movements
1. Handstands and Handstand pushups when I was fresh enough (1-2-3 rep scheme)
2. Ring Dips (2-3-5 rep scheme)
3. Front Squat 135# (1-2-3)
4. Chin-ups with some tucked front lever stuff thrown in. (1-2-3)
So it looked like this.
10 Swings
Front Squat 1 rep
15 Swings
Front Squat 2 reps
25 Swings
Front Squat 3 reps
50 Swings
Rest 30 - 60 seconds
My times varied from about 38' to about 44' depending on how tired I was, and what movement I was doing. A few times I would stagger my reps so that I did the high rep sets up front, and the lower reps and movements near the end. This seemed to allow me to get the high reps out of the way early and finish more quickly. I expect it was all mental.
Starting weight was 203. Ending weight was 199.
My times improved as the weeks went on, and my weights went up. I noticed an increase in grip strength and a leaner waistline. My pants fit looser. I was also super ready to start the next phase in my training plan. It became somewhat of a grind near the end, but it was OK if I could zone out and listen to a podcast or something to pass the time. Another thing that motivated me was having a group of peers that I was accountable to. Mike D started 'the swingers club' on facebook, and we posted our times and shared our difficulties and results as we went. It's so helpful for me to have public accountability.
I suggest this program to anyone who is bored with their current program, wants to try something new and challenging, or wants to ramp up for something else to follow after. The program is simple, but it's not easy. I'm glad I saw it through.
Thanks for reading.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Notes from range day with CW
Today I got to have a nice casual range day with my friend and mentor, Claude Werner. If you're reading this, you know who he is. http://www.dryfire-practice.com/
I'll just write my notes down from the day, and get as much out as I can before I forget.
Drill 1:
MQP defensive pistol - Pro Marksman qual
7 yds, 12" circle. Par time 5 seconds. Draw and shoot 1 shot. repeat 20x. Must make all hits.
I passed this drill (thankfully :p ). We did this cold. Claude is doing a lot of good work implementing this in his classes. It's a really well designed COF and test. The high repetition is a great way to get folks who probably won't be doing a lot of self guided practice outside of the classroom to grease the groove of the most important and most missed shot. The first.
Going forward for me, Claude recommended I work towards cutting everything in half.
2 second, 6" circle, repeat 20x. That'll take some work, but it's a nice thing to dry fire towards.
Drill 2:
Dot drill 101
I'll just write my notes down from the day, and get as much out as I can before I forget.
Drill 1:
MQP defensive pistol - Pro Marksman qual
7 yds, 12" circle. Par time 5 seconds. Draw and shoot 1 shot. repeat 20x. Must make all hits.
I passed this drill (thankfully :p ). We did this cold. Claude is doing a lot of good work implementing this in his classes. It's a really well designed COF and test. The high repetition is a great way to get folks who probably won't be doing a lot of self guided practice outside of the classroom to grease the groove of the most important and most missed shot. The first.
Going forward for me, Claude recommended I work towards cutting everything in half.
2 second, 6" circle, repeat 20x. That'll take some work, but it's a nice thing to dry fire towards.
Drill 2:
Dot drill 101
This was a skillset I told Claude I wanted to work, and get some critique on. He obliged with the dot drill 101. This is a non timed drill that makes you work out the pure mechanics of shooting.
Here's my target:
We shot this at 5 yards. I think this is the best I've done on this drill. I usually use pistol-training.com's version on a piece of notebook paper. 16/60 points down. I'll take it, and I'll fix what I messed up.
I asked about the impact of my rounds on the left side of the circles on the top row. Claude pointed out that my trigger finger would tend to be against the frame of the gun, and during the trigger press, my 'finger bicep' would flex and just slightly push the gun to the left.
For one handed shooting, Claude convinced me to get the gun pure vertical in the strong hand, and only have a slight cant in the off hand. As he was talking about it, I was reminded of KStar talking about external rotation, and creating stability in the joint (hips or arms) while doing a lift. Why wouldn't it apply to shooting as well? So I'm going to be practicing fully externally rotating my arm, with the elbow locked and elbow-pit pointed up. It really does lock down. It also removes a freedom of motion, whereas a bent elbow allows the gun to recoil both up and in, making it harder to track during recoil.
For reloads, I was crowding my workspace while doing a reload. Claude recommended just dropping the strong side elbow to index on the ribs, then just roll the gun out until you can see a little bit of magwell. I had a tendency to both index on the ribs AND bend at the elbow bringing the gun really close. I'll be working the new way.
Drill 3:
FAST drill. Another pistol-training.com drill. We worked this about 5 reps each. My draw stroke from concealment was ok, but my split times on the head box were super slow (~.5-.6). My reloads were inconsistent in time, but improved during the course of my runs. My splits after the reload, which was also slow, were in the mid .2's. I wanted to run it one time strong hand only. Before I did, I wanted to learn the way Claude does a one handed reload.
one handed reload:
upon slide-lock, jettison mag as you bring your knees together. Once together, place the slide of the gun into your thighs. A hotdog in a bun. Find and seat fresh mag in the magwell, get FFG, and TILT the muzzle down and rack it through your clenched knees towards the dirt.
Drill 4:
17 yd hostage shot. Just a nice little 3 shot drill, no time, to test accuracy while there's a no-shoot downrange. Based on an actual event. The takeaway for me was 'Focus on the target, not the obstacle'.
Random tips:
make your weight feel heavy: my default shooting posture is a crappy hips forward, poor posture one. I need to get a good base in an athletic stance. Claude used the cue "get heavy on your feet". Nose over toes. I'll do this during dryfire. It made an immediate difference.
Shotgun work:
Do as much work as you can from the shoulder. For port load, roll the gun port up, flare elbow up, and drop a shell in. Go back around the gun, rack slide forward, and shoot.
Mag load: Keep shotgun on shoulder, and load by feel.
Drills for shotgun:
Started empty chamber, hammer down, safety off, empty magazine. Start by racking the slide, and do a port load, shoot one.
load 1/shoot 1: ec, hd, so,em , rack slide open, port load 1, shoot 1, port load, shoot ....
load 2/shoot 2: ec/hd/so/em rack slide open, port load 1, tube load 1, shoot, shoot, port load 1, tube load 1.
Shoot both
un-chambering a shell. Put pinkie behind slide, rack slide to rear, pinkie acts as spacer. Get shell out w/ firing hand. Put slide forward. This allows you to get back to cruiser ready.
Cruiser ready: empty chamber, full tube, safety off, hammer down (slide is free to move)
Most likely to find a dead chamber in a protracted shotgun fight, so makes sense to work off of a dead chamber.
Monday, September 23, 2013
AAR - Armed Dynamics Defensive Pistol 1
Jeff Bloovman, president and chief instructor of Armed Dynamics, allowed me to assist him during his defensive pistol 1 course in Knoxville, TN on September 21st. I don't really know how to write this or who my audience is supposed to be, so I'll just jabber and try to not give away too much. Understand that if I explain a 'why', that's my opinion, and I have NO idea why AD put it in their curriculum, but only why I perceive they did.
The Summary: This is a fantastic one day (10 hour) relatively high round count (700 rounds) broad based pistol skill primer with some pretty novel neural/visualization based drills that are pretty groundbreaking, in my opinion.
The conditions of the range was just terrible. It rained literally ALL day. This slowed down the pace of the class to allow people to fish their magazines out of the mud and slosh through the muck. That's a reality of outdoor firearms training, so whatever. Jeff also had a wicked cold that left him all but voiceless. I had to step in to run several of the drills because it wasn't prudent for him to yell the 'threat' commands just for the sake of yelling. Now on to the nuts and bolts.
The day started with the usual medical brief and evacuation plan, then right into the gun handling rules. Though a quick note here, I've seen several notable instructors not mention medical plans at all. I don't know if that's because they don't want to scare their students, or because they just don't place a high priority on that. It's generally in lower speed classes, so I guess that might be why. In any case, I always have a medical brief and evac. plan. It's just a good practice.
One overreaching principle that AD sticks to is to not do too many needless repetitions of a certain drill. He gives you a taste of the drill, and moves on. This allows him to get a tremendous amount of information and convey a huge amount of technique in a short time. It gives the students things to think about, and take with them to train later. Mastery can't be attained in an afternoon, but the groundwork can be set for the student to build upon later. People without pens/paper are doing themselves a disservice. Take notes. It's as important now as it was in high school or college or whatever.
The streamlined nature of the class starts to show itself with the unload/load procedure. The emphasis on tactile reference points in gun handling and manipulation, and body awareness is introduced early and continues throughout the training day. Large, gross movement manipulations are the name of the game.
personal note: I still totally agree with this method of gun handling. That is, leaving the little gun buttons out of the equation for the sake of making the adrenaline dump gun handling more manageable. This is what I practice and what I personally teach. The idea being that you could lose the sharpness of your fine motor movements during an ambush and adrenaline dump. The counter point to this is that fighter pilots perform split second fine motor skill maneuvers during combat, or that we drive 90 miles an hour, mere inches away from other cars on the freeway. To counter that argument, I would point to the high amount of flight-hours, simulation, and stress inoculation involved in being a pilot, and the fact that there is no adrenaline dump happening during a 90 mph drive. To see the effects of adrenaline on driving, think about when you drive over a puddle and lose control of your car. A person untrained in driving in slick conditions will clench their steering wheel, and grossly over-correct and generally lose their minds. Average Joe who gets into a gunfight and has taken a class or two, PROBABLY doesn't have the flight hours to be able to overcome his adrenaline in the moment. Hence gross motor manipulations. But I could be wrong./rant
The draw-stroke was taught next. Jeff encouraged the students to work from concealment (not that there was a choice with all the rain gear) and showed the 4 count draw (a la SouthNarc). He didn't introduce or even talk about the added complexity of shooting through the horizontal line of presentation, but he laid the ground work to do that later in the day. I think this is a smart move. I have a tendency to give people too much to think about at once and should just build the layer cake of skills as I go, instead of laying it all out at once.
Both one handed and two handed grip were covered. So was the best stance to shoot from (when a stationary position is available and tactically sound). An athletic, nose over toes stance.
Basics of shooting followed. There were some good tips about how to manipulate the trigger and some tricks that would allow the students to ramp up their shooting speed. They were able to find their balance of speed and accuracy. These were the most repeated drills of the day, but what could be more important than building the firing grip and getting rounds on threat as fast as possible?
personal note: I'm still trying to work this out for myself, but I'm at odds on the different ways to get people worked into drawing and firing from the holster. I sort of like this progression, and have had some pretty good luck with it in the small classes I've done for my extended family and friends:
1 - Explain the drawstroke by the numbers and rep it with the class, no shooting. Once they have drawn dry, have them load their pistols.
2 - 5 shots freestyle on their time (gives me an idea of who is missing fundamentals)
3 - 5 repetitions of pressing the gun out from 3 (high compressed ready), with a single shot at the end of this ( work on their line of presentation, and picking up sights)
4 - 5 repetitions of pressing the gun out from 3, with 2 shots at the end (let them feel recoil and follow-through)
5 - 1 rep of 5 shots rapid fire out from 3 (drive the follow through home)
6 - 5 reps of 1 shot starting at the '2' position. (forces them to build the grip consistently and present the gun)
7 - Let them work from the holster.
This reverse engineering method I got from Claude. It gives a lot of repetition of building grip, pressing out, and getting a consistent presentation with a relatively low round count. I think the way Jeff did it works great too. I just would do it slightly differently.
Cadence shooting was used and we saw a lot of quick increase of shooting speed with minimal degradation in accuracy. Their speed limit was in their mind. In the course of the shooting, they were forced to make reloads. As malfunctions came up, we talked them through them. Jeff's reload technique is very good and assures the ground isn't littered with slip inducing empties for when you have to get out of Dodge. Stoppages were covered in detail later in the day. The F.A.S.T. protocol was introduced with verbalization to get people used to un-gluing their feet from the ground, and reminding them that they were learning to fight with a handgun, not punch paper. Jeff's use of a covert ready position during a scan was new to me, but I definitely understand his reasoning behind using this. Less overt than 'up' position, and less technical than 'sul'. It also keeps the gun at ready in case you need to lift it back up and punch it out. I like this.
We did some basic movement drills to start task loading the students, and help them understand the static shooting they're used to just won't cut it. Turns and moving and shooting. This is always a crowd favorite.
Neural based shooting - I participated as a student during this portion. This is one of those things that you really have to give yourself to in order to get the most value from it. It begins with basic visualization exercises to warm up your imagination, I guess you could say. Then a series of exercises are used to burn in a kinesthetic feeling for perfect body alignment, grip, and sight picture. This is supposed to be an accelerated learning technique that seems to get people to get in touch with their body mechanics a lot faster than 100's of open eyed gun presentations. We did some shooting with our eyes closed, and it's amazing how quickly you can build a super strong draw index when you're mindful of it.
The real power of this module was the 'mindset' portion of the block. I must stress that you have to really give it a fair shake and let yourself go. Forget that you're standing there with your eyes closed on a range, and try to put yourself in the moment and listen to Jeff's words. If you do this right, you will FEEL anger/rage/fear/and a willingness to fight until the lights go out. You really will. This is a 3 hour mindset lecture in a 20 minute block of time. I will have to talk with Jeff about this. I want to integrate this into the classes I do with my friends and family. However, if you're a skeptic, and don't want to relent, you'll probably not get as much from it. I personally was shaking and nearly sobbed.
We discussed shooting through the horizontal line of presentation. Jeff's voice was pretty well shot at this point, so he asked me to present this portion. We also did some retention shooting to get people used to having a gun go off that close to them.
We worked some one handed draw strokes, and stoppage clearances one handed. Watching people realize that they can reload one handed and keep shooting is so great. I love this stuff.
Before we broke for dinner, we touched on use of cover and some very basic team stuff. All of the usual items. We covered keeping juicy femorals behind cover, and exposing minimal amounts of yourself to the bad guy. Some tactics were touched upon including the way that rounds striking walls don't bounce off at the same angle they impacted at, and why crowding cover is a bad idea. Good useful stuff.
Low light was the last thing we did. We touched on the four big flashlight techniques, and let everyone try them out, and pick their favorite. We also did some cool scanning techniques that are deceptive to the ones on the other side of the light. It culminated in a flow drill that included scanning and shooting. All the while enforcing weapon manipulation and light discipline. The students really appreciated the non diagnostic and gross motor gun handling when there was no light.
The under appreciated (at the time) training partner was the mud. I really believe it builds some mental toughness and forces people to see how their gear performs in adverse conditions. People either gained trust in their gear, or learned what they couldn't trust.
Thanks to Jeff and Armed Dynamics for letting me come to train and hang out. I love a good day at the range.
The Summary: This is a fantastic one day (10 hour) relatively high round count (700 rounds) broad based pistol skill primer with some pretty novel neural/visualization based drills that are pretty groundbreaking, in my opinion.
The conditions of the range was just terrible. It rained literally ALL day. This slowed down the pace of the class to allow people to fish their magazines out of the mud and slosh through the muck. That's a reality of outdoor firearms training, so whatever. Jeff also had a wicked cold that left him all but voiceless. I had to step in to run several of the drills because it wasn't prudent for him to yell the 'threat' commands just for the sake of yelling. Now on to the nuts and bolts.
The day started with the usual medical brief and evacuation plan, then right into the gun handling rules. Though a quick note here, I've seen several notable instructors not mention medical plans at all. I don't know if that's because they don't want to scare their students, or because they just don't place a high priority on that. It's generally in lower speed classes, so I guess that might be why. In any case, I always have a medical brief and evac. plan. It's just a good practice.
One overreaching principle that AD sticks to is to not do too many needless repetitions of a certain drill. He gives you a taste of the drill, and moves on. This allows him to get a tremendous amount of information and convey a huge amount of technique in a short time. It gives the students things to think about, and take with them to train later. Mastery can't be attained in an afternoon, but the groundwork can be set for the student to build upon later. People without pens/paper are doing themselves a disservice. Take notes. It's as important now as it was in high school or college or whatever.
The streamlined nature of the class starts to show itself with the unload/load procedure. The emphasis on tactile reference points in gun handling and manipulation, and body awareness is introduced early and continues throughout the training day. Large, gross movement manipulations are the name of the game.
personal note: I still totally agree with this method of gun handling. That is, leaving the little gun buttons out of the equation for the sake of making the adrenaline dump gun handling more manageable. This is what I practice and what I personally teach. The idea being that you could lose the sharpness of your fine motor movements during an ambush and adrenaline dump. The counter point to this is that fighter pilots perform split second fine motor skill maneuvers during combat, or that we drive 90 miles an hour, mere inches away from other cars on the freeway. To counter that argument, I would point to the high amount of flight-hours, simulation, and stress inoculation involved in being a pilot, and the fact that there is no adrenaline dump happening during a 90 mph drive. To see the effects of adrenaline on driving, think about when you drive over a puddle and lose control of your car. A person untrained in driving in slick conditions will clench their steering wheel, and grossly over-correct and generally lose their minds. Average Joe who gets into a gunfight and has taken a class or two, PROBABLY doesn't have the flight hours to be able to overcome his adrenaline in the moment. Hence gross motor manipulations. But I could be wrong./rant
The draw-stroke was taught next. Jeff encouraged the students to work from concealment (not that there was a choice with all the rain gear) and showed the 4 count draw (a la SouthNarc). He didn't introduce or even talk about the added complexity of shooting through the horizontal line of presentation, but he laid the ground work to do that later in the day. I think this is a smart move. I have a tendency to give people too much to think about at once and should just build the layer cake of skills as I go, instead of laying it all out at once.
Both one handed and two handed grip were covered. So was the best stance to shoot from (when a stationary position is available and tactically sound). An athletic, nose over toes stance.
Basics of shooting followed. There were some good tips about how to manipulate the trigger and some tricks that would allow the students to ramp up their shooting speed. They were able to find their balance of speed and accuracy. These were the most repeated drills of the day, but what could be more important than building the firing grip and getting rounds on threat as fast as possible?
personal note: I'm still trying to work this out for myself, but I'm at odds on the different ways to get people worked into drawing and firing from the holster. I sort of like this progression, and have had some pretty good luck with it in the small classes I've done for my extended family and friends:
1 - Explain the drawstroke by the numbers and rep it with the class, no shooting. Once they have drawn dry, have them load their pistols.
2 - 5 shots freestyle on their time (gives me an idea of who is missing fundamentals)
3 - 5 repetitions of pressing the gun out from 3 (high compressed ready), with a single shot at the end of this ( work on their line of presentation, and picking up sights)
4 - 5 repetitions of pressing the gun out from 3, with 2 shots at the end (let them feel recoil and follow-through)
5 - 1 rep of 5 shots rapid fire out from 3 (drive the follow through home)
6 - 5 reps of 1 shot starting at the '2' position. (forces them to build the grip consistently and present the gun)
7 - Let them work from the holster.
This reverse engineering method I got from Claude. It gives a lot of repetition of building grip, pressing out, and getting a consistent presentation with a relatively low round count. I think the way Jeff did it works great too. I just would do it slightly differently.
Cadence shooting was used and we saw a lot of quick increase of shooting speed with minimal degradation in accuracy. Their speed limit was in their mind. In the course of the shooting, they were forced to make reloads. As malfunctions came up, we talked them through them. Jeff's reload technique is very good and assures the ground isn't littered with slip inducing empties for when you have to get out of Dodge. Stoppages were covered in detail later in the day. The F.A.S.T. protocol was introduced with verbalization to get people used to un-gluing their feet from the ground, and reminding them that they were learning to fight with a handgun, not punch paper. Jeff's use of a covert ready position during a scan was new to me, but I definitely understand his reasoning behind using this. Less overt than 'up' position, and less technical than 'sul'. It also keeps the gun at ready in case you need to lift it back up and punch it out. I like this.
We did some basic movement drills to start task loading the students, and help them understand the static shooting they're used to just won't cut it. Turns and moving and shooting. This is always a crowd favorite.
Neural based shooting - I participated as a student during this portion. This is one of those things that you really have to give yourself to in order to get the most value from it. It begins with basic visualization exercises to warm up your imagination, I guess you could say. Then a series of exercises are used to burn in a kinesthetic feeling for perfect body alignment, grip, and sight picture. This is supposed to be an accelerated learning technique that seems to get people to get in touch with their body mechanics a lot faster than 100's of open eyed gun presentations. We did some shooting with our eyes closed, and it's amazing how quickly you can build a super strong draw index when you're mindful of it.
The real power of this module was the 'mindset' portion of the block. I must stress that you have to really give it a fair shake and let yourself go. Forget that you're standing there with your eyes closed on a range, and try to put yourself in the moment and listen to Jeff's words. If you do this right, you will FEEL anger/rage/fear/and a willingness to fight until the lights go out. You really will. This is a 3 hour mindset lecture in a 20 minute block of time. I will have to talk with Jeff about this. I want to integrate this into the classes I do with my friends and family. However, if you're a skeptic, and don't want to relent, you'll probably not get as much from it. I personally was shaking and nearly sobbed.
We discussed shooting through the horizontal line of presentation. Jeff's voice was pretty well shot at this point, so he asked me to present this portion. We also did some retention shooting to get people used to having a gun go off that close to them.
Before we broke for dinner, we touched on use of cover and some very basic team stuff. All of the usual items. We covered keeping juicy femorals behind cover, and exposing minimal amounts of yourself to the bad guy. Some tactics were touched upon including the way that rounds striking walls don't bounce off at the same angle they impacted at, and why crowding cover is a bad idea. Good useful stuff.
Low light was the last thing we did. We touched on the four big flashlight techniques, and let everyone try them out, and pick their favorite. We also did some cool scanning techniques that are deceptive to the ones on the other side of the light. It culminated in a flow drill that included scanning and shooting. All the while enforcing weapon manipulation and light discipline. The students really appreciated the non diagnostic and gross motor gun handling when there was no light.
The under appreciated (at the time) training partner was the mud. I really believe it builds some mental toughness and forces people to see how their gear performs in adverse conditions. People either gained trust in their gear, or learned what they couldn't trust.
Thanks to Jeff and Armed Dynamics for letting me come to train and hang out. I love a good day at the range.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Injury
Inguinal Hernia. Going to have to put the powerbuilding on hold, me thinks.
Lots of pushups/pullups/HIIT stuff is the order of business, I guess.
I hate having to change just as I was getting a stride.
Lots of pushups/pullups/HIIT stuff is the order of business, I guess.
I hate having to change just as I was getting a stride.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
AAR: Patriot Nurse Medical Prep 101 - Greenville SC 6/9/2013
I attended the Patriot Nurse's Medical Prep 101 class in a hotel in Greenville last week. I wanted to get this typed up before I forgot all the subtle points. I'll give a quick rundown of the material covered, and then some thoughts and notes on the material and critiques.
Here's PN talking about the class:
So I'll evaluate the class based on the fact that it's supposed to be how to identify, prevent, and treat illness when there is minimal access to medical help. It's a prepper medical class, basically. But the lessons can be immediately applied to day to day life, which is pretty neat.
The class was broken down into modules of physical assessment, respiratory disease, digestive disease, wound care, and post mortem considerations.
Leading into it all was a cool acronym that is a reminder on the basic ideas of medical care. the K.A.T.C.P. protocol. Know, Assess, Take Care Of, Contain, and Prevent. They're pretty self explanatory, but some really nice lessons inherent in this are that you should understand your baseline (so you can see when you deviate from it, indicating disease), and to devote a lot of energy to the prevention of disease, rather than having to count on a (possibly non-existent) medical intervention, depending on your scenario. That's damn good advice that is immediately applicable today. Don't wait until it's E.R. worthy, fix your shit now.
There is some practical time spent learning to take blood pressure with a cuff and stethoscope, pulse, as well as checking the lung fields for breath sounds. Getting the hands on time was very useful. I spent a month in the hospital 5 years ago, and watched my blood pressure taken every few hours, so I sort of figured out what they were doing, but it's always good to get 'trigger time' doing the deed.
Then the respiratory segment started. The signs of respiratory infection and some overview stuff about evaluation, and then some stuff on how to help fix a respiratory infection. I'll give you a spoiler, the aides are the same things that every athlete should be doing. Water, Vitamin D and sunshine, and rest. Following were treatment options. As is my personal philosophy, use of antibiotics was discussed as a last resort. Lastly, prevention was discussed. As should be common knowledge, hygiene, rest, and ventilation were the primary means discussed. This block concluded with scenarios that were discussed in small groups. We even did a cool calculation on dosing antibiotics using the nurses drug handbook. It's another good exercise to actually do.
The digestive diseases were next. The why, how, and when were discussed. The indicators of dehydration were next, and those are useful for anyone who spends time with groups outside during physical exertion. Then a nice home-made rehydration recipe was shared, composed of table salt, sugar, maybe some KCl salt alternative, and a liter of water. Then the super useful method of rectal rehydration was discussed. The details can be googled, I'm sure. The segment was again concluded with a scenario.
Wound care was the next topic. The biggest take away for me was to keep accurate charts, as well as dry heat sterilization temperatures for instruments. Rashes, blisters, punctures, dog bites, and dressing wounds were highlighted as well.
Post mortem care was the last topic. I felt like this section was a little out of place in the curriculum, and could possibly be dropped in lieu of more content on the other diseases, or at least shortened to just the aspects directly related to austere conditions and disease containment, rather than emotional and spiritual aspects. That's must my opinion, as most of the class seemed to be fine with the segment.
The coolest thing I learned was about stockpiling antibiotics in the form of veterinary grade drugs. FishMox, Penicillin, erythromycin can all be had through veterinary supply channels. Good stuff.
That's the course in a nutshell. Next I'll share a few things that I think could be done a bit more smoothly (I realize unsolicited opinions are generally never wanted, but I can't help myself). I think a 'purchase cheat sheet' would have been extremely useful for students wanting to buy the items we used in the class. Instead, every time a piece of gear was mentioned, PN would refer us to her Amazon click-through store. This is fine, but it takes away from time we could be discussing the topics. I'm all about meat and potatoes during a class.
PN kept referencing her 201 level class during the 101 level class. I suspect she's currently giving a lot of brain sweat to developing her curriculum for that course, so I get it. But, I would have liked to have some more depth of the topics discussed, instead of the sales pitch for the next course. If that makes sense.
Overall, it's a cool 1 day class that is a huge step outside of what I've been concentrating on for the last few years. I was immediately able to put the information to use, as my son caught his first virus 3 days after I got back. Runny nose, cough, no fever. This was pretty much exactly a scenario we discussed in the course. I was able to keep my wife calm enough to keep us out of the E.R. in Milwaukee on our trip, and instead convinced her to wait until a local pediatrician opened the next day. So that was pretty nice.
Overall, I would say that the course lived up to it's mission statement.
Thanks to PN for inviting me to check her out.
Later,
M
Here's PN talking about the class:
So I'll evaluate the class based on the fact that it's supposed to be how to identify, prevent, and treat illness when there is minimal access to medical help. It's a prepper medical class, basically. But the lessons can be immediately applied to day to day life, which is pretty neat.
The class was broken down into modules of physical assessment, respiratory disease, digestive disease, wound care, and post mortem considerations.
Leading into it all was a cool acronym that is a reminder on the basic ideas of medical care. the K.A.T.C.P. protocol. Know, Assess, Take Care Of, Contain, and Prevent. They're pretty self explanatory, but some really nice lessons inherent in this are that you should understand your baseline (so you can see when you deviate from it, indicating disease), and to devote a lot of energy to the prevention of disease, rather than having to count on a (possibly non-existent) medical intervention, depending on your scenario. That's damn good advice that is immediately applicable today. Don't wait until it's E.R. worthy, fix your shit now.
There is some practical time spent learning to take blood pressure with a cuff and stethoscope, pulse, as well as checking the lung fields for breath sounds. Getting the hands on time was very useful. I spent a month in the hospital 5 years ago, and watched my blood pressure taken every few hours, so I sort of figured out what they were doing, but it's always good to get 'trigger time' doing the deed.
Then the respiratory segment started. The signs of respiratory infection and some overview stuff about evaluation, and then some stuff on how to help fix a respiratory infection. I'll give you a spoiler, the aides are the same things that every athlete should be doing. Water, Vitamin D and sunshine, and rest. Following were treatment options. As is my personal philosophy, use of antibiotics was discussed as a last resort. Lastly, prevention was discussed. As should be common knowledge, hygiene, rest, and ventilation were the primary means discussed. This block concluded with scenarios that were discussed in small groups. We even did a cool calculation on dosing antibiotics using the nurses drug handbook. It's another good exercise to actually do.
The digestive diseases were next. The why, how, and when were discussed. The indicators of dehydration were next, and those are useful for anyone who spends time with groups outside during physical exertion. Then a nice home-made rehydration recipe was shared, composed of table salt, sugar, maybe some KCl salt alternative, and a liter of water. Then the super useful method of rectal rehydration was discussed. The details can be googled, I'm sure. The segment was again concluded with a scenario.
Wound care was the next topic. The biggest take away for me was to keep accurate charts, as well as dry heat sterilization temperatures for instruments. Rashes, blisters, punctures, dog bites, and dressing wounds were highlighted as well.
Post mortem care was the last topic. I felt like this section was a little out of place in the curriculum, and could possibly be dropped in lieu of more content on the other diseases, or at least shortened to just the aspects directly related to austere conditions and disease containment, rather than emotional and spiritual aspects. That's must my opinion, as most of the class seemed to be fine with the segment.
The coolest thing I learned was about stockpiling antibiotics in the form of veterinary grade drugs. FishMox, Penicillin, erythromycin can all be had through veterinary supply channels. Good stuff.
That's the course in a nutshell. Next I'll share a few things that I think could be done a bit more smoothly (I realize unsolicited opinions are generally never wanted, but I can't help myself). I think a 'purchase cheat sheet' would have been extremely useful for students wanting to buy the items we used in the class. Instead, every time a piece of gear was mentioned, PN would refer us to her Amazon click-through store. This is fine, but it takes away from time we could be discussing the topics. I'm all about meat and potatoes during a class.
PN kept referencing her 201 level class during the 101 level class. I suspect she's currently giving a lot of brain sweat to developing her curriculum for that course, so I get it. But, I would have liked to have some more depth of the topics discussed, instead of the sales pitch for the next course. If that makes sense.
Overall, it's a cool 1 day class that is a huge step outside of what I've been concentrating on for the last few years. I was immediately able to put the information to use, as my son caught his first virus 3 days after I got back. Runny nose, cough, no fever. This was pretty much exactly a scenario we discussed in the course. I was able to keep my wife calm enough to keep us out of the E.R. in Milwaukee on our trip, and instead convinced her to wait until a local pediatrician opened the next day. So that was pretty nice.
Overall, I would say that the course lived up to it's mission statement.
Thanks to PN for inviting me to check her out.
Later,
M
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