Quote:
Originally Posted by John_Wayne777
ToddG shot the triple nickel in under 5 seconds. I'm sure he remembers his time.
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4.55
Quote:
Originally Posted by rgrwilcox
Can you explain that malfunction clearance? Thank you.
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Grant videotaped me demonstrating and explaining it. Might be more appropriate to put in its own thread rather than take up space in someone else's AAR ...
My AAR:
As Grant pointed out, the students in this class were all well above average in terms of prior training experience and skill level. Some of the students also teach professionally, and between the skill level and the presence of so many trainers Ken skewed the class a bit from what he normally teaches.
This was the second time I took Ken's Advanced class. The first was more than twelve years ago on Long Island, which is when I first met Ken. Looking back over my notes from that class, one of Ken's greatest strengths is apparent:
Ken is neither dogmatic nor static. Thirty years ago, Ken was a Cooper/Modern Technique guy through and through. By the time I met him in the 90's, he'd taken real world experiences -- both his own and those of students, colleagues, etc. -- and adapted his own shooting techniques to meet those real-world realities. In the years since I took my first Hackathorn class, he has changed other things. Unlike so many instructors in the marketplace today, Ken isn't the slightest bit shy about saying he's found a better way to do something.
The class was slower paced and involved a lower round count than is common with many other programs (including my own). But absolutely no one felt like time was wasted, and at the end of each training day we were all worn out. Ken's goal was quality over quantity, and the nature of the drills we did involved a lot of thinking, moving, and acting without firing dozens and dozens of rounds per.
The drills themselves were numerous. While we never did any one drill more than a few times, each segment of the class used a building block approach. So while we only did a
particular shooting-on-the-move (SOM) drill two times, we spent about half a day doing
various SOM drills of ever-increasing difficulty. The goal, as Ken pointed out, was to teach students
what to practice and
how to practice on their own. He stressed repeatedly throughout the class the need for students to practice regularly and not rely on taking a class every few months as their sole shooting experience.
In addition to the two daylight sessions, we also had a 2-hour low light training section including a run at clearing a fairly complicated structure. We may have been the last class to enjoy the now-famous Fort Harmar Rifle Club barrel house. The club is apparently spending $20,000 to put in a dedicated ballistic shoot-house.
Day Two included both a lecture/demo on "room clearing" and a chance for each student to run through a live fire scenario in the barrel house. As Grant mentioned, the student was allowed only as many rounds as he could fit in his pistol. When your gun ran dry, you had to rely on the three battlefield pickup guns Ken had left throughout the house. When I came upon the first (a Makarov) I still had more than 10 rounds in my P30 ... so I picked it up, verified it was decocked and in FIRE mode, and put it in a cargo pocket. When I found the second pickup (a Tokarev) I picked it up and put it in my waistband at 11 o'clock. I'd consciously
not checked the loaded status of the guns because I didn't want to put my (functional) P30 away to do so in the middle of a room-clearing. But when my P30 went dry and I drew the Tok, I forgot to check it before leaving the room I was in. I came around a corner to engage a threat and only after pulling on the trigger did I realize the hammer was down. I moved back behind cover, racked the slide, and saw a round chamber. I never even bothered to pick up the third gun (a Colt revolver) because I had more guns than I knew what to do with by the end of the exercise.
There were many things I got out of this class, both as a shooter and an instructor.
- "Ken's Rule Four" which some of the students decided to rename Hackathorn's Law: If you're not confident in your ability to perform a task, you will not even attempt it under stress.
- A number of great drills that I can steal, like the 12345 drill and Ken's modified version of the FAST.
- Diagnostic tips for dealing with problematic students.
- Deep understanding of exactly what my everyday flashlight will do when the battery gets low.
Ken Hackathorn is a trainer that no serious student can afford to leave off his resume. He is someone who has truly been in the practical firearms training "industry" since it began, from his days at API (later "Gunsite"), being a founder of both IPSC and IDPA, to his current status as one of the most sought after and respected trainers of military, law enforcement, and civilians around the world. There is simply no way you can spend two days on a range with Ken Hackathorn without learning new things about shooting, teaching, guns, and tactics.
Ken teaches fewer open-enrollment classes each year. If you don't jump through whatever hoops are necessary to train with him now, you may lose the opportunity forever ... and you will be a lesser man for it.
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