Where to start!
This was hands down the best advanced pistol course I have ever taken. If you are at an advanced level I cannot recommend it enough. You will definitely learn some new things and improve on the things you know. I found it to be an environment where you constantly challenge your abilities and immediately see improvement in those abilities.
The instructor: What can I say, Costa has a name for a reason. Now I’m saying this as someone who is a bit of a hater when it comes to people who are overhyped or overexposed. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had some doubts in the back of my mind as to whether or not this guy was going to be that good or whether it’d be mostly hype. Well as a full-fledged admittedly hater I can honestly tell you that Costa is a certified Bad A** Dude!! Believe it! From the beginning he showed up on day one and walked around introducing himself to everyone one at a time. If someone asked him a question he gave you the honest/straight answer and why he sees it that way. If someone was struggling to understand something or performing the drill he’d be working with you one on one right then and there until you got it right. You’d even see him with someone in between evolutions. It’s obvious he cares that you are getting the most out of what you paid since he knows and understands that you might be giving up a lot to be there with him. Great character and quite impressive from an instructor of his caliber. Each evolution was great. From the explanation to the demonstration, our execution and his feedback. Man this dude is like Bruce Lee with a gun! When you’ve trained with great people long enough it’s hard to still be impressed.
When signing up for courses you never know how many clowns you’re going to have in your group. It’s just inevitable you’re going to have a few over-kitted dudes and a few way in over their heads. It’s too hard to weed them out in the sign up process and let’s face it, people are just not honest about their abilities. I can honestly say that the majority of the group was squared away. That really helped us move through the days and get a lot done. I really appreciate that Costa would put it out there to students to “Bow out” if you didn’t feel comfortable with the advanced drill. Not enough instructors give people that out and so they feel like they have to try to perform and that becomes unsafe, especially at that level.
1800+ rounds was amazing. We were not just hosing rounds down range. We were keeping up with a good rhythm of drills and pushing it to the limits of speed and accuracy.
Day one got us good and ready for day two while pushing our accuracy at distances.
Day two got us ready for day three by getting us focused on the importance of trigger control and keeping it in mind for stressed positions and situations.
Day three we pushed that accuracy with stressed positions and movement.
The best was ending the day with the shoot offs. It’s the best way to put everything into practice seeing how you perform trying to be the best under stress of the timer and with all eyes on you. It’s even better when you have a good group that is rooting for you and giving props to each shooter’s effort.
If you have never trained with Falcon you are doing yourself a disservice. It is easy to see the synergy between Costa and Falcon as they train you with a very similar mindset, curriculum and skills. I want to thank Costa for the great instruction and Falcon for hosting and being a solid school.
Here are some photos I took of the class. I think they can give a better AAR than I can.
