AAR: Tactical Response Fighting Pistol May 22-23, 2010

[snare]

This was the first review of it I wrote (I wrote more/expanded the review further down). I wrote it this way because I wanted to emphasize the Mindset lessons:

At first, it is like seeing someone directly in front of you, their mouth is moving, but you can’t hear any words. You can tell by the look on their face that they are serious, damn serious. Then you notice they are shaking you by the shoulders. Your head flops forward and back a bit. Your eyes still hurt, adjusting to the light. Slowly… little by little you start to hear sounds again. They are saying only two words, loudly…

WAKE UP !

It’s not one person really, and often, not only people, but it’s a chorus. A chorus of people, places, events, mountains and rivers that are all saying WAKE UP ! To be fully awake, to be present, to be aware, inherently we take responsibility. We are held accountable for our own safety and ourselves.

Aaron Little, Jay Gibson, James Yeager, Tim, Hunter and Rikki were part of that chorus for me this weekend.

They spoke plainly, they spoke bluntly, they spoke with passion, they shouted.

All were polite and professional…and brutally honest. When the instructors spoke they spoke with respect to the principles of freedom, responsibility and honor. They held me accountable for my actions. And when they needed to do so and it was particularly important, perhaps life or death important, they spoke with a tone and manner worthy of that importance. The instructors were not only conduits but expressions of the lessons and experiences. I saw no posturing, I saw only empowerment. I look for this in my instruction. I put deep thought into how I spend my hard earned money. I chose well. Very well.

Some take training classes and are, essentially, just enacting more mindless ego stroking and masturbation. They choose to learn nothing and the only benefit the class provides is childish bragging rights. It’s all ‘been there, done that’. Training at the latest, greatest ego. “The” place to be seen at. “The” high speed, low drag instructor to be seen with. This is not Tactical Response. At TR I learned that the most important Special Force is your very life.

I found the skill training to be fun, down to earth, practical, realistic, challenging and valuable. I also found it to be based on a premise of effectiveness that demanded questioning assumptions. Not “basic” mind you, but providing a solid foundation, a place to grow from, a place to revisit. No bullshit. No magic. All good.

Interestingly, Fighting Pistol is all about fighting and it’s all about introspection and self reflection. It’s about finding out, now, where you are, who you are. It’s about deciding, now, not to give up. No one else is there; head ringing, heart pounding, face pressed against the pavement, blood and broken glass. It’s about realizing it’s all up to you. It’s about staying in the fight, starting right now.

---

Here the addition:

Tactical Response teaches based on four principles:

Mindset
Tactics
Skill
Gear

…and it’s emphasized in that order.

We had 25 students and two of these were women. All were welcomed as equals. We were all there with similar intent.
Class began Saturday morning at 9 It was made clear to us that this was first and foremost a fighting class. The tools we would be focusing on this weekend would be our minds and our pistols. The foundation of proper grip, draw, movement, sight picture and trigger control was laid.

We then headed to the range. And one of the first things I saw there was the man who just spent time doing an incredible job instructing us and setting the tone for the remainder of the class… by the way he is also the CEO…well, I saw him go over and clean the shitter. He took action. The other instructors were discussing range rules and such, so he jumped right in and did what had to be done. No primadonnas.

We started out going through the steps of a draw with movement incorporated into every single draw. Every draw the instructors did throughout the weekend always included these same steps. It was obvious they lived what they were teaching.

The start of each drill this weekend begins with a shout of FIGHT !!!

We used the acronym and sequence of F>A>S>T.

Fight !
Assess
Scan
Top off (or Treat or Talk or…).

We fought, we fought standing, kneeling, sitting and from our backs. The we fought as we rose from supine to standing.

We fought one handed (both sides), we fought through malfunctions with either single hand and with both hands. We dropped our pistols on the gravel, from shoulder height, then had to retrieve them and fight. We kept fighting.

Bring an upLula, because you will be reloading your mags (have at least 5) like a madman. Bring water and electrolyte replacement salts because you will fight through the heat or the cold, or the rain.

After class we headed back to the Team Room to shower and get ready for dinner (most of us were headed to a local restaurant).
The Team Room is one of the things that makes TR so unique. If you are one of the first twelve people who register for the class you have the opportunity to stay, free of charge, in the Team Room. This is the bottom floor in the private residence of the CEO and his family. They make you feel right at home. Anyone interested in self defense, guns and the philosophy of the warrior will love the Team Room, everywhere you look there is something of interest. And the camaraderie is priceless.

Due to the instability of both of our employment situations, to be honest, without the opportunity of the Team Room, we would have been unable to attend. We are very grateful.

Day Two:

This is the beef of the whole weekend. The Mindset lecture. It’s true, this one part of the whole weekend is worth every penny of the cost of the whole class. It’s that good. It was powerful, humbling, passionate and inspiring. The speaker spoke fire that burnt away denial, apathy and arrogance. It was a clarion wake up call that has continued to echo since.

This merged with the Legal lecture/discussion and it was revealed that we would receive direct legal support from James Yeager, if we ever were involved in a self defense gun fight, upon our completing Fighting Pistol.

Off to the range. This day we reinforce everything we did the first day while fighting on the move, fighting from retention and fighting to and from cover.
The instructors are great people and great instructors, every one of them. And it was clear they spoke with integrity.

In short, it was intense and absolutely fucking incredible.

I used a Glock 19 with Big Dots from a Dale Fricke Archangel AIWB holster and Archangel IWB mag pouch. Everything worked perfectly.
The fiance used a Glock 26 with Big Dots and a High Noon Public Secret AIWB holster, No mag pouch.

[Curare]

Thank you. Please immediately apply to all firearms publications.

[jsebens]

Please ignore the previous poster. That’s a well-written review (perhaps a bit more flowery than some of us would write, but this isn’t English class, and we’re grading on content, not style). Tactical Response teaches a better handgun fundamentals class than I’ve seen from anyone else, hands down. Their tactics have been called into question, but I don’t know of anyone who questions their techniques (how could they, since most schools teach those techniques, just not as well?). Yeager has examined not only the curriculum, but how he presents it, and has made a science out of using the right word for the right point.

Don’t misunderstand; I’m not a “rah-rah-Yeager” guy. He’s got his flaws. Fighting Pistol isn’t one of them.

[NCPatrolAR]

@jsebens

Please ignore the previous poster. That’s a well-written review (perhaps a bit more flowery than some of us would write, but this isn’t English class, and we’re grading on content, not style). Tactical Response teaches a better handgun fundamentals class than I’ve seen from anyone else, hands down. Their tactics have been called into question, but I don’t know of anyone who questions their techniques (how could they, since most schools teach those techniques, just not as well?). Yeager has examined not only the curriculum, but how he presents it, and has made a science out of using the right word for the right point.

Don’t misunderstand; I’m not a “rah-rah-Yeager” guy. He’s got his flaws. Fighting Pistol isn’t one of them.

I’m curious. Who else have you done handgun training with?

[jsebens]

Local trainers (patrol/SWAT officers), OPOTA, Magpul, RSKTKR. Carbine classes include Tactical Response (not a fan of that one), Magpul, EAG, CRTC, OPOTA, and some limited training while in the Army (we all know how much range time that is).

In my experience (which is not as wide as some on this board), fundamentals for handgun classes typically stay the same across the board, particularly in level 1 classes. Front sight, press. There aren’t that many ways to run a handgun effectively. I find that the differences come in when you add tactics or other disciplines (retention, DT, etc.).

Were you actually just asking, or am I coming across like an ass?

[NCPatrolAR]

@jsebens

Were you actually just asking, or am I coming across like an ass?

I’m always curious about the experience level of people that state a certain class is the better than others. A lot of these claims are often made by people that have only attended one class or classes given by one person/company.

[jsebens]

Fair enough.

It’s easy for people to drink the kool-aid when they’ve only had one flavor. Personally, I’m sure I’ve done it myself once or twice. These days, I try to get my time/money out of every class; I recently took a class from a guy who billed himself as a super-secret-squirrel type, but was really just a competition shooter. That’s fine; he’s good at shooting quickly and accurately. I just had to throw out what he said about how you should Dremel your BCG down for less resistance in a duty rifle.

@NCPatrolAR

I’m always curious about the experience level of people that state a certain class is the better than others. A lot of these claims are often made by people that have only attended one class or classes given by one person/company.

[lowjack]

i have taken a few of tactical response classes as well as a few other schools. and would say that i really enjoyed the classes i took.

Tactical response is a fighting /mindset school. Not a shooting school per say even though i always leave a better shooter.
It rates one of my top five along with eag, MD , BW also local PD get fletc training that is top notch

[Curare]

@jsebens

Please ignore the previous poster. That’s a well-written review (perhaps a bit more flowery than some of us would write, but this isn’t English class, and we’re grading on content, not style). Tactical Response teaches a better handgun fundamentals class than I’ve seen from anyone else, hands down. Their tactics have been called into question, but I don’t know of anyone who questions their techniques (how could they, since most schools teach those techniques, just not as well?). Yeager has examined not only the curriculum, but how he presents it, and has made a science out of using the right word for the right point.

Don’t misunderstand; I’m not a “rah-rah-Yeager” guy. He’s got his flaws. Fighting Pistol isn’t one of them.

Why would he ignore the nice compliment I’ve ever given to a poster on a firearms forum? Nabokov is my favorite author. Snare’s writing style employs an almost Nabokovian lyricism that made that the most intriguing AAR I’ve ever read.

I hope we have not reached such an antisocial level in firearms forums that compliments cannot be discerned from criticism. If that is the case, perhaps the decision for the thin skinned among us to employ firearms is unwise.

[NCPatrolAR]

@Curare

Why would he ignore the nice compliment I’ve ever given to a poster on a firearms forum? Nabokov is my favorite author. Snare’s writing style employs an almost Nabokovian lyricism that made that the most intriguing AAR I’ve ever read.

I hope we have not reached such an antisocial level in firearms forums that compliments cannot be discerned from criticism. If that is the case, perhaps the decision for the thin skinned among us to employ firearms is unwise.

I’m sure that comment was posted because he (the poster), along with everyone else, took your comment to be an insult.

[Steve]

@jsebens

Fair enough.

It’s easy for people to drink the kool-aid when they’ve only had one flavor. Personally, I’m sure I’ve done it myself once or twice. These days, I try to get my time/money out of every class; I recently took a class from a guy who billed himself as a super-secret-squirrel type, but was really just a competition shooter. That’s fine; he’s good at shooting quickly and accurately. I just had to throw out what he said about how you should Dremel your BCG down for less resistance in a duty rifle.

or shows up 4 hours late for class>…LOL:D

[rob_s]

@jsebens

Front sight, press. There aren’t that many ways to run a handgun effectively.

Maybe, maybe not, but there are definitely more (better?) ways to TEACH it.

[rob_s]

i always leave a better shooter.

This is another of those statements that could stand to be disected.

The first issue is that “of course you did, you spent 2-3 days firing several hundred rounds”. As long as you didn’t show up with a major cases of the trigger-snatch or a huge flinch, at the very least what you got was 3 days of practice (I’ve taken classes like this myself). Of course you got better. But it was in spite of, not because of, the instructor.

The second issue is the question of “better how?” If you only got “better” at the drills and the kind of shooting that they teach, or only started to accept a specific instructor’s, perhaps sloppy, acceptable level of accuracy, then did you really get better or did you really just buy into the hype?

I’m not picking on you in particular, just keying on a statement that needs further clarification every time it’s used.

[KellyTTE]

@rob_s

This is another of those statements that could stand to be disected.

I’m not picking on you in particular, just keying on a statement that needs further clarification every time it’s used.

Exactly. I attended both FP and FR, and I can say that at the end of FP I shot a Glock better, simply because I had very limited prior experience with Glocks. I was a decent shooter with my previous platform of choice (Ruger P89 series, don’t laugh). It wasn’t until I started attending classes that had quantifiable standards (LMS, CSAT, DCT) that I gained qualitative tools to improve myself as a shooter.

Did I think FP/FR was amazing at the time? Yeah, but part of that was that I hadn’t been exposed to better training yet. In the long run, FP/FR don’t compare well to other classes I’ve attended.

[Curare]

@NCPatrolAR

I’m sure that comment was posted because he (the poster), along with everyone else, took your comment to be an insult.

My apologies to everyone, if that is the case.

[jsebens]

@Steve

or shows up 4 hours late for class>…LOL:D

Yeah…that guy was a real character.

@rob_s

Maybe, maybe not, but there are definitely more (better?) ways to TEACH it.

True enough; that’s one of the things that impressed me about Tactical Response in the first place. The instructors were actually good educators. Many schools and trainers think that presenting good information is all that’s required, and it’s not; a good deal of the value of an educator is in HOW they present good material.

Tactical Response has its flaws (and perhaps more than its fair share), yes. They’re not in the psychology of education or in the handgun course material (in my opinion, which is worth exactly what you paid for it).