I’m beginning to wonder, “Am I a glutton for pain?” Perhaps, I am. I mean two years ago, I got my ass kicked in Ben Stoeger’s Practical Shooting Fundamentals class. Not literally, of course. However, I still remember my hands being tore up with a couple of blisters and a little slide bite from the volume of shooting that took place in that class and feeling like my knees were about to quit on me by the end of the second day. I also recall being sore for a few days after that class. It was by and large the most physically demanding shooting class I had attended to date. It was also a class where I learned a lot and heavily influenced me to expand my pistol competition activities to include USPSA and Steel Challenge matches. So when I heard KR Training would be hosting Ben Stoeger again this year, I jumped at the chance to sign up for another one of his classes – Practical Shooting Skills and Drills.
At a high level, this class felt very familiar to the fundamentals class. There was some cross over on the drills that were worked. And once again, I got my ass kicked by the physical demands and volume of shooting that was done in the class. However, the class was different. There was very little emphasis on developing the foundational fundamentals of marksmanship and a whole lot of emphasis on how to train for performance improvements. Another difference was an intentional smaller class size.
The ”how to” was surprisingly simple. Set up a drill to work a concept. Apply a focus context. Perform the drill at a level where the wheels begin to fall off with sufficient repetition that one can identify and diagnose the reasons the wheels started falling off so we can work on those reasons. Like shooting a gun, it’s a simple process that is difficult to execute well. The difficulty comes from the discipline required to maintain awareness of everything that is happening while at the same time maintaining a singular focus while the drill is executed. Thankfully, we worked on a handful of drills a number of times while Ben provided personalized tips on how to train.
As per usual with after action reports like this one, let’s quickly cover the gear I used in class before reviewing and recapping the activities. The gear I used was:
- Gun: Staccato P with a Trijicon SRO occluded by a Stonebridge Gunworks Target Focus Trainer
- Magazines: MBX Extreme 140mm 9mm 2011 Magazines x3
- Belt: Double Alpha Academy (DAA) Lynx Belt
- Mag Pouches: DAA Alpha-Xi Magazine Pouch x2 and a DAA Alpha-Xi Magazine Pouch with Magnet and Cover
- Holster: DAA Flex Holster
- Ammo: CCI Blazer Brass 147gr 9mm (approximately 1300 in total)
The structure of the course was simple. Ben set up a drill. Explained the course of fire. Demonstrated it. Followed it up with specific instructions of where to place our focus. Then we shot it. A lot. While the students were shooting it, Ben observed each student closely and then provided specific and direct feedback for personalized improvement.
One of the things I enjoyed most about the class format and found quite valuable was the self discovery that took place. I believe this is what Ben refers to as inductive learning. Rather than prescribing a particular technique or process to go practice. We were given a drill with a few hints of what to pay attention to and then we experienced it. By doing that, each student gained insights into performance shooting in general and additional insights about our individual skills and habits.
Take the first drill we worked on, the doubles drill, for instance. This drill consists of drawing the pistol and firing three or four predictive pairs into the “A zone” of the target. The focus hint was to pay attention to how the gun felt in the hands while shooting. Was the grip staying together? Was the gun properly mated to the grip or was it moving around during recoil? Were we muscling the gun back on target or simply allowing it to return? The answers to those questions were the potential insights of knowledge we could glean from experiencing the drill and evaluating the results on the target. Those insights could then be used to make corrections and adjustments. If everything appeared to be good, then that was an insight indicating that the intensity of the next string of fire should be increased.
The entire first day was spent going from drill to drill. Granted, each drill increased in complexity and gave us something different to focus on: visual focus, levels of visual confirmation, transitions, movement, and so on.
The second day started out a little different with a short stage set up in one of the shooting bays. Each student took a turn shooting the stage for time after we were given a chance to walk it and dry fire it. We were instructed and encouraged to dry fire and shoot the stage during our downtime between drills with the goal of improving our time by a challenging margin by the end of the day. There was ample opportunity to do this as the drills continued to grow in complexity and required additional space on the main bay which only allowed two of the eight students to work a drill simultaneously while being coached by Ben Stoeger.
A drill or two before lunch, I took a spill and kissed the dirt while working a drill. There were a few lessons in this experience, that wasn’t fun and I wouldn’t recommend it.
First off, everyone is bound to take a spill at some point if they are training, practicing, or competing with high intensity.
The value of trigger and muzzle discipline can’t be understated. I recall being completely aware of where my trigger finger was (resting along the side of the frame with the pad indexed on the slide stop pin) and where the muzzle was oriented (down range) the entire time vividly. I also recall engaging the manual safety prior to ditching the Staccato P by tossing it down range so I could use both hands to break my fall. All of this played a critical role in ensuring I fell as safely as possible without endangering anyone else present. Not a single person nor body part was flagged by the muzzle of the pistol during the brief ordeal.
Having spare gear for a class in case of equipment failure is a good idea. I thought I broke my holster as the main body came loose with the fall. I wasn’t sure it was fixable, so I switched to my concealed carry equipment in order to keep working the remaining drills prior to our lunch break where I would have more time to inspect the presumably broken holster and attempt to fix it. It turned out not to be broken, but I wouldn’t have been able to fix it had I not thrown the corresponding tools in the range bag like I always do. I’m also glad I had brought along cleaning rags and extra lubricant as the Staccato P required a quick field strip and cleaning to get most of the sandy dirt that got in it when it hit the ground and be ready for the second half of the day.
The drills on the second day combined all of the things we worked on during day one differently. An observation which may be glaringly obvious is that some aspects of marksmanship suffered at the expense of others when focus was placed on them. For example, I found myself peppering the available target area with holes because I failed to maintain disciplined visual focus on a small precise spot on each target when I focused intensely in rolling out of a position sooner or shooting into a position earlier. This is a side effect of our minds being really only able to focus on one thing at a time and relying on subconscious automaticity for the rest. If the automaticity isn’t there, then the performance degrades. Especially, when purposely pushing to the point where the wheels start falling off.
By the end of the second day, I had managed to shave off three seconds of my stage time which was about a 10% improvement while maintaining mostly A zone hits with an occasional C zone hit. I was rather happy with that result not only because that was my improvement margin set at the beginning of the day, but also because I was able to do that after taking a fall that yielded discomfort that increased as the day progressed.
It’s hard for me to say what the biggest takeaway from this class was for me. I learned a lot about how train and practice better. This includes developing a better understanding on how to glean insights from live fire practice sessions that I can carry into dry fire practice. The inductive learning approach Ben used in his instruction is also something else that I’d like to incorporate into my lesson plans and how I coach students. One thing that I am certain of is that I will do everything I can to attend another one of Ben’s classes next time he’s hosted at KR Training.