This past weekend myself and three fellow shooters participated in a Handgun CQB course with Practical Firearms Training.
The head honcho is Pat Goodale, whom I found to be a no B.S. straightforward dude. The facility is located in West Virginia, and is compact and simple, yet contains all of the good stuff that you usually only expect from a much larger facility like U.S. Training Center.
The course was for higher level shooters, and was designed to stress the employment of the handgun in tight quarters (such as indoors and around vehicles) and in close proximity to threats.
The course was two full days, the first being drill sets to warm up and establish baseline skills and also to work in particular skills that would be used the next day. TD2 was essentially scenario-based, and made much use of the elements of TD1, but at the discretion of the shooter.
While Pat has numerous preferred methods of doing a thing, if you displayed proficiency and were “tactically sound” he pretty much left you to do your thing. Scanning and assessing were heavily stressed, as was the tactical reload. “Think ammo” was often repeated.
I shot the entire class AIWB from concealment with two different Gen 3 Glock 19s – no issues with either gun. AIWB worked out well, however some of the retention drills got to be tedious, what with the one-handed clearing of the cover garment and the draw. I also think I am going to finally get under the trigger guard radiused out on both of my Glocks, as I now have a huge callous on the second knuckle of my right middle finger.
The AIs were very active and kept things moving. There were several older (and I mean *much older*) shooters that the AIs needed to keep their eyes on simply due to physical limitations in the 90 degree heat and sun.
I learned that while my current body weight at 172 lbs. works well for me, it would behoove me to get in some weight lifting to strengthen my back and upper body. I also need to keep working on my one-shot draws and presentations.
I enjoyed the experience very much – Pat and his staff are GTG and his facility makes for a great training environment.
Tom
August 14th, 2010
I saw some vehicle drills in the pics, how was AIWB for that? Without having tried AIWB, I would think it would be a more difficult draw, granted seated in a vehicle is not an ideal place to draw from anyway.
The_Katar
August 14th, 2010
Drawing in a vehicle is easier AIWB generally, than traditional hip carry.
aray
August 15th, 2010
I too was impressed with the quality of instruction, and the facility. Great weekend of training.
I am looking forward to returning to PFT again.
The_Katar
August 15th, 2010
I will definitely return to this facility for future training.
Joel
August 20th, 2010
Katar,
You posted wanting to improve your upper body and lower back strength. If you have a 25 pound kettle bell or dumbbell, you are set. Just pick it up and go for a walk, a long one. Switch up hands, but try to go at least a mile without putting the bell down. I have never gotten better results in any workout. The more varied the terrain, the better.