Where: Rangemaster in Memphis, TN
Who taught it: Tom Givens and most of his staff. (About 10 people)
Who took it: 20 eager students. Some were already instructors, like myself, two TR guys, Wes Elliot, who owns a large facility in the OKC area and I became friends with over the 3 day class, and many more. Oh yeah, also two of your very own, VERT, and CraigH.
When: Aug 2-4 2013.
Why: In my case a couple of reasons. One, to become a better teacher of course. Especially in the area of diagnosing problems.
Second, with a student track record of 63 student involved gunfights with 61 wins, 0 losses, and 2 forfeits, I wanted to see what he was teaching.
What was it:
It turned out to be pretty evenly divided between shooting, and classroom. I fired somewhere between 8-900 rounds. This covered much of what is taught to the students, as well as drills and qualification courses. There were two quals for record. The current FBI course, and one of Tom's. We had to score a 90% or better on both of them to pass. FBI agents have to score an 80%, their instructors a 90. The second day I managed to shoot the FBI course clean, but of course that one didn't count. When it actually mattered on day 3, I dropped a couple of shots and scored a 95%. On Toms test that has tighter scoring, I shot a 95.6% Not bad, but could have been better.
As far as the classroom portion went, there were a whole lot of subjects covered. From Adult learning theory, to levels of force, to the law, to Nomenclature, to Marksmanship to dry practice procedures, Coaching, Tactics, Safety, etc., etc, etc. This too we were tested on. This testing was done in the form of a written test, and an oral presentation. While I had no problem with the oral presentation and did quite well (IMHO), I did not study enough for the written test and only scored a 92.9%. Getting old is hell, in my younger days I would not have studied at all and still got a 100%.
It was a great weekend with good people and I am not even beginning to scratch the surface with this report. One of the things I wanted to mention though was the performance of VERT and CraigH. They were not only great guys, but even with the stiff competition they stood out. I was VERY impressed with their performance. Both of them graduated IN THE TOP 5 OF ALL STUDENTS! Congratulations Guys! It was great to train and learn with you.
Who taught it: Tom Givens and most of his staff. (About 10 people)
Who took it: 20 eager students. Some were already instructors, like myself, two TR guys, Wes Elliot, who owns a large facility in the OKC area and I became friends with over the 3 day class, and many more. Oh yeah, also two of your very own, VERT, and CraigH.
When: Aug 2-4 2013.
Why: In my case a couple of reasons. One, to become a better teacher of course. Especially in the area of diagnosing problems.
Second, with a student track record of 63 student involved gunfights with 61 wins, 0 losses, and 2 forfeits, I wanted to see what he was teaching.
What was it:
It turned out to be pretty evenly divided between shooting, and classroom. I fired somewhere between 8-900 rounds. This covered much of what is taught to the students, as well as drills and qualification courses. There were two quals for record. The current FBI course, and one of Tom's. We had to score a 90% or better on both of them to pass. FBI agents have to score an 80%, their instructors a 90. The second day I managed to shoot the FBI course clean, but of course that one didn't count. When it actually mattered on day 3, I dropped a couple of shots and scored a 95%. On Toms test that has tighter scoring, I shot a 95.6% Not bad, but could have been better.
As far as the classroom portion went, there were a whole lot of subjects covered. From Adult learning theory, to levels of force, to the law, to Nomenclature, to Marksmanship to dry practice procedures, Coaching, Tactics, Safety, etc., etc, etc. This too we were tested on. This testing was done in the form of a written test, and an oral presentation. While I had no problem with the oral presentation and did quite well (IMHO), I did not study enough for the written test and only scored a 92.9%. Getting old is hell, in my younger days I would not have studied at all and still got a 100%.
It was a great weekend with good people and I am not even beginning to scratch the surface with this report. One of the things I wanted to mention though was the performance of VERT and CraigH. They were not only great guys, but even with the stiff competition they stood out. I was VERY impressed with their performance. Both of them graduated IN THE TOP 5 OF ALL STUDENTS! Congratulations Guys! It was great to train and learn with you.
. Tom carries a full sized Glock 40. I used my Les Baer PII, Milt Sparks 55 BN, and Ernie Hill mag carriers (Wilson 47d’s and ETM mags). Same stuff I use in USPSA and the same stuff I carry. Most everyone had Glocks and M&Ps but, I did see an HK .45 (female) and a Sig 226. The shooting consisted of drills at 3, 5, 7, 15 and 25 yards, with time limits. I was very comfortable to 7 yards, but struggled a bit at 15 and 25. 
