I'm on the safety team at my church. Our lead scheduled a team event at Top Shot last Friday night for 2 hours. It was well worth the trip.
Top Shot is run by Mike and Mike. One is former LEO, one former FBI as I recall. Both are excellent instructors. And flexible. They make it clear that if you want correction on your technique they can offer, if not they'll let you be.
They ran us through multiple drills. They started with a simple accuracy drill of 3 shots for each of us just to get a feel for how we shoot. Then they slowly stepped up through some speed drills, a simulated USPSA course, and then we moved on to the scenario simulator.
The scenario simulator is awesome. Its like a choose your own adventure. They prep you and give you the scenario and turn you loose. "you are a cop and you have just pulled over this car. Handle it." And they play it. Depending on what you do and say, they control what the perp does. He may comply, he may come out shooting. its up to what you do. In this specific case, the car door flies open. A pissed off driver gets out. He either pulls a gun and starts shooting, or pulls out his registration and starts ranting about how he just bought the car, has proof its his, and is sick and tired of being pulled over.
Another scenario is you are a citizen and come across a domestic dispute. What you say to diffuse the situation could cause them to calm down, or even start shooting. Its all up to you. And after the scenario the Mikes debrief you and help you all learn from what happened. ESPECIALLY your mistakes. Even doing a playback showing where you hit and when. "What did you hear the officer shot in the vest say? What were you watching? When did you see... What could you have said to him instead of... " etc. It was VERY informative.
And it can get VERY intense. One of our older (just about to retire)teammates started talking down a guy in a domestic that turned on him. There were repeated "DROP THE BAT!" calls for what seemed like an eternity. I wont say what happened as a spoiler, but afterward they started debreifing him. He was explaining what just happened and what he had seen, but he was still using 80% of his outside voice he was using with the simulator. It was obvious he was still riding the wave of adrenaline because he was still amped and almost yelling. So the training can be VERY intense.
And I was impressed with the 21 year old son of one of our team. He tagged along even though he isnt on the team. He is very soft spoken. In my head I'm thinking "Oh great. This isnt going to end well." He got up to the line and appeared to freeze and said nothing as the scene played out. But after about 15 seconds a switch flipped and he started working it and handled it like a boss, verbalizing commands. I was impressed how it brought him out of his shell.
I'd HIGHLY recommend paying them a visit. They are well worth the money.
Though I'm tempted not to. Because during one of the first PSS simulations, I mentioned "Oh God. There arent any Texas Stars are there? I HATE those things!" At the end when we had wrapped up the simulations but still had time the sick b*****ds said "Lets run one more. This one has poppers with no shoots in front, random surprise targets with no shoots, and two flavors of Texas Stars." Lets just say had this been a live range, it would have been VERY expensive because several of us gave up and started to pray and spray to clear the stage
We all had a good laugh.
And they are actively expanding their equipment. So far all of the "guns" are just static IR laser pistols (with the ability to change mags) but they are actively evaluating several brands of blowback pistols to add to the lineup to make things a little more realistic.
And they are VERY reasonable. They didnt upcharge our not for profit group even though we had more than double the listed 4 people. We still paid the normal rate as a church team.
We are looking forward to booking another session this summer.
Top Shot is run by Mike and Mike. One is former LEO, one former FBI as I recall. Both are excellent instructors. And flexible. They make it clear that if you want correction on your technique they can offer, if not they'll let you be.
They ran us through multiple drills. They started with a simple accuracy drill of 3 shots for each of us just to get a feel for how we shoot. Then they slowly stepped up through some speed drills, a simulated USPSA course, and then we moved on to the scenario simulator.
The scenario simulator is awesome. Its like a choose your own adventure. They prep you and give you the scenario and turn you loose. "you are a cop and you have just pulled over this car. Handle it." And they play it. Depending on what you do and say, they control what the perp does. He may comply, he may come out shooting. its up to what you do. In this specific case, the car door flies open. A pissed off driver gets out. He either pulls a gun and starts shooting, or pulls out his registration and starts ranting about how he just bought the car, has proof its his, and is sick and tired of being pulled over.
Another scenario is you are a citizen and come across a domestic dispute. What you say to diffuse the situation could cause them to calm down, or even start shooting. Its all up to you. And after the scenario the Mikes debrief you and help you all learn from what happened. ESPECIALLY your mistakes. Even doing a playback showing where you hit and when. "What did you hear the officer shot in the vest say? What were you watching? When did you see... What could you have said to him instead of... " etc. It was VERY informative.
And it can get VERY intense. One of our older (just about to retire)teammates started talking down a guy in a domestic that turned on him. There were repeated "DROP THE BAT!" calls for what seemed like an eternity. I wont say what happened as a spoiler, but afterward they started debreifing him. He was explaining what just happened and what he had seen, but he was still using 80% of his outside voice he was using with the simulator. It was obvious he was still riding the wave of adrenaline because he was still amped and almost yelling. So the training can be VERY intense.
And I was impressed with the 21 year old son of one of our team. He tagged along even though he isnt on the team. He is very soft spoken. In my head I'm thinking "Oh great. This isnt going to end well." He got up to the line and appeared to freeze and said nothing as the scene played out. But after about 15 seconds a switch flipped and he started working it and handled it like a boss, verbalizing commands. I was impressed how it brought him out of his shell.
I'd HIGHLY recommend paying them a visit. They are well worth the money.
Though I'm tempted not to. Because during one of the first PSS simulations, I mentioned "Oh God. There arent any Texas Stars are there? I HATE those things!" At the end when we had wrapped up the simulations but still had time the sick b*****ds said "Lets run one more. This one has poppers with no shoots in front, random surprise targets with no shoots, and two flavors of Texas Stars." Lets just say had this been a live range, it would have been VERY expensive because several of us gave up and started to pray and spray to clear the stage
We all had a good laugh.And they are actively expanding their equipment. So far all of the "guns" are just static IR laser pistols (with the ability to change mags) but they are actively evaluating several brands of blowback pistols to add to the lineup to make things a little more realistic.
And they are VERY reasonable. They didnt upcharge our not for profit group even though we had more than double the listed 4 people. We still paid the normal rate as a church team.
We are looking forward to booking another session this summer.
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