TDI's Extreme Close Quarters

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soontobedeity
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TDI's Extreme Close Quarters

Post by soontobedeity »

I had the privilege of attending TDI's Extreme Close Quarters class this past weekend. The lead instructor was Greg Ellifritz, and he was assisted by John Benner, David Bowie and several other instructors. As per usual at TDI, all of them were fantastic about being attentive and offering advice and correction without being overbearing.

Day 1 of the 2 day class started off on the range. Greg walked us through the proper way of shooting from a retention/half-guard position (it turns out that I've been doing it wrong). Part of the process is anchoring the gun very near your chest, and I have some cool bruises from failing to keep the slide from whacking me in the ribs. We practiced drawing into and firing from retention while retreating and extending for sighted shots, and vice versa - how to pull the gun into retention in the face of an advancing opponent. After the live-fire portion, Greg drilled us (using roped guns) on accessing your tools in a close quarters engagement, stuffing an opponent's draw, unstuffing our own draw, and other various tips and techniques. Day 1 was fun, but not as physically taxing as I had expected it to be.

Day 2 really picked up the pace. It almost felt like a series of introductory exercises designed to give us a taste of some of TDI's more in-depth classes. The day began with a very short primer on unarmed defense. I recently took their CQPC I &II class in February, and I was pleased to see that the skills (taught by Forrest Sonewald in both cases) were exactly the same. In fact, many of the gross movements for all of the weapons are very, very similar. Next, the class split into two groups. In the first group, we went into the classroom where Greg taught us some quick and dirty ground fighting. For someone with no prior training, it was incredibly eye-opening, and also required quite a bit of physical effort (I've really let my conditioning go :( ). TDI teaches a groundfighting class every other year, and after Greg's intro, it's definitely on my wish list for 2015. After that segment, we went back outside, where John Benner sat us down and gave us an intro into using knives for weapons retention. Like the ground fighting, this was just a small bit of what TDI normally teaches in their 2-day defensive knife course, and mainly served to show me that I need to reconsider my chosen equipment.

After those segments, we came to the final exercises. At the range, one group practiced firing from some non-traditional positions. Mainly we fired from positions we might find ourselves in after being knocked to the ground. It was a lot of fun picking up sights upside down and shooting between legs, and definitely not something that I usually get to experience at the range.

And finally, we got to run scenarios. In the classroom, Greg and Forrest suited up and forced us to employ some of the tricks and techniques we'd been taught. This was the most physically demanding event of the weekend by far (at least for me - my encounters felt like they lasted forever). The first scenarios were standing, where we were required to verbally engage our assailant first. Afterwards, those viewing judged whether or not the student's actions were legally justified, and the instructors offered advice and critiques. The second scenario was that we had been punched, briefly knocked out, and we awake on the ground with our assailant straddling us. Here, lethal force was presumed appropriate. I had a folding training knife similar to what I carry in both scenarios. But in the first scenario, I tried to employ it to keep Greg off of my firearm and failed miserably. :x In the second, Greg had me so wrapped up on the ground that I couldn't access any tools on my beltline. He did lose a shoe, however, and I was able to throw it at him as I scrambled to the "safe" side of the mats. :oops:

The bottom line is that the class was hugely informative, great fun, and showed me just how many ways a real, up-close encounter can go wrong. I can't wait to head back to TDI for both their knife and groundfighting classes, as well their Handgun IV-V. I'd definitely recommend this course.
Believe That
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Re: TDI's Extreme Close Quarters

Post by Believe That »

Thanks for the review. I would like to take that course as well - along w/ others they offer :)
I've been to TDI a few times for classes, but have yet to have Greg involved in any. He seems like a good guy w/ a lot of overall knowledge in this field. His blog is a good one and def. worth following. At some point I want to take a class from his company Active Response Training.
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TSiWRX
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Re: TDI's Extreme Close Quarters

Post by TSiWRX »

I need to get down there.

Thanks for the AAR!
Allen - Shaker Heights, Ohio
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