Many of the what he was going to do was covered the day before with Paul Carlson (http://www.safetysolutionsacademy.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) because this was a 2 day class, day 1 was Fundamentals of Combat Focus Shooting (CFS) and the next day was Handgun Vitals 1 (HV1) with Daniel. After the morning safety briefing, Daniel said that overnight he changed what we would be doing in class on Sunday, as he saw that the students in attendance were proficient in the skills. He also didn't want to hold a similar class to what we had performed the day before. So instead of HV1, our class was more like a HV2 class. Daniel had told us that what he was going to train us in more of a team aspect and longer fight for events such as Katrina. The emphasis would be on movement and communication, which is important when working as a team.
Here's a photo of the class this weekend. Paul is the Tactical Mennonite on the left and Daniel is on the right (Daniel's son did a little photo bombing)
The silly fortune cookie holding Asians (my friends and I) have done classes before. This was the first class for the non-Asian students.
The first evolution that we did was firing 10 rounds at a 1" square paster from ~4-5yards. This was done because it we would ever have to use our handgun, it was be from cold (not having any practice prior to shooting). This would show how you would get you first shots off. I am usually a 1911/2011 shooter (i used a 2011 in the class the day before), but this morning i decided to run my M&P-9 (full size) which I have carried from time to time. Having not really shot the M&P for a while I didn't know how well I would group with it. I grouped well with 7 of the 10 touching with 1 round about 2-3" low. We repeated the drill on a another paster and this time i had all of them touching. By this time there were empty magazines on the ground, which would introduce the class to commands and the reason behind them. As working as a team, you want to inform teammates of your movement and depending on what is called out, most will have a response. My friend and I have worked with team communication before, but were introduced to a few more communication words.
The rest of the mornings evolutions were multiple threats, forward/backward movement, engaging threats while moving, engaging a threat from contact distance, shooting from kneeling and supine. Having done these in previous class it was good to practice these skills since the range I go to is an indoor range and can't practice any of these. I did note that in the class I took last year, the kneeling position was for some reason my weakest position. My issue (last year) because i wasn't getting my knee all the way down and i was balancing on the ball of my foot. This year was different, I kept my knee/knees planted, which made for a stable position.
After lunch I switched from the M&P to a Glock 17 and a G-Code INCOG holster in the AIWB position. I haven't trained with a Glock in 5 years, nor have I ever trained with a gun in the AIWB position. This made sense to train with this way because i have added a Glock into my carry rotation. The first evolution of the afternoon was shooting while moving laterally. This evolution showed that even though you were moving forward (lateral to the line) a threat will cause you to continue in the same direction, but the footwork will have the shooter walking backward.
Here's Daniel and one of the students performing the lateral movement drill.
Next up was the difference between concealment/cover and the proper use of cover.
Daniel showing us how to use cover.
Here's the drill we did using cover. We each did this evolution 2 times from different cover.
{My camera was on a tripod and shooting at intervals}
The Moving Box Drill evolution put all movement together in 1 drill.
It started with us doing ~25yard run to the start of the shooting position.
We engaged targets as Daniel called them out.
Here's a video of another student running the drill
https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?vi ... 3929301023" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
After my run Daniel commented at the difference between my turn vs. others. It was pretty much that some moved at a higher rate that continued on from their sprint to the shooting position, while I slowed my movement pace down and was getting good hits. With hit's getting sloppy, we lined up at about ~5yards to fire 5 shots trying to stack them on top of each other. Remember how I mentioned that i haven't trained with a Glock in 5 year? I really only shot this G17 for about 50rds ( a few months back) to make sure the sights are zero'd. WELL...seeing that I used to be a Glock guy, i placed all 5 rounds in a tiny hole. Whew...that was a relief and shows that the whole grip angle between a Glock/M&P/1911 is all hogwash, if you have solid fundamentals, it shouldn't matter what you shoot.
The final evolution of the day was putting everything together. It started with another 25+ yard run to out first cover position, making out way to 3 more cover positions. Through this entire drill Daniel was calling out the threats, and we moved from cover to cover when we were ready. This was a great drill and my favorite of the weekend.
Here's another student's video of the drill.
https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?vi ... 4416713208" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Photo's of me doing the final drill.
1st cover position. You can see Daniel behind me calling out threats.
making my way to the 2nd cover position and shooting on the move.
2nd cover position
3rd cover position
Making the run to the 4th cover position
4th cover position
One thing that i learned about carrying in the AIWB position is that after a 50+ round string, it sure gets hot up front when you put the gun in the holster.
Here's my gear I used for this day.
M&P-9
10-8 Performance rear sight
Dawson Precision front sight
Apex Tactical DCAEK and AEK trigger
Blade-Tech IDPA Competition Shooters pack
Glock 17
10-8 Performance rear sight
Dawson Precision front
G-Code INCOG
Blade-tech mag pouch
Again, this was not the normal Handgun Vitals 1 class, Daniel had adapted the class (overnight) to suit what he saw with the students performance from the prior day.
I highly recommend attending a Paratus Academy class if you can. Daniel will also be in town for in August as one of the instructors in the Warrior Summit http://www.warrior-summit.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. He will be teaching a carbine class and I hope to make it since all my training has been with handguns.
Daniel's Bio:
Daniel recently retired from active service with the US Marine Corps where he served as an Infantry Unit Leader and held several weapons and tactics instructor positions. Some may recognize him from the podcast Gunfighter Cast which he created in 2008 and through it; he continues to produce informative defense based content in various forms of media. Since retiring, Daniel has established Paratus Academy to continue his career as a trainer in the private sector.
Operational and Teaching Experience
Maritime Special Purpose Force Team Member, 22nd MEU SOC
In Extremis Hostage Rescue (IHR), level IV Visit Boarding Search and Seizure (L4VBSS), and oil platform recovery. -22nd MEU SOC Mediterranean Sea AOR (1997 – 1998)
Conducted peacekeeping operations, trained host nation forces, and protected US assets and personnel in non-permissive environment. -Tirana Albania (1998)
Rifle and pistol marksmanship instructor -MCRD Parris Island, SC (1999 – 2002)
Assault Section Leader Bravo Co 1st battalion 2nd Marines “Team Tank”. -Iraq (2003)
Convoy security detail, assault force vehicle commander. -Northern Babil Province Iraq (2004 – 2005)
Combat weapons instructor team leader. MCSF (2006 – 2009)
Tactical Readiness and Training, Weapons Training Chief. PACOM (2009 – 2013)
Certifications
USMCSF Combat Weapons Master Instructor (handgun, rifle/carbine, shotgun, and medium to heavy machine guns)
Combat Marksmanship Trainer
Foreign Weapons Instructor
Primary Marksmanship Instructor
Host Nation Police Advisor Instructor
Expeditionary and Fixed Site Security Instructor
MCSF Security Guard Instructor(FAST/Naval Nuclear Security Program)
Maritime Special Purpose Force Security Element Team Member
Notable Awards
Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for valor in heroic achievement during the battle of An Nasiriyah 2003
Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for professional achievement in planning, supervising, and conducting training for foreign and US forces. (PACOM)
Combat Action Ribbon
Iraq Campaign Medal
Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
