Costa Ludus

[Quack]

Yep, we did well.

here's KFP with Costa


and i think i'm the only one to touch the greatness of the Beard


BTW, my eyes aren't that slanted, i was laughing so hard because he grabbed my goatee

[TSiWRX]

Your eyes *are* slanted!

I definitely did not shoot as well as I liked - or thought that I should have.

I think that second statement is more telling, actually. "Thought I should have" because I thought that my fundamentals were decently solid...but the truth of the matter is that I've got a long way to go, and there's some remediation that I need to to, too.

The problem is that I am actually constantly "self fixing," given that I have the sights. I am, at this point, good enough that I can diagnose what went wrong "on the fly," so what's happening was that a lot of my fundamental mistakes were being cloaked. In taking away the sights as Costa did for our "instinctive shooting" exercises and in running the Bill-Drill/BSA Drill out to 25 yards, with long strings (10 to 15 shots), my weaknesses in the fundamentals of stance consistency (which became even more apparent when we shot from positions: as Costa critiqued on TD2 of HE01, I was letting the positions dictate my shooting) and trigger control became more apparent. I'm proud to say, though, that by the end of HE02, I'd actually internalized those pieces of advice, and had begun to improve noticeably.

[TSiWRX]

wear a compression shirt to make you look slimmer.

I did end up buying some UnderArmour Heat Gear compression shirts last Sunday, during the break between HE01 and HE02. I wanted something that would be cooler (temperature wise) to wear than my usual, and I was also getting tired of having to repeatedly re-adjust my shirt at the waistline, to insure I wasn't pushing fabric into the holster. The latter became important because despite Costa saying that I could shoot all of HE02 from-concealment if I wanted to, I still felt somewhat uncomfortable with some of the reaction/support-side only manipulations, and I wanted to focus on the techniques, instead of having to divert what little brain-power I had to worrying about my cover garment.

Costa remarked that I should write UA a letter, telling them that the shirt isn't working properly - that it wasn't compressing the right spots.

-----


BTW, Gaspode, I did get a chance to meet both of the nice gentlemen from Survival Tactics. Steve was a hoot!

[Gaspode]

BTW, Gaspode, I did get a chance to meet both of the nice gentlemen from Survival Tactics. Steve was a hoot!

Yeah, Steve came back and said "I think I met that guy you said you knew from online, but Costa kept calling him Kungfu Panda, so I dunno if that was him or not.."

He and Brice both had a blast. I didn't go because I wasn't comfortable jumping ahead and just taking HE02, but I'm sure the next time around ill be able to take one of the classes, if not both.

[TSiWRX]

Yeah, Steve came back and said "I think I met that guy you said you knew from online, but Costa kept calling him Kungfu Panda, so I dunno if that was him or not.."

Yep, that was me: "Panda."

I walked over to Steve after the second evolution on TD1, IIRC. I actually approached him as we were walking out to the very first evolution, but I must have crossed up his face with that of another student, and when I introduced myself to that other (Mike F.), he was, like, "er.....OK?" Mike and I later had a good laugh about it, when he came up to me later in the afternoon of TD1 and said, "so, who's this guy that you know that I'm supposed to know?" and I confessed to him that I'd mistook him for someone else.

Steve and Brice had set up camp in another area, so we didn't get much time to talk. I had the same problem with someone else I "knew" from another Forum. I feel like I missed out on a lot of good getting-to-know you time by commuting. With my family needs, I had to do it that way.

He and Brice both had a blast.

^ Costa was really lucky that Brice was there!

----

I think that Raven will be hosting a lot more classes at this range next year. Hopefully, Costa will be out again, too - I think there's demand for both his pistol and carbine courses here, and I personally hope he brings his shotgun offering here, too.

[Quack]

I wish I didn't have work, or I would've jumped in on HE02, which would be more what I needed, but HE01 was a good refresher because I haven't been to a class in 2 years.

[TSiWRX]

^ Yep.

I found out some very interesting things about myself during HE02......

(1) Due to some seemingly minor change in gear/setup and fatigue, I cannot trust myself to be able to lock the slide back with my reaction/support (left) hand, by using only the rear sights.

(2) The chest (well, tummy, for me! ) roll is now my preferred method for reaction-hand draw/firing. Prior to the course, it was my least favorite method, due to the proximity of the muzzle and my perceived threat from it. Using Costa's technique, with the trigger finger indexed literally on top of the slide, this totally alleviates my fear - and offers excellent weapon control.

(3) I need to run supine and prone drills by myself. Especially when it came to single-handed techniques, I had a lot of trouble "sequencing" the movements. For lack of better words, I'm horrible at choreography, and a bit of that is needed to safely and quickly rise from those positions, particularly one-handed. At one point, I got up from the drill to that big silly grin on Costa's face: he laughed and said "Damn, Panda, like, Godzilla definitely chomped on you there! you were, like, all <imitating my spastic and uncoordinated body movements>!"

HE02 also really took my muzzle awareness to new heights. I've never worked the gun in proximity of others without maintaining strict Sul, before - and I've never run with a live gun that's not holstered. What an eye-opener!

[Quack]

sounds good, we should go shoot at A&A sometime and work on things.

^ Yep.

I found out some very interesting things about myself during HE02......

(1) Due to some seemingly minor change in gear/setup and fatigue, I cannot trust myself to be able to lock the slide back with my reaction/support (left) hand, by using only the rear sights.

(2) The chest (well, tummy, for me! ) roll is now my preferred method for reaction-hand draw/firing. Prior to the course, it was my least favorite method, due to the proximity of the muzzle and my perceived threat from it. Using Costa's technique, with the trigger finger indexed literally on top of the slide, this totally alleviates my fear - and offers excellent weapon control.

(3) I need to run supine and prone drills by myself. Especially when it came to single-handed techniques, I had a lot of trouble "sequencing" the movements. For lack of better words, I'm horrible at choreography, and a bit of that is needed to safely and quickly rise from those positions, particularly one-handed. At one point, I got up from the drill to that big silly grin on Costa's face: he laughed and said "Damn, Panda, like, Godzilla definitely chomped on you there! you were, like, all <imitating my spastic and uncoordinated body movements>!"

HE02 also really took my muzzle awareness to new heights. I've never worked the gun in proximity of others without maintaining strict Sul, before - and I've never run with a live gun that's not holstered. What an eye-opener!

reason why i like the 1911, is that i have the thumb safety. working it is second nature for me now, but when i was first starting to get serious with handguns i was intimidated by them.

Costa is a funny guy, but he can tell who has a good sense of humor and who doesn't. Obviously he liked us, or he wouldn't be giving us such a hard time.

[TSiWRX]

sounds good, we should go shoot at A&A sometime and work on things.

I'd be glad to.

Although I don't think they'd let us practice supine/prone!

reason why i like the 1911, is that i have the thumb safety. working it is second nature for me now, but when i was first starting to get serious with handguns i was intimidated by them.

^ That's where I'm at now. A part of the reason why I didn't want to use your Tactical for the class was because I didn't trust myself to be proficient at driving the 1911/2011 platform, the thumb safety being a big part of that concern, in-turn.

Costa is a funny guy, but he can tell who has a good sense of humor and who doesn't. Obviously he liked us, or he wouldn't be giving us such a hard time.

^ Yep. It's all in good fun. I still don't have a good comeback for his "Goggles" sucker-punch. That dig really caught me out!

His digs at the XDm were pretty funny, too. On TD2 of HE02, after running reaction-hand double-feed drills, I commented to a friend at the pavilion that I was thinking about getting the upper grip area stippled a bit, as I thought it would help with traction during this maneuver. Costa overheard me and said "No, Panda, you're going to go home and sell that f'n thing."

Gaspode, he also had some fun with Steve and Brice, with the knives. One joke I particularly remember was that if you see one knife flying at you, you should always expect two more, "'cause they're always sold in packs of three, with that wrist/arm holder thing."

[Quack]

we can shoot prone/supine at A&A. nobody is there on the range itself, and they have 3 different ranges. 25 (pistol only), 100 and 200/300


I emailed his some pics and here's his reply, so Panda (or KFP)is your new name

Don, great shooting with you and Panda, it's nice to hang out with good dudes. Thx for the photos.


c

[TSiWRX]

^ ROFL. Panda it is, then. You do take exceptional pix.

OK, gimmie two weeks to get the lab stuff ironed out. We're coming up on a busy stretch (I made it so that we weren't busy for pretty much all of June and mid-July, so that I could go to see my parents in Atlanta and then do HE01/02), but I should have down-time after that, again. I'd love to hit A&A with you, to work on those skills.

[Quack]

yeah, it won't be anytime soon, I'm leaving next week to teach a class, then i have a few large projects coming up.

[Gaspode]

Panda ( ) - The funny thing is, Steve and Brice are scary with knives. Steve's an actual somethingsomethingsomething Guru for Kali. He and Brice designed the Bawidamann Karambit Costa has. Since I started hanging out at the shop and helping it, I started training with them. You ever come down for a weekend some time you should swing in! It's fun! And terrifying!

And yeah, I laughed really hard when Steve called the first night complaining how tired and sore he was, when I asked where Brice was he said "Oh, I sent him over to Costa for some shoulder work..." There were a lot of jokes about smooth jazz and candles.

Steve said someone's XD basically blew up while on the line?! Or has some sort of major malfunction, the wasn't you was it?

I sent them off with 4k pieces of 9mm, and Steve had some problems with the G19 and FtE. We're fairly sure it was from the sand which he said he was pouring out of his pockets at the end of every day.

[Sevens]

Yeahbut, Steve has built a reputation for "borking" Glock 19's, so I wouldn't rush to any judgement until you do a detailed teardown of his handgun.

Guy puts rounds through his working gun.

[TSiWRX]

Panda ( ) - The funny thing is, Steve and Brice are scary with knives. Steve's an actual somethingsomethingsomething Guru for Kali. He and Brice designed the Bawidamann Karambit Costa has. Since I started hanging out at the shop and helping it, I started training with them. You ever come down for a weekend some time you should swing in! It's fun! And terrifying!

I'd be honored!

Yep, Costa really laid-in to guys he knew could take (and dish back) the abuse. It really was all in good fun, though. This was evident when he talked to Brice and Steve on the line about their stances, to basically modify what he was teaching them to what would work best, instead, with their knife-work. I'm not sure what Steve and Brice's final decision was, on how they would manage stance, though.

And yeah, I laughed really hard when Steve called the first night complaining how tired and sore he was, when I asked where Brice was he said "Oh, I sent him over to Costa for some shoulder work..." There were a lot of jokes about smooth jazz and candles.

Yeah, his (Costa's) shoulder was some kind of screwed-up. He definitely gave us our money's worth in doing his demos and helping us work through our trouble-spots in the positions. That earns him a big thumbs-up from me, for sure. Respect.

I survived (barely) the six days thanks to the help of the twins Tylenol and Advil. Driving home with a cramping-up left-knee was a fun challenge, since I drive stick.

Steve said someone's XD basically blew up while on the line?! Or has some sort of major malfunction, the wasn't you was it?

No, that wasn't mine.

It was a fellow line-mate's XD40-SC. The usual forward barrel-lug problem. Sheared right off.

Other casualties included a cracked slide on a Sig Blackwater (HE01, TD2) and a Springfield 1911 that went down (HE01, TD1?)...Quack, do you remember what was wrong with that gun?

I sent them off with 4k pieces of 9mm, and Steve had some problems with the G19 and FtE. We're fairly sure it was from the sand which he said he was pouring out of his pockets at the end of every day.

Yep. Pretty much everyone had some form of FTE issue - stovepipes and double-feeds - as TD2 bridged over into TD3: this was particularly evident for those of us who either did not or chose not to clean and/or even add lube to our guns. We really put the guns down into the ground and treated them like the tools that they are.