Just completed 2-day Integrated Threat Focused Training with Quick Kill Pistol
My wife and a friend and I just completed Robin Brown's Integrated Threat Focused Training System (edited for accuracy) (Quick Kill) training here in E. TN and I've got to say that I we sure as shoot'n didn't waste our money.
Regardless of controversy or 'fave flavor' arguments surrounding Quick Kill everyone in the class, from LE to folks that had the most rudimentary of handgun skills, picked up the basic techniques very quickly. Those basic techniques cut our time from draw to bullets on target way way way down. Since very few of us are going to be walking around with gun in hand at low ready all the time I think that's an amazingly good thing (need an understatement "smilie").
From the "elbow up/elbow down" drill to "hip Quick Kill" to "da Zippa" (sorry, but I gotta tease Brownie on his Mass accent amongst all us Southerners) to "the Hammer" and on we learned techniques that put holes in paper fast and without using the sights at ranges from 6 feet to 30 feet while standing still or moving at an angle or straight onto the target. Heck, a buddy of mine that can't see his front sight or make out the holes in the targe as anything but black smudges without his glasses was able to keep nice groups on the paper all the time. He can't do as well with his glasses off with aimed fire!
The level of accuracy, i.e. how small the groups were, might not get the approval of people with lots of training and who expect groups equivalent of slow fire sight use, but we had folks that were producing groups of 1 and 2 inches at ranges of 12-15 feet using 2 hand QK shot at our own pace (not me, I grouped in the 4-6 in. range{Brownie scolded me for shooting too fast} ). Brownie showed us that he could make one ragged hole over and over again at that range and at further distances.
I shot just under 1,000 rounds in 2 days. Others shot 1,500 or more. It was just a question of how many big mags you had.
I see ways to improve the training for us noobs. Reviewing the material learned in the morning at the beginning of the afternoon after lunch would be very helpful. There's a lot done in a short period of time and you want to refresh the basic skills before getting into new things. We didn't do that the first day and I just didn't feel that I fell back into the flow of things as quickly after lunch as I would have if we had run a short string of practice on those morning techniques. To be fair, I mentioned this to Brownie and that's what he did on Sunday. We progressed very quickly from one technique to the next. (I mean very quickly.) I'd like to have slowed down to tighten up groups with a technique before we went on to the next. This was our chance to work on that perfecting each "tool" before we learned how to be passable with the next tool. Without 'adult supervision' those of us that are slightly dim (me especially) may not get better with each tool out of the big bag of QK tools we learned so I would have liked to have taken more time with each technique. Again, to be fair, there were plenty of folks doing just fine and I shouldn't expect the whole class to wait for me to get something down. Change the targets out more frequently. We shot a lot and we shot a lot fast. The targets get chewed up pretty quickly. Once we got better with a technique there were a lot of ragged holes chewed out of the target in a single magazine (did you hear the unspoken part about chewing holes in the target in a single mag without using our sights ) and I would have liked to pop some more paper up right away to see where the next mag was going a little better. You need to find a mag loader and bring it with you and you need to have practiced with it. By Sunday mid day I was in considerable pain from mag thumb and was cursing myself for having left my old style mag tool at home while the nifty new one I had pulled out of the wrapper Sat. morning lay on the ground discarded because of the base pads on my mags. If not for Paul Gomez my wife would not have gotten nearly as much from the class because not only did he help her with some basics and make sure of her safe gun handling, he loaded probably half her 4 Rami 8 round mags for her to keep her standing on the line so she could keep pace with the high cap boys (Paul, we are very much in your debt and you and your's are welcome in our home any time.).
I don't expect everyone to agree on everything. I especially don't expect people who take and give training to agree on everything. I don't think that there is one "Holy Grail" of self defense shooting. It's what works for you with the time you can spend training. What I can honestly tell you is that time to get bullets on target was cut way down for ranges that you and I would reasonably expect to be involved in a defensive shooting. I'd do the training again, and plan to in the fall.
Edited to add -
So that no one get's hung up on what the whole course is called Brownie reminds me that the title is -
__________________
My wife and a friend and I just completed Robin Brown's Integrated Threat Focused Training System (edited for accuracy) (Quick Kill) training here in E. TN and I've got to say that I we sure as shoot'n didn't waste our money.
Regardless of controversy or 'fave flavor' arguments surrounding Quick Kill everyone in the class, from LE to folks that had the most rudimentary of handgun skills, picked up the basic techniques very quickly. Those basic techniques cut our time from draw to bullets on target way way way down. Since very few of us are going to be walking around with gun in hand at low ready all the time I think that's an amazingly good thing (need an understatement "smilie").
From the "elbow up/elbow down" drill to "hip Quick Kill" to "da Zippa" (sorry, but I gotta tease Brownie on his Mass accent amongst all us Southerners) to "the Hammer" and on we learned techniques that put holes in paper fast and without using the sights at ranges from 6 feet to 30 feet while standing still or moving at an angle or straight onto the target. Heck, a buddy of mine that can't see his front sight or make out the holes in the targe as anything but black smudges without his glasses was able to keep nice groups on the paper all the time. He can't do as well with his glasses off with aimed fire!
The level of accuracy, i.e. how small the groups were, might not get the approval of people with lots of training and who expect groups equivalent of slow fire sight use, but we had folks that were producing groups of 1 and 2 inches at ranges of 12-15 feet using 2 hand QK shot at our own pace (not me, I grouped in the 4-6 in. range{Brownie scolded me for shooting too fast} ). Brownie showed us that he could make one ragged hole over and over again at that range and at further distances.
I shot just under 1,000 rounds in 2 days. Others shot 1,500 or more. It was just a question of how many big mags you had.
I see ways to improve the training for us noobs. Reviewing the material learned in the morning at the beginning of the afternoon after lunch would be very helpful. There's a lot done in a short period of time and you want to refresh the basic skills before getting into new things. We didn't do that the first day and I just didn't feel that I fell back into the flow of things as quickly after lunch as I would have if we had run a short string of practice on those morning techniques. To be fair, I mentioned this to Brownie and that's what he did on Sunday. We progressed very quickly from one technique to the next. (I mean very quickly.) I'd like to have slowed down to tighten up groups with a technique before we went on to the next. This was our chance to work on that perfecting each "tool" before we learned how to be passable with the next tool. Without 'adult supervision' those of us that are slightly dim (me especially) may not get better with each tool out of the big bag of QK tools we learned so I would have liked to have taken more time with each technique. Again, to be fair, there were plenty of folks doing just fine and I shouldn't expect the whole class to wait for me to get something down. Change the targets out more frequently. We shot a lot and we shot a lot fast. The targets get chewed up pretty quickly. Once we got better with a technique there were a lot of ragged holes chewed out of the target in a single magazine (did you hear the unspoken part about chewing holes in the target in a single mag without using our sights ) and I would have liked to pop some more paper up right away to see where the next mag was going a little better. You need to find a mag loader and bring it with you and you need to have practiced with it. By Sunday mid day I was in considerable pain from mag thumb and was cursing myself for having left my old style mag tool at home while the nifty new one I had pulled out of the wrapper Sat. morning lay on the ground discarded because of the base pads on my mags. If not for Paul Gomez my wife would not have gotten nearly as much from the class because not only did he help her with some basics and make sure of her safe gun handling, he loaded probably half her 4 Rami 8 round mags for her to keep her standing on the line so she could keep pace with the high cap boys (Paul, we are very much in your debt and you and your's are welcome in our home any time.).
I don't expect everyone to agree on everything. I especially don't expect people who take and give training to agree on everything. I don't think that there is one "Holy Grail" of self defense shooting. It's what works for you with the time you can spend training. What I can honestly tell you is that time to get bullets on target was cut way down for ranges that you and I would reasonably expect to be involved in a defensive shooting. I'd do the training again, and plan to in the fall.
Edited to add -
So that no one get's hung up on what the whole course is called Brownie reminds me that the title is -
Integrated Threat Focused Training Systems and covers Quick Fire, EU/ED, the zippper, the hammer, etc, etc
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