Burlyman78
Member
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2009
- Messages
- 8
Insight Training
Course: General Defensive Handgun (7/25/09-77/26/09)
Location: Lewisberry, PA Longshore Sportsman's Association
Cost: $350
Grade: solid "A"
Hey all,
I attended my first Insights Training course this past weekend in Lewisberry, PA and it was so good I wanted to just post a quick review for anyone else who might be interested. The course I took was called, "General Defensive Handgun," and is one of the core, foundational courses taught by Insights. It is a prerequisite for most (if not all) of their other shooting courses. The course covered a wide variety of information over a two day period, including the four rules of gun safety, basic defensive tactics, the importance of mindset, tactics, skills (running the gun and marksmanship), and equipment, with mindset and tactics being the most important elements necessary to win a gun fight. We also talked about the use of force options available to private citizens with special emphasis on "presence" and verbal commands, but also including pepper spray, soft hand defenses, hard hand defenses, and lethal force. We didn't actually learn any hard or soft hand defense techniques or how to use pepper spray effectively. It was more on the philosophy of the use of force.
So many things stuck with me from this course. For example:
*The importance of thinking about what your "mission statement" is and how that could impact your responses to various scenarios. For example, my mission statement is "To protect myself and my family against grave bodily injury and death." So, if I'm in a 7-11 and a person comes into the store, shoots the clerk, and then runs out, I'm probably not going to intervene because at no time was a gun pointed at me or my family. If the robber shot the clerk and then turned and pointed the gun at me or my family, or if he started shooting the other patrons in the store one by one as if to kill everyone so there would be no witnesses, then I might draw and shoot if I thought myself or my family was in immediate danger of grave bodily injury or death.
*The high importance of "mindset" and "tactics" as determinants of who will win a gun fight. A person with inferior skills (i.e. running the gun and marksmanship) and equipment can still win a gun fight if they have the right mindset and employ better tactics. One of many stories, or "case studies", cited by the instructor to illustrate this point was a case where I think the boyfriend of a woman who had broken up with him decided to take his fully automatic machine gun with a silencer to her house, and kill her and her family. The guy went to the house in the middle of the night, broke in, went to the woman's bedroom (he knew the layout in advance), and fired into the bed, killing the woman. He then went down the hall to kill her younger brother. He opened the door, stepped into the room, fired into the bed, and that was the last thing he ever did. The younger brother had heard the machine gun fire with the silencer down the hall, gotten up and grabbed his .22 caliber revolver, loaded it, and stood behind the door. When the guy came into the room and fired into the bed, the younger brother put the gun to the back of his head and pulled the trigger. He fired again (presumably into the back of the head) after the guy fell to the ground. So, inferior equipment and (probably) skills, yet superior alert mindset and tactics (loading gun, getting behind the door) gave him the advantage and he prevailed.
*The importance of learning how to move off the line of attack and then shoot. We practiced this repeatedly on the second day of the course on the outdoor range.
*The importance of "prepping" the trigger as one is extending the arms out from the chest to on target so that at the point of full extension, only about 1/2 pound of pressure is necessary to fire the gun (rather than the full 7.5-8 lb. trigger weight on my Glock 31 with NY1 trigger).
*The limitations of handguns in terms of stopping power, and wound ballistics.
*The high importance of presence and verbal commands as ways of avoiding a gun fight in the first place or deescalating a dangerous situation and averting an attack.
We probably spent 7 or so hours in the classroom during the course (maybe more), and the rest was spent shooting on an outdoor range. We learned a great progression of dry fire and live fire shooting drills for practice on our own, which we practiced and developed some muscle memory for with live fire during the course. The basic progressions we employed on targets ranging from small black circle targets to larger black circles, cardboard silhouettes, and finally life size picture targets of attackers in various states of attack, were:
6 single shots from the ready, slow and deliberate for accuracy X 2
6 double shots from the ready, slow and deliberate for accuracy X 2
6 single shots from the holster, slow and deliberate for accuracy X2
6 double shots from the holster, slow and deliberate for accuracy X2
Bill Drill:
6 rounds in magazine in gun
full magazine in speed reload pouch (front pouch in double pouch)
5 rounds in magazine in tactical reload pouch (rear pouch in double pouch)
Draw and fire six shots from the holster at approximately 5-7 yards (almost all of our shooting was done at these distances) as fast as you can (2 seconds or so?), speed reload, sights back on target, fire two more shots, check to see if attacker is down, scan right forward, left forward, bring gun back to the ready, scan right rear, left rear, tactical reload, and reholster.
X2
Farnam Drill:
6 rounds in magazine in gun, including one dummy round (we used the orange plastic dummy rounds you can get online at places like Brownells)
full magazine in speed reload pouch with no dummies
5 rounds in tactical reload pouch, including one dummy.
Draw from the holster and fire six rounds as fast as you can, including going through the immediate action drill of "tap, rack, ready" to clear the simulated malfunction when you hit the dummy round.
Speed reload and fire two more shots into the target, check to see if the target is down, scan right forward, left forward, bring gun back in to the ready, finger off the trigger, and scan right rear, left rear, then tactical reload and reholster.
X2
This drill allowed us to basically put everything together and practice our five stage draw (grip, clear, lock, smack, sight), prepping the trigger from smack to full extension sights on target, recoil management and keeping sights on target in rapid fire, speed reloading, trigger reset/prepping after firing our last shot so ready to reengage and fire again if necessary with only 1/2 pound trigger pull, tactical reloading, and malfunction clearance drills.
We also learned how to draw from concealment on the second day, both from open cover garmets such as button down shirts over a t-shirt, fully buttoned shirts untucked, and from sweatshirts, pullovers, etc. with no buttons. One thing that stuck with me was the importance of the one handed draw and reholster from concealment (as opposed to the "hackthorn rip" two -handed draw where you reach over with your non-firing hand and pull up your shirt and then draw with your firing hand, and reholster the same way). The major reasons given for the importance of one-handed draw and reholster from concealment were that a.) a one handed draw and reholster can be accomplished even if the non-firing hand is injured, b.) a one handed draw can be done less overtly if in a situation where one might want to draw the gun and conceal it under their shirt, for example, to be ready in case a situation such as a 7-11 robbery turns south and a gun is pointed at you our your family, etc., and c.) a one handed reholster frees up the non-firing hand to direct others, open doors, etc. It's important to be extra careful practicing the one-handed reholster to avoid a.) covering your foot with the muzzle of the gun when bringing it down from the ready position and then up with your thumb out to lift up your cover garment, and b.) getting your cover garment stuck in your holster when you reholster as a result of failing to clear it from the holster before reholstering. I practice the one handed draw when dry fire practicing at home, but will continue to use the two handed reholster when at the NRA range here because I think the one handed reholster would make the range safety officers a little nervous.
One final big point that stuck out to me in the class was the importance of moving in a gun fight. If you're not shooting, you're moving. You could also shoot and move at the same time, but we didn't cover that in this class (only moving and then shooting). To practice this, they had us first learn basic ways of moving forward, backward, to the right, and to the left with guns holstered, then with empty guns, and then finally with live guns. With live guns and about 7 or 8 students at a time side by side in a line, the instructor would tell us which direction to move and how many steps, we would then draw as we moved, shoot, and then move again when speed reloading (just a step to the right or left), and then move again when tactical reloading to get in the habit of moving when not shooting. Eventually, they had us all line up side-by-side and had us move any direction we wanted, fire, move and speed reload, and then move and tactical reload. As you can imagine, often times the person next to you on the line would move, say, to their left, and you would move to your right and you would end up bumping into each other. The instructors did this on purpose, with the rationale that, "If you're in a mall and having to draw and shoot your gun in self-defense I guarantee you everyone will not be in a nice line all staying out of your way. You will be bumping into people. Your job is to focus on moving and staying on your target and shooting anyway." I thought this was a good point and liked how they incorporated it into the class.
One of the best and most invaluable aspects of the course was the stress the instructors purposely placed on students when we were on the range by shouting in our ears to "move, move, move!," "tactical reload!," "Clear the malfunction," etc. The instructors were great and applied the perfect level of stress to each student (in my opinion) so that we were stressed and challenged, but not belittled. This kind of stress cannot be replicated in simple range time by one's self. But as the instructors told us, "We're stressing you on purpose because the more stress you can put on yourself in training the better you will do if you are ever forced to defend yourself in a real gunfight," which, of course, would be unbelievably stressful. The instructors and the way they instructed us on the range in particular reminded me immediately of my high school football practice days, minus the F-word every other word
I could really tell that the instructors cared about us and that they were sometimes being loud and yelling in our ears or pushing us in one direction or the other if we failed to move in a drill when we were supposed to because they genuinely wanted us to get what they were teaching us and be better prepared for an actual self-defense shooting situation. The primary instructor for our course, Mike Warsocki, was a 30 year retired military intelligence officer in the Army. You knew he had been chewed out and yelled at more than anyone there throughout his own training and career and he knew how to strike just the right balance in applying that (effective) teaching method to us as students. Again, very professional training from professionals who really knew what they were doing and exuded a competence and confidence that was comforting and admirable. You wanted to call all the instructors, and especially Mike Warsocki "sir" by the end of the second day because you felt like he deserved to be called that. One guy tried it a couple of times though and Warsocki politely told him he didn't have to call him sir, just Mike or something like that. I was very impressed with Warsocki in particular, but also the other two assistant instructors, one of whom was a current federal air marshall.
On the final day of the class we finished with everyone rotating through a row of seven or eight life-sized picture targets of attackers, and shooting (or not) based on different scenarios the instructors narrated from behind us as we stood on the line. One example might have been, "You park your car in the mall parking lot, you're leaving to walk into the mall when a man approaches you yelling and screaming, "Hey, you *******! What do you think you're doing?!, etc." We then would talk to the target in front of us as if it were the angry man, saying things like, "Hey, man I don't want any trouble. . . etc. to try to deescalate the situation." It turns out we accidentally cut the guy off when we pulled into our parking space and he's pissed off about it. The instructors might then continue by saying, "He's reaching his hand into his waistband, you can't see what he's reaching for, but he's reaching his hand into his waistband." "Show me your hands!," we'd shout to the target. "Show me your hands!" Instructors: "He pulls his hand up out of his waistband, He's got a gun! He's got a gun!", etc." We would then fire as many rounds as we felt necessary to stop the attacker . . . "Is he down?, check to see if he's down." "Now his buddy runs up, "Hey man, you shot my friend. You shot him, man. . .etc.," "He's not down he's reaching for his gun again." We shoot again until he stops, etc. This drill was an excellent way of making us think about real works scenarios we might encounter and what we might do, and the things we need to practice (such as verbal commands) in order to effectively deescalate or stop an attack.
Overall, I would give the Insights Training General Defensive Handgun Course a solid "A." I plan to take their "Unarmed Self-Defense" class next, possibly in Bellevue, Washington at their other training facility in November. I am also registered now to take their "Intensive Shooting" course at the Lewisberry, PA range in October after I've had a few months to practice everything I learned from the GDH course this past weekend. So, two thumbs way up for this course. I feel much more confident in my skills and much better prepared to defend myself and my family as a result of this course.
My only minor complaint was that at one point an instructor demonstrated a shooting drill while drawing and reholstering from a horizontal shoulder holster with students (including me) standing behind him. This meant that when he reholstered his gun he pointed it at the people standing behind him. This is why I don't like shoulder holsters. They violate firearm safety rule #2: never point a gun at anything your not prepared to shoot (i.e. the person behind you). In fairness, the instructor doing this was a federal air marshall who regularly carries and practices drawing and reloading from a shoulder holster for work. So, he was very experienced in properly and safely drawing and reholstering from his shoulder holster. In fairness, I also can't remember if he was demonstrating the shooting drill with an empty gun or with a loaded gun. In either case, I felt uncomfortable at the time for that brief moment when I knew his gun was pointed at me when he reholstered. Not a huge deal, but it did bother me. It was an exception to generally very safe gun handling practices by the instructors and students throughout the course.
If you're interested in learning more about Insights courses, including their General Defensive Handgun class, you can check out the full-course descriptions at the Insights Training website here: www.insightstraining.com .
Course: General Defensive Handgun (7/25/09-77/26/09)
Location: Lewisberry, PA Longshore Sportsman's Association
Cost: $350
Grade: solid "A"
Hey all,
I attended my first Insights Training course this past weekend in Lewisberry, PA and it was so good I wanted to just post a quick review for anyone else who might be interested. The course I took was called, "General Defensive Handgun," and is one of the core, foundational courses taught by Insights. It is a prerequisite for most (if not all) of their other shooting courses. The course covered a wide variety of information over a two day period, including the four rules of gun safety, basic defensive tactics, the importance of mindset, tactics, skills (running the gun and marksmanship), and equipment, with mindset and tactics being the most important elements necessary to win a gun fight. We also talked about the use of force options available to private citizens with special emphasis on "presence" and verbal commands, but also including pepper spray, soft hand defenses, hard hand defenses, and lethal force. We didn't actually learn any hard or soft hand defense techniques or how to use pepper spray effectively. It was more on the philosophy of the use of force.
So many things stuck with me from this course. For example:
*The importance of thinking about what your "mission statement" is and how that could impact your responses to various scenarios. For example, my mission statement is "To protect myself and my family against grave bodily injury and death." So, if I'm in a 7-11 and a person comes into the store, shoots the clerk, and then runs out, I'm probably not going to intervene because at no time was a gun pointed at me or my family. If the robber shot the clerk and then turned and pointed the gun at me or my family, or if he started shooting the other patrons in the store one by one as if to kill everyone so there would be no witnesses, then I might draw and shoot if I thought myself or my family was in immediate danger of grave bodily injury or death.
*The high importance of "mindset" and "tactics" as determinants of who will win a gun fight. A person with inferior skills (i.e. running the gun and marksmanship) and equipment can still win a gun fight if they have the right mindset and employ better tactics. One of many stories, or "case studies", cited by the instructor to illustrate this point was a case where I think the boyfriend of a woman who had broken up with him decided to take his fully automatic machine gun with a silencer to her house, and kill her and her family. The guy went to the house in the middle of the night, broke in, went to the woman's bedroom (he knew the layout in advance), and fired into the bed, killing the woman. He then went down the hall to kill her younger brother. He opened the door, stepped into the room, fired into the bed, and that was the last thing he ever did. The younger brother had heard the machine gun fire with the silencer down the hall, gotten up and grabbed his .22 caliber revolver, loaded it, and stood behind the door. When the guy came into the room and fired into the bed, the younger brother put the gun to the back of his head and pulled the trigger. He fired again (presumably into the back of the head) after the guy fell to the ground. So, inferior equipment and (probably) skills, yet superior alert mindset and tactics (loading gun, getting behind the door) gave him the advantage and he prevailed.
*The importance of learning how to move off the line of attack and then shoot. We practiced this repeatedly on the second day of the course on the outdoor range.
*The importance of "prepping" the trigger as one is extending the arms out from the chest to on target so that at the point of full extension, only about 1/2 pound of pressure is necessary to fire the gun (rather than the full 7.5-8 lb. trigger weight on my Glock 31 with NY1 trigger).
*The limitations of handguns in terms of stopping power, and wound ballistics.
*The high importance of presence and verbal commands as ways of avoiding a gun fight in the first place or deescalating a dangerous situation and averting an attack.
We probably spent 7 or so hours in the classroom during the course (maybe more), and the rest was spent shooting on an outdoor range. We learned a great progression of dry fire and live fire shooting drills for practice on our own, which we practiced and developed some muscle memory for with live fire during the course. The basic progressions we employed on targets ranging from small black circle targets to larger black circles, cardboard silhouettes, and finally life size picture targets of attackers in various states of attack, were:
6 single shots from the ready, slow and deliberate for accuracy X 2
6 double shots from the ready, slow and deliberate for accuracy X 2
6 single shots from the holster, slow and deliberate for accuracy X2
6 double shots from the holster, slow and deliberate for accuracy X2
Bill Drill:
6 rounds in magazine in gun
full magazine in speed reload pouch (front pouch in double pouch)
5 rounds in magazine in tactical reload pouch (rear pouch in double pouch)
Draw and fire six shots from the holster at approximately 5-7 yards (almost all of our shooting was done at these distances) as fast as you can (2 seconds or so?), speed reload, sights back on target, fire two more shots, check to see if attacker is down, scan right forward, left forward, bring gun back to the ready, scan right rear, left rear, tactical reload, and reholster.
X2
Farnam Drill:
6 rounds in magazine in gun, including one dummy round (we used the orange plastic dummy rounds you can get online at places like Brownells)
full magazine in speed reload pouch with no dummies
5 rounds in tactical reload pouch, including one dummy.
Draw from the holster and fire six rounds as fast as you can, including going through the immediate action drill of "tap, rack, ready" to clear the simulated malfunction when you hit the dummy round.
Speed reload and fire two more shots into the target, check to see if the target is down, scan right forward, left forward, bring gun back in to the ready, finger off the trigger, and scan right rear, left rear, then tactical reload and reholster.
X2
This drill allowed us to basically put everything together and practice our five stage draw (grip, clear, lock, smack, sight), prepping the trigger from smack to full extension sights on target, recoil management and keeping sights on target in rapid fire, speed reloading, trigger reset/prepping after firing our last shot so ready to reengage and fire again if necessary with only 1/2 pound trigger pull, tactical reloading, and malfunction clearance drills.
We also learned how to draw from concealment on the second day, both from open cover garmets such as button down shirts over a t-shirt, fully buttoned shirts untucked, and from sweatshirts, pullovers, etc. with no buttons. One thing that stuck with me was the importance of the one handed draw and reholster from concealment (as opposed to the "hackthorn rip" two -handed draw where you reach over with your non-firing hand and pull up your shirt and then draw with your firing hand, and reholster the same way). The major reasons given for the importance of one-handed draw and reholster from concealment were that a.) a one handed draw and reholster can be accomplished even if the non-firing hand is injured, b.) a one handed draw can be done less overtly if in a situation where one might want to draw the gun and conceal it under their shirt, for example, to be ready in case a situation such as a 7-11 robbery turns south and a gun is pointed at you our your family, etc., and c.) a one handed reholster frees up the non-firing hand to direct others, open doors, etc. It's important to be extra careful practicing the one-handed reholster to avoid a.) covering your foot with the muzzle of the gun when bringing it down from the ready position and then up with your thumb out to lift up your cover garment, and b.) getting your cover garment stuck in your holster when you reholster as a result of failing to clear it from the holster before reholstering. I practice the one handed draw when dry fire practicing at home, but will continue to use the two handed reholster when at the NRA range here because I think the one handed reholster would make the range safety officers a little nervous.
One final big point that stuck out to me in the class was the importance of moving in a gun fight. If you're not shooting, you're moving. You could also shoot and move at the same time, but we didn't cover that in this class (only moving and then shooting). To practice this, they had us first learn basic ways of moving forward, backward, to the right, and to the left with guns holstered, then with empty guns, and then finally with live guns. With live guns and about 7 or 8 students at a time side by side in a line, the instructor would tell us which direction to move and how many steps, we would then draw as we moved, shoot, and then move again when speed reloading (just a step to the right or left), and then move again when tactical reloading to get in the habit of moving when not shooting. Eventually, they had us all line up side-by-side and had us move any direction we wanted, fire, move and speed reload, and then move and tactical reload. As you can imagine, often times the person next to you on the line would move, say, to their left, and you would move to your right and you would end up bumping into each other. The instructors did this on purpose, with the rationale that, "If you're in a mall and having to draw and shoot your gun in self-defense I guarantee you everyone will not be in a nice line all staying out of your way. You will be bumping into people. Your job is to focus on moving and staying on your target and shooting anyway." I thought this was a good point and liked how they incorporated it into the class.
One of the best and most invaluable aspects of the course was the stress the instructors purposely placed on students when we were on the range by shouting in our ears to "move, move, move!," "tactical reload!," "Clear the malfunction," etc. The instructors were great and applied the perfect level of stress to each student (in my opinion) so that we were stressed and challenged, but not belittled. This kind of stress cannot be replicated in simple range time by one's self. But as the instructors told us, "We're stressing you on purpose because the more stress you can put on yourself in training the better you will do if you are ever forced to defend yourself in a real gunfight," which, of course, would be unbelievably stressful. The instructors and the way they instructed us on the range in particular reminded me immediately of my high school football practice days, minus the F-word every other word
I could really tell that the instructors cared about us and that they were sometimes being loud and yelling in our ears or pushing us in one direction or the other if we failed to move in a drill when we were supposed to because they genuinely wanted us to get what they were teaching us and be better prepared for an actual self-defense shooting situation. The primary instructor for our course, Mike Warsocki, was a 30 year retired military intelligence officer in the Army. You knew he had been chewed out and yelled at more than anyone there throughout his own training and career and he knew how to strike just the right balance in applying that (effective) teaching method to us as students. Again, very professional training from professionals who really knew what they were doing and exuded a competence and confidence that was comforting and admirable. You wanted to call all the instructors, and especially Mike Warsocki "sir" by the end of the second day because you felt like he deserved to be called that. One guy tried it a couple of times though and Warsocki politely told him he didn't have to call him sir, just Mike or something like that. I was very impressed with Warsocki in particular, but also the other two assistant instructors, one of whom was a current federal air marshall. On the final day of the class we finished with everyone rotating through a row of seven or eight life-sized picture targets of attackers, and shooting (or not) based on different scenarios the instructors narrated from behind us as we stood on the line. One example might have been, "You park your car in the mall parking lot, you're leaving to walk into the mall when a man approaches you yelling and screaming, "Hey, you *******! What do you think you're doing?!, etc." We then would talk to the target in front of us as if it were the angry man, saying things like, "Hey, man I don't want any trouble. . . etc. to try to deescalate the situation." It turns out we accidentally cut the guy off when we pulled into our parking space and he's pissed off about it. The instructors might then continue by saying, "He's reaching his hand into his waistband, you can't see what he's reaching for, but he's reaching his hand into his waistband." "Show me your hands!," we'd shout to the target. "Show me your hands!" Instructors: "He pulls his hand up out of his waistband, He's got a gun! He's got a gun!", etc." We would then fire as many rounds as we felt necessary to stop the attacker . . . "Is he down?, check to see if he's down." "Now his buddy runs up, "Hey man, you shot my friend. You shot him, man. . .etc.," "He's not down he's reaching for his gun again." We shoot again until he stops, etc. This drill was an excellent way of making us think about real works scenarios we might encounter and what we might do, and the things we need to practice (such as verbal commands) in order to effectively deescalate or stop an attack.
Overall, I would give the Insights Training General Defensive Handgun Course a solid "A." I plan to take their "Unarmed Self-Defense" class next, possibly in Bellevue, Washington at their other training facility in November. I am also registered now to take their "Intensive Shooting" course at the Lewisberry, PA range in October after I've had a few months to practice everything I learned from the GDH course this past weekend. So, two thumbs way up for this course. I feel much more confident in my skills and much better prepared to defend myself and my family as a result of this course.
My only minor complaint was that at one point an instructor demonstrated a shooting drill while drawing and reholstering from a horizontal shoulder holster with students (including me) standing behind him. This meant that when he reholstered his gun he pointed it at the people standing behind him. This is why I don't like shoulder holsters. They violate firearm safety rule #2: never point a gun at anything your not prepared to shoot (i.e. the person behind you). In fairness, the instructor doing this was a federal air marshall who regularly carries and practices drawing and reloading from a shoulder holster for work. So, he was very experienced in properly and safely drawing and reholstering from his shoulder holster. In fairness, I also can't remember if he was demonstrating the shooting drill with an empty gun or with a loaded gun. In either case, I felt uncomfortable at the time for that brief moment when I knew his gun was pointed at me when he reholstered. Not a huge deal, but it did bother me. It was an exception to generally very safe gun handling practices by the instructors and students throughout the course.
If you're interested in learning more about Insights courses, including their General Defensive Handgun class, you can check out the full-course descriptions at the Insights Training website here: www.insightstraining.com .
