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Suarez Close Range Gunfighting AAR
Just finished up 2 days of top notch training with Uli Gebhard at Sac Valley.
Day 1:
The class consisted of 8 students. None were beginners and had good gun handling skills. The class was given at Sac Valley. Uli didn't care for my SERPA and cautioned me to watch my finger placement on the draw. I was good with trigger discipline so I shot the class with it. He didn't have an attitude about it at all, but he has had experience with other shooters in the past that could not handle that holster.
The course is designed to build one skill on another. We started with a safety briefing. Basic safety skills and brushing up on gun handling followed. We moved to drawing from the holster to both get us tuned up and to let Uli assess our basic skill levels. The rest of the day was spent on moving explosively off the lane of attack while implementing various skills.
Each new skill was first discussed, then demonstrated, then practiced dry before moving on to live fire. The discussions were very informative and Uli injected bits of material from other courses and personal experience. It both kept things interesting and showed us how the skill we were learning tied into other areas like knife fighting, non-permissive environments and real life situations. The bite sized approach to adding skills while building on the previously learned one made it very easy to absorb and perform new material. Very efficient and natural. All skills focused on "cave man simple" techniques that even klutzes like me could do.
By the end of day 1 we were shooting on the move while evading our attacker. We also coved gun retention techniques, fighting from cover garments, flashlight work, failure drills and proactive measures aka tac reloads on the move. The failure drills were fun and frustrating at the same time. Students swapped magazines and replaced good ammo with empty cases to cause mis-feeds and failure to fire situations. After several failures in a row we became good at clearing stoppages very quickly.
I came home starving and tired. I slept very well and woke up sore from the dozens of mini sprints we did on day 1.
Day 2:
It started with a safety briefing and a refresh of the prior days skills. We spent a good deal more time on point shooting skill development and moved into multi-threat engagements. We did a drill performed at a dead run while engaging threats that was a real blast. The class covered transitioning the gun from one hand to the other and shooting with either or both hands. We went over shooting from cover. We also shot from inside a shirt (provided to us from a local dollar store) to simulate getting hung up in clothing after the draw. That is a situation that guns tend to malfunction very quickly under and fighting thorough it is a kick in the pants. The day ended with a full contact exercise that was quite intense, I had never shot a target while "grappling" with it until today.
All in all I learned a tremendous amount. The quantity and quality of the training was exceptional. I hope to be able to take more classes from Uli in the future, he has great skill and a very easy manner about him. I highly recommended that you take advantage of this course if you are a defensive pistol shooter, CCW holder, or just keep a handgun on your nightstand. If Gabe ever crosses this thread know that he is representing your school and name very well.
Total round count for me was around 1200 rounds for the two days. Hands, feet, knees and back are all reminding me I'm not 22 anymore, but dang it was fun!
Day 1:
The class consisted of 8 students. None were beginners and had good gun handling skills. The class was given at Sac Valley. Uli didn't care for my SERPA and cautioned me to watch my finger placement on the draw. I was good with trigger discipline so I shot the class with it. He didn't have an attitude about it at all, but he has had experience with other shooters in the past that could not handle that holster.
The course is designed to build one skill on another. We started with a safety briefing. Basic safety skills and brushing up on gun handling followed. We moved to drawing from the holster to both get us tuned up and to let Uli assess our basic skill levels. The rest of the day was spent on moving explosively off the lane of attack while implementing various skills.
Each new skill was first discussed, then demonstrated, then practiced dry before moving on to live fire. The discussions were very informative and Uli injected bits of material from other courses and personal experience. It both kept things interesting and showed us how the skill we were learning tied into other areas like knife fighting, non-permissive environments and real life situations. The bite sized approach to adding skills while building on the previously learned one made it very easy to absorb and perform new material. Very efficient and natural. All skills focused on "cave man simple" techniques that even klutzes like me could do.
By the end of day 1 we were shooting on the move while evading our attacker. We also coved gun retention techniques, fighting from cover garments, flashlight work, failure drills and proactive measures aka tac reloads on the move. The failure drills were fun and frustrating at the same time. Students swapped magazines and replaced good ammo with empty cases to cause mis-feeds and failure to fire situations. After several failures in a row we became good at clearing stoppages very quickly.
I came home starving and tired. I slept very well and woke up sore from the dozens of mini sprints we did on day 1.
Day 2:
It started with a safety briefing and a refresh of the prior days skills. We spent a good deal more time on point shooting skill development and moved into multi-threat engagements. We did a drill performed at a dead run while engaging threats that was a real blast. The class covered transitioning the gun from one hand to the other and shooting with either or both hands. We went over shooting from cover. We also shot from inside a shirt (provided to us from a local dollar store) to simulate getting hung up in clothing after the draw. That is a situation that guns tend to malfunction very quickly under and fighting thorough it is a kick in the pants. The day ended with a full contact exercise that was quite intense, I had never shot a target while "grappling" with it until today.
All in all I learned a tremendous amount. The quantity and quality of the training was exceptional. I hope to be able to take more classes from Uli in the future, he has great skill and a very easy manner about him. I highly recommended that you take advantage of this course if you are a defensive pistol shooter, CCW holder, or just keep a handgun on your nightstand. If Gabe ever crosses this thread know that he is representing your school and name very well.
Total round count for me was around 1200 rounds for the two days. Hands, feet, knees and back are all reminding me I'm not 22 anymore, but dang it was fun!
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