on September 8, 2009 10:17 PM
I signed up for the Combined Skills class offered by Tom Givens and Southnarc via KRTraining earlier this year.
In January I took Defensive Long Gun from KRTraining, and I was really out of shape. I had been working ridiculous hours on a project, and eating lots of junk food. (When I work like that, I crave candy and soft drinks.) I was the heaviest I had ever been, 282 lbs, and probably couldn't run a half mile to save my life.
I decided early on that a whole weekend of serious self-defense training would probably not be very fun, so I held off signing up for a while.
Well, things at work went from Bedlam, to mere insanity, and then to more than 40 hours but tolerable. I actually could go a whole weekend without working. Stress levels came down, and I needed to lose the weight, and decided this class could serve as motivation, so I signed up.
I've been lifting weight 5 days a week, doing cardio 3 days a week, and jogging 2 miles a couple times a week all summer. Along the way I lost 30 lbs of fat, and put on some muscle.
Anyway, long story short, I'm in tolerable shape and conditioning.
So, physical stuff out of the way, the last time I took a class, I hadn't even shot a pistol in a couple months. I didn't really feel like I was shooting worth a damn until the last 100 rounds of the class.
I still haven't shot as much as I would like, but I have been able to practice a lot more than last time, and have been able to practice some more intermediate stuff like drawing from concealment and shooting multiple targets. Also did some 25 yard shooting a couple of times.
Finally, I've been drying firing, and practicing my draw about an hour a night.
I had a bad habit of flicking my safety off at the top of my draw stroke with the muzzle pointed straight down that I think I have nixed. My trigger finger was indexed along the slide, so it really wasn't any different than drawing a gun with a DAO type trigger, but it was something that Karl harped on me about and it made sense to do it right. My trigger finger is still indexed on the slide, but two safeties are better than one.
I've also been trying the Todd Jarrett Kung Fu grip this week. I was inspired by watching my friend Hsoi the other day. Despite his bitching about the recoil of .45 ACP, he handled the recoil from my RIA Tactical better than I do. I tend to shoot really relaxed, and don't fight the recoil. I think it probably helped my trigger control early on, but after watching him I can really the see the benefit for follow up shots. (I probably triggered a rant now.) :)-~
In January I took Defensive Long Gun from KRTraining, and I was really out of shape. I had been working ridiculous hours on a project, and eating lots of junk food. (When I work like that, I crave candy and soft drinks.) I was the heaviest I had ever been, 282 lbs, and probably couldn't run a half mile to save my life.
I decided early on that a whole weekend of serious self-defense training would probably not be very fun, so I held off signing up for a while.
Well, things at work went from Bedlam, to mere insanity, and then to more than 40 hours but tolerable. I actually could go a whole weekend without working. Stress levels came down, and I needed to lose the weight, and decided this class could serve as motivation, so I signed up.
I've been lifting weight 5 days a week, doing cardio 3 days a week, and jogging 2 miles a couple times a week all summer. Along the way I lost 30 lbs of fat, and put on some muscle.
Anyway, long story short, I'm in tolerable shape and conditioning.
So, physical stuff out of the way, the last time I took a class, I hadn't even shot a pistol in a couple months. I didn't really feel like I was shooting worth a damn until the last 100 rounds of the class.
I still haven't shot as much as I would like, but I have been able to practice a lot more than last time, and have been able to practice some more intermediate stuff like drawing from concealment and shooting multiple targets. Also did some 25 yard shooting a couple of times.
Finally, I've been drying firing, and practicing my draw about an hour a night.
I had a bad habit of flicking my safety off at the top of my draw stroke with the muzzle pointed straight down that I think I have nixed. My trigger finger was indexed along the slide, so it really wasn't any different than drawing a gun with a DAO type trigger, but it was something that Karl harped on me about and it made sense to do it right. My trigger finger is still indexed on the slide, but two safeties are better than one.
I've also been trying the Todd Jarrett Kung Fu grip this week. I was inspired by watching my friend Hsoi the other day. Despite his bitching about the recoil of .45 ACP, he handled the recoil from my RIA Tactical better than I do. I tend to shoot really relaxed, and don't fight the recoil. I think it probably helped my trigger control early on, but after watching him I can really the see the benefit for follow up shots. (I probably triggered a rant now.) :)-~
No rant. Just smugness. ;-)
The Todd Jarrett grip is awesome. Just crush the hell out of it.. "grip 20% tighter." It helps because there's overall more "stiffness", for lack of a better term, that counters the recoil. Plus you know how you cant the left hand forward? the key being that it acts as counter-torque? I really make sure my Todd Jarrett grip has a lot of tension down at the left-pinky... can't forget the involve the pinky in the grip. Helps a great deal.
Watch how your safety-flick habit progresses over the weekend... when we're tired and running on auto-pilot, that'll be the true test.
As for my prep for this weekend, physically I'm as good as I'm going to get and expect to be OK. Tho I wouldn't be surprised if I was a little out of it... the change in my martial arts training has affected my conditioning in different ways... some gain, some loss. So we'll see.
I've also been doing more dry fire. Hope things go well.
The only unknown is the rain.... we'll see how that XD slick grip works when everything is soaking wet. *sigh*