DPI Class – After Action Report

Finally!!  After taking two NRA Instructor courses and the Suarez PSP course, on Saturday it was time to hit the classroom / range again with my own Defensive Pistol I course!  It really felt good!!

The DPI course is my answer to what comes after the NRA Basic Pistol course, but before their Personal Protection courses.  It teaches the next level of basic skills (past the NRA “parts of a firearm” and “firing first shots”) that I believe a shooter needs to learn – draw from a holster, speed reloads, tactical reloads, clearing malfunctions, use of cover, “slicing the pie”, “roll-out”, sighted fire, intro to point shooting – to name just a few topics.  Most of the folks that attend this class have never worked through these skill sets – yet I believe they are the foundation to a solid shooting skill set that every person who carries a weapon must have.

We also covered a multitude of examples of “shoot/don’t shoot”, “when do I draw”, the OODA Loop, the difference between practicing target shooting and “combat effective” shooting, what do I carry in my EDC kit, a number of different “rules of three” pertaining to gunfights and basic survival and much more.

After the intro lecture to get us all on the same page, we worked all drills inside with dry fire (nice because it was in the mid-40s and misty) for another hour and a half on the same silhouette targets we would use on the range.

Lunch!  (ya gotta eat!)

OK, short lunch!

A few more dry fire drills, then it was off to the range.  I was very please on how the folks used their range time and performed all our drills.  From sighted fire to point shooting, from single to multiple round engagements, from concealment, speed reloads, tactical reloads – and of primary concern – safe practices on the range.  They did a great job, got solid hits and were drawing smoothly, engaging accurately and re-holstering accurately and gently.

Another 45 minutes finish up after the range time and all were on their way home a little after 5PM.  A good day!

I am going to share this post with all the folks that attended and ask that they post their own AAR here.  It should provide folks thinking about the course some idea of what the students thought of my DPI class – or, I’ll have my butt handed to me!  :)

Train hard, get good hits – win.