On October 9th I conducted a NAPSI Foundations
of Defensive Pistol (FDP) course for a class of 4, 3 women and one guy. The average time for this course is 9 hours
including both SIRT and live fire range time.
It was a good group! So let’s
chat about how it went.
The FDP course is designed to do two primary things. First, to begin to move the student’s mindset
into the defensive use of a firearm world.
And second, to cover a wide range of foundational material from holsters
to shooting from cover. There is no
holster work, all shooting is done from a firing line from the High Compressed
Ready. But the drills are comprehensive
and designed to provide a solid starting point to move forward in their
defensive pistol skill set.
There are 10 primary lessons that the students covered . .
.
- Introduction to Revolver
- Introduction to Semi-Automatic Pistols, their malfunctions and remedies
- Firearms Safety and Safe Gun Handling
- Introduction to holsters, belts and off-body carry
- Introduction to Ammunition
- Range Safety Protocols and Care and Cleaning of Handguns
- Defensive Shooting Fundamentals, Mindset and Selecting a Defensive Handgun
- Live Fire: Introduction to Defensive Shooting
- Live Fire: Using Cover and Concealment
- Skills Application, Written Exam, Final Thoughts and Debrief
As you can see, it was a busy day that started at 8 AM and
finished just after 5 PM. Everyone went
home appropriately tired.
It has been my experience that the majority of students
come to a first level course with the intent to fill the square to get their
carry permit. This obviously varies from
state to state and is a very simple task to accomplish in Iowa. Next, most truly want to learn
something. And finally, those who want
to learn want range time as well. The
FDP course filled those items for these folks.
It began with a review of the handguns they would typically
choose to defend themselves. Each type
was covered in full so as they went “out into the world” they could make better
choices for a firearm that would work for them.
Then we talked about safe gun handling. We have adopted Cooper’s 4 rules simply
because we believe they are more applicable in the defensive use of a handgun
world. We talked at length about each
and how they are relevant to the save use of a firearm.
Next came an introduction to holsters, belts and different
types of off body carry. It is my
opinion that this is an area that is all too often neglected yet is probably
one of the most important things the students need to get right in the real
world.
This was followed by an introduction to ammunition with a
focus to the two primary types a defensive shooter is exposed to – ball ammunition
for range work and expanding ammunition for defensive carry.
We worked our way through the range commands we would be
using and then talked about the care and cleaning of typical types of
handguns. This brought us to lunch – I think
everyone was approaching overload so the timing worked well.
After lunch we began with defensive shooting fundamentals,
defensive mindset and worked through the primary concerns when choosing a
defensive handgun. Here, one specific
item fell out when we talked about defensive mindset. I’m working on a more extensive post but, in
a nutshell we chatted a bit about the 2nd Amendment, it’s importance
and what it means to us as Americans. In
under all the politics, all the jockeying for position, all the solid
information and the disinformation that floats around out there . . . there is
one fundamental truth at the end of the day . . .
You have the natural right to live . . . and no one has the
right to take that away from you.
That, to me, is the foundation of the 2nd
Amendment . . . I have the right to life . . . period. More on this at some future date in a
separate post.
From here I move to a SIRT range. I worked the students through the use of a
semiautomatic pistol, the loading and “racking” of the slide (yes, I know they
don’t move). Then we worked on stance,
grip, sight alignment, sight picture and trigger press. We worked through a number of drills starting
with the Drive-Touch-Press drill up through accelerated pairs. Honestly, this SIRT range time is
golden! If you have not tried it, get
yourself a SIRT and see for yourself.
For instructors, SIRT range time make the live fire more valuable and
safer IMNSHO.
Next was the move to the range and working through the
course range drills. Again from the Drive-Touch-Press
drill through Accelerated Pairs. This
moved to use of cover and concealment, a challenge drill and finally a
qualification shoot.
Off the range . . . back to the classroom and on to the
written exam, a few final thoughts and then a course debrief. It was a good day!
So, congrats to Ann, Leah, Sue and TJ – great job folks!!!
Too good information that you shared. It would be so useful post for those are searching for Handgun Training Course.
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