“I’d like to get a couple of things out of the way before I give my review. If you are looking to shoot 600-800 rounds of ammo and high-five’ing while you do it, then this class isn’t for you. If you are looking for “entertainment” shooting then this class isn’t for you. If you don’t like sitting in on a discussion between shooting drills, then this class isn’t for you. If you are looking for a large class (20-30 people), then this class isn’t for you. With that being said, if you do want to learn how to shoot more accurately, faster from a Tier 1 operator / Commando with years of training and combat experience; then this class is for you.
This is my second class with John McPhee (I had taken the 1 Day Carbine Class the beginning of this year) so I kinda knew what to expect with the coaches eye review but I have to tell you, I learned a lot more about “me”, my shooting skill and had a hell of a lot of fun. Everyone know’s the coaches eye and John Mcphee go hand in hand, but what it doesn’t tell you is what a great listener and teacher John is and the coaches eye would be worthless without his innate coaching ability.
The class begins with you firing 2 shots at a target, reload another magazine and fire 2 more shots. Pretty simple right? This is were John breaks it all down using the coaches eye as a tool. You will first learn the basics of proper stance, to be in a good platform to shot and control recoil. 2nd you will learn proper grip of the pistol, you’d be surprised were your thumbs need to be, proper index of the pistol and manage recoil. Next up is presentation. You will learn were your support hand needs be to get proper grip on the pistol before full presentation and how to cut down on wasted movement. This will help you get eyes on your front sight fast so you can get on target for a kill shot faster. Last but not least is reloading. Now for me being a lefty, John really helped out (being a lefty himself) with this. You will learn to reload in your “work space” and for me another great tip on releasing the slide lock with my support hand (pinching the front of the slide and moving the pistol forward to releasing the slide lock). And that is it for your video review, time for some lunch (which John and his wife prepared for us) and then after lunch – shooting.
Based on the video comments, John spent one on one time with each student correcting stance and grip during a live fire drill. Once finished it was time for some more learning, video, discussion on how to “read” your bullet grouping. Now John uses his own pie chart on how to gauge your grouping. If you learned the standard pie chart, well after this class it will be collecting dust because you will use John’s pie chart. It is broken down into easy to understand corrections ( you just learned stance and grip, that is were most of your problems need to be corrected in terms of bullet placement), you will see after your shot grouping. Time to shoot again.
After each drill we all checked our grouping and John went down the line and asked us what we see in our grouping? Mine was grip and index, John drew a line on my hand so I can visually see my proper index to the pistol. Every drill we did John was up and down the line checking each student as they fired and either making corrections, lean forward, lock elbows, head over lead foot, ect or telling us keep doing that, that’s good! Now I have taken other various training course and they all seemed to start and finish at a certain time no matter what. I guess our class stayed an extra hour because John wanted to make sure we did all our drills and understood all the information that was provided. Again that is what an excellent teacher does, its not about the time per say but if the student understands the knowledge to take home with them.
To say I learned a lot that day would be an understatement (maybe an information overload). The learning process doesn’t end when the class does, you get your videos to watch again and again. The videos are now your benchmark, your reference point to gauge your progress. I hope this AAR helped you understand what to expect from one of SOB’s classes. I can’t wait to take my next class with John McPhee and challenge myself again. Be good.
Sincerely,
“Jimmy” P.”