Al Thompson
Moderator Emeritus
Hi all,
Last Sunday had the opportunity to take an "Introduction" class with Alan here in South Carolina. Alan was in town on business and knew one of the local police officers. Alan offered to take a few hours and go over some techniques. Another police officer and cake eating civilian (me) got to participate.
I'm not MMA knowledgeable, but apparently Alan is very competitive in the sport. He is also a former Special Forces operator (my words, not his). In the first ten minutes or so, several things stood out. One, he is indeed the real deal. I'm an old straight leg grunt, but I know the right questions to ask. Two, Alan was not at all hesitant to shoot the drill, so that you knew what the standards are. I think that's a good thing.
But the main thing that impressed me is that during that first ten minutes, he rapidly got a handle on who knew what and adjusted accordingly. He then had us each fire a 15 round evaluation and started teaching. We didn't have a lot of time to chit-chat, so after he live fire demonstrated what his points were, we set up a revolution where each of us rotated to the firing line while the others reloaded magazines. Alan had us fire a couple of magazines while coaching and counseling each shooter on how to perform the specific task. As it became clear on what each individual grasped and didn't grasp, Alan modified his teaching style to help the student fill in the weak spots and reinforce success. Alan is a dynamic guy and was very motivational with the students. The takeaway from this to me is that he isn't hesitant to demonstrate his skills and adjust his teaching style to the student. No "one size fits all" here.
We only were able to spend about 3.5 hours on the range with the last 40 minutes or so being dark.
The techniques he covered were fairly simple, but as we all know, doing the basics perfectly on demand is the goal. There were no silly techniques introduced, just a very through coverage on gripping the handgun, trigger manipulation, recoil management and lateral target engagements. There were no magazine dumps, just strings of fire that averaged about 3 rounds each.
The last exercise, in darkness, was shot from 25 yards. All three of us were able to easily apply Alan's techniques and get very solid hit counts on a B-27 target.
I fired 270 rounds during that 3.5 hours. Due to the "shoot, jam magazines, rotate back to shoot again" process, there was pretty much constant gunfire. I never felt like I was throwing ammo down range merely for the sake of shooting.
There were no equipment failures, though I had a couple of strange failures to fire out of my G17. One of the results of having malfunction drills down pat, is that you don't get the opportunity to trouble shoot the malf as you've already cleared it. The officers wore their duty gear and I used a Blade-Tech holster. No issues with any of it.
While this was pretty much a moving target, short course and a result of being buddies with one of the principals, I came away delighted with Alan Shebaro. During one of the rare down moments, Alan told me that he is training and teaching at Texas Defensive Shooting Academy (TDSA - Dallas, Ft. Worth). I understand that he is looking at opening a dedicated training facility in the area.
Strongly recommend Alan for the lucky folks in the DFW area and if he ever starts a traveling training school, I'll attend.
http://shebarotacticalconsultants.com/home.html
Last Sunday had the opportunity to take an "Introduction" class with Alan here in South Carolina. Alan was in town on business and knew one of the local police officers. Alan offered to take a few hours and go over some techniques. Another police officer and cake eating civilian (me) got to participate.
I'm not MMA knowledgeable, but apparently Alan is very competitive in the sport. He is also a former Special Forces operator (my words, not his). In the first ten minutes or so, several things stood out. One, he is indeed the real deal. I'm an old straight leg grunt, but I know the right questions to ask. Two, Alan was not at all hesitant to shoot the drill, so that you knew what the standards are. I think that's a good thing.
But the main thing that impressed me is that during that first ten minutes, he rapidly got a handle on who knew what and adjusted accordingly. He then had us each fire a 15 round evaluation and started teaching. We didn't have a lot of time to chit-chat, so after he live fire demonstrated what his points were, we set up a revolution where each of us rotated to the firing line while the others reloaded magazines. Alan had us fire a couple of magazines while coaching and counseling each shooter on how to perform the specific task. As it became clear on what each individual grasped and didn't grasp, Alan modified his teaching style to help the student fill in the weak spots and reinforce success. Alan is a dynamic guy and was very motivational with the students. The takeaway from this to me is that he isn't hesitant to demonstrate his skills and adjust his teaching style to the student. No "one size fits all" here.
We only were able to spend about 3.5 hours on the range with the last 40 minutes or so being dark.
The techniques he covered were fairly simple, but as we all know, doing the basics perfectly on demand is the goal. There were no silly techniques introduced, just a very through coverage on gripping the handgun, trigger manipulation, recoil management and lateral target engagements. There were no magazine dumps, just strings of fire that averaged about 3 rounds each.
The last exercise, in darkness, was shot from 25 yards. All three of us were able to easily apply Alan's techniques and get very solid hit counts on a B-27 target.
I fired 270 rounds during that 3.5 hours. Due to the "shoot, jam magazines, rotate back to shoot again" process, there was pretty much constant gunfire. I never felt like I was throwing ammo down range merely for the sake of shooting.
There were no equipment failures, though I had a couple of strange failures to fire out of my G17. One of the results of having malfunction drills down pat, is that you don't get the opportunity to trouble shoot the malf as you've already cleared it.
The officers wore their duty gear and I used a Blade-Tech holster. No issues with any of it.While this was pretty much a moving target, short course and a result of being buddies with one of the principals, I came away delighted with Alan Shebaro. During one of the rare down moments, Alan told me that he is training and teaching at Texas Defensive Shooting Academy (TDSA - Dallas, Ft. Worth). I understand that he is looking at opening a dedicated training facility in the area.
Strongly recommend Alan for the lucky folks in the DFW area and if he ever starts a traveling training school, I'll attend.
http://shebarotacticalconsultants.com/home.html
Oh well, that's probably appropriate 
