djoyner
Member
ITTS Intermediate Handgun IIA-IIC, 11/14-11/16/03
ITTS, located in Los Angeles, offers a 3-day series of intermediate defensive handgun classes in a package deal for $375 (they are individually priced at $150/day). This complementary set of courses builds on basic skill sets which should be in place via previous training.
Class Composition
There were roughly 20 students in the class and the make-up was approximately 75% law enforcement and 25% civilian. There were some returning ITTS students in the class and at least one student who returned to take the Intermediate series for a second time. There were three instructors on the range for a 7:1 ratio. All of the instructors are on active duty in the Metro Division of the LAPD and this definitely added some flavor to the training. More on that below.
Day One
Scott Reitz opened the first day with an in-depth discussion on range safety. Actually, every day started with this same discussion. ITTS has a clean safety record and it is pretty easy to see why since the topic is reviewed at least two or three times a day.
After a brief review of the basics of handgun shooting – grip, stance, loading/unloading, safe presentation, reholstering, etc. – we went to the line for warm-up on paper targets. Right away, there was a new skill to learn: follow-through. I’d previously been to a basic handgun class at another school where the “secrets†of marksmanship were taught: sight alignment, sight picture and trigger control. At ITTS you will learn another basic skill of maintaining an intense focus on the front sight picture after the shot breaks, not lifting your head nor dropping the sights after recoil to examine the target. This is so subtle that it is hard to adequately convey in writing. It is even subtle to watch Scott demonstrate shooting with and without follow-through. It takes practice to develop the discipline but the effect is immediately evident. Accuracy and speed increase significantly when using follow-through. Working on follow-through also helps break the range habit of moving right into a check and scan where you’re likely to mechanically look but not see what is there. However, follow-through is not incompatible with checking your target or looking around for other threats. Because you’re focusing and ready for the next shot, you can easily transition into a careful check and scan where you’re more likely to see what is actually there.
This is probably a good place to highlight one of the differences between ITTS and other programs. ITTS teaches gunfighting skills. There is a difference between knowing how to shoot and knowing how to fight with a gun. The instructors’ background comes into play here. The instruction at ITTS is highly influenced by the collective real-world experience of the 240 LAPD Metro division cops which includes the SWAT team. There is not a fancy, static cirriculum at ITTS. You’ll learn real fighting skills that have been developed, tested and refined on the street. The doctrine changes as new techniques are adopted and old ones are replaced. If a technique doesn’t fly in real gunfights, the ITTS instructors are not shy about letting you know about it.
The first day continued with introduction of speed (emergency) reloads, tactical reloads, malfunction drills, and strong and weak hand shooting. There were plenty of man-on-man engagements. Part of the real-world aspect of training at ITTS their use of stressful situations to simulate actual conditions. Scotty seems to have elevated this to an art form. Besides the constant competitive pressure of man-on-man drills, there was also added pressure of dealing with instructor-induced malfunctions (behind your back of course), fear of not forcing your classmates to do 20 pushups (funny how nobody missed those shots), mock ridicule from the instructors (all in good fun), etc. There was also not a lot of downtime between evolutions and the drill tended to change each time you stepped to the line. There were new drills on all three days that forced us to think out of the box to deal with the situation at hand.
I shot about 350 out of the 400 forecast rounds for the day. I shot more on the first day than on the second and third days combined. As the three days progressed, the focus quickly turned to shot quality instead of quantity of rounds sent downrange. Liability issues for both LEOs and civilians were mentioned quite a bit. Hosing of targets was definitely discouraged and some interesting LAPD experiences were mixed in to prove the point. Again, this is real-world material.
Day Two
All of the shooting on Day One was done offhand. On Day Two, new positions were introduced, including unbraced kneel, braced kneel and rollover prone. Besides learning the techniques, we got plenty of real-world advice on when and how these positions should be used. The morning was mostly spent on this material with plenty of man-on-man and “think on your feet†type of drills to engrain the basic skills.
For the afternoon shoot, we worked varying distances out to 50 yards. There was plenty more drilling with reactive hostage targets, pepper poppers and a very challenging set of steel targets with “T†shaped cut-outs with swinging plates for the eye/nose area. In a man-on-man drill, you quickly learn to slow down to make those tough shots count. Again, they are teaching that it is the quality of shots that matters plus the ability to think your way through the situation.
The afternoon finished up with the mover. Since we shot the mover eight at a time, safety was stressed extra hard here and there were no violations. Many in the class had never shot a moving target before and this experience was a real eye-opener.
ITTS also has a reputation for constantly updating their course of fire. In our class, Scotty had the brainstorm to trial a new quick response drill with the mover. This new drill bordered on advanced course material but our class did fairly well with it.
In my opinion the mover was one of the highest-value portions of the course. It certainly reinforced the need to hone basic skills. Unfortunately, the afternoon of the second day was the only time during the three days that the mover was used. Getting spanked by moving targets does create an incentive to move on to the advanced courses though.
Day Three
The focus of the third day was team work as applied to barricades, a jungle trail and some extensive obstacle courses.
Braced shooting from behind barricades was covered first. The barricade drills were done in two-man teams emphasizing inter-partner communications and working together to solve problems. The real-world emphasis really came through here, for example, providing cover for your partner while he is reloading or clearing a malfunction, addressing multiple targets regardless of who was “supposed†to shoot them, etc. This format also provided natural opportunities to practice weak-hand shooting and the kneeling positions introduced in prior days.
The jungle trail was also worked as a two-man problem with emphasis on communications, tactics and shoot/no-shoot targets. As fun as that was, the best part of the day was the six station (!) obstacle course. Again this was run with two-man teams. Besides the fact that it was a long course – most teams took over four minutes to complete it – there were some pretty creative stress factors applied here. The course even included some cool bonuses like pepper popper targets positioned behind car doors and a 225-yard shot on steel.
The day ended with a “mad minuteâ€. The whole class unloaded every magazine they had on a couple of cars. Not much practical value there but it was fun!
The team aspects of the third day were probably most relevant for the LEOs in the class but they were also good for us civilians since they reinforced basic principles and forced us to think about the real-world implications of what we were doing.
Conclusion
The three-day intermediate package is an outstanding value. If you live in the Southern California area, there is really no excuse for not taking this package at least once, assuming that you’ve had some basic training. I would not hesitate to take the class again.
Miscellaneous Suggestions for Future Students
1. Take all three classes in a bundle if possible. The cirriculum doesn’t exactly match what is on the website, so if you sign up for a specific day expecting exactly that material you may be disappointed. Plus, the drills are cummulative so if you show up for IIC without the skills taught in the first two days you won’t get as much out of it.
2. Bring a handgun in a major caliber, preferably .45ACP. You’ll avoid the embarassment of targets that don’t go down.
3. Don’t expect to be coddled. You’ll get plenty of support from the instructors if you have a good attitude but they also don’t hesitate to point out when you’re doing something stupid. Take it for what it is – a learning experience.
4. Wear BDUs or cargo pants. You’ll need to dump a box or two of ammo into the pockets as there is very little downtime for reloading.
5. Take food and water with you. Neither is available on the range.
ITTS, located in Los Angeles, offers a 3-day series of intermediate defensive handgun classes in a package deal for $375 (they are individually priced at $150/day). This complementary set of courses builds on basic skill sets which should be in place via previous training.
Class Composition
There were roughly 20 students in the class and the make-up was approximately 75% law enforcement and 25% civilian. There were some returning ITTS students in the class and at least one student who returned to take the Intermediate series for a second time. There were three instructors on the range for a 7:1 ratio. All of the instructors are on active duty in the Metro Division of the LAPD and this definitely added some flavor to the training. More on that below.
Day One
Scott Reitz opened the first day with an in-depth discussion on range safety. Actually, every day started with this same discussion. ITTS has a clean safety record and it is pretty easy to see why since the topic is reviewed at least two or three times a day.
After a brief review of the basics of handgun shooting – grip, stance, loading/unloading, safe presentation, reholstering, etc. – we went to the line for warm-up on paper targets. Right away, there was a new skill to learn: follow-through. I’d previously been to a basic handgun class at another school where the “secrets†of marksmanship were taught: sight alignment, sight picture and trigger control. At ITTS you will learn another basic skill of maintaining an intense focus on the front sight picture after the shot breaks, not lifting your head nor dropping the sights after recoil to examine the target. This is so subtle that it is hard to adequately convey in writing. It is even subtle to watch Scott demonstrate shooting with and without follow-through. It takes practice to develop the discipline but the effect is immediately evident. Accuracy and speed increase significantly when using follow-through. Working on follow-through also helps break the range habit of moving right into a check and scan where you’re likely to mechanically look but not see what is there. However, follow-through is not incompatible with checking your target or looking around for other threats. Because you’re focusing and ready for the next shot, you can easily transition into a careful check and scan where you’re more likely to see what is actually there.
This is probably a good place to highlight one of the differences between ITTS and other programs. ITTS teaches gunfighting skills. There is a difference between knowing how to shoot and knowing how to fight with a gun. The instructors’ background comes into play here. The instruction at ITTS is highly influenced by the collective real-world experience of the 240 LAPD Metro division cops which includes the SWAT team. There is not a fancy, static cirriculum at ITTS. You’ll learn real fighting skills that have been developed, tested and refined on the street. The doctrine changes as new techniques are adopted and old ones are replaced. If a technique doesn’t fly in real gunfights, the ITTS instructors are not shy about letting you know about it.
The first day continued with introduction of speed (emergency) reloads, tactical reloads, malfunction drills, and strong and weak hand shooting. There were plenty of man-on-man engagements. Part of the real-world aspect of training at ITTS their use of stressful situations to simulate actual conditions. Scotty seems to have elevated this to an art form. Besides the constant competitive pressure of man-on-man drills, there was also added pressure of dealing with instructor-induced malfunctions (behind your back of course), fear of not forcing your classmates to do 20 pushups (funny how nobody missed those shots), mock ridicule from the instructors (all in good fun), etc. There was also not a lot of downtime between evolutions and the drill tended to change each time you stepped to the line. There were new drills on all three days that forced us to think out of the box to deal with the situation at hand.
I shot about 350 out of the 400 forecast rounds for the day. I shot more on the first day than on the second and third days combined. As the three days progressed, the focus quickly turned to shot quality instead of quantity of rounds sent downrange. Liability issues for both LEOs and civilians were mentioned quite a bit. Hosing of targets was definitely discouraged and some interesting LAPD experiences were mixed in to prove the point. Again, this is real-world material.
Day Two
All of the shooting on Day One was done offhand. On Day Two, new positions were introduced, including unbraced kneel, braced kneel and rollover prone. Besides learning the techniques, we got plenty of real-world advice on when and how these positions should be used. The morning was mostly spent on this material with plenty of man-on-man and “think on your feet†type of drills to engrain the basic skills.
For the afternoon shoot, we worked varying distances out to 50 yards. There was plenty more drilling with reactive hostage targets, pepper poppers and a very challenging set of steel targets with “T†shaped cut-outs with swinging plates for the eye/nose area. In a man-on-man drill, you quickly learn to slow down to make those tough shots count. Again, they are teaching that it is the quality of shots that matters plus the ability to think your way through the situation.
The afternoon finished up with the mover. Since we shot the mover eight at a time, safety was stressed extra hard here and there were no violations. Many in the class had never shot a moving target before and this experience was a real eye-opener.
ITTS also has a reputation for constantly updating their course of fire. In our class, Scotty had the brainstorm to trial a new quick response drill with the mover. This new drill bordered on advanced course material but our class did fairly well with it.
In my opinion the mover was one of the highest-value portions of the course. It certainly reinforced the need to hone basic skills. Unfortunately, the afternoon of the second day was the only time during the three days that the mover was used. Getting spanked by moving targets does create an incentive to move on to the advanced courses though.
Day Three
The focus of the third day was team work as applied to barricades, a jungle trail and some extensive obstacle courses.
Braced shooting from behind barricades was covered first. The barricade drills were done in two-man teams emphasizing inter-partner communications and working together to solve problems. The real-world emphasis really came through here, for example, providing cover for your partner while he is reloading or clearing a malfunction, addressing multiple targets regardless of who was “supposed†to shoot them, etc. This format also provided natural opportunities to practice weak-hand shooting and the kneeling positions introduced in prior days.
The jungle trail was also worked as a two-man problem with emphasis on communications, tactics and shoot/no-shoot targets. As fun as that was, the best part of the day was the six station (!) obstacle course. Again this was run with two-man teams. Besides the fact that it was a long course – most teams took over four minutes to complete it – there were some pretty creative stress factors applied here. The course even included some cool bonuses like pepper popper targets positioned behind car doors and a 225-yard shot on steel.
The day ended with a “mad minuteâ€. The whole class unloaded every magazine they had on a couple of cars. Not much practical value there but it was fun!
The team aspects of the third day were probably most relevant for the LEOs in the class but they were also good for us civilians since they reinforced basic principles and forced us to think about the real-world implications of what we were doing.
Conclusion
The three-day intermediate package is an outstanding value. If you live in the Southern California area, there is really no excuse for not taking this package at least once, assuming that you’ve had some basic training. I would not hesitate to take the class again.
Miscellaneous Suggestions for Future Students
1. Take all three classes in a bundle if possible. The cirriculum doesn’t exactly match what is on the website, so if you sign up for a specific day expecting exactly that material you may be disappointed. Plus, the drills are cummulative so if you show up for IIC without the skills taught in the first two days you won’t get as much out of it.
2. Bring a handgun in a major caliber, preferably .45ACP. You’ll avoid the embarassment of targets that don’t go down.
3. Don’t expect to be coddled. You’ll get plenty of support from the instructors if you have a good attitude but they also don’t hesitate to point out when you’re doing something stupid. Take it for what it is – a learning experience.
4. Wear BDUs or cargo pants. You’ll need to dump a box or two of ammo into the pockets as there is very little downtime for reloading.
5. Take food and water with you. Neither is available on the range.
