Saturday, January 1, 2011

AAR: InSights Training Center: General Defensive Handgun

This is a review from our class with Greg Hamilton of InSights Training back in September of '07, some details of the class may have changed since we took it, but it was and I'm sure still is a fantastic class for those new to defensive shooting.


My wife and I took this course a couple of weeks ago. For the $300 per student it was a damn good class. The lecture was superb, the shooting portion was a little fast, but when you have only two days to learn and shoot, you will feel rushed. One thing that I was not happy about was that the class description quoted 600 rounds as being required and we went home with ammo, I'd guess that the class was probably a 60/40 lecture/shooting ratio.

While I didn't really get anything out of the lecture regarding mindset and tactics, for newer shooters looking to carry concealed who haven't thought about a lot of things, this was a great class. As for actual shooting related topics of discussion I finally got a solid answer on the one thing that has been driving me nuts for over a year, mainly how do deal with my left eye dominant/right handed issue (I'm not going to get into this as that's a whole other story) the important thing is that it helped me out.

On the range I learned a good deal about the finer points of stance, drawing, and reholstering as well as doing lots of "tactical" reloads, clearance drills, and speed reloads. My wife and I are pretty much self taught shooters when it comes to pistols, so a lot of the finer points of how to do shoot a pistol better were new to me and made perfect sense.

Again this is just be being picky, and you'll probably find this at any class you'll ever go to, but if your on the skilled side of the class, the odds of actually getting any help on what you're doing wrong is pretty slim as there will be plenty of others that need the help more than you.

The lectures focused on disparity of force, threat escalation, holster selection, proper sight alignment / sight picture and the difference between the two. Also covered were a lot of the shooting basics and safety rules that are part of every class.



In the course description it says " If you have never shot or wonder how your gun works this class is not for you." and I would have to agree, this is a course for people that know how to shoot, know how to handle their gun, but want to improve. I was very pleased to see a lot of students from PA in this class, I would also agree with the course description stating that "This course should be considered a minimum for anyone who owns or is considering carrying a handgun for self-defense." In  PA there is no training requirement to obtain your license to carry a firearm but it was VERY nice to see a number of people wanting to increase their skills and knowledge level.

The class was held at the West Shore Sportsmans Association south of Harrisburg and the range and class room was more than adequate for the class.

I would also like to add that the instructor was the perfect balance of good teacher / funny character who totally shattered the saying "Those that can, DO. Those that can't, TEACH." He can do both.

For my wifes write up (much better than mine) you can see her review HERE
For more information see InSights Training Center

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