Took an IPSC Class by Tod Litt and Rob Romero this weekend

[cold]

On Saturday I took an IPSC class taught by two production GM's in my area, Tod Litt & Rob Romero.

The class had 16 shooters, about half were under the age of 13 which was fantastic! Also, one of the kids mothers participated, which again was an awesome thing to see!

The class started with a safety talk and then Rob and Tod introduced a special guest who was free on Saturday to spend some time with us all. This was none other than Erik Lund.

Without going into detail about what was covered, the class was both an intro to IPSC as well as a more advanced IPSC strat session.

In the morning we listened to a lecture by Erik about the Sport of IPSC and then did some dry fire, worked on our draw stroke, presentation,and finally putting it all togeather by sending some rounds down range once everything looked good.

We then broke for lunch

After lunch Todd took the beginners and Rob handled the more advance group.

I went with Rob and the more advance group and Erik Lund stayed around to offer some more words of advise.

Topics covered in the afternoon advanced group were as follows (again this is just an outline of what was covered, I do not wish to infringe on the great instruction these guys provided):

Topic: Movement

Movement is anything 3 steps or more, anything less than 3 steps is under the positioning step umbrella. 5 types of positioning steps are:

• Lead Step

• Cross-Over step

• Half step

• Shuffle Step

• Drag Step

Topic: Boxes

Boxes: as long as it’s a defined box, run to the box and use one of the aforementioned positioning steps to step into the box.

Starting boxes: you want to gain ground right from the starting buzzer. In order to do this, change your elevation. Rapid contractions give each muscle burst of speed needed for this sport.

Loading up the muscles before you take off gives you a much explosive start with respect to quicknes.

Erik said, “If you want to be faster & improve your game, you need to get to the gym and improve your muscular strength.”

Topic: Starts

Practicing wrist above shoulders start.

Proper positioning of wrists above shoulders start consists of you placing your hand on the handgun then, bringing up your hand as high as the elbow will allow, then raising the arm until it’s just above your shoulders. By doing this you ensure your draw is a smooth as possible and as repeatable and familiar to you as possible.

Snatch, grab or scoop? Rob prefers the snatch , but which works for you is personal preference. Pros and cons of each.

Sprint: move to the next position with purpose and be aggressive. Its only a few seconds, there’s no reason not to run unless your disabled.

Lastly, "You don’t make GM by taking risks…" Rob Romero

I was not able to see all the work Tod Litt did with the beginners but it sounds like they had a great time.

I fired a total of 15 rounds, some might complain about this, but not me. The amount of lecturing and learning I did on Saturday, told me it was the best money I spent for 7-8 hours of instruction, the fact I only fired 15 rounds did not mean a thing, because of the mental aspect and stage breakdown prep itself was worth it to me.

The class cost 120 dollars and in my opinion it was worth every penny. As a shooter who is trying to improve his game in all aspects, I will gladly pay 120 dollars to increase even 5-10% and this class appears to have done that for me.

Thanks Tod & Rob and a special thanks to Erik for swinging by and imparting some knowledge.

Edited July 27, 2009 by cold

[00bullitt]

Thanks for the kind words and feedback Jansen. Its rewarding to know that you feel you left with knowledge in hand.