[valleyforge.1777]

J.R.,
Thanks for your reply. I was jumping all over in what I wrote, and may have left the wrong impression. Let me try to clarify. I thought Kyle Lamb (Viking Tactical videos) was a great guy, very laid back, not at all preachy, makes some good points and demonstrates them, and he is an actual war hero (Blackhawk Down). However, his handgun video was very disappointing. There are some animated graphics and background music that are used as transitions between each scene and they are drawn out and repetitive and really annoying, and from an educational standpoint they are useless. His instructional stuff is good, but too short. There are a bunch of drills presented, and while everyone who carries a gun needs to know how to use it and needs to practice to be able to hit the target, I found his drills for the most part to be too applicable to shooting games and not very applicable to what a concealed carry self-defense firearms user will need to practice. To his credit, Kyle Lamb is a genuine guy who shoots all the drills that his students shoot and he is not afraid to show you that he is not a perfect marksman every time. He's good, and he did survive the Blackhawk Down incident, so he must know a lot about how to shoot a gun, but he is not afraid to let the viewer see him being not-exactly-perfect. In terms of practical knowledge, the kind of stuff where I say to myself, "Wow, I did not know that and I really think I needed to know that," I was disappointed. he makes good points, but not enough of them and overall I'd skip buying his videos from here on out, but I might be interested in his books (they are WAY expensive, so maybe not).

I hope I did not leave the impression that the Magpul videos were not good. I think the dynamic art of handguns set is good, I like it, even if I don't necessarily think I can make use of everything they teach (i.e., even if I disagree with them about some points based on my own research and other training I've had). The one instructor is a bit annoying, but that is not enough to wish I'd not bought the set. I will finish watching the set of DVD's and will keep them and re-watch them.

Yeah, Ralph Mroz's voice is a bit unique and I can see how that can get to some folks. In terms of the Kyle Lamb and Magpul videos not being what I was looking for, I do stand by my comments about how I would prefer one on one teaching videos and far fewer students. More than that, however, for training at a range and for videos, I want to concentrate on training that is as close as possible to real life situations I might actually face. I'm not going into Somalia on a Blackhawk and I'm not law enforcement, so the chances of my needing to shoot someone from 25 feet away are remote. The training classes that I've taken over the years were OK in that I surely did get some stuff out of the experience, but they are expensive and spent most of the time with us standing still on a firing line doing various exercises. Yes, you need to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run, but that concept gets overblown with firearms training. Yes, you can learn to do a speed re-load while standing still, but you need to be moving the next time you practice it (one minute later), not the next time you take a class. And, as Ralph Mroz points out in one of his books, it is very unlikely that the average citizen conceal carrying for self-defense is ever going to do a tactical reload. Ever. It is OK to see it, learn it, do it a few times in a class, but if you are practicing it, you are practicing for gun shooting games, not for real self-defense. A lot of classes, and videos, seem to spend too much time on shooting distances that are not realistic and with the students standing still on a firing line. That's not what i am looking for. Most of the schools I have looked at seem to treat CQB and ECQB as some "ultra-high level" thing for highly experienced class-takers only, and only if one has mastered the material in several other classes offered by that school. But most non-LE and non-military will only ever have a self-defense situation that is right up close and personal at arm's-reach touching distances, or closer. So, when I said I was looking for something else, different from what they teach in the Kyle Lamb video and even the Magpul video, I meant that I was hoping for realistic training that is applicable to what i am likely to have to do in my real life. If you read Ralph Mroz's books, he explains why most classes do things the way they do, and what's wrong with that approach. So yeah, even if the class or video is not what you were expecting or looking for, one can certainly learn some stuff, and get something out of it, but maybe not in a way that is worth the cost or time involved. The Magpul videos are not teaching the tactics and style of practice that I am looking for, but there is definitely enough good stuff in there to make them worth the time and money to watch them. Unfortunately, Kyle Lamb's videos did not have enough even though I'd surely pay money for one-on-one instruction from him personally (as long as the first thing we shoot at is the darn shot timer!).

I do a lot of training on my own and with friends at a local range. We try to be as practical and realistic as we can in the drills we design and run through. A lot of close up shooting, always moving when drawing and shooting, speed reloads while engaging multiple threats, etc. One of the biggest problems I still have is trying to make myself go slow enough to really work through each shot and each scenario so that I can concentrate on each and every motion and shot fired. I still keep going too fast which makes it hard to know what i am doing right and what I am doing wrong and why. I am a firm believer that skills can be learned and practiced and then speed will naturally follow skill perfection. So, I don't need a shot timer and don't want to go to classes where the training philosophy involves scoring targets for points and time. I just have no use for that. Plus, that darn sound is so annoying!

Another good set of videos for beginners and advanced beginners are the Lenny Magill videos from gunvideo.com He's a little too "California hip," and he takes shameless self-promotion to the extreme level. And his videos are bit too un-tactical, and sometimes he can come across as a weird mixture of physical fitness gym-rat guru and part time mythbuster (you kind of have to see his videos to know what i am talking about). But he also at some level is a very genuine guy who seems to be self-taught and seems to have a good sense of what really works and what is just gun school filler material. I think the story goes that he had a video business and got robbed one day and decided to make himself better able to defend himself in case it ever happened again. That can be strong motivation to cut through the crapola and the fads of handgun training and just get to what really works. He does seem to like his shot timer, much to my dismay, but he also shoots his own drills for the viewer to see. For beginners new to carrying a gun for self-defense, the Lenny Magill videos with Ken Hackathorn and Bill Wilson are quite excellent.

Can't say enough good stuff about Michael Bane and Michael Janich. They are both true warriors and I always learn something good from any Michael Bane video segment or program. Michael Janich has a bunch of knife videos and books, but if you look around for his firearms stuff, you'll hit the diamond mine. The guy is my hero.