JBS The SpinUp – Pistol AAR
June 27, 2020 | @gumtreepewpew
Spin Up Pistol – JBS Training Group AAR
Last weekend I took a pistol class with Mark Smith of JBS Training Group. The class, called “The SpinUp” is not meant for beginners but rather for those that are well established but looking for ways to increase performance and ‘spin up’ into Mark’s way of approaching training, practice, movement, transitions, and understanding the performing brain.
The class was well attended and had a good variety of shooters there from various backgrounds. Mark started the class with, what was a pleasant refresher of not simply regurgitating the 4 (overly simplistic and less than ideally worded NRA safety rules, but rather by having us reevaluate each of those Rules and address the mindset behind and practicality of what that means on the range and in real life. It seems easy to whip off the 4 dogmas from memory, but a quick sidestep and discussion did more for switching the class on than rote recitation of our archaic mantras would have been.
The class is a “spin up” into his way of thinking about running your weapon(s) and his pattern of practice and improvement. We worked trigger prep skills, draws, reload mechanics, lots of target transitions, and shooting while moving (lateral and weaving barrels).
I saw some eyes opened when working with timers, as they were able to achieve much faster draw times and reload times after analysis of their efficient body mechanics and working a little bit with conscious/subconscious directives that he delves much more into in more performance-based classes. As anyone who performs at a high level understands (or struggles with) the patterns and techniques must be drilled and mastered but unlocking the subconscious/the-zone etc is what needs to occur for consistency and peak performance.
A lot of the class was spent giving students a baseline for their accuracy or speed and then showing them practice strategies to help them reach their personal next level (including during dry fire) which rendered not only some immediate results but the opportunity for students to see how much more they could grow from training in this way. Mark’s teaching style consistently incorporates the why’s and how’s behind various methods and approaches and he supports his choices for technique and application. However, he is big on using data, shot-timer, score-able B-8 targets, etc so that you can prove to yourself and are able to take that data as a baseline for growth after the class.
He finished the class with a random drawing of some of his standards (a handful of drills chosen from a preselected group – think of Defoor Hat drill, TapRack Tiger patch standards, etc) for which everyone was welcome to attempt to earn a patch. None were awarded that day. But maybe next time! His SpinUp pistol class had lots of great insights covering movement, thinking, and especially efficiency and eye/hand speed. I’d strongly recommend hitting him up for a class if you’re in the region.
@gumtreepewpew
https://jbstraininggroup.com
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