Friendswood Area: New Handgun Courses

[Charles L. Cotton]

Over the years I've had quite a lot of CHL students and prospective students ask about a class for handgun novices. In response to these requests, a fellow PSC Board Member (Jim Pierce) and I created the Basic Handgun Skills Course for people with little or no handgun experience, as well as those who have been doing it wrong for years (and have the courage to admit it ). Then basic students started asking for additional courses beyond the basics, so Jim and I decided to create a series of classes, each three hours long to avoid fatigue that is a killer in educational terms. We experimented with a five hour intermediate course and it was simply too long, students were too tired, and not much learning was accomplished after the third hour.

The Series consists of the following three hour courses:

• Basic Handgun Skills:
  This course is designed for people with little or no handgun experience. Students focus on pistol shooting fundamentals including proper grip, sight alignment/sight picture, and trigger control. Mastering these basic skill requirements is critical to developing sufficient proficiency with a handgun to safely and effectively employ it in a defensive shooting situation. Unless a waver is granted, this course is a prerequisite for the Intermediate I Handgun Skills Course.
  
  Handgun Skills - Intermediate I:
  The 3 hour Intermediate I Handgun Skills Course covers drawing and engaging from a holster and engaging one or more targets and malfunction drills.
  A "good" holster and gun belt are required for this course, even if you are going to carry a handgun in a purse or fanny pack. Do not buy a holster that closes when you draw your handgun, thus requiring you to open the holster with your weak hand before reholstering. There are many good holster manufacturers, but Comp-Tac is local, has great customer service, and their delivery times are excellent. Students carrying a handgun in a purse or fanny pack will spend some time covering issues related to this method of carrying a defensive handgun, but the shooting portion of the class will involve only the use of a holster.
  
  Handgun Skills - Intermediate II:
  The 3 hour Intermediate II Handgun Skills Course covers drawing and engaging from a holster and engaging one or more targets, shooting on the move, use of cover and malfunction drills. Intermediate I is a prerequisite for this course. [Holster and belt requirements of Intermediate I apply.]
  
  Advanced Handgun Skills:
  Students will concentrate on shooting while moving and/or at moving and disappearing targets. Multiple threat targets interspersed with "friendlies" complicate the scenario and provide more realistic training in a dynamic environment. While there will be some shooting while stationary from cover or in unusual positions, the majority of the time will be spent shooting while moving to cover, weak hand drills, and speed reloading.

I don't think I've posted these classes here on the Forum because the target audience has been PSC Members and non-members who took their CHL class with me as a guest at PSC. However, due in no small part to the upcoming changes in the CHL course requirements, and requests from former students, Jim and I have decided to teach these classes on a more regular basis and to open them up to people who are not PSC Members or their guests.

The Basic Handgun Skills Course will be taught on the 2nd Saturday of most months and the Intermediate courses will be taught periodically. We are not going to offer the Advanced Handgun Skills Course until we finish the upgrade of the automated target systems on Bay C at PSC. The times and dates will be posted on TexasHandgunTraining.com and on the PSC Calendar. I will post only the next upcoming class in the Advanced Training of the Instructors, Classes & Training section here on the Forum.

Chas.