Gun Skool - Training With The Jedi

This weekend, I along with my buddy Tosh,  was in Holland, Michigan for a 3-day class  The Path To Performance with The Modern Samurai Project - Scott Jedlinski, aka Jedi.

Scott Jedlinski is one of the, if not the, foremost instructors on the use of the red dot sighted pistol and appendix carry.

The class was like drinking from a fire-hose.

Scott began by stating that what he was teaching was not the only way, and that unless your instructor was an actual Mandalorian, any instructor who pronounces their class to be The Way is an instructor that one should be wary of as it is only A Way.  

He encouraged us from the start to question all of the technique and to take from the class what worked for us, and to only adopt what we had thoroughly tested and found to work.

Thorough testing there was.

The class began the first day with appendix carry and why he posits the method of carry is superior to strong side carry in terms of ergonomics and efficiency.  Scott is fully focused on being efficient via technique.

First we discussed body mechanics and why appendix carry makes the most sense in terms of efficiency.

Then on to body positioning.  Scott is critical of the isosceles stance both in terms of foot positioning hampering movement and forward and rearward stability, and how with locked out elbows recoil management suffers.  

Let's put it this way, my default stance prior to this class was indeed the isosceles.  Not anymore. 

Based on actually comparing the isosceles to the stance setup by Scott which is somewhat of an improved weaver type stance (support foot forward a step,  not over-bending the knees, arms bent at elbows, extended forward equally) in the drills we performed, it is very clear that there is significant improvement in recoil control, mobility, and efficiency by dumping the isosceles.  It is now so dumped by me.  Learning occurred.

Then on to the grip.  I have a trash panda grip  (an old style crush grip) that I must continue to work on changing as it is the main thing holding back my performance. Scott promotes a very high grip, with the strong hand only holding the pistol loosely with the support hand, and thumbs high up on the slide.  With the support hand,  especially the pinky of that hand, strongly gripping the gun for recoil control and dot management - with his technique, the dot on the draw drops perfectly from 12 o clock to the center of the sight -- every damn time.  Life changing. This was a revelation.

I still need to work on my draw and grip though until this change is ingrained. I keep reverting and even worse seem to bang my support hand into the gun, stopping it for a moment on the draw which is damn weird to watch on video.  Scott is very big on having you video your practice so you can see what you're doing well or not, and it helps.

Scott first demos each exercise, often several times based on what he is trying to convey, then has the students do it as he watches each student perform the drill, and he gives you immediate personal feedback.   This leads to a lot of reps as he walks the line working with each and every student.  This is not a go off and do drills class while he watches in the distance. He is hands on with each and every student diagnosing issues and helping students get better.   The class then discussed after each exercise if the technique worked for them, what they saw/felt during the technique and what they felt they did right or need to work on.

A few students then tried his Black Belt Standards Test.  There were some amazing shooters there, and while they got close, no one cleared it.  The test as you can see is kinda spicy.

After the first day of class, a bunch of the students and Scott headed into Holland for some food together and we ate some wings, had beer, and chatted.

The next day we met at the range and got on to focus on red dot shooting - everything from 3 yards to 25 yards.  Zeroing was discussed and he put forth his reasons why a 10 yard zero makes the most sense in terms of time and efficiency over a 25 yard zero and he had very cogent points for saying so.  Again he stated you can choose as you like and decide for yourself after trying both and xo long as you know the reasons why for both.

We did the 3x5 drill, and single shot drills at 7, 10, and 25 yards along with multiple other exercises.

Then 11 students in the class decided to try the Black Belt Test -Tosh and I among them.  None of us made it. I wasn't even close, and that's ok.

In the 3x5 my time was 2.51 but had misses, so no good.

At 7 yards I had a 1.12 time with a hit.  Which was pretty darn good for me, but it may have been luck and not skill.

On the Bill Drill I did a 2.48 but with half missing the A Zone.

And the one shot at 25 yards I had a 1.69 and a hit on the A Zone.

Saturday night quite a few of us met at the class host's house for a cookout and a BYOB party.  This was fun and lots of great conversation with some seriously interesting people. 

Since Tosh and I both do Jiu-Jitsu and Jedi is an accomplished practitioner as a 4-stripe purple belt, the talk turned to jitsu and some techniques, and then he offered to show us some pointers.

Yes, I got to learn some jitsu from the Jedi.   Way cool.

We headed to some mats the host had in the basement, and I got some great pointers on technique and really changed my mindset - as a result in rolls yesterday I was a lot more active, dynamic, and controlling in the rolls and won more than I lost, and had much better movement.  Simply amazing.

Sunday was about 25-yard distance shooting, Bill Drills, shooting on the move, and other activities. Lots of shooting and multiple exercise, all useful and learned a lot. 

We shot B8 targets at 25 yards, and I tended to hit in the high 80s, low 90s - it needs some work and it's the grip that is the culprit.

Then on to Bill Drills. I shot a clean Bill Drill in 3.0 seconds exactly during the testing phase of the drill, which was nice.  

Then the class ended with another Black Belt test.  Again, no one cleared it but a few came darn close (no, I wasn't one of them) and my scores were:

3x5 my time was 2.53 clean - while not close, this was still happy making for me as it was a solid clean run.

At 7 yards I had a 1.11 time with a hit. 

On the Bill Drill I did a 2.41 but with misses out of the A Zone.

And on the one shot at 25 yards I had a 1.66 and a hit to the C Zone so it doesn't count. Drat, but at least I hit the target.

The test is humbling and an excellent corrective should you ever think you're too good to get out and practice.  I need more practice and more practice will occur.  

In other news, that was 845 rounds through the IWI Masada with zero malfunctions this weekend, which is nice.

Then the class picture and the class ended with us each receiving a  class patch and everyone gave their thoughts as to how the class went and what was learned.  Yes the class mascot was a well trained K9 Dutch Shepard named Rip, brought to the class by a dog trainer that was attending the course - he's an amazing fur missile.

In short, I cannot recommend this class highly enough.  

As a red dot class, it blew Sentinel Concepts Red Dot class away in terms of content, technique, methodology, and instruction.  

The Class is simply fantastic and well worth the cost. If you want to learn a way to be better with your red dot and appendix carry, Jedi would be highly recommended as an excellent way to learn both red dot and appendix carry.