(Ryan) - There are some excellent trainers and instructors out there, and some not so excellent. A.J. in my opinion would be the former. This blog post is a written opinion based on the experience of Hunter and myself at ARC and will be indicated.
(Hunter) - A.J. is an excellent trainer - I think I said his name wrong like 100 times (apologies), and everything he said felt backed up by experience. He is like us in many ways, in that he has learned and is learning from others to give to the next wave of shooters.
(R) - We were pleased to attend ARC Syndicates inaugural course of Pistol & Rifle for the East Coast hosted in Echo Valley Range, West Virginia.
Now someone might say why are you promoting another company or your "competition"? We bring honest feedback and reviews of our experiences, and that doesn't stop at gear.
(H) - This was a very cool range. I wish we could have taken advantage of things like the cars shot up, but I know this was an introductory course, the 101 of their new school system. This is the same thing certifications do to keep people in an ecosystem.
(R) - Now, this feedback comes from a place of having structured and unstructured instruction in both group, and individual training formats for my opinion. Take it how you will. I have no intention of deep diving into his methods or techniques, or even the drills as those are ARC's.
(R) - We were only able to attend Sunday of the Pistol + Rifle course due to a conflict in schedule (I had lessons all day Saturday).
This was my first actual meeting with the instructor A.J., even though based on our experiences and paths, we probably crossed lines at some point previously. I was thoroughly impressed with his teaching manners and delivery of content. I found myself smiling internally at certain comments or notable points of instruction as I found we teach in both a similar fashion, as well as deliver certain content the same way.
(H) - I agree with his delivery, in that it was very personable and felt grounded in experience. A.J. and Ryan have similar teaching methods and delivery of content. I agree with this, but I felt he left a lot up to chance before really ingraining the fundamentals ... There were no ramp-up drills. We should be having successful hits on numbers before we start doing math, as this takes away from our ability to focus on proper technique.
(R) - This may have been something emphasized more heavily in day 1 though. So with that we can agree that day 2 was rolling forward with technique.
(R) - I originally had been interested in attending this for a few reasons, but one was a team building for Wayne, Hunter and Tim. Wayne couldn't make it, but Hunter, Tim and I attended to have some time to train together as well as help create some content for ARC.
The classroom structure I felt was appropriate, as well as the warmup drills.
(H) - For me, this was a great return to working with weapons this way for the first time in a long time.
(R) - One thing he does early on is sets the example that I like, by giving a brief background as well as explaining he would demo the drills to show expectation. The reason I like this method it's because he is giving those audible commands and explanations, but also the visual reference for those who learn better in that manner. Not showboating, he demonstrated expectations during drills clearly, cleanly, and in a humble manner. Without getting too deep, he did explain the connection of how our human body interacts with the micro and macro events occurring in a firearm which is another thing I like to touch on occasionally. Safety was heavily emphasized which I can appreciate as well.
(H) - I feel almost to a detriment. I know this may sound negative and go against safety but something about this felt more like dealing with school kids.
(R) - Which I feel is only coming from a place of experience, from working on ranges (for A.J. in a federal capacity as well), and in shops with guns constantly flagging you. Not as typical from students who want to further their skills (that's not to say I don't have students who I constantly have to remind about their basic rules of firearm safety, even if they can repeat them off the list, but seem to forget to act on them).
(R) - Students were all varying skill levels and I'm sure there are certain important notes we missed on day 1. But we were all able to jump right into positions and roll with the group through day 2. I didn't set any expectations going into class as I was there to learn. A lot of the rifle shooting for day 2 were things that I had previously worked on, so I stepped away to man the camera, to allow Tim to get more drill time in. Tim has only had "formal" or structured instruction through me, so I saw a great learning opportunity for him to take. Tim, Hunter and I greatly appreciated the class and even more importantly, we had fun doing it. Anyone can study to become a brain scientist or a "rocket surgeon", but wouldn't it be better if you had fun while doing it? Tim did mention on the ride home that he took away a lot within that long but seemingly short day. My only note, I would have liked to see more corrections made as a presentation to the group to help people address certain issues, but in group format courses sometimes that is very difficult. Addressing each individual student would be great, but in a setting like this, a correction presented to the group I think would have been very effective to help hammer home some points.
(H) - I did not think of this, but I agree with this. I think this was clearly a numbers issue. I think more instructors to finesse technique would be needed. But given it was just him I think he handled and balanced this very well also.
(R) - The class by the end is pass/fail method. Which online you're saying to yourself, ok what does that mean? ARC is trying to create a new baseline with a cadre of instructors to better help their students progress appropriately, but also for other outside instructors to create these solid foundations. I'm sure in more refined words that it's essentially preventing students from going to other levels that wouldn't be appropriate. After working on a range, you see a lot of things. Whether it's a government facility for employees being forced to qualify or a range for the open public, there are in fact people who just don't understand and respect firearms. So yes, there are people who sometimes jump too far just so they can say they went from point A to point B, and while some do, there are some who don't care about the process between. ARC is trying to change that, by also assigning target numbers and scores which can help with future courses whether you re-enroll or you move forward in curriculum.
(H) - The class pass/fail method is great for safety, and aims to create a solid foundation for students and prevent inappropriate progression. I agree with this style for many reasons.
(R) - Overall for me, reinforcement of fundamentals, a few new methods of mounting the rifle, dialing in on recoil in more effective ways, and finding optimal eye relief were learned. I would suggest this course to new shooters and shooters looking to shake the rust off to advance themselves. Tim actually mentioned A.J. used to have a course based around mentality and situational awareness, and I think it's clear he brings those methods into this course which is great for anyone. One of my favorite things he said, it's something I say as well; As an instructor, our goal is to make you self proficient, and self analytical to not need a trainer by your side every time to help make you improve. Also, if you're worried about being out of shape, there is no running in this class. I also appreciated the baseline tests he recorded.
Lastly, my Gcode leg strap hardware fell out, so reminder, locktite your shit and witness mark it, it was a pain in the ass not having it.
(H) - My overall summary is this class is a great class for people that want to know whether more tactical training is of interest to them as this class is an inch deep and a mile wide. It is really a sampler platter of tactical shooting. You can learn a lot as a shooter who has gotten bored of keeping it in an 8.5 x 11 paper and wants to start learning how to tighten up that group and start thinking about shooting more critically.
You can check out ARC Syndicate on multiple platforms. Here's a link for them.
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