blazemyowntrails
New member
This is a brief review of my experience with Chris Fry and his Combat pistol Skills Course 1&2 conducted out of Niagara Gun Range in the Buffalo, NY Area on 12/3/2011. I found his website online, and thought it was a great opportunity to get involved with combat shooting because there are so few civilian instructors around the Buffalo area. The class was full by the time I went to register, but when I called to see when the program was coming back, I was informed that there was a cancellation, so I decided to take the spot.
Chris is the CEO and main instructor out of the "Modern Defensive Training Systems LLC." He is a CIVILIAN instructor with no ties to LE or Military agencies, and he is the first person to tell you that. That is is his main point in instruction, because throughout his extensive training over many years, it was tough to find a class dedicated to the civilian defensive minded shooter. This class is geared toward that aim. He is a very likable and professional instructor. He went out of his way to let me borrow some of his personal equipment I was lacking for the course, and was very personable throughout the duration. (I carry a full size 1911 in a shoulder holster. It has magazine carriers in the off-side. (A strong side hip holster and two magazine carriers was needed for this particular course)
The lesson starts with a lecture about handgun safety, article 35 (NYS penal law Justification of the use of force) as well as other various topics and an overview of the curriculum of the class. We're all shooters here, so I won't bore you to death with that. Suffice it to say that it was thorough for new shooters, and a great review for the more advanced ones.
Once on the range, the combative marksmanship was taught first, since many people tend to dwell on more bullseye-type marksmanship, and the difference was easily demonstrated. (Chris himself put two bullets in the same hole at combat distance and speed- an enormous attention getter for myself personally.)
There was an improvement in every student's (12 total) marksmanship within the first rounds of shooting. From here we went to Movement, verbal commands, draws from concealment and open positions, reloading, malfunctions, after action assessments, cover and concealment, and even a little stress training. (Not in this order)
The teaching methods were effective because of the approach to training. Each drill was not taught as a separate skill. After one skill was learned, you had to apply it after every following drill. So by the end of the course, every single tactic was becoming regular for each continuation of the drills.
After the range time, there was a short debriefing and Chris was open to constructive criticisms. Overall everyone there enjoyed the practice and the teaching. The overall consensus as far as criticisms went was that there was not enough personal one-on-one time. We'd all like to think that we were such good shooters, personal critiques weren't needed, but the grim reality is probably more along the lines of class size vs. instructor ratio, and time constraint. Nevertheless, the experience was immensely enjoyable, educational, helpful, and definitely useful. I hope Chris brings MDTS and Combat Pistol 3&4 back to our area sometime very soon! Thanks for reading.
Chris is the CEO and main instructor out of the "Modern Defensive Training Systems LLC." He is a CIVILIAN instructor with no ties to LE or Military agencies, and he is the first person to tell you that. That is is his main point in instruction, because throughout his extensive training over many years, it was tough to find a class dedicated to the civilian defensive minded shooter. This class is geared toward that aim. He is a very likable and professional instructor. He went out of his way to let me borrow some of his personal equipment I was lacking for the course, and was very personable throughout the duration. (I carry a full size 1911 in a shoulder holster. It has magazine carriers in the off-side. (A strong side hip holster and two magazine carriers was needed for this particular course)
The lesson starts with a lecture about handgun safety, article 35 (NYS penal law Justification of the use of force) as well as other various topics and an overview of the curriculum of the class. We're all shooters here, so I won't bore you to death with that. Suffice it to say that it was thorough for new shooters, and a great review for the more advanced ones.
Once on the range, the combative marksmanship was taught first, since many people tend to dwell on more bullseye-type marksmanship, and the difference was easily demonstrated. (Chris himself put two bullets in the same hole at combat distance and speed- an enormous attention getter for myself personally.)
There was an improvement in every student's (12 total) marksmanship within the first rounds of shooting. From here we went to Movement, verbal commands, draws from concealment and open positions, reloading, malfunctions, after action assessments, cover and concealment, and even a little stress training. (Not in this order)
The teaching methods were effective because of the approach to training. Each drill was not taught as a separate skill. After one skill was learned, you had to apply it after every following drill. So by the end of the course, every single tactic was becoming regular for each continuation of the drills.
After the range time, there was a short debriefing and Chris was open to constructive criticisms. Overall everyone there enjoyed the practice and the teaching. The overall consensus as far as criticisms went was that there was not enough personal one-on-one time. We'd all like to think that we were such good shooters, personal critiques weren't needed, but the grim reality is probably more along the lines of class size vs. instructor ratio, and time constraint. Nevertheless, the experience was immensely enjoyable, educational, helpful, and definitely useful. I hope Chris brings MDTS and Combat Pistol 3&4 back to our area sometime very soon! Thanks for reading.
