The class has a great group of people. Two of the students are women who are tough as nails.
A lot of time yesterday was spent working on weapons access under maximum all out pressure by a knife attacker. Gabe and Crafty then decreased the distances until getting your gun out was not always the easiest option to pull off. This often required bringing the Dog Catcher into play to intercept the problem, buy some time and position, and then access your firearm if/as appropriate.
The Dog Catcher was very effective in intercepting the knife attack in progress. After that the fight was on. Whether you got the head butt in or not was also a dynamics changer that frequently made the difference between how successful your defense was. Sometimes you won and sometimes you lost. Several MMA guys are in the class so they represented themselves very well at the close ranges. Size, strength, and conditioning mattered. One of them planted a great front kick into the attacker that essentially stopped all forward progress, and then he smoothly drew his firearm. As the two women proved, size and gender were not as important as combative mindset and ferocity. Gabe and Crafty ran each drill such that it did not end just because gunfire or some thrusts were achieved. Getting training time like this under essentially maximum attack pressure is few and far between for pistoleros.
Day two begins shortly. Ciao fo' now.
P.S. Yesterday was a long day. 1000-1830 hours.
