Location- PMC training facility outside Fredericksburg, VA
Instructor- Bennie Cooley of CRTC Inc. (Crisis Resolution Training Consultants)- A longtime DOE Special Operations Division member and world-class competitive shooter.
Students- The class was purposely a mix of current and former military, LE, Security Contractors, and a few regular civilian shooters.
- Barricade standing- weather for 3 days went from snow to sunny
Day 1- Bennie started the class off by having everyone introduce themselves and offer a little bit about why they decided to take this class and what they were hoping to get out of it. A few stated that they’d heard of Bennie and just wanted the opportunity to train with him, many of the local students mentioned the opportunity to shoot and move as there are few places in the DC suburbs that allow it. I was drawn to it because it was advertised as a strenuous class and I wanted to push myself.
- Bennie Cooley watching students as they shoot from barricade standing
Briefly covered some range safety before moving right in to it. We started with a hot range, which was nice- big boys rules in effect.
We confirmed zeroes and made any adjustments before going right in to shooting.
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Stances:
- Offhand
- Kneeling
- Stretched kneeling
Transitioning from firing side to support side.
Shooting while moving.
Moving between the different positions.
We shot mostly steel targets for the 3-day course. Bennie stresses accuracy but most of the training was focused on getting the positions and movement correct.
- Bennie Cooley demonstrating proper pistol technique
His philosophy is that due to the limited time the 3-day course is designed to teach the students how to teach themselves and self correct when they train it on their own time.
He strongly believes that by using visualization techniques, dry fire and eventually live fire a student can correctly learn the basics with at least two weeks of practice.
- Bennie Cooley and student (ex-NSW) engaging targets with pistols
His stretched kneeling platform is worth mentioning because it was probably the most physically taxing portion of the course. Imagine taking a deep step forward with your support side leg so that your firing side leg is stretched out- like a lunge. Then drop your support side elbow on top of your support side knee- this was a very stable position when done correctly with the advantage of being able to quickly getting in to it. The negatives are that its harder (sometimes painful) to get out of, not all body types can do it, and can be difficult if not impossible if completely jocked up with body armor, chest rigs, etc.
- Stretched kneeling, fast to get in to and stable
This leads to a key point of Bennie’s methodology:
“Don’t injure yourself during training, however, don’t confuse pain and discomfort with injury”
Day 2
Although I tried to train up for what was advertised as a strenuous course I woke up on Tuesday feeling every muscle in my body ache. The only relief in sight was that I’d be doing it all over again and hopefully that would warm up and loosen those muscles. It had snowed overnight and we were to receive intermittent flurries for the morning of Day 2.
We reviewed the drills we did on Day 1 before adding squatting to the mix. Bennie worked with students individually to fine tune them.
- Squatting, a very stable intermediate shooting position
He added a few other things as well, starting off with a handgun skills diagnostic to see where the students were in term of skill level. Then added some rhythm drills and multiple targets.
Bennie believes that there is a range (and circumstances) at which collapsing to the target is preferable to transitioning to a pistol so we started with muzzle strikes. Then progressed to disarming techniques and counters to disarming techniques.
Day 3
Spent a lot of time moving between, shooting around and through barricades. Barricades were plywood about 7′ high on the right edge with stair steps on the left side and slots cut out of the center. A lot of time spent transitioning from right side to left side as well as using the other positions we learned on Days 1 & 2. Bennie also taught us his barricade standing and kneeling positions.
- Shooting through an obstacle
We also did some basic team movement/stacks between barricades.
- Team movement, note forward and rear security
The shooting through the barricades set us up for shooting from vehicles. After a lecture on the how’s and whys of shooting from different positions inside the vehicle we took turns doing it dry before going live.
- Dry fire to familiarize students with position before going live
Equipment- All AR’s with one factory HK416, I was surprised as there’s usually at least one AK in a class like this. Most ran fine although I believe almost everyone had at least a few malfunctions during the class. Some of it may be the weapons themselves but a lot of it may be ammo related as the difficulties in locating quality/affordable continue.
A few students had plate carriers and chest rigs but just as many had sub loads or worked out of of belt pouches.
- Live fire from vehicle, note vehicle in front is being rocked from outside
I think all but one person had some sort of optic with Aimpoints and Eotechs being the most popular although we had at least one compact ACOG and a Leupold CQ/T. I ran an Eotech 552 and it worked fine other than coming loose on the Larue mount ( I went along with the manufacturers’ lit and didn’t put any loctite on the screw)
Bennie is a believer in the VTAC 2 pt. Sling and I can see why. I was running a new Larue/VTAC sling and found the extra padding to get in the way based on these specific techniques. It works fine if running support arm through but if just hanging around the neck and transitioning from shoulder to shoulder I could feel it choking me a few times as well as interfering with my firing grip.
The class was great- it exceeded all my expectations. Bennie is an awesome instructor and while I may not train everything he showed me I left with a lot more things that I will train. Host campbell did an awesome job with coordinating the logistics and vetting all the students for the class. All the guys (and gal) in the class were first rate people and I look forward to training with them again. This AAR is nowhere near complete given the fire hose of information passed out in 3 days but I hope it at least covers the basics of what we went over.
Tags: Bennie Cooley, Carbine training, CRTC, CRTC Inc, M4 training, Rifle training, shooting from vehicles