Last month, I attended the
Sheepdog Response “Protector 1” class taught at the Government Training Institute (GTI) in Barnwell, South Carolina. The Protector 1 curriculum was delivered over three days, Friday evening through Sunday afternoon.
Friday
The initial briefing on Friday night covered a lot of the course administration, but also set expectations for the weekend of training. Concepts like situational awareness, the
OODA Loop, a methodology for categorizing situational awareness zones, even
Colonel Cooper's color code was covered.
Saturday
Saturday morning, on
the mats at a martial arts gym in Aiken (45 minutes from GTI), we
covered the basic positions of mount, side control, back mount, and
guard. This all culminated in running through “Drill One,” which is
escaping the mount by “arm trap and roll” into the guard, passing
the guard to side control, and transitioning from side control to the
mount, at which point the drill starts again. The final exercise on
the mats was full resistance rolling from various positions, such as
back to back, lying side by side, or even starting in the mount.
Saturday afternoon
was at the shooting range. We started off with slow fire, then progressed to drawing from the holster and other basic pistol drills. There were two of us on the
line with DA/SA pistols, and I identified that I
was dropping the first double action shot. The instructors helped me
achieve a better grip, which fixed that problem over the course of the
weekend.
Sunday
Sunday morning we were back on the mats, this time working up through parts of “Drill Two” and taking the back to a rear naked choke, along with kimura from guard, guillotine from guard, and the hip bump sweep. Weapons control was introduced, and rubber pistols and knives were included in the sparring.
Sunday afternoon we were back on the range, this time with more advanced drills including dummy round induced
failure to fire drills (tap & rack drills), turning to shoot, alternate positions (squatting, kneeling, seated, urban prone), barricade shooting, vehicular barricade tactics, and the final “run, pummel, barricade shoot”
stress shoot.
Review
That is a lot to
pack into the time, and it left me with a conundrum for how to review
Protector 1 for Blue Collar Prepping. First, at $950 it is not a cheap course. Second, I think it is best if I
explain that Protector 1 is designed as a "baselining" course to ensure that everyone who wants to continue with Sheepdog Response has a solid set of skills to build on in more advanced classes.
My personal
“gun school” resume includes various US Army Infantry school
courses, Army Marksmanship Unit CQB and SDM Train the Trainer
courses,
Shivworks' Extreme Close Quarters Combat, and my competition
history is a lot of service rifle with some two-gun mixed in. My
grappling is experience is getting close to four years of Brazilian
Jiu Jitsu at 2 to 5 hours of training per week, and a US Army
Combatives instructor (level 2).
That being said, I
learned things in Protector 1. They were little tricks that improved my pistol performance, a different way to set
up a guillotine from guard, and an alternate head placement for an arm trap
and roll. You know the instructors truly know their
craft when a student, for whom all of the curriculum is review, still learns something new to improve his skills. That makes it a solid course taught by good instructors.
So in the
“Good/Fast/Cheap, Pick Any Two” definition, Protector 1 is “Good and Fast” but not cheap. It is quality, however, so you have to balance
the monetary cost with the residual value:
- If you attend a class like
Protector 1 and then go immediately back to your previous lifestyle
without incorporating new priorities into your schedule like
exercise, range time, and grappling time, you wasted your money and time.
- If
you go to a class like Protector 1 and then go, “Huh, I was
completely out of breath three minutes into a live roll, I need to
join a BJJ or MMA gym and train regularly, and I need to do fifteen
minutes of dedicated dry fire every other day” then Protector 1 was
well worth the cost.
- However, if more modestly priced “fundamentals”
courses in your weak areas are offered, it might make more financial
sense to invest in a basic pistols fundamental class, or a concealed
carry class, and then just join a BJJ or MMA gym and start training.
Protector 1 represented over four months of tuition for me at my BJJ
school, so it was definitely a luxury purchase in my
budget.
Side note: once you complete the course, you are
eligible to join the Sheepdog Response forums to connect with
other alumni and start finding answers to your questions as they pop
up. This is an additional residual value that needs to be mentioned.
So who do I
recommend go to Protector 1? People who can afford it and have nearly
zero formal training on grappling or pistol shooting. Attending Shivworks' Extreme Close Quarters Concepts convinced me
that I needed to develop my grappling skills more seriously, because testing myself against
one or two full on attackers was an eye opener. I believe that
Protector 1 provides that same “eye opener” experience of where your skills are lacking.
Getting off the "Peak of Mount Ignorance" on the
Dunning-Kruger scale is the most important part of building real expertise. However,
if I had to choose between Protector 1 and Extreme Close Quarters Concepts, I would recommend ECQC to anyone who already has a passing familiarity with grappling (years of wrestling or BJJ) and pistol shooting (has attended at least one CCW course before).
What if Protector 1 and/or ECQC is out of your price range? Join a martial arts school that does full resistance training (BJJ, MMA, wrestling, krav maga, etc), and find training opportunities for defensive pistol training. As much as I give the NRA grief, they do offer some
affordable 8 hour classes for pistol training, including intro to conceal carry and defensive pistol.
(Erin adds: If you can at all afford it, I recommend the MAG40 class for both pistol instruction and class time on "Armed Citizens’ Rules of Engagement". See my review here for more information.)
Final Thoughts
You always pay for an education; always with time, and often with money as well. You have to live in the body you have, so you have to train in the body you have. Don't wait to "get in shape" to start training. Start training now, and "getting in shape" will happen.