Rogers
Shooting School
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| The..Class | Each day, class began at the range at 9:00am and went
until noon for lunchtime. Class started again half an hour later and went until
3:00pm or 3:30pm. (Rogers also offers an optional shotgun class held after the
pistol class each day, but no one in our group was taking the shotgun portion) Students are paired up each day, using the same shooter/coach method made popular by the National Rifle Association. Either you're shooting, or you're coaching your partner, watching his technique and counting his hits.
Over the course of the week, we transition to doing all of these things first strong-hand only, and then weak-hand only (except for the draw; we never did a weak-hand only holster presentation). A short segment one day involved shooting on the move (forwards, backwards, and laterally) and Thursday night we went out to the range for an extra ninety minutes of low-light instruction and practice. Everything is based on that 0.25 second reaction time. There are no slow drills to ease into the sytem. From the very beginning, all target exposures are at reaction times. On Monday you might try a drill ten times and only hit the plate once because things are moving so fast ... but by Friday you are hitting it seven or eight times out of ten, or better. This creates a lot of stress, because at first you feel completely behind the power curve as the targets pop up and back down long before you can break an accurate shot. This is done purposely. The folks at Rogers use stress to teach the subconscious. Their goal is to get your brain to realize just how fast you can shoot, and realize what is an "acceptable sight picture" to get a hit at high speed. The reactive targets are critical to this teaching method. From the very start, you have to shoot at the target's pace, not your own. Unlike most schools were students drill at their own speed all day and then shoot on a timer at the end of a lesson, every shot you take at Rogers is "on the clock" and if you aren't fast and accurate enough to meet the drill requirements, you don't get your hit. |
| Dry Fire | Another critical aspect to the teaching method at
Rogers involves a directed dry firing session each night as part of the evening lecture.
Students are taught what Rogers considers the seven fundamentals (including some
rather novel but appropriate fundamentals like "mindset" and "keep both
eyes open"), different trigger manipulation techniques, etc. While a lot of people neglect their dry fire practice at home, there is no question that the evening sessions at Rogers (under the tutelage of Andy Langley) had a huge impact on the students' performance. |
| The Results | With the exception of one student, everyone in the
class improved immensely on their test scores over the course of the week.
Personally, I shot a 94 on the first day -- barely making Intermediate -- and felt like I
had done the best I possibly could. But after a short dry fire session with Mr.
Langley and another day of instruction, on Tuesday I shot a 103 ... still in Intermediate
territory but doing much better. Tuesday night was the really heavy dry-fire session
with a lot of emphasis on trigger manipulation skills, and it made all the difference in
the world for me. Wednesday I shot a 115 (Advanced), and I kept shooting Advanced
scores the rest of the week. My best score came Thursday afternoon with a 119.
My total points for the week: 657 out of 750 possible, putting me in second place overall
for the week.
On this trip, Dave started things off on Monday with a 123 score which made the rest of us look like we were standing still at a drag race. During the week, Dave once again tied that 124 top score and set an all new record for aggregate points ... 732 out of 750. That's right. In six tests, Dave dropped a total of eighteen points. I dropped more than that each of the first two times I shot the test. Click here to see video of Harrington shooting Test 9, the "Blast Drill" (approx. seven minutes to download at 56k) Click here to see video of Harrinton shooting Test 4, the freestyle failure drill (approx. six minutes to download at 56k) Click here to see video of Harrington shooting Test 8, the weak hand only "Blast Drill" (approx. three and a half minutes to download at 56k) The shooter with the highest weekly score receives the prestigious "red pin" on Friday when class breaks. Of course, Harrington walked away with the pin ... his second. The Rogers folks do not normally expect first-time students at the school to achieve Advanced ratings, but it happened more than once with this group. Not really a surprise, considering most of the class was made up of soldiers whose backgrounds and skills qualified them to be special operations instructors in the first place. But even these highly trained and experienced warriors saw their abilities noticeably improved after a week at Rogers Shooting School. |
The class takes a basic building block approach. First we work from an
extended ready position, getting used to the target system and the Rogers technique.
Then shooting starts from a retention position, and finally from the holster.
Reloads and malfunction clearances are covered. 
So
what about that one student who didn't see his scores rocket higher? That was Sgt.
First Class David Harrington, US Army Special Forces combat weapons instructor and member
of the Beretta Pistol Team. Dave had been to Rogers once before, where he not only
tied the highest ever test score (124 out of 125), but also set a record for highest
aggregate week score (700 out of 750).