Advancing Every Day Carry with Apache Solutions

Advancing E.D.C. with Apache Solutions

        Recently, I was fortunate enough to attend Apache’s offering of their two-part course, Advancing E.D.C. The Gunset Training Group, hosted owner/founder Tim Kelly, and Instructor Dan Brady for a weekend of incredible work at Xenia Police department Training Facility in Xenia Ohio. Students can take either or both days of this course, a convenient update to the AEDC program.

        Before, we dive too deeply into this course, I feel it important to share a bit about the two instructors who delivered it. I’ve had the great pleasure to train with both Tim and Dan in the past and must share that these two are phenomenal at what they do. Full disclosure, they are friends of mine, friends who happen to be among the best I’ve ever seen in any realm of adult education or training. Tim comes across as an extremely conscientious stoic. He is extremely organized, detail oriented, but always able to convey important information, no matter how complex, in a manner that shows he truly cares about his message receiver. Tim takes his responsibility to his clients, extremely seriously and strives to meet their expectations at every level. Dan Brady is a perfect compliment to Tim, especially in the context of this course. Dan is a character! Not in the way that suggests he lacks discipline, quite the contrary. Dan is extremely quick-witted and fun to be around, but is equally quick to deliver an important observation, coaching tip, pertinent anecdote, or technical facts. Put all this together and you have an incredible environment in which to process this high tempo class, with A LOT of vital content.

        Day one of AEDC starts off like most others with intros, waivers, safety and the “why” behind Apache Solutions. Where many course instructors speak of their expectations of students, Apache goes out of their way to ask every student what THEY expect from the class. Not only do they ask for students’ expectations, but they also remember the student expectations, address said expectations, and directly explain if for some reason that expectation cannot be met. A novel concept!  

        The focus of this day of work is Skill Acquisition. It is a fast-paced day of skill building, but it’s different. It’s one thing to “feel” like you are doing well, it’s another to break the shooters’ draw down to several micro-tasks and have a specific metric for every part. This course takes tasks that we often “just do” and forces you to think much more deeply about it than you likely ever have. Without giving away the “secret sauce” this is a class where you simply need to trust the process. As you work through the exercises, you will become significantly more aware of where your skills are, and where they aren’t.

Skill Acquisition topics are.

- Recoil Management

- Critical Movement

- Target Discrimination

- Technical Skills

- Individual Capabilities and Limitations

- Metrics and Standards

- Strong hand and Support hand only shooting

- Challenge Drill

        I don’t give too much specific information out about courses like this for obvious reasons. Understand that this is an extremely well-designed day of high output, high return work. I had two individuals in this class whom I’ve mentored into the shooting world. They were struggling to know what to do in their independent practice sessions. Part of the reason I encouraged them to take this course was that I knew they would walk away with a VERY solid structure of exactly what they should be doing in their sessions to achieve the highest level of progress. Bring note taking materials to this class, and know you’ll have A LOT of new practice material long after this class is over.

        Day two was the AEDC: Interactive Concepts segment. As the name would suggest, this day of work revolves around mindset and decision-making. Tim challenges students to dive into their “why” and really understand exactly what the stakes are as it pertains to potential lethal force engagements. Dan Brady delivers a strong block of content on intermediate defensive tools. Note; If you ever have an opportunity to work with Dan in an Apache light course or clinic, jump on it!

Interactive Concepts topics are.

- Technical Skills

- Individual Capabilities and Limitations

- Mass Crowds

- Escalation of force

- Less lethal considerations

- Lawful use of deadly force

- Metrics and Standards

- Challenge Drill

Throughout this day of work students are challenged with their stated “mission” and whether their performance was consistent with it.  Shooting drills include discussions of consequences for poor shot placement, missing shots, or placing innocent persons in danger (muzzling a cone). A supportive training environment in which to learn from these successes and failures is an amazing opportunity and Apache executes that mission flawlessly. Force on force scenarios round out the day. I’ve been fortunate to experience a great deal of scenario training in my training journey, and Tim and Dan did not disappoint. They are thoughtful in their scenario set up and everyone gets an experience to grow from.

Advancing E.D.C. is a course that I believe should be taken and RE-taken regularly. As a package, this two days of work spans a great deal of the content we are all responsible for. I have taken Skills Acquisition twice, Interactive Concepts once, and will likely repeat both next year. Like everything Apache Solutions set out to do, this course sets a high bar in the industry. Prioritize this course in your training plan.