AK Training from Sonny Puzikas

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Snyperc

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I spoke to Sonny today, he is very excited that we have sought him out and from talking to him I know he is going to give us one heck of a great class. I found a review of a recent class he gave in Texas by one of the participants that I thought I would share here;
Had a chance to attend Sonny Puzikas class at Impact Zone here in Houston, along with Nitcra, NinerRider and Keith from Tac47Industries. The class was about 20 total in size with a mix of one or two complete newbies, serious recreational shooters, ex military and a couple of guys that have trained with Sonny alot. I'd say half of the class was ex military and probably close to half had taken rifle instruction clases like this one before. The really nice part is that not one person was a mall ninja type and there was no ego during the course...everyone was professional, safe and had a sincere desire to learn. Sonny delivered on the learning...and boy did he ever.

There is way too much to cover without writing a book, but I'll hit some of the high points that I picked up. Sonny would demonstrate a technique, step through it slowly and then execute at full speed. We'd then do the same so we could get the movement down and pick up speed at our own pace until we were getting pretty fluid. During the class we all developed an impromptu buddy system and helped each other step through the mechanics of the movements, double checked each other for safety and really helped evaluate each other during the exercises. That helped tremendously in getting the technique down and Sonny was always there spot checking, correcting on the fly and elaborating on the mechanics.

The interesting part is that his class isn't really about AK's specifically...yes we learned some interesting techniques that are AK specific (like how to do mag changes with 2 30 rounders taped together), but on the whole you could easily plug any rifle into the equation and get the same results. The main thing about the class is that the weapon is actually irrelevant, it's how you employ it that matters (sounds obvious, but there's a lot of subtle things going on in his training). The class is completely focused on movement, every action is based on it and every drill had movement in it. Most of our shooting was done while we were moving....offhand shooting, mag changes, transitions and lateral displacement, you name it we did it on the move. All shooting was done from about 3-10 yards and depending on the exercise we'd either all be online at the same time, or we'd be split into 4 groups while doing some of the more complicated drills that required a lot of space.

The heat was brutal and I think the pace of the class took that into consideration. We did a lot of physical exertion but he didn't try to kill us and there were numerous hydration breaks, and a couple periods where we discussed the higher level concepts of movement and then got back to the details of this or that technique. I found the pace to be a tad slow on the first day but we rocked it out in the afternoon and on the second day it was all run and gun. He normally does 4 day classes and so the 2 day had some elements of compromise, made sense after he explained it during the class AAR on Sunday. Overall the pace suited me quite well and I enjoyed the combination of discussion and execution, he has a good sense of when to do what.


The class is 100% real world shooting. There was nothing fancy or silly, no square range mentality and nothing 'gimickee'. The techniques are actually all based on body mechanics and nothing is forced...the reason you change mags this way or that, or draw your secondary and shoot like this or that are tied directly into how your body moves. There was more than one thing he demonstrated where he looked like a drunken monkey, but when he broke down the mechanics you could easily see why that move was faster, more fluid or more efficient. I discovered a number of things that I had been forcing due to my Army training and he could explain exactly how that training affected what I was doing. Very subtle and interesting stuff.

Sonny himself is an interesting character. Like all of the really great NCO's, officers and instructors I've met over the years he is extremely intelligent. He's also a lifelong martial artist and a student of EVERYTHING... Karate, Systema, Jiu-Jitsu, etc etc. You name it he's probably studied. His whole approach to training was remarkably like Jeet Kun Do (no way is the way)...he never said that anyone's training was best, he simply said study as much as you can and incorporate what works for you. The tone of the class was more oriented toward martial arts where you happened to employ a rifle, as opposed to a rifle class based on shooting. As I said there was movement in everything and there was attention to detail on the smallest parts of each movement.

I had a phenominal time and my head is still spinning with all the details. It was also really cool to take the class with good friends and meet some new ones too.

Here is the link to the post, it includes some photos;
http://www.theakforum.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=131860
 

Snyperc

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Man this sounds awesome! Are PSL-54C's allowed? Technically its an ak just a longer one.


It was announced Saturday at the Practical Rifle Match that we still have 7 available slots. After speaking with Sonny we decided it wasn't fair to limit this class to only AK's since 85% of his material is applicable to any Defensive Rifle.
So anyone who wants to attend and bring something other than an AK is welcome. Please make your reservations soon. We are locking down details daily and those who have already signed up will begin getting specifics very very soon.
Thanks for all the interest.
Dave
PS- I am sure we can get Sonny to come back to give an abreviated 1 day course sometime next year if the interest is there. Maybe a 1 day First level and a 1 day continuation for those that attend this class.
Dave
 

JPrusik

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I'm Definetly interested in attending this kick-a$$ class.


Very informative info about the class, but a question on the live fire.


Will the live fire be semi- and full-auto, or just semi? I have an Auto AK-47, so it would be benificial if the live fire was too.
 

Snyperc

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It will be semi only. I won't go into a long discourse on semi vs full auto. This class is to teach tactics, not play with a happy switch gun.
Dave
 

Snyperc

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One day classes....one day classes...what they hell are you talking about?! Get him to come for the FOUR DAY CLASSES!!!
WIth the successful conclusion of this class I know Sonny will be happy to provide whatever we need.
My intention is to be able to get this high speed training to everyone that wants it.
Dave
 

Snyperc

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We have received confirmation that the Training Class will take place at Oil Capital. those of you who have sent your confirmation emails will receive further information this week reagarding payment, etc.
We still have about 7 spots left for those of you who want to get some World Class Training!
Dave
 

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