i shot you a pm and thanks for all the info guys and gals
i shot you a pm and thanks for all the info guys and gals
I am sorry to be the sole dissenting voice. It is not my intention to slander anyone or any company, so I will state outright that everything below is my opinion, and my opinion alone, and I will have to be necessarily vague.
<edit> I have been asked to remove my comments, so I will simply say that a friend had a very distressing encounter at Badlands and I will just say that it is my personal decision after hearing the story that I will forego my previous plans to attend training there, and I will not recommend that any of my friends do so, either.
Please do not bother asking me for more details, that's all I'm going to say for now.
<edit> I have been asked to remove my comments, so I will simply say that a friend had a very distressing encounter at Badlands and I will just say that it is my personal decision after hearing the story that I will forego my previous plans to attend training there, and I will not recommend that any of my friends do so, either.
Please do not bother asking me for more details, that's all I'm going to say for now.
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Hello. I’m a first time poster, and I have joined solely because of this thread. When the original negative comment about the private training was brought to my attention, I felt shocked and offended. I am one of the students that attended that private training class. I feel an overwhelming need to clarify what that training class was all about, and to set the record straight on behalf of the Badlands instructors.
The custom training class that we requested revolved around “real world” self-defense situations with an emphasis on hand-to-hand fighting. This involved a considerable amount of ground work. It also included defense with and against weapons such as knives and handguns, and utilized plastic training knives and UTM training pistols. This training class was not standard, and the curriculum was requested by the two of us that attended.
Throughout the course, we ran many drills, and we put them to practice in scenarios that you aren’t likely to find in an average studio. The drills will wear you down and even get you bruised, scraped and winded, but the scenarios are even more difficult. They are physically, mentally and emotionally taxing. We weren’t there to talk about the perfect weaver stance and gently do tai-chi while high fiving after trust falls; we were there to experience and train for violent situations. That’s just what we did.
In the scenarios, we learned a lot about how we respond to a violent situation, and how to deal with it. This isn’t achieved by having someone yell obscenities at you from across the room. It’s done by padding up as much as possible, and getting attacked. I can tell you, it feels real. It is nerve racking, it’s confusing, it’s painful and it is frightening. Days afterwards, thinking about the scenarios can get your heart rate up, and the bruises and sore muscles will make you feel like medicating for a week. Keep in mind, I’m telling you the facts about what I personally experienced. Things that I previously thought that I would or could do, were optimistic expectations. I was learning the reality of being attacked.
So, why would someone go through all of this? The same reason someone would train to shoot with their CCW… To quote a sign on the wall at Badlands, “When bad things are happening, we don’t rise to our expectations – we fall to our level of TRAINING!” We all realize at some point that we aren’t prepared for things that we haven’t experienced on some level. Our custom training class allowed us to experience the violence of an attack and to defend against it without being in any real danger. If there were any real dangers or problems, I would have personally addressed them with the folks at Badlands long ago, and certainly not on the internet.
This kind of experience would NOT have been possible without the instructors. The Badlands instructors are professional, attentive and are willing to get on the ground with you. Some of them pick up scrapes and bruises while training with you, and when you bruise and scuff them up, they might just tell you that you’re doing it right. They are not violent or offensive, nor do they behave in a criminal manner! Their goal is to deliver the best training they have to offer, and when they are training a student for a violent scenario, they succeed while keeping the students safe.
In summation, if I didn’t recommend Badlands, I would be doing people a disservice. They have a great facility, and amazing instructors. The regularly scheduled classes are awesome, and the custom classes are top notch. Frankly, they don’t charge enough for what you can learn there, and anyone that has been there will likely agree.
The custom training class that we requested revolved around “real world” self-defense situations with an emphasis on hand-to-hand fighting. This involved a considerable amount of ground work. It also included defense with and against weapons such as knives and handguns, and utilized plastic training knives and UTM training pistols. This training class was not standard, and the curriculum was requested by the two of us that attended.
Throughout the course, we ran many drills, and we put them to practice in scenarios that you aren’t likely to find in an average studio. The drills will wear you down and even get you bruised, scraped and winded, but the scenarios are even more difficult. They are physically, mentally and emotionally taxing. We weren’t there to talk about the perfect weaver stance and gently do tai-chi while high fiving after trust falls; we were there to experience and train for violent situations. That’s just what we did.
In the scenarios, we learned a lot about how we respond to a violent situation, and how to deal with it. This isn’t achieved by having someone yell obscenities at you from across the room. It’s done by padding up as much as possible, and getting attacked. I can tell you, it feels real. It is nerve racking, it’s confusing, it’s painful and it is frightening. Days afterwards, thinking about the scenarios can get your heart rate up, and the bruises and sore muscles will make you feel like medicating for a week. Keep in mind, I’m telling you the facts about what I personally experienced. Things that I previously thought that I would or could do, were optimistic expectations. I was learning the reality of being attacked.
So, why would someone go through all of this? The same reason someone would train to shoot with their CCW… To quote a sign on the wall at Badlands, “When bad things are happening, we don’t rise to our expectations – we fall to our level of TRAINING!” We all realize at some point that we aren’t prepared for things that we haven’t experienced on some level. Our custom training class allowed us to experience the violence of an attack and to defend against it without being in any real danger. If there were any real dangers or problems, I would have personally addressed them with the folks at Badlands long ago, and certainly not on the internet.
This kind of experience would NOT have been possible without the instructors. The Badlands instructors are professional, attentive and are willing to get on the ground with you. Some of them pick up scrapes and bruises while training with you, and when you bruise and scuff them up, they might just tell you that you’re doing it right. They are not violent or offensive, nor do they behave in a criminal manner! Their goal is to deliver the best training they have to offer, and when they are training a student for a violent scenario, they succeed while keeping the students safe.
In summation, if I didn’t recommend Badlands, I would be doing people a disservice. They have a great facility, and amazing instructors. The regularly scheduled classes are awesome, and the custom classes are top notch. Frankly, they don’t charge enough for what you can learn there, and anyone that has been there will likely agree.
Well first off Sandwich, welcome to OSA, secondly, thank you for your clarification and input. This is great place to exchange knowledge.
anytime and welcome to OSA
That will be your loss. The post was second-hand knowledge that had ZERO basis in fact. Bobby, Steve, Dustin, Rich and crew are some of the best at what they do. Their Basic Long Range Precision Rifle class has no equal. I have attended training with these guys on a couple of occasions and I can tell you that you will be the one losing out by not training with them. Do yourself a favor and experience it for yourself instead of accepting internet babble.
The post clearly stated he was a student in the class. I'm not sure how you qualify that as second-hand knowledge.
