Twenty-one years ago, Andy Stanford researched and wrote the book Surgical Speed Shooting https://www.amazon.com/Surgical-Speed-Shooting-High-Speed-Marksmanship/dp/1581601433 about combat shooting technique. He began teaching classes based on what his research had found. A number of people in the industry, myself included, became part of a group Andy formed to spread his knowledge.

Fast forward to June 2022. Andy organized a four day event, the Surgical Speed Shooting Summit, https://www.tacticalresponse.com/products/surgical-speed-shooting-summit to further update what he learned subsequent to writing his book. The event was held at the classroom and range of Tactical Response https://www.tacticalresponse.com/ in Western Tennessee. The purpose of the Summit was not only to update Surgical Speed Shooting but also to bring together a group of some of the top trainers in the industry, many of whom were not SSS related, to add their expertise to the knowledgebase. The final group of instructors was:

• John Holschen
• John Hearne
• Greg Ellifritz
• Michael Green
• Claude Werner
• Michael DeBethencourt
• Allan McBee
• John Johnston
• Karl Rehn
• Don Redl
• Lee Weems
• Melody Lauer

The first day started with a half day update of what Andy has gleaned about combat pistol shooting since the book’s publication. For the second half of the day, the group went to the range to shoot a few drills and see some targets Andy has developed for Surefire https://www.surefire.com/.

Day Two was spent at the Tactical Response classroom with each trainer giving a presentation of his or her own choosing. The topics all related to personal defense but did not have to be specifically on Surgical Speed Shooting.

On the third day, 47 students arrived at the Tactical Response range to begin training with the 12 instructors who had been divided into three different groups of four instructors each. The students were divided into equal sized groups based on an initial skill evaluation by shooting one of the Surefire drills. The student groups received 2 hours of training each by each instructor group. The instructors divided their two hour time frames among themselves to that the students received 12 total short blocks of instruction.

The final day’s range activities for the students were similar to the third day’s but the instructor groups were reorganized and the instructors had the option to present different material than they had on the previous day.

Finally, everyone returned to the Tactical Response classroom for a wrap-up of the Summit’s events. The instructors and students invidually gave examples of two things that they had personally taken away from the Summit’s training and presentations. As each person gave their take-aways, they were presented with a certificate testifying to their attendance at this historic event.

More about each day’s activities in the next few posts.