Single-person room clearing FEB 23

[Mick-Boy]

I'll be teaching a single-person room clearing/CQB class at Pikes Peak International Raceway (South or Colorado Springs) on Sunday, FEB 23rd.

https://www.nsrconsulting.net/traini...chniques-beast

This is a non-live fire class and there are no prerequisites to attend. We'll be using dry runs as well as force-on-paper. This is not a force-on-force class.

The class is designed to give you an overview of two different approaches to clearing a structure; Systematic and dynamic.

Systematically clearing a structure is done slowly, as carefully as possible, and while minimizing uncleared space left behind us. A dynamic clear would be done if we have some kind of stimulus driving you.

You could think about it as the difference between clearing your house because your wife woke you up and told you she heard something (slow, methodical, trying to minimize risk) and clearing down to your kids room because you heard your kid screaming and an unknown man's voice (fast, aggressive, absorbing more risk in the interest of speed).

We'll cover different philosophies, safety, priorities of work, and different movement techniques for working alone inside a building. Students will get multiple scenarios to try out and validate different techniques.

Hope to see some of you there.

[Mick-Boy]

Use code COAR15 for 10% off

[dan512]

Signed up. See ya'll there.

[XJ]

I did not see a start time and approximate duration?

[Mick-Boy]

The class will run from 8am to between 4 and 5pm depending on the number of students.

[dan512]

On Sunday February 23rd I attended the Single Person Building Entry and Search Techniques class offer by NSR Consulting. The class was hosted by Peter and Jeff, both of whom have extensive, real-world experience with CQB and building clearing.

Gear:
I used an airsoft copy of a Glock 17 provided by the company. Some participants brought their own airsoft pistols, most of us used either our everyday carry set up, or some variation of a competition set up. I did have some issues with the magazines provided and had to switch out a few times. It was not enough to interfere with the course or my learning.

The Class:
The course began with some classroom discussion and overall communication of concepts and strategy. After about an hour of discussion we moved into the shoot house. We discussed 4 basic shapes and practiced walking through each. The idea is minimizing your exposure, while moving in a way to expose the bad guy. We then applied these shapes to entering corner fed, or center fed rooms. Next we continued by discussing strategies for entering doors while clearing. We walked through all of the scenarios several times and received a lot of feedback and relevant stories from the instructors.
After a break for lunch we returned to the shoot house to practice the aforementioned with paper, shoot/ no shoot, targets. We discussed and practiced both methodical and hasty clearing and talked through the appropriate time for each. We finished the formal instruction about 4:00 pm and then most of us hung around a while to ask more questions and BS for a bit.
There was very little down time in the class and a lot of individual instruction. Peter and Jeff were excellent in describing the “why” behind the instruction and were careful to point out that what they were teaching was “a way” not “the way.” There are thousands of agencies teaching CQB and room clearing and I’m sure each does it a different way. I think it is important to know the reason and history behind each technique. As it turns out, 1 man CQB sucks and there a lot of ways to do it wrong, but probably no one right way.
Lessons:
There were a few big lessons I learned, and some bad habits I need to break. First is to stop hugging walls. It’s comforting, but there is no reason to fight really close. You can probably see more angles from farther away, and why make it easier for a bad shooter to hit me? Second is to lower the gun and actually see and process the room. I (and most of us in the class) started by trying to “see” the surroundings through the sight, which just causes tunnel vision and really limits your brain’s ability to process. In a world of things that don’t need to be, or absolutely can not be shot, that is a dangerous thing. My last big lesson is just to pause every now and then. Once you have taken a room, it’s yours. It’s ok to take a little tactical pause before moving to the next problem. Again, not running the gun any faster than your brain can process.

Conclusion:
Overall this was a fantastic and eye opening class. I have carried and shot for decades, but moving through a structure, having to process the layout of hallways and rooms, and having to discriminate between shoot and no shoot targets is a lot to process. I think a lot of shooters have built a “tactical fantasy” and courses like this are a great way for a small, relatively consequence free, reality check. I absolutely recommend courses like this for anyone who carries a gun be it in public, at work, or in your own home. It is an eye-opening experience.

[Mick-Boy]

On 23 FEB 2025 NSR Training and Consulting ran an Independent Building Entry and Search Techniques class at our shoot house at Pikes Peak International Raceway. The weather for the class was great and allowed some nice moments of sunshine in between runs in the house.
The class was attended by people of varied backgrounds and experience including a couple of board members. The instructors for the class were me and Jeff C. (USMC03)

Equipment – We are using Elite Force airsoft G17s. Students had the option to use pistols equipped with a red dot or with iron sights. One student brought his own green gas G19. The equipment ran reasonably well. A few magazine related issues that were fixed by switching out magazines.

POI – The class is intended to be something of a survey course in single person room clearing/building search/CQB. We spent about an hour in the classroom discussing the concepts behind what we’re doing in the house and then spent the rest of the day in the shoot house.

We talked about clearing systematically and hastily and the merits/pitfalls of both. We talked about how to break the house down into manageable shapes and the priorities of work. Students got approximately two hours to practice the various techniques followed by some full runs systematically clearing sections of the house dry. Then we introduced targets.
Attachment 98387
Dan512 working a corner

This is a tactics course much more than a shooting course. Jeff and I want to keep this training as accessible as we can so there are no marksmanship prerequisites or “shoot in” like you often see for live-fire CQB. Historically, when you introduce “shooters” to tactics, the marksmanship suffers. A much more seasoned instructor once told me that he usually expects to see a 50% reduction in marksmanship ability. This class was no different. I was very happy to see the target ID was outstanding. Not a single no-shoot was engaged.

Attachment 98388
Jeff C. discussing a concept with a student

The afternoon was spent on hasty clearing. This is usually stimulus driven (screaming/gunfire from the end of the hall, moving to a known location responding to a call for help, etc.) and we have to understand and accept that we are absorbing more risk in the interest of speed. This is usually a lot of fun for the students and this class was no exception. How fast you can move, make decisions, target ID, and accurately engage is highly individual but I think everyone enjoyed getting to push their personal envelope in a controlled environment.

We ended the day with a debrief. Lessons learned were reviewed and things Jeff and I wanted taken away from the class were emphasized.

Thank you to everyone that came out, I enjoyed working with you all.

Attachment 98389
If it's good enough for Charlie's Angels, it's good enough for us