
Originally Posted by
fenceline
AAR in a nutshell.
Friday evening was all classroom for 2 hours. A brief history of the IDF, small arms usage over the years and the decision to transition to the Tavor from the M16 platform. Interesting way to meet and greet the Zahal staff and the other classmates.
Saturday morning started with a little light PT. "Light" is different things to different people, but 5 minute warm up to get the body ready. A little back and forth running, a push up thrown in here and there. We then proceeded into dry drills focussing on the proper hold of the rifle including the 5 contact points. We went on to various positions of stance including the ready position, standing position, advancing to downed target, stopping for a target that has become visible (stutter stepping), basic loading and unloading drills, and use of trigger reset. These dry drills took up the entire morning.
In the after noon the class of 24 was split up into 2 groups. One group did live fire drills including the Israeli 3 round "tap", firing cadence practiced by the IDF, and basic "run to empty" reload drills. While one group was shooting, the other half of the class learned some of the kit maintenance prescribed for the Tavor and Israeli nots used to tie slings and make mag pulls. Lots of side bar nutshells of info that were unexpected but informative.
181 rounds personally fired on day one.
Sunday morning started again with the warm up run and occasional push ups. More dry drills, but building on the skills learned on day one. Transitions from ready, standing, kneeling and prone we drilled. Using cover/lowering shooting stances to deal with malfunctions and mag changes, rolling. Malfunction specifics and types according to the IDF mantra were discussed and the IDF ways in which to fix them. = first (bolt forward, tap and rack, pinch check), second (bolt not fully forward, strip mag, 3 racks, insert mag, rack, pinch check), third (bolt locked to rear, strip mag, insert mag, drop bolt, pinch check).
In the afternoon the class split in two again. Classroom included a pretty good demonstration of IR lasers, infrared and IR Optics by TVPP. The range work consisted of live fire with built in malfunction drills by mags loaded by another shooter as prescribed by Lovie. Ready position through to prone (but no rolling during live fire, for obvious reasons).
139 rounds personally fired total day two. 320 rounds fired over course.
While you don't have to be 18, in shape and ready to enlist in some army, I think it is pretty safe to say everyone pushed themselves hard to learn the fundamentals from the IDF training perspective. You really do get an understanding of how hard the instructors there push their new recruits over the 7 days of basic Tavor instruction they get. We just got a taste of it. It was physical, but really any shooter could do it. If you needed a break, no one made an issue of it. Do what you can, when you can. Some guys couldn't kneel due to previous injury, so they stood. You could go as hard, or as light as you wanted. But everyone was sweating each day. Good effort by all.
Going in I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I didn't know how much it would be watered down for civilian shooters. I think they did a very good job keeping the integrity of the 7 day basic tavor course while still getting through the drills and procedures used in the IDF training program. They do not run the rifle in any way like an AR. It was difficult at times to try and break from old habits as I wanted to fully experience that philosophy or arms. There are still things the IDF do in their shooting that seem odd to me, but there are other things that make a lot of sense.
The one bit of advice I'd have on future courses is the size. While everyone was great and added to the course in their own ways, 24 people on a 6 person range is tough. A class of 12 would really allow for more time to work on the drills slowly so that the muscle memory starts to sink in, rather than quickly learning the drills and pushing right into full speed runs of them. That could just be how I learn though, through seeing, then doing slower reps and building speed over time. Time was short however, and I appreciate the amount of information that was given in that time. Lots to digest.
I did a lot more dry drills than I expected. This wasn't a bad thing though either. IDF recruits don't even touch their rifle for the first 2 days of the 7 day course back there. They practice over and over without a rifle, then add it in when their form is up to par.
I'd recommend the course to anyone with a Tavor that wants to experience the rifle away from the AR philosophy for sure. Like knowing one martial art, then moving to another completely different style. No real way to explain it differently. Experience everything in the moment as taught, take away what works personally later. But do embed yourself in that shooting experience and mindset.
Lovie and Yoav were fantastic to deal with. Great people. I can't compliment them enough on their professionalism and good nature. I hope they return soon to share another round of beers.
TVPP was instrumental in getting this going. He too I can't thank enough for the work he did. He didn't even get to participate too much, instead relegating himself to administration duties. We need more people like this in the Canadian shooting community, and I'm not just saying that because I know him, which I do. He was pretty selfless this weekend. Hats off to you.
CSC have great range staff. Couldn't have had a better indoor location. Thanks to them as well.
And I now know about 5 or 6 words of Hebrew haha.