08/22/2026
On July 24,25 & 26, 2026, what would be one of the hottest weekends of the year, we hosted Karl Rehn and KR Training for re scheduled Force on Force Instructor and Advanced Fi****ms training class. This 3 day training weekend was originally planned to take place in January, but old man winter had a different plan and blasted us with a severe snow and ice storm.
Even though the weekend weather was extremely hot, we made use of the Air Conditioned classroom and started all activities very early in the morning to combat the heat.
TD1 started off in the classroom where Karl handed out each student a force on force Instructor manual, signed waivers and began to cover Force on Force Concepts, Student Psychology, Equipment and Safety, Skill Building FOF Drills, Scenario Based Training, and Designing and Running Scenarios. All of this took us to about 3pm where we all embarked outside to begin setting up the PVC fabrication shoot house that we would be using on the next day for running the scenarios, once completed, we returned back to the classroom where Karl handed out a scenario design worksheet. Since this was an Instructor certification course, every instructor had to create and design a scenario that would be run the following day where every instructor candidate would would have their turn in running and directing scenarios, this took us till 5pm where we adjourned for the day.
TD2 commenced at 8am on Saturday morning to help beat the oppressive heat that we were promised for the weekend. After we met inside the classroom for the safety briefing and a complete removal of all non essential tools, we proceeded outside where we began donning safety equipment that consisted of face shields, chest pads and neck protection as well as gloves and other necessary items. Karl began the scenarios so that we could see how they are directed and what was expected. During that time, each student would play good guys and bad guys, by standers, police officers, as well as the director of scenarios Karl had designed which consisted from home based, church and parking lot. Once we had gone through these, each student began running their scenarios that would be utilizing the shoot house, and this brought us to about lunch time. The remaining scenarios would be run inside the classroom in the afternoon. Everyone pitched in and we disassembled the shoot house and turned the classroom into a 7-11 store for scenarios in the afternoon. The afternoon was spent running about another 15-20 different scenarios covering everything from robberies, active shooter, parking lot encounters after leaving the store and many more. This took us through the end of day.
The FOF and the Scenarios portion of the weekend class originally had 16 people scheduled but with the rescheduled classes only 10 were able to make it, which still made for a great number for those two days of training.
TD3 consisted of the KR Training Advanced Handgun course which is a class that is part of the KR Training Defensive Pistol skills Program which to earn the designation you have to have 40 hours of training with Karl or another KR Training Instructor, for me this was the last class I needed to earn that designation. Several of the students that were with us on Friday and Saturday had to leave, so that left us with 7 for Sunday, which made for one relay.
We started at 25 yards, to accomplish a couple of things, checking zero, as well as working on a no time limit accuracy drill for 10 rounds. This gave everyone the opportunity to adjust their optics and to get ready for an intense workout.
We proceeded through the day running certain drills covering everything from Bill Drills, Four Aces, Farnam (3M) Drill, The Wizard Test, IDPA 5x5 classifier, F.A.S.T Drill, Five Yard Round Up, The Test, the Texas License to Carry and we closed the day with the class qualification which is the KR Training 3 Seconds or less which was shot on on the KRT-2 target. I was very pleased with my performance, I kept all of my scores at 97% or better on all drills, and shooting a perfect score on the 3 seconds or less qualification, solidifying my earning the designation and the coin that accompanied it as well. Everyone did extremely well on all drills despite the excruciating heat and humidity we were dealing with, we all drank a minimum of 2 gallons of water and that kept us pushing through what ended an excellent weekend of training.
I would like to thank Karl for wanting to reschedule the class, despite the heat we worked around it and it was an absolutely perfect weekend of training. The FOF Instructor certification is one of the few that is available to private fi****ms instructors and is recognized by many training organizations as well as the FTA. It is so important to be exposed to working with 3D and live action to understand the dynamics of what armed confrontation really is about, most people have no clue as they are use to shooting on static paper targets.
As instructors it’s our responsibility to bring this type of training to our students in a safe and structured environment. If you are an instructor, I implore you to reach out to Karl about becoming an FOF instructor, and if nothing else you need to experience the FOF scenarios class, it is a complete eye opener. Karl is an absolute wizard at creating scenarios and is an excellent instructor with a wealth of knowledge, so if you have not trained with him, you need to fix that. As an Instructor, I am honored that I have had the opportunity to spend 40+ hours under his teachings and mentorship.
Thank you again Karl for an outstanding weekend of training and we look forward to you returning to the DeadwoodMarshals range.
Sorry this is late, but hand surgery kept me from typing.
