Review: Texas Alumni Live Fire Class: William

AAR
TX 2025

I have been attending MVT training in TX since 2017.  It would be easy to say “Why spend the money and take the time off to go each year?”  That mindset, or the lack thereof, exposes the lack of understanding of how learning takes place and the fragility of ingraining high-adrenaline actions in the brain.

Jason has already introduced the 4 levels of competence.  Let’s break those down.  The unconscious incompetent don’t know what they don’t know.  Conversations can help here but expecting them to step out and participate in an activity is frequently a waste of time.  The conscious incompetent is knowing what you don’t know. This is where curiosity and intrigue can spur a person forward.  Take these people to the range, introduce them to concepts of self-reliance, encourage them.  How many remember their first exposure to MVT and Max’s/Scott’s teaching??  Noobs, all of us, at one time or another.  I took CRS (Combat Rifle Skills) and CTT (Combat Team Tactics) in 2017.  I’m not sure if I can even imagine how painful it was for Max to watch (I’m “that” guy).  But I met a LOT of good people and have maintained those relationships over the years with quite a few.  2018 and 2019 saw my return in still the conscious incompetent (I’m a slow learner).  Max added the Night Class which saw me move all the way back to unconscious incompetent.  Through the people I met at MVT, equipment was shared and I experienced something totally different. At some point in time, one moves forward enough to find……

The conscious competence is knowing how to do it but needing effort.  THIS step is one of the longest in my experience (IF it translates to SUT). And THIS is WHY I keep coming back to MVT training in TX.  Each year, I find something else to focus on.  To make myself just 1% better than what I was last year.  The fourth year (2020) was spent trying to wrap my head around concepts that were encapsulated in a SWAT barricaded-subject kind of mindset.  The fifth (2022) and sixth (2023) years were spent trying to slow my rate of fire (ammunition is time, and time is life).  This was, and still is, a challenge.  My first years saw me easily going through 50-100% more ammunition than those more experienced.  2024 (year 7) and 2025 (year 8) have seen my rate of fire coming down to those more experienced.  SEVEN years to learn some lessons.

Finally, there’s unconscious competence, where one does something effortlessly.  Think how Max and Scott teach a class. This past year (2025) saw Max being challenged with terrain as our “regular” areas had grown up and choked.  Yet, Max was able to look at the terrain and quickly devise training scenarios.  The concepts were all the same – contact assaults, break contact, cover shoot, hasty attacks, etc.  But the terrain change meant that we too had to change, to look at and adapt our movements to what was around us.  Just when you thought Max would holler “ENDEX” (as I was so used to previous years), he’d throw in another scenario, a wrinkle if you will.

So why do I keep coming back to TX??  This past year was my eighth year.  The journey towards unconscious competence is a long one but, in my estimation, a worthwhile one.  The parallels of SUT with my job (medical) is rather interesting.  Emergency Services taught me long ago to play chess if I wanted to not be a victim.  MVT has broadened my conceptual horizons.  TX allows me to apply those lessons and with a GREAT group of people. I’ll see you there each year as long as my body holds out.

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