Student Review: HEAT 1 Combat Tactics April 2023: David

In short, this class could be summed up by being called Fire & Movement 101. The first 2 days were spent on the flat range developing our weapons handling skills from scratch. Max would give a lecture, a verbal breakdown of the drills, and then demonstrate before we conducted the drill ourselves. Max heavily emphasized safety and even had us conduct dry practice so we could get acquainted with how to conduct some of the drills safely. Max encouraged us, from the start, to stay present and aware of everything from our weapon condition to our surroundings. The flat range environment was used to effectively teach us everything that we were going to need for the latter two days. My favorite part was the blind stoppage drills where another person induces a random malfunction on your rifle and you have to correct it as fast as possible. I also liked that our targets were 25 yards away, forcing us to use our sights to get effective hits on our targets.

During the latter two days, the shooting practice was directly applied while learning how to deploy online, communicate, suppress, and move under cover as a team. The last two days are all about showing us how to work as a team while moving and shooting. I dont know of any place that can teach moving and shooting as effectively as Max Velocity Tactical. I watched several people, to include one of the students younger sister, progress from never doing tactical shooting to working effectively in a four man team, assaulting and breaking contact. After each course of fire, we were given an honest review by Max on what we did individually and as a patrol. You weren’t babied or coddled if you did something wrong, slow, or unsafe. Max did not pull any punches, which everyone of us loved. We all set our egos aside and welcomed knowing how we did. This is not a place to go for enter”train”ment. If we messed up, we were corrected on the spot and were further briefed about it afterwards.

In short, dont blow smoke about wanting to get training and then go to some 8 hour course that has you doing static shooting to make you feel better about yourself. Invest in yourself and take four days to learn how to fight and win as an individual and as a member of a tactical team. Also, before you go to this class, buy the Max Velocity Small Unit Tactics Manual and read and memorize the first (fieldcraft & basics) and second (battle drills & movement) chapters. This will narrow your learning curve exponentially if you prime your brain with the topics in advance.

As a final note, buying the manual is a 25% solution to learning and cannot replace signing up for the class. Without context and in person instruction/supervision, it is just words on a page. Also, Max adds a lot of extra points, personal experience/history, and details you won’t find in the manual.

CLASS SCHEDULE

(Viewing the schedule link above requires registration on the MVT Forum).

Here is the schedule for 2023 Romney classes:

HEAT 2: 4 – 7 May.

RECON: 18 – 21 May

CQB: 22-25 June.

HEAT 1: 13-16 July.

Squad Tactics: 21-24 September.

Night Ops: 27 – 29 Oct.