Student Review: Texas Alumni Class 2023: Lloyd
Notes from Max:
The Texas Alumni Class is an annual class. This was our 9th year training at the ranch. It is an alumni class so you must have at least completed HEAT 1 to attend. We have a HEAT 1 class scheduled (West Virginia) on the following dates:
20 – 25 April
13-15 July
For the Texas Alumni Class, we have space available on the third week from Sunday 3 March – Saturday 9 March 2024.
Please email me (max@maxvelocitytactical.com) to book any of these classes.
AAR: MVT Texas – Feb 2023
These courses are held on a large private ranch near Brady, Texas. Terrain is generally rolling grassy country, with scattered clumps of live oaks, cactus, cedars, dry creekbeds and draws… and plenty of rocks, so don’t forget your kneepads!
Max has become intimately familiar with the terrain, so he knows the bullet impact zones, backstops, and safety angles as well as he knows his own home. Combine that with the fact that this is an alumni-only course, and it allows Max to pretty drastically build on the skills we have all learned in previous MVT classes. Max’s knowledge base, and his willingness to make the effort to challenge us in different ways, are largely why we have people who continue to come back year after year.
I’m the “organizer” who pestered Max until he agreed to come do his first class in Texas back in 2015, so I’ve been lucky enough to be able to attend the MVT Texas courses every year for the past nine years. I won’t get deep into detail on the course itself, but here’s a quick list of what is covered:
– Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TC3) taught by Max and a long-time MVT alumnus who has decades of experience in emergency medical care.
– React to contact, which included break contact, and aggressive cover-shoot and fight-through drills
– Hasty squad attack on enemy with depth positions
– Raid
– Ambush
– Satellite patrolling
Training scenarios start out pretty basic, which helps everybody knock the rust off and get back in the groove. Scenarios become more and more complex as the week progresses… And then the last couple of days are “controlled chaos”, where ALL of the above comes together, while Max directs all the moving parts like some kind of evil orchestra conductor.
I say that sort of jokingly. Even though it IS somewhat overwhelming to the conscious mind, by the time we get to that stage of the class, we have demonstrated a level of “unconscious competence” where safety is concerned, which allows Max to tailor the level of complexity to what we can safely handle. Yes, it sort of feels like chaos, but it truly is controlled chaos. At no time in an MVT class have I ever felt like we were doing anything “unsafe”. Difficult, yes, but never unsafe! Both of my teenage sons are multi-year MVT alumni, and I would not want them out there if I felt like anything was out of control.
Lessons learned:
Do your PT! Some of us have old injuries that seem to act up more and more every year, but we should all do what we can to be as prepared as we can be… If you’ve never trained with MVT, don’t be afraid to sign up for a class, but passing the MVT Fitness Test should be considered a bare minimum level of fitness!
“It’s not about you.” Max has repeated this mantra over and over again. During these Texas classes, students live and train as a team. We live in the same building, take turns cooking and doing dishes, and eat at the same table, whether it’s in the lodge at the ranch, or in a restaurant in town.
You can never train “too much”. As I mentioned before, there are multiple students who I’ve trained with year after year since 2015. All of us learn something new, and deepen our understanding of how to apply these skills every year. When we think back to our first MVT class, we are all amazed at how far we’ve progressed!
One last thought – I’ve become very close friends with the guys I’ve trained with over the years. Closer than I’ve ever been with anybody who is not immediate family. I literally trust these guys with my life. We have not been in combat together, but I think what Max has written here absolutely applies:
TRUST IN COMBAT
Notes from Max:
Classes for 2023 at this time:
HEAT 1: 20 – 23 April
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.
Texas 1: Sunday 18 February – Saturday 24 February 2024. Full.
Texas 2: Sunday 25 February – Saturday 2 March 2024. Full.
Texas 3: Sunday 3 March – Saturday 9 March 2024. Space available.
Booking classes: send me an email at max@maxvelocitytactical.com to check for space on the class. Then send the deposit ($400) by check or money order to me at:
Max Velocity Tactical, 15191 Montanus Drive #127, Culpeper, VA 22701.
Classes are posted in the MVT FORUM under Training Opportunities in the MVT Training Club.
CLASS SCHEDULE
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