I attended the Tactical Response two-day basic pistol course in Pueblo, CO last May. I think it was a solid course that was very effective in introducing the fundamentals of self-defense pistol use.
The instructors were not only knowledgable, but also skilled in effectively employing a pistol in self-defense scenarios. Yeager is a very personable, friendly guy once you meet him (and this is coming from someone that had clashed with him more than once over the web). His assistant instructors are also friendly and really want you to learn the skills they're teaching, and therefore will take the time necessary to help you if you need it.
As I said, this is a course designed to teach the fundamentals of self-defense to a civilian with an existing working knowledge of shooting a pistol. The course doesn't replace a basic handling course; one should arrive already understanding the fundamentals of pistol shooting (grip, sight picture, trigger control, etc). He starts out the class not doing showy demos or jumping right to the range to try to make you a pistolero, but rather spends a couple hours discussing the necessary mindset for carrying and using a pistol for self-defense, to include maintaining situational awareness and understanding the pistol is only a tool to help you survive a worst-case situation, not a talisman to ward off bad guys. This is, IMO, an excellent way to start the course--emphasizing that self-defense is primarily a mental exercise, and shooting is only an adjunct to that.
The shooting POI started off with basic presentation and shooting drills (slow fire grouping), and progressed to advanced techiques, such as weak-handed firing, shooting on the move, employing cover and shooting from retention. Yeager teaches the same 4 step presentation sequence many will find familiar from SF shooting instruction. We also incorporated malfunction drills using dummy rounds into all the shooting drills (except for the initial grouping exercises), and practiced Types 2 & 3 malfunction clearing.
Yeager is a passionate Glock guy, so you'll hear about the "many virtues" of Glocks throughout the course, but neither he nor his instructors give you a hard time for shooting anything else (unless it breaks, in which case you'll never hear the end of it
). He also believes in open top holsters, so if you bring a retention type holster (thumbstrap, hood, etc), be ready to secure the strap on every reholster during the course (which can become rather tedious). Of course, its better to use the equipment during the course that you'll normally carry, but having a double spare mag carrier will save you time during many of the shooting drills that require mag changes. As its only a two-day course, there isn't a lot of down time between drills, so having a pocketfull of loose rounds to refill your empty mags while receiving instruction or waiting for others to finish firing a drill helps move the class along.
Again, I found the course to be very good for teaching or refreshing the fundamentals of employing a pistol in the civilian self-defense role, and would recommend it to anyone wanting that type of instruction.
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