AAR NSR Solo Structure Strategies 1/2 - July 26&27 2025 Fountain CO

On 26 and 27 JUL 2025 NSR Training and Consulting ran Solo Structure Strategies 1 and 2 at our shoot house at Pikes Peak International Raceway. The weather for the class was warm and necessitated several breaks to hydrate and cool off, particularly during force-on-force.
SSS1 had seven students. Five of those seven returned for SSS2. Students backgrounds were varied. Two LEOs, three people responsible for safety at churches or large religious orgs, and a couple of regular earth people, both of whom train regularly. The instructors for the class Jeff C. (USMC03) and me.

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Equipment ? We are using Elite Force airsoft G17s. Students had the option to use pistols equipped with a red dot or with iron sights. We had a few magazines that were nearing the end of their service life that needed to be swapped out on day two, but otherwise the equipment ran well.


POI ? SSS1 is intended to be an overview of tactics and techniques that can be used in single person room clearing/building searches. We spent about an hour and a half in the classroom discussing the concepts behind what we?re doing and then spent the rest of the day in the shoot house.

We talked about clearing systematically and hastily and the merits/pitfalls of both. We talked about how to break the house down into manageable shapes and the priorities of work. Students spent time practicing the various techniques in isolation followed by systematically clearing sections of the house dry. After everyone was tracking, we did some systematic clearing with paper targets in play.

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We spent the second half of the afternoon working on hasty clearing. This is usually stimulus driven (screaming/gunfire from the end of the hall, moving to a known location responding to a call for help, etc.) and we do this with the understanding that we are absorbing more risk in the interest of speed. How fast you can move, make decisions, target ID, and accurately engage is highly individual but I think everyone enjoyed getting to push their personal envelope in a controlled environment.

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We ended the day with some additional discussion followed by a debrief.

SSS2 started with a short discussion in the classroom. We talked about human anatomy and the difference between physical and mental incapacitation. We also talked about reactions to stress and how that can impact our problem solving and decision making. Following the classroom portion, we entered the shoot house and students were given time to set up any problems they wanted, ask clarifying questions, and generally get the wheels turning again. Once everyone was feeling switched on, Jeff and I set up the house for some force-on-paper.

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Following a short break for lunch, we covered the rules for force-on-force, it?s utility in training and what the learning objectives for the class are and what they aren?t. This isn?t a scenarios class. This is an opportunity to perform the skills learned in SSS1 and the first half of SSS2 under increased pressure (getting shot by a role player). The *why* is entirely provided by the student.

Because of the focus of the class, only one student is clearing at a time. The rest of the students were in the house as the role players. For the first run, I set the role players? locations and gave each of them their jobs and limitations. Threats were instructed not to go down until they took effective hits. We changed things each run and made things progressively more complex so the student going last couldn?t game the game too much.

For the second run, Jeff turned the role players loose and let them set up anywhere they liked, once their jobs were assigned (threat or unknown). Students were also given some stimulus to draw them in particular directions.

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Overall ?
I?ve written in previous AARs that this is a decision-making class, not a shooting class. However, because we are making decisions with a gun in our hand, the more comfortable/capable you are with that gun, the easier the decision-making piece is. The idea is that we all have a finite amount on processing ability. The more of that processing you must devote to the gun-handling and marksmanship, the less you have for decision making.

This was very evident in the performance of some of the students. The folks who regularly train with their handguns moved smoother, shot better, and generally had better decision-making abilities than the people who don?t. This is really common and something I see in my day job all the time. I can make a pretty solid prediction about a guy?s performance in the shoot house based on his marksmanship and manipulations on the flat range. To use a clich?, we don?t rise to the occasion, we default to our level of training.

This was a fun class for me to teach. Watching everyone improve over the two days. Seeing lessons sink in. Having people that would have been overwhelmed just a day prior, now have the tools to solve some complex problems. A couple of people learned how fast they can push before the wheels come off. Which is good information to figure out in a low-consequence environment. Jeff and I both find this to be a very rewarding thing.

Thank you to everyone that came out, it was a pleasure working with you.