NRA Carry Guard Expo (Richmond)--help me pick seminars

[scatter]

Mrs. scatter and I have decided to attend the subject event for our 30th anniversary (yeah, we're real romantics). Trying to decide on which seminars and workshops to sign up for. I'm looking for people who have had attended seminars with these instructors, or have some other knowledge about them.

Edged Weapons for Everyday Carry: A Comprehensive Hands-On Workshop w/ Thomas Kier
This is $75 per person for a four hour course. I was initially interested but after looking at a few of his videos on Youtube I'm not very impressed. Thinking of passing on this one even though I am interested in the subject.

Bullet Proof Mind for the Armed Citizen w/ Dave Grossman
This is only $25 per person for four hours. Based on my limited research he's a good guy to listen to, but I don't want to pay $25 and sit for four hours to hear stuff that is inherently obvious for folks like us who are fairly well trained.

Dynamics of Personal Defense w/ Steve Tarani
This is another expensive one, $75 per person for two hours. Google tells me that as an instructor he is somewhere between Grossman and Kier.

Refuse to be a Victim Basic Workshop w/ Ed O'Carroll
Four hours for $25 each. Can't find much about him with my limited Google-fu.

What say ye, NES? And I'm NOT interested in comments on our choice of anniversary activities.

 

[frenchman]

Edged weapon for EDC? What's he gonna teach you in four hours? "This is the pointy end for poking? That's the sharp end for cutting cardboard boxes. Now, go out in the world and do some good".
Bullet proof mind for the armed citizen? If you don't have it already, maybe you should leave your pistol at home.
Dynamics of personal defense? Again, what do you expect to learn in two hours? Plus, do you really care about escalation, de-escalation and such?
The last one just sounds like a giant, hourlong sales pitch for their shyte insurance, to be honest.
Do yourself a favor, save the money for those IMO useless workshops, and book a class from Cloverleaf or some other instructor with a good reputation. That's where the bang for your buck is.

 

[scatter]

Edged weapon for EDC? What's he gonna teach you in four hours? "This is the pointy end for poking? That's the sharp end for cutting cardboard boxes. Now, go out in the world and do some good".
Bullet proof mind for the armed citizen? If you don't have it already, maybe you should leave your pistol at home.
Dynamics of personal defense? Again, what do you expect to learn in two hours? Plus, do you really care about escalation, de-escalation and such?
The last one just sounds like a giant, hourlong sales pitch for their shyte insurance, to be honest.
Do yourself a favor, save the money for those IMO useless workshops, and book a class from Cloverleaf or some other instructor with a good reputation. That's where the bang for your buck is.

Thanks. We're going to be there regardless, and I was hoping to sit in on something worthwhile. We are fairly seasoned students, having taken several Sig classes, some requisite NRA courses to get credentials, some personal shotgun training, and a couple of courses from Pat Goodale in WV. Don't want to pay for something that is patently obvious, and especially not for a sales pitch. So I'm asking for reviews from people who have attended courses from these specific instructors.

 

[Mesatchornug]

Here's bulletproof mind for free:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RDCtMEHFLM

Refuse to Be a Victim is a standard NRA course. If you've already taken advanced training, you probably already know everything it'll teach you.

Nobody wins a knife fight. The older you get, or the less you've trained with them the further you should stay away from anything edged. And if you're young and well trained, you should still get the hell away from blades.

Personally, Richmond has great food - I'd spend the average of $50/person on a meal instead.

 

[Len-2A Training]

Dave Grossman is an awesome speaker. Well worth the time. I paid >$200 to listen to him for 2 days a few years ago. Lots of good info. This was LE only training so I don't know what exact area he'll cover in the seminar you are talking about.

 

[greencobra]

jerry michalak took a knife class with lena on an episode of shoot out lane. he condensed the whole class in a 5 minute segment.

 

[scatter]

Dave Grossman is an awesome speaker. Well worth the time. I paid >$200 to listen to him for 2 days a few years ago. Lots of good info. This was LE only training so I don't know what exact area he'll cover in the seminar you are talking about.

Thanks Len. We will book him based on your recommendation.

 

[scatter]

Here's bulletproof mind for free:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RDCtMEHFLM

Refuse to Be a Victim is a standard NRA course. If you've already taken advanced training, you probably already know everything it'll teach you.

Thanks. It's been a while since we did an NRA course and I didn't know, or forgot, that Refuse to Be a Victim was part of the curriculum. At this point in our lives and training I guess we'll pass on an NRA based course.

Bulletproof mind still sounds interesting, and for $25 for four hours of face to face we will probably still do it. Mrs. scatter seems to like that sort of venue vs. watching something online.

Nobody wins a knife fight. The older you get, or the less you've trained with them the further you should stay away from anything edged. And if you're young and well trained, you should still get the hell away from blades.

Which is exactly why we want to take a course. Even just to reinforce how bad a blade situation can be.

Personally, Richmond has great food - I'd spend the average of $50/person on a meal instead.

Got any recommendations?

 

[Len-2A Training]

NRA Refuse to Be a Victim doesn't cover guns, but covers everything else in hardening your home, making yourself a non-desirable target, small things you can do to protect yourself in a hotel, car, etc. It's actually run by a different group within NRA.