Next Level: Skills and Drills
Always Improving
Take your training beyond traditional range practice. Next Level: Skills & Drills gives experienced shooters the opportunity to practice live-fire defensive skills that simply aren’t possible during a typical trip to the range.
Work with movement, barriers, decision-making targets, holster draws, and added stress while developing the skills needed to respond safely and effectively in real-world defensive situations.
What Makes Next Level Different?
Concealed Holster Work
Practice drawing and engaging from the holster instead of the tabletop starts required during normal range use.
Movement & Barriers
Learn to move, shoot from different positions, and work around barriers while maintaining safe firearm handling.
Decision-Making
Not every target is a threat. Drills require you to identify what you’re seeing and make a decision before engaging.
Magazine Reloads
Practice emergency slide-lock and tactical reloads while building speed and efficiency, to keep your firearm running when it matters.
Real-World Pressure
Add movement, time, changing scenarios, and increased stress to practice making safe, effective decisions under pressure.
See Next Level in Action
Drawing from Concealment
Next Level encourages you to practice the way you actually carry. Train with your everyday clothing and concealed-carry setup, and use class as an opportunity to safely work with different holsters and carry options.
Holster draws are incorporated into nearly every drill, allowing you to track improvements in both speed and accuracy from the draw over time. The goal isn’t simply to draw faster—it’s to develop a consistent, efficient draw that gets you on target accurately and prepares you to respond effectively in a defensive situation.
Movement & Barriers
Defensive situations rarely happen while standing still in a perfect shooting position. Next Level drills challenge shooters to move safely and effectively while engaging targets, change shooting positions, and work around barriers that limit movement, visibility, or available shooting angles.
The challenge isn’t limited to the shooter—the targets can move too. Drills may include side-to-side movement or “attacking” targets that advance toward the shooter, requiring you to adjust your position, timing, and response as the situation changes.
Decision-Making
Knowing when not to shoot is just as important as knowing when to shoot. Next Level drills often mix threatening and non-threatening targets, requiring shooters to identify what they’re seeing and make a decision before engaging rather than automatically firing at every target presented.
We also incorporate hostage targets, where accuracy becomes even more critical. Shooters must place effective shots on the threat while avoiding the non-threat, adding another layer of decision-making and precision under pressure.
Magazine Reloads
In a defensive situation, knowing when and how to reload efficiently can be critical. Next Level incorporates both emergency and tactical reloads so shooters can practice responding appropriately as a situation evolves.
Emergency reloads build speed and efficiency when the firearm runs empty. Tactical reloads focus on recognizing an opportunity to reload before you’re empty, replacing a partially used magazine with a full one while retaining the remaining ammunition that may still be needed.
Working Under Pressure
A defensive situation creates a very different level of stress than shooting paper targets from a stationary range lane. Next Level introduces controlled stress into training to help shooters prepare mentally as well as physically for situations where they may need to rely on their skills.
Speed work, noise, moving targets, and other changing conditions add pressure and require shooters to think, make decisions, and perform while under stress. The goal is to build confidence and reinforce skills so they remain accessible when conditions are less than ideal.
Ready to Take Your Training to the Next Level?
Next Level: Skills & Drills is designed for shooters who already have a solid foundation in safe firearm handling and are ready to build defensive skills beyond traditional range practice.
Prerequisites: Completion of Women’s Only Level 1 OR both Handgun Fundamentals Level 1 AND 2 courses.
Next Level Schedule
Next Level: Skills & Drills sessions are generally held on the first four Thursdays of each month, plus the Saturday following the fourth Thursday.
The first three Thursdays focus on shorter, less complex drills with more opportunity for repetition, allowing shooters to concentrate on specific skills. The fourth Thursday and Saturday feature more involved, scenario-based drills that bring multiple skills together.
Two sessions are offered each training day:
- Thursdays: 4:00–6:00 PM and 6:00–8:00 PM
- Saturdays: 3:00–5:00 PM and 5:00–7:00 PM
- Women Only: Both sessions on the third Thursday, plus the 6:00–8:00 PM session on the fourth Thursday
- Co-ed: All other sessions
Session dates and schedules may vary, so please check the calendar for current dates and details.