We’ve featured a number of products from SOB Tactical here and in the pages of Shooting Illustrated—heck, the SOB Tactical Puncher won our 2017 Golden Bullseye Award for Accessory of the year. But, did you also know you can train with John “Shrek” McPhee, the “Sheriff of Baghdad,” right in the comfort of your own home?
In addition to gear reviews, home-security tips and training information, there’s a wealth of additional information available in the members-only video section of SOB Tactical, called SOBTV. Subscribers also get access to McPhee directly, with question and answer sessions available at regular intervals in addition to online responses. Subscription to SOBTV also gives access to other exclusive social media venues. It’s an all-inclusive package with access to McPhee.
Certain nights McPhee will perform video meetings, going over drills and requirements, with a follow-up later in the week. This allows students to execute the drills from the first session with instant feedback from McPhee—this is an inexpensive way to get individual training.
While it’s not the same as attending a class with an instructor right over your shoulder, right now very few people have the opportunity to have in-person instructor time. This video service offers a chance to have professional instruction, at an affordable price right in the privacy of your own home.
In addition to the classroom-style videos, McPhee offers an individual-attention video service, with detailed analysis of one’s shooting position, geometry, etc. This can be done either on a live-fire range or with dry fire, if you can’t get to the range. Subscribers send their range or dry-fire videos to McPhee, who will analyze form and efficiency and critique with areas of improvement. Don’t expect Shrek to go easy on you, either. Subscription to the service does not exempt one from Shrek’s well, brutal form of honesty…
McPhee says he’s done more video in the month of quarantine than in the previous year—and he did a lot of video last year. In 2019, he ran over 70 classes with 10 participants each, and examined countless videos for each class and participants. Grip, stance, grip stance presentation and reload, dry or live, all of these features are available for review.
For the dedicated shooter, individual sessions are available at an hourly rate. Take the lessons learned in the private session, apply it in dry-fire practice at home then put everything into practice at the range once we’re back in our normal routine.
The benefits aren’t just for your shooting style, though. Using Skype, McPhee can perform a video walkthrough of your house and offer the best setups for home defense. Without access to Skype, you can still send a detailed floorplan for the same analysis.
It’s a much more in-depth look at home defense with considerations to help make better-informed decisions. He’s also willing to discuss home-defense strategies with your significant other—and McPhee offered up that the partners often have even more questions than the initial participant.
What does McPhee want to do? “Change the world one shooter at a time.”
He found that the video service brought a lot more of the “average” shooters into the classroom, with many students coming to him with either minimal or rudimentary instruction previously. The accessibility of the online learning environment, obviously accelerated recently with quarantines and stay-at-home orders, has allowed him to reach potential students who might not have otherwise had access to professional instruction.
He’s been able to effectively analyze and help hundreds of new shooters and countless others, with a service started nearly a decade before “social distancing” was a thing.
Who couldn’t benefit from professional coaching from the privacy of their own home? Especially taking into consideration that both time and money are frequently cited as reasons folks don’t get training, why wouldn’t a service such as that offered by SOB Tactical in the SOBTV training be attractive?
Rather than requiring a weekend—or entire week—in addition to travel, lodging, meals and other expenses, all that’s needed is a trip to one’s local range with a video camera and you’ll have access to professional instruction. It’s not the same as in-person, but as with much in life, there are tradeoffs. Why not try it out now, when other options aren’t accessible?
