How our Training is Different. We have a Dojo!

Apologies for the long delay in my updates. Field and Hearth has really been exploding with new students of all interests. It's been keeping us busy. Fun busy, we like it! That said, we have some new training options for our students I think you're going to love, so thanks for staying tuned!

Let's talk about our newest offering, "The Dojo." The Dojo is a weekly opportunity we're offering exclusvely at the Livermore Pleasanton Rod and Gun Club that allows for students with a bit of pistol experience and holster training to come and work on skill sets that traditional static ranges don't allow. Skills like multiple target engagement, movement dynamics, use of cover, low light/no light flashlight work, draw practice and point shooting from the hip and compression, ect..

Many of these skills aren't used in the competition world as their scoring focus tends to be an average of speed of stage completion and shots on target during a set course. This means you're training to run nearly full speed through an obstacle course because you know both where the targets are and that they won't shoot back.

Our Dojo sessions are a little different because we focus more exclusively on realistic skils and tactics to survive self defensive encounters on the street and at home. These are the kinds of encounters that running in guns a-blazing with 20 round competition pistols would be both illegal and ill-advised. As self defense shooters, knowing the number, orientation, and condition of our threat is key to survival. The best gun fight is the one you don't get into. If you do have to fight, you want to stack the odds entirely in your favor by using every physcal and sensory tactic to your advantage. That means using many more tools than just the gun. Your surroundings, the lighting, sounds, awareness of what constitutes cover vs. concealment and so much more all go into the self defense mind set. In recognition that gun fighting is a martial art and a perisible skill, we've designed the Dojo sessions to provide both a space for training to build, maintain, and elevate close quarters combat skills; and provide that training in a ongoing format that more closely resembles traditional martial arts because we know from experience that going to a special one-off class and having no place to refine and train those skills into muscle memory is not particularly effective.

We are currently offering our Dojo sessions from 2-6pm every Friday to take advantage of the change in the evening light to condition oursleves to different shooting conditions. We will be outside in the winter, so dress appropriately. I'd like to take this opportunity to let you know what a wonderful shooting environment we have available at the Livermore Pleasanton Rod and Gun Club. With an east facing range and the off shore breezes at our back, we couldn't ask for a healthier range to train at for our high intensity training. There is a maximum student to trainer ratio of 4 to 1 to keep safety top of mind. This is a high round count environment that involves holster work. Expect to need 3-400 rounds per session. You'll find the Dojo plan here:

The Dojo

If you're not comfortable with a holster yet, don't worry. Just reach out and we can get you up to speed. We're really striving to create a product that gives you the opportunity to train regularly, within a community, at a good price; so let us explain the structure. A prepaid $800 charge allows access to four sessions within a 6 week period. As each session is four hours, if you come to all four sessions and stay the whole time, your cost per hour is $50. That's almost a third the cost of a traditional private session and aligns with our best efforts to make the training accesible and ongoing. By comiting in advance, that allows us to make sure a sufficient number of trainers and action range space are available in advance . We've already tested this format with a few of our regular students and they love it. Please contact me at (510)368-2534 with any questions.

All the best,

Edward