Month: February 2026

Here’s a truth nobody wants to hear: most people who carry a gun for a living can’t really shoot. They can pass a qualification. They can punch paper at seven yards on a sunny Tuesday with no timer running. But put them under pressure, add a clock, push the distance out, and watch the wheels come off.

I say this as someone who just got humbled.

I attended Achilles Heel Tactical’s Performance Baseline Pistol and Performance Baseline Carbine courses at the Georgetown, Texas Police Department range, led by Rick Crawley and his team of AHT instructors. The entire concept is built around one thing: performance on demand. Not performance when you’re warmed up and feeling good. Performance when someone hits that timer and your body wants to do everything except what you trained it to do.

Every single student in the class was a sworn law enforcement officer. SWAT guys. Regional tactical team members. And then there was me. The only private security professional in the room. As a former Marine who served in a scout sniper unit as a PIG (Professionally Instructed Gunman), I came in with a foundation. But this training pushed past what most armed professionals will ever willingly subject themselves to.

And that’s the problem. Too many people in this line of work never seek training beyond their bare minimum, outdated qualifications. They coast. They check the box. If you carry a firearm professionally, you owe it to your community, your employers, your coworkers, and your family who are counting on you to come home at the end of the day, to be as good as you can possibly be. This kind of training isn’t optional. It’s the job.

Rick Crawley is the CEO and Chief Instructor of Achilles Heel Tactical, which he started in 2017 after separating from the Marine Corps. The man has over a decade of combined experience across military and law enforcement. As an infantry Marine he deployed three times in support of OIF and OEF, filling billets as Squad Leader and Scout Sniper Team Leader, earning the title of HOG (Hunter of Gunmen) as a school-trained scout sniper. He went on to serve in law enforcement as a SWAT member and OPOTA-certified LE Firearms Instructor.

He built AHT because he saw the same thing we all see: the way most agencies and organizations train people to shoot is broken. His affiliation with Action Target as a LETC firearms instructor gives him the platform to train law enforcement, military, and tactically minded individuals across the country. His whole operating philosophy fits on a bumper sticker: Performance > Promise.

And he means it. As he puts it: “We should never base our idea of success off of another person’s opinion or standard. It should be through unbiased metrics.” Every drill, every rep, every score in this course was measured by the numbers. Not feelings. Not vibes. Data.

Rick is a Safariland CADRE member, works with brands like UF PRO and HOP Munitions, and built two of the biggest community training events in the firearms world: Ohio Range Day and Rx Range Day. He’s trained thousands of people. Civilians, cops, military. Domestically and internationally, including NATO countries.

We started with the D.O.P.E. Drill (Data on Previous Engagement), created by Rick Crawley. This is AHT’s signature baseline assessment. 25 rounds, multiple distances. We shot it from 7, 10, 20, and 25 yards on the AHT Diagnostics Target with USPSA zones and vital organ overlay.

The point of this drill is simple and brutal: most shooters are either accurate or fast. Almost never both. The DOPE Drill forces you to be both at the same time and scores you with hit factor, your total points divided by your total time. It doesn’t care about your ego. It doesn’t care about your last qualification score. It tells you exactly where your accuracy falls apart, at what distance you lose your ability to deliver effective hits at speed, and where your real starting point is. Not your imagined one. Your real one.

You walk away from this drill with more data about your shooting than most people accumulate in years of range sessions.

After the DOPE Drill showed us who we were, we moved into multiple target engagement. Transitioning between threats with speed and accuracy while the clock runs. The instructors broke down everyone’s transitions. Where your eyes go. Where your muzzle lags. Where you’re bleeding time. Every string was timed and scored.

Static shooting is a range habit. Nobody stands still in a real situation. This block got us off the X, shooting while displacing laterally and forward. Your grip, your sight tracking, your trigger press, it all gets exposed when your feet are moving and your platform isn’t stable anymore.

Then we layered in target transitions while moving. Engaging multiple targets on the move. This is where it all compounds. Footwork, recoil management, sight picture, target prioritization, all happening at the same time. This is the part that separates people who train from people who just shoot.

Every block followed the same framework. The instructor explains the theory, the “why” behind the technique. Then demonstrates it. Then students run iterations while instructors make individual corrections on the spot. This wasn’t a PowerPoint seminar. It was real coaching. Every rep timed, every correction specific, every student leaving with a clear picture of what to fix.

Carbine day opened with the Man Card Drill, also created by Rick Crawley and probably the most recognized drill in the AHT system. This is a performance-on-demand gut check. Five iterations. All at 25 yards. All on a C zone target. All with strict time standards:

Two attempts per iteration. Miss the C zone or exceed the time limit and it doesn’t count. Fail twice on any iteration and you lose your Man Card.

Out of our entire class of experienced law enforcement officers, SWAT operators included, only two people kept their Man Cards. Let that sink in. These aren’t hobbyists. These are people who do this professionally. And the standard ate most of them alive. That’s the point.

Rick’s line about the carbine stuck with me: “It’s a Ferrari. Use it as such.”

We pushed out to 50 yards, using the rifle for what it was actually designed to do. Too many people treat a carbine like a pistol with a stock on it. This course broke that habit. The rifle is a precision instrument and the training made you exploit every bit of that capability.

Same progression as pistol day. Multiple target engagement at distance, managing optics and sight picture across wider target arrays. Then shooting and moving with the carbine, then moving while transitioning between multiple targets. Running these drills at extended range with a longer weapon system adds real complexity. Maintaining a stable platform while displacing, keeping transitions efficient. The rifle gives you more reach but it demands more discipline.

The instructional framework carried over from pistol day. Theory, demonstration, student reps, real-time corrections. The instructors coached every student individually, identifying breakdowns and fixing them on the spot. By the end of the day everyone knew exactly where they stood with a rifle and exactly what needed work.

Performance on demand is not performance when comfortable. Anyone can shoot well warmed up, relaxed, shooting at their own pace. These courses rip that comfort away and show you who you actually are when it matters.

The numbers don’t lie. Hit factor, timed drills, pass/fail standards. You either meet the standard or you don’t. And now you know.

The DOPE Drill should be in every armed professional’s rotation. It’s a measurable, repeatable baseline you can track over time. If your hit factor isn’t climbing, your training plan is failing you.

Most armed professionals don’t train hard enough. Being the only security guy in a room full of cops and SWAT operators confirmed what I already knew. Our industry needs to raise the standard. Outdated qualifications aren’t preparation. They’re a liability dressed up as a credential.

Invest in real instruction from proven people. Rick Crawley and the AHT team have the background, the methodology, and the results. If you carry a gun for work, this is the kind of training that turns you into an asset instead of a question mark.

Get out of your bubble. You think you know a lot when you’re constantly around the same people, doing the same things. Then you attend a training like this and you get reality checked real quick. But that’s the whole point. Your skills jump. You’re training alongside people at the top of their field. You pick up gear points, swap tactics, build connections that last well beyond the range. That exposure by itself is worth the price of admission.

At Mayer Security Service, we don’t coast on minimum qualifications. We go find the best training available because our clients, our team, and the people we protect deserve that.

If you’re in law enforcement, security, or you’re an armed citizen who wants to know where you actually stand, not where you think you stand, go check out Achilles Heel Tactical. The Performance Baseline courses are honest, humbling, and worth every round.

Train hard. Train honest. Perform on demand.

Mayer Security Service is a Houston-based security company delivering elite protection through continuous professional development and industry-leading training. Learn more about our services.

All photos courtesy of Achilles Heel Tactical.