It is no secret that Chris Costa has become a celebrity in tactical training arena, as his style has been a bit more pronounced compared to traditional techniques. There has been spoofs of his styles on Youtube as well as many more who copy his moves in their own range videos.
Now he started his own company Costa Ludus(http://www.costaludus.com/) and has been making decisions on his own. Magpul Dynamics was no slouch when it came to making decisions, but Costa wanted to take things in to his own hands and make it even more efficient. That seems to have changed things for better. Recently, Costa mentioned on his Facebook that he has been home 6 days since January 1st of the year, training 312 people.
The first part of class had us zero our rifles. Zeroing allows shooters to check that their rifle is shooting correctly, and if there are any new problems it can be caught before main lesson starts. On this day, there was a new rifle that had keyholing problem.
Attending students came from many different walks of life, including LEO, military, as well as average Joe civilian. There was a SWAT and a SEAL, and general proficiency level of students were quite high. A good number of students attended other schools taught by highly respected instructors like Larry Vickers or Ken Hackathorn.
Nonetheless, Costa started out with basic position and marksmanship. Standing, kneeling and prone positions were covered and it was explained in detail. Pros and cons of each method was discussed.
After marksmanship has been covered, the class moved on to the more dynamic techniques. Turning and engaging targets were discussed and Costa presented his version. His reasoning is that a lot of times when you are working as a team in close quarters there is not enough room to execute traditional turn and shoot since it can take up larger area. Costa's version required far less area although it required breaking contact between buttstock and shoulder.
Once individual techniques were taught, class moved on to moving around another person, and other tactics that could be applied to a 2-men team situation. This is where some of the movement techniques were taught, and the difficulty was increased one at a time to ensure that students learn how to do it correctly. Safety was the most important criteria and it was heavily emphasized throughout the course.
With all the movements that we did later in the class, it felt like we were in middle of August instead of late Spring. Some joked that this would be better called a cardio class.
Costa did not get to the point where he is just because of his looks or some camera magic. He certainly posesses skills people expect from an instructor and knowledge he can share with students. He is not an instructor who says 'Just because I do' but someone who can say 'I prefer this method because of this particular reason.' To some people his techniques might be unothodox, but it is impossible to say that it is incorrect or baseless.
