They call him "The Grand Master Whisperer." He's trained hundreds of people — from Special Forces to IPSC Champions — and the stories about his way of training are endless.

But never did I really envision going through 1,600 rounds of 9mm in about six hours, until I had the unique opportunity to train one-on-one with Frank Garcia at his facility, Universal Shooting Academy in Florida.

It was a warm sunny day. I had a just been introduced to Mr. Frank, and he asked me to load all my magazines. Then, he promptly started the training session — no time wasted and no side talk.

Though he knew that I'm a B class shooter and have been doing this for about four years now, the session started with him asking me to dry fire my draw for about 15 minutes nonstop. Even though I always dry fire at home, this felt different and weird. It felt like Mr. Miyagi from "Karate Kid" asking me to do "wax on, wax off." No joke.

After my arms got warmed up, we transitioned to live firing 25 yards, slow fire, sets of six rounds to confirm zero. This seemed easy so far, but the challenge quickly started when he added a pro timer to this drill: six rounds in six seconds while maintaining hits in the A zone.

The challenge quickly started when we added a pro timer to the drill: six rounds in six seconds while maintaining hits in the A zone.


When I was able to somehow see my sight lift "up and down," prep the trigger and shoot while my sights were back on target, we transitioned to "left and right" by doing the same drill 25 yards, six rounds in six seconds on a plate rack. Once again, this seemed easy, until he asked me to do it four times, clean shots with no misses under six seconds. Every time I missed, we went back to a zero score.

The drill seemed straightforward, basic and simple, yet it was impossible to accomplish. And that's exactly what his goal was, to show me and teach me about consistency.

"A B-Class shooter," he said, "is like a roller coaster up and down." You could be the first on one stage, and then last on other stages.

1,600 rounds later and a blister on my fingers, my Taran Tactical Innovation Glock 34 was still running flawlessly, looked as new and didn't fail me, not even once! I was finally able to shoot the plate rack with three clean runs at 25 yards under six seconds.

We then switched to shooting-on-the-move drills, leaving and entering box, left to right, and vice versa. To celebrate my accomplishment, I ended my training with 20 kipping pull-ups and a 100-meter run and shot clean plate rack.

Frank Garcia does truly take your training to the next level, and I do recommend any serious shooter to train with him. I was lucky enough to have this unique one-on-one opportunity and needless to say, I'm already planning my next visit to Universal Shooting Academy.


Never did I really envision going through 1,600 rounds of 9mm in about six hours.