Tremis Dynamics FISH Class — Fighting in Someone’s House

I was lucky enough to get in on the very first Tremis Dynamics FISH class up at the Roll Call facility in Scranton, PA, where they have their own indoor shoot house. If you’re in the supplement industry and reading this, funny enough, the building Roll Call purchased used to be the old Muscle Foods USA building (small world).

What does “FISH” stand for? The Tremis Dynamics FISH class is “Fighting In Someone’s House” — regardless who’s house it is.

The owner of Tremis Dynamics, Garry Marr, was gracious enough to invite me to take this carbine class. If you’re unfamiliar with who Garry Marr is, I interviewed him a little while back, which you can read here.

But before we dive deeper into the Tremis Dynamics FISH class, shout out to Garry Marr and Mike Fiore for snapping the photos used in this article/review. I guess if I want to make this legit, I’m supposed to call it an “After Action Report” (AAR)?

Going into the Tremis Dynamics FISH class, I didn’t know what to expect. Those in the tactical and self-defense world are familiar with CQB (close-quarter battle), which is generally inside some sort of structure (building, vehicle, etc.). In most instances, CQB typically involves running with teammates where you’re not entering something like a structure on your own.

The curriculum in Tremis Dynamics FISH was designed around you being alone and needing to enter/clear a room or structure. Therefore, instead of mirroring CQB, it needs its own specific curriculum and skills and should be looked at more as home clearing rather than CQB, even though some tactics may overlap.

Why the Tremis Dynamics FISH Class? What’s the Point?

As you can imagine, fighting in a house is not ideal — regardless of whether it’s your house or someone else’s. In my opinion, there is no “good case scenario” when entering and clearing a home yourself. One of the instructors even described it as being a shit sandwich (which, in most cases, it can be).

With one-person room/house clearing, you have no one covering your back or being able to fight beside you. When you enter a room, you’re fully committed and need to handle the situation. What that takes is a particular set of skills, strategy, and the ability to understand your list of priorities when entering a room (as well as priorities while in the room, such as threats, people who need help, open spaces, and doors). That’s where the Tremis Dynamics FISH class shines.

Now, before we go on, you’re probably wondering, “Why the hell would I want to walk into a fight in my house or someone else’s house? I’ll just call the police.” While that’s an option, what if you come home from work and your front door is kicked in, and your wife and kids are supposed to be inside at this time? Now what? Are you going to stand there, call the cops, and wait, on average, 8-11 minutes when an intruder could be in your house raping or murdering your entire family? I, sure as hell, am not. I’m going through that door with or without a weapon in hand.

The advantage of fighting in your own house is knowing the layout, where people can hide, etc. If it were someone else’s home, the threat level becomes elevated since you’re going into an unknown structure that you don’t have the layout or tactical advantage of. But the Tremis Dynamics FISH class teaches you how to handle both situations should you need to gain entry for whatever reason and start clearing rooms.

Related Article: You Need a Specific Home Defense Weapon for Use at Night

Other reasons for needing to enter someone else’s home I’ll leave up to your imagination. There are many reasons why you’d need to do so. But again, the goal here isn’t to seek out a problem, but rather, if one presents itself and you need to act, it’s better to have taken something like the Tremis Dynamics FISH class and learned the skills than to simply walk through the door of a home and aimlessly go searching.

Heightened Level of Safety

Being the new guy in a group of veterans of Tremis Dynamics classes, I wasn’t sure what to expect. For starters, everyone in the class was incredibly skilled and down to earth. If someone were doing something wrong, it would get pointed out in a way that wasn’t like they were being scolded. Everyone helped each other so the entire group could learn from their mistakes.

For me, I’ve never needed to do a full pat-down on someone. One of the Tremis Dynamics instructors pulled me over and explained what I needed to know and why it was done the way they teach.

The level of security measures in place was incredible during the entire Tremis Dynamics FISH class. If anyone was worried about working in a shoot house and the safety aspect, I assure you this was top-notch and extremely safe.

Starting out the Tremis Dynamics FISH class, you did a self-pat-down to ensure you don’t have any firearms, knives, pepper spray, etc., on you. You then had a buddy do a pat-down on you. And then, an instructor did a final pat-down on you. You obviously keep your rifle with you (no BCGs allowed or ammo).

Let’s just put it this way, if you had something that could injure someone, it needed to go out to your car. And every time you left the shoot house to get something or go to the bathroom, you needed to go through the pat-down process again upon re-entry.

Then when it comes to safety, eye protection is needed if anyone in the class uses UTM rounds instead of lasers during those exercises. And then, you need to either have ASTM F1776-rated headgear during the force-on-force exercises, or you can borrow headgear that Garry can provide for students. Additionally, during force-on-force, when UTM rounds are used, you will want to cover all bare skin, which means long pants, long sleeves, and gloves.

The Tremis Dynamics FISH Class Utilizes the Mantis Blackbeard System

For those of you who have never heard of the Mantis Blackbeard, I did a full review of their Mantis BlackbeardX AR15 Dry Fire System that you can read here.

While the class allows for the use of a SIRT laser bolt, by far, the better option is the Mantis Blackbeard System (the original or the X). And for those who have laser cartridges, those are NOT permitted for use in class. Essentially, what the Mantis Blackbeard system allows is for their Mantis BGC to be turned into a laser, and it allows you to reset your trigger every time without having to run the charging handle (on the Mantis, the charging handle is non-functioning).

The majority of the exercises in the Tremis Dynamics FISH class will involve the use of laser trainers, with the addition of some UTM rounds for certain exercises, such as force-on-force. For anything where UTM rounds are used, a specific UTM conversion kit is used with your rifle to allow simunition rounds to be fired out of your personal rife.

Tremis Dynamics FISH Class Breakdown

Being that this was the first Tremis Dynamics FISH class ever, things may change and evolve with time. Therefore, the class breakdown may change from what is mentioned below.

Also, I’m not going to give away too much info below, as I don’t want to give away everything in the Tremis Dynamics FISH class, where you wouldn’t need to take the class. That said, I highly recommend you take the class and gain all the knowledge firsthand.

Day 1

The very first day of the Tremis Dynamics FISH class will teach you everything from the use of angles when applying a pie technique with doors and openings, how to pan through an entry, how to work varying terrain in a home, and more. All this is work to be done as a “single player” in the scenarios. You are in control of everything and working alone to solve the problem.

Majority of the day is force on paper with the inclusion of UTM rounds to close out the day, clearing the entire structure yourself and shooting specified “threat” targets. To make things interesting, in the scenarios and exercises, there will be “no shoot” targets that you need to be able to identify and not shoot. You will need to move through the entire shoot house and put accurate hits on the dedicated “threat” targets.

Day 2

On the second day of the Tremis Dynamics FISH class, you’re going to learn all about the advantages of working with a teammate when clearing rooms and homes. The strategy here is much different from what was on Day 1 and can make things a little easier when trying to cover a room.

On this day, you’ll utilize the laser systems again, along with the use of UTM rounds. To end the day, you’ll focus on force-on-force, turning paper targets into live actors in scenarios.

Absolutely. And without hesitation. You will learn so much from the Tremis Dynamics FISH class that it’s unbelievable. Leaving the class, everyone was excited (yet, tired after a long day) to learn more and go practice the exercises they ran through during the class.

Garry Marr is an incredible instructor, and I like the fact that he can apply humor into his curriculum and not make it dry and boring. If you can get to one of his classes, you won’t regret it.

Related Article: Active Shooter Training: 3 Split-Second Lifesaving Options

But if you have any questions about the Tremis Dynamics FISH class that I can answer for you based on my personal experience, feel free to reach out.

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And as always, go out and get the proper training needed to be proficient with your firearm(s) and EDC gear. I am not an instructor or tactical ninja, and I don’t pretend to be one on the weekends. I’m simply someone who seeks knowledge, improvement, and proficiency when it comes to self-defense and the ability to protect my family and those around me. You are your own first line of defense, seek the training of a certified and experienced instructor. And if you are looking for a class to jump into, I highly recommend you sign up for the Tremis Dynamics FISH class. You’ll thank me later.

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