First off, I want to clearly and unequivocally state that I am NOT receiving any type of compensation in any form for the opinions and information below.
I wanted to provide a short AAR on a class that I attended with Mike Vanover at www.teamjujutsu.com this past Saturday.
I will admit, I have not had any formal self defense training before. I was a NRA certified range officer for 4 years, but that has nothing to do with self defense. I shot some USPSA this year and will be shooting Steel Challenge next year. And although that might be great practice for marksmanship fundamentals, that is still not realistic for practical, average person self defense.
However, I have read and watched quite a bit from numerous reputable and quality instructors. So I knew a few fundamental basic things. At least enough that it has helped me sort some of the wheat and chaff when it comes to instructors through the years. Since there is no centralized credentialing system, you are always rolling the dice a bit when choosing to attend a class with an instructor you don't know. And I have ran into those who call themselves "instructors"...people that once I talked to them...I realized that their knowledge and teaching skills were greatly lacking compared to the marketing hype they offered. Unfortunately, I have found far more of those people in this world than those who really know what they are doing and have the ability to clearly communicate that to others while demonstrating it. So with that in mind....
I went into this class somewhat hesitant as I did not really get a chance to investigate Mike myself. I did not know if I thought he was wheat or chaff. His class was recommended and scheduled by a friend. So I brought my gear and kept reminding myself to keep an open mind and see what happens.
We had a group with a pretty varied experience. I was probably the more experienced person and we also had some people pretty new and maybe somewhat intimidated to shoot. I think Mike did an excellent job to keep both sides in mind and engaged. I feel that I learned a lot and I know the newer shooters did as well. We worked on close in weapons retention for us as well as close in weapons defenses. We started on the range with basic fundamentals, then moved on to some close up work, and then to more distance shooting.
Overall, I was very impressed with Mike's instructing ability. He not only explains what to do, but why to do it. He tries to make sure he is not leaving people behind and invites questions in his classes.
I can tell you I will be attending future classes with Mike and I am looking forward to increasing my skills with his assistance in the future. I will admit, it's only been one class. But as of this moment in time, I think that if you attend a class with Mike, it will be money and time well spent. Take a look at this website, maybe his classes will be right for you too.
I wanted to provide a short AAR on a class that I attended with Mike Vanover at www.teamjujutsu.com this past Saturday.
I will admit, I have not had any formal self defense training before. I was a NRA certified range officer for 4 years, but that has nothing to do with self defense. I shot some USPSA this year and will be shooting Steel Challenge next year. And although that might be great practice for marksmanship fundamentals, that is still not realistic for practical, average person self defense.
However, I have read and watched quite a bit from numerous reputable and quality instructors. So I knew a few fundamental basic things. At least enough that it has helped me sort some of the wheat and chaff when it comes to instructors through the years. Since there is no centralized credentialing system, you are always rolling the dice a bit when choosing to attend a class with an instructor you don't know. And I have ran into those who call themselves "instructors"...people that once I talked to them...I realized that their knowledge and teaching skills were greatly lacking compared to the marketing hype they offered. Unfortunately, I have found far more of those people in this world than those who really know what they are doing and have the ability to clearly communicate that to others while demonstrating it. So with that in mind....
I went into this class somewhat hesitant as I did not really get a chance to investigate Mike myself. I did not know if I thought he was wheat or chaff. His class was recommended and scheduled by a friend. So I brought my gear and kept reminding myself to keep an open mind and see what happens.
We had a group with a pretty varied experience. I was probably the more experienced person and we also had some people pretty new and maybe somewhat intimidated to shoot. I think Mike did an excellent job to keep both sides in mind and engaged. I feel that I learned a lot and I know the newer shooters did as well. We worked on close in weapons retention for us as well as close in weapons defenses. We started on the range with basic fundamentals, then moved on to some close up work, and then to more distance shooting.
Overall, I was very impressed with Mike's instructing ability. He not only explains what to do, but why to do it. He tries to make sure he is not leaving people behind and invites questions in his classes.
I can tell you I will be attending future classes with Mike and I am looking forward to increasing my skills with his assistance in the future. I will admit, it's only been one class. But as of this moment in time, I think that if you attend a class with Mike, it will be money and time well spent. Take a look at this website, maybe his classes will be right for you too.
