Instructor's pathway

[Coach]

There is a tremendous need for introductory training for ordinary people. Set up shop and teach good gun handling skills, proper marksmanship skills, picking proper equipment, and being able to diagnose a lack of marksmanship. You can be pretty busy and do a lot of good.

Lots of people with no training survive gun fights just fine. The fundamentals of shooting will go a long way for John Q. Public.

 

[cedartop]

Don't have time for a lengthy response right now, but as someone who has taken more than his fair share of classes, instructor and otherwise, I feel that apprenticing under a very good instructor would be more beneficial than more classes. Experience is very important in actually teaching people and is one of the reasons I can now wholeheartedly recommend guys like Coach and some others to shooters of any level but especially beginners where it is so important that they learn it right from the start. Diagnosing problems is a big deal and you only get that from reps not from most classes.

 

[jlw]

There is a tremendous need for introductory training for ordinary people. Set up shop and teach good gun handling skills, proper marksmanship skills, picking proper equipment, and being able to diagnose a lack of marksmanship. You can be pretty busy and do a lot of good.

Lots of people with no training survive gun fights just fine. The fundamentals of shooting will go a long way for John Q. Public.

Don't have time for a lengthy response right now, but as someone who has taken more than his fair share of classes, instructor and otherwise, I feel that apprenticing under a very good instructor would be more beneficial than more classes. Experience is very important in actually teaching people and is one of the reasons I can now wholeheartedly recommend guys like Coach and some others to shooters of any level but especially beginners where it is so important that they learn it right from the start. Diagnosing problems is a big deal and you only get that from reps not from most classes.

There are two things in the above posts that are spot on. Solid, entry-level training is vitally important to a shooter's development, but it's also a somewhat neglected niche. These aren't the students that are going to drop $500 on a weekend class with a traveling instructor. These classes also get relegated to the most junior instructors at local places, and that is not a recipe for success.

My agency sent me to the state's instructor school in 2003. My agency followed the state's philosophy to the letter, and I learned how to get people "qualified" per the state standard, but it wasn't until Tom Givens took me under his wing and let me start assisting with his classes that I truly began to understand how to actually teach and run a class.

 

[turnandshoot4]

There are two things in the above posts that are spot on. Solid, entry-level training is vitally important to a shooter's development, but it's also a somewhat neglected niche. These aren't the students that are going to drop $500 on a weekend class with a traveling instructor. These classes also get relegated to the most junior instructors at local places, and that is not a recipe for success.

This is where I am. I don't care about national success. Getting regular folks to draw safely from a holster and not shoot themselves is where I am at the moment.


I'd love to hear more from Coach on your path through competition and Mike on your path through classes. How did your paths help you? Have they hurt you?

 

[Coach]

I don't think my competitive shooting background has hurt me very much if at all. If it has been a problem in the past it is strictly that for a few years folks thought the only shooting skills I have are USPSA based skills. Drawing and shooting quickly and accurately are the skills no matter the setting. I have a Master Classification in the Limited 10 division in USPSA. Being Master class is pretty tough in any division. I did it with a traditional style holster not a speed rig. I don't compete with speed gear in USPSA in any division. I don't carry my Limited guns very often because with my luck that would be when I got into a shooting and my high dollar gun would spend 2 years in a evidence locker.

There are only a few ways to get credibility as an instructor. LE, Military, or competition or get NRA certified. I was too old for the first two options when I started this instructor thing or nearly too old for LE. Demonstrating shooting ability in competition has been my route. I think the high number of satisfied customers is the other. I have been unwilling to subject myself to sitting through the NRA certification process. That has probably cost me as much money as anything. If I were NRA certified and on Facebook I could probably double my business. Not willing to do either of those two things.

Most of the classes I have taken (all but 1 actually) have been from the Defensive pistol side of the room and I would not change that. My competition performance is lacking because of dedicated practice time not because of some magic bullet piece of knowledge that I do not know. Time is limited and I am not going to neglect my duties as a father to practice so I can will a few plaques that my kids will burn when I die.

Other than the things I have previously mentioned in the what I lack department is my own range. One that is set up properly and in a good location.

 

[Trapper Jim]

I don't think my competitive shooting background has hurt me very much if at all. If it has been a problem in the past it is strictly that for a few years folks thought the only shooting skills I have are USPSA based skills. Drawing and shooting quickly and accurately are the skills no matter the setting. I have a Master Classification in the Limited 10 division in USPSA. Being Master class is pretty tough in any division. I did it with a traditional style holster not a speed rig. I don't compete with speed gear in USPSA in any division. I don't carry my Limited guns very often because with my luck that would be when I got into a shooting and my high dollar gun would spend 2 years in a evidence locker.

There are only a few ways to get credibility as an instructor. LE, Military, or competition or get NRA certified. I was too old for the first two options when I started this instructor thing or nearly too old for LE. Demonstrating shooting ability in competition has been my route. I think the high number of satisfied customers is the other. I have been unwilling to subject myself to sitting through the NRA certification process. That has probably cost me as much money as anything. If I were NRA certified and on Facebook I could probably double my business. Not willing to do either of those two things.

Most of the classes I have taken (all but 1 actually) have been from the Defensive pistol side of the room and I would not change that. My competition performance is lacking because of dedicated practice time not because of some magic bullet piece of knowledge that I do not know. Time is limited and I am not going to neglect my duties as a father to practice so I can will a few plaques that my kids will burn when I die.

Other than the things I have previously mentioned in the what I lack department is my own range. One that is set up properly and in a good location.

Right on. While I have known many LEO, Military and NRA Instructors, Gun Writers, Forum Residents, Shop Owners and Gunsmiths that are in fact very skilled shooters and Trainers, I will always lean on my own evaluation of ability and for me The Shooting Sports plays a large role. It is not the equipment that makes the shooter just like the resume is a guide, not a given.

 

[Randy Harris]

I don't think my competitive shooting background has hurt me very much if at all. If it has been a problem in the past it is strictly that for a few years folks thought the only shooting skills I have are USPSA based skills. Drawing and shooting quickly and accurately are the skills no matter the setting. I have a Master Classification in the Limited 10 division in USPSA. Being Master class is pretty tough in any division. I did it with a traditional style holster not a speed rig. I don't compete with speed gear in USPSA in any division. I don't carry my Limited guns very often because with my luck that would be when I got into a shooting and my high dollar gun would spend 2 years in a evidence locker.

There are only a few ways to get credibility as an instructor. LE, Military, or competition or get NRA certified. I was too old for the first two options when I started this instructor thing or nearly too old for LE. Demonstrating shooting ability in competition has been my route. I think the high number of satisfied customers is the other. I have been unwilling to subject myself to sitting through the NRA certification process. That has probably cost me as much money as anything. If I were NRA certified and on Facebook I could probably double my business. Not willing to do either of those two things.

Most of the classes I have taken (all but 1 actually) have been from the Defensive pistol side of the room and I would not change that. My competition performance is lacking because of dedicated practice time not because of some magic bullet piece of knowledge that I do not know. Time is limited and I am not going to neglect my duties as a father to practice so I can will a few plaques that my kids will burn when I die.

Other than the things I have previously mentioned in the what I lack department is my own range. One that is set up properly and in a good location.

Agree with Coach, NO ONE ever wished they were slower and less accurate in a gunfight. I can guarantee that Charles Askins never wished , in the middle of a gunfight , that he'd spent less time learning to shoot well enough to win TWO National Championships shooting NRA Bullseye. And Jim Cirillo wrote about the better performers among the stakeout squad were also competent competitive shooters. Would you REALLY want to get in a gunfight with Bob Vogel if he tried to arrest you? For those that don't know, Vogel was a police officer.

For those that don't work in a job where they are likely to get in a gunfight (and VERY few people actually do that kind of work and almost NONE of it has much to do with CIVILIAN use of force) then competitive shooting is really one of the few yardsticks to measure gun handling and shooting competency. And while NO ONE who has experienced both will say that lethal force encounters and matches produce the SAME stress, competitive shooting does test your gun handling and marksmanship skills under the stress of your peers watching and most people fear embarrassment and or failure on some level. If you actually care about how you perform there is some stress. If not, then why do so many people say that "It all goes out the window when the buzzer sounds"?

I too can say all of my classes in my resume have been on the defensive side. I simply employ the marksmanship and gun handling skills I practice there to shoot matches. I don't really do any "match specific" training. Yeah ,I know, but I "Just shoot IDPA not a REAL shooting sport"....but I'm at least fairly competent at it, if Master class in 5 divisions and a top 20 finish (14th in Master SSP) in my division at the World Championship counts for anything. Do I think being "all in" on the tactical side and not doing match specific training hurts my match performance? Yes I absolutely do , mostly because I have an instinctive self preservative aversion to using cover improperly which tends to make my stage times a little slower than folks that don't envision the bad guys actually being armed for real. But I'm OK with that. I know who I am. I'm a "Timmy" who shoots matches against the best shooters he can find for practice ....not a "gamer" who trains with match performance as the specific goal.

A few years back another competitor in my class and division (Master SSP) at a regional match mentioned in a "good natured ribbing" sort of way that he had beat me at the last 2 regional matches we had shot in. I had to agree , he had finished ahead of me in the last two big matches....I then asked him if he wanted to wrestle and his answer was "Hell no... you'd probably kill me!".... to which I smiled and nodded.... and said "keep in mind all that time you are shooting matches and doing match specific practice I'm working all the other skills too." Another time a big name competitor in the IDPA world was leaving a regional match the same time I was and was parked next to me. He was loading his stuff into his vehicle and taking off his gun and gear and storing it in the trunk. He saw me take off my match gun (G34 with Fiber optic sights) and replace it (into my IWB carry holster that I also shot the match with) with my Night Sight equipped G34. He puffed his cigar and said "You're one of those guys that carries a gun all the time aren't you" I nodded and said "Yep...that's me" as I stuffed my carry ammo loaded spare mag into my mag pouch as he, visibly unarmed, climbed into his car.... Dudes like me and Coach don't look at it as a golf club to be stored in the trunk....

Cedartop mentioned earlier his getting into the competitive shooting side....I can tell you with no exaggeration I can see a difference in his gun handling and shooting since he has started down that path. I saw him last summer at a class I taught in Charlestown, Indiana and I definitely could tell just from watching him that he'd been putting in the time with his gun handling because it was fast, fluid, and with no extraneous motion. Not that he was by any means slow or clumsy before...but the difference was impressive...and I don't impress easily. Competitive shooting will make you a better shooter if you stick with it and it can make you a better instructor because you will have a better understanding of what really high performance looks like and how to get there and how to steer your students toward it.

 

[Jackson]

There have been some good suggestions in this thread. My first thought when I read this a week ago was that none of the courses or activities you've listed match up with your stated goal. Your goal, as best I can tell, is to be more effective at teaching pistol 1 type courses, and to be more attractive to potential clients in order to build your business. You've got 100 hours of tactics and combatives courses planned. You aren't spending your time on your priorities. Or your priorities aren't aligned with your goals.

I agree with the posters who essentially said the following:
Determine what value you can bring to your clients. What problem are you going to solve for them? What is your niche or competitive edge? What can you offer?
Focus on that and develop it.
Provide excellent service that makes your clients want to send everyone they know to you.


Spend some time learning about marketing, about curriculum development, adult learning, working on your business instead of in your business, and all that kind of stuff that several people have mentioned.



A few other things I've seen that seem to contribute to some instructors success:
* Align yourself with a range, club, or organization that provides a pipeline of potential clients.
* Find a specific aspect of shooting or defense that isn't being taught by most local instructors. Paladin's MUC course is an example. Weapons-integrated combatives is an example. Low-light shooting opportunities is an example. (Show them something they've never seen before.)
* Have a progressive curriculum that fits together and makes sense.
*Develop a high level of technical skill and demonstrate it in competition or elsewhere.