There are many general truths in this world that I follow on a regular basis. One of my favorite maxim is “you get out of it, what you put into it.”

Winning Means Sacrifice

During the pandemic we all had to suffer and many things changed. We changed the way we see the world and we changed the way we see many of our politicians. Some not in a good way. One thing that didn’t change for me was the drive to train. It might have been modified a little, but at its core it did not change. When I say drive to train I’m talking about the urge to improve or what I sometimes reference as an insatiable act to win. Winning can be defined differently for many people, but I define winning as in some way, shape or form related to victory. Consistency putting in the effort to improve is about a lot of things, one thing often overlooked is sacrifice.

No Such Thing As A Natural

If you want to be better at something, anything it will take practice. No amount of natural skill will ever replace hard work. So, what happens when you don’t want to put in the hard work, well is is pretty simple. You continue to suck. I put a lot of clout into the importance of live fire training, how it is irreplaceable for shooting skill development. What happens when you cannot conduct live fire training. Like during a pandemic when not only did we have to deal with lockdowns, but an ammunition shortage. I know I’m not the only one who saw a dramatic decrease in their live fire training during the pandemic. It seemed to me a perfect time to evaluate how well dry fire really works. Nothing like a semi-forced experiment to shed some light on a subject.

What Reality Really Looks Like

Before the pandemic it was quite normal for me to shoot around 200 rounds during each range trip. I would often get one maybe two range trips in per month. A low end average was approxmately 3,000 rounds per year, per weapon system. This excluded the rounds fired for demonstrations during training or insturction. This was my own private professional development. The number dropped to maybe 800 on the low end, 1,000 on the high end during the pandemic for my an annual expenditure of live fire training. That is about an 65% decrease for those wondering. This could have incredibly important implications. My experiment was simple, is there a way to sustain your current skill level or better improve your current skill with dry fire training only?

The Heart Of The Experiment

One of my pet peeves is when someone who really cannot help a student, presumably an instructor will tell the student to just do more dry fire practice. They make this suggestion partially because they don’t know how to solve some of the stubborn shooting errors. In this case, I wanted see how much dry fire would sustain my skills. I purposely went to a specific dry fire routine to discover for myself what was really going on with my skills. Then, when I spoke with a student about dry fire I could put something more tangible other than “because” as to the why. The length of the experiement started at six months. It included a live fire baseline assessment of various shooting drills in the beginning. The baseline was designed to have a wide scope of evaluation and was only 50 rounds total. This live fire along with the dry fire routine was repeated for three months, then for the remaining three months dry fire only.

Confused By The Data

Some very intersting things happened. First, my dry fire was daily and consisted of approximately 50 dry fire trigger manipulations from a variety of conditions. On target, at a ready position and from the holster both open and concealed. Once I had my system down it took 15 minutes from start to finish. Some drills were timed while others were subjectively based as to whether I considered it a good repetition or a “no rep”. At the end of the six months I shot the baseline drill again and I saw a 3% decline in my performance. Well, that wasn’t what I expected, but there was still a nagging question.

What The Numbers Really Say

What if it was more about sustainment. In other words, I only lost 3% of my observed skill level over a six month period with dry fire and 200 rounds fired. I don’t know about you, but I see that as a big win. I extended my experiment for another six months without any interruptions. These next three months were again dry fire only bringing the total to six months. At this mark, I saw something interesting. I was looking at a 2% improvement, I had somehow made up a 5% increase in the nine months of this experiement. I’m not going to lie, I was giddy as all get out and I could hardly wait to see the end of the experiement a full 12 months to see what would happen. At the end of my experiement my total rounds fired was 400 rounds and I saw 5% improvement for a grand total of 8% over the period of the experiment.

Easy Come, Easy Go

What did all this mean in the end for me. Consistency. Let’s face it a 5% improvement is not that big a deal. Or is it? When you realize I was not training nearly as often nor to the same volume it is pretty damn impressive to see the improvement as far as I’m concerned. It also puts to bed the question “does dry fire help.” I don’t think anyone doubted it, no one had any data or figures to help show a tangible benefit or justication for your time, talent and treasure. Now, here is the bad news. Shortly after this past holiday I got a nasty case of bronchitis. Add to that my voluntary time off from training, all training and it was about 30 days. I literally threw all that work out the window in 30 days. My skill level dropped significantly in that time period. I believe that is more telling than the 5% improvement. I wish I had shot the same baseline but I didn’t. What I observed instead was a massive failure. Five out of the eight drills I failed to meet the standard. Those who know me, know that is huge.

The lesson to be learned here is don’t go crazy, keep it short and simple, but above all else…be consistent. Dry fire can at the very minimum help sustain your skill and depending on the individual even help improve over time.

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The harsh reality should you react to a deadly force encounter, is it will not be anything like what you practiced. It will be a small sliver of your training and you will more than likely need to adapt to the newness you are witnessing with learning transfer.

Does It Bring Value

For the longest time I have been preaching how as an instructor I’m trying to prepare a student for an unknown and unknowable event. It is impossible to say with a high degree of certainty you will be able to predict the type of deadly force encounter you experience. There are lots of different perspectives on training theories within the tactical community. They are all explorable options, but not all of them are valuable options. The worst thing you could do is to become a specialist. Someone that specializes in a unique area. Even if that area is considered by some to be “trending” or “popular” there are still so many unknowns.

It Shouldn’t Be A Bridge Too Far

Instead, I prefer to teach students how to adapt with the essential skills they have developed. We define essential skills as those necessary to be competent, but more importantly…resilient. I would much rather develop a resilient student. One who can observe his surroundings and realize they are not exactly what they have practiced for, but have the ability to quickly bridge that gap and solve the problem. They must be able to “read the need, the feed the need”. This bridging action is referenced as learning transfer. It makes up the core tenets for just about any initiative based tactics commonly used in close quarters battle.

The Difference Between Practice & Real Life

The very best tactical teams will be expertly skilled at their job. This expert skill level is not quite what many would think. It is more about creating the enviornment for the assaulter to think their way through the problem. To provide an opportunity to observe their surroundings, recognize the subtle difference between what they are seeing and what they have practiced, this is the essence of learning transfer. Then in a split second, make a decision and act. Act with an intention and move with a purpose. Over decades of solving problems we have come to realize there is not going to be an exact mock-up of the target. Only in very rare circumstances do we actually get to train on a replica mock-up. While you would think this is good, there is a down size.

The Advantage Is In Better Decisions

The downsize is when the replica is not an exact replica. The oddity is now a major obstruction. Because of the pre-planned action being front loaded, there is more dwell time. The end user has to recognize the difference, then review the best options and finally act. Many time, the speed of execution produces hasty judgments that don’t really solve the problem. The slightest change can cause the gears to come to a grinding halt. Basically, the assaulter is having to take in the realistic information and accept it is different from what they expected. This type of choreographed activity is not nearly as reliable as an initiative based theory. What is the biggest difference between the two? Time. The time it takes to act with the best outcome is much shorter with initiative based tactics. When we train to a certain standard, then allow the situation to dictate you will be far more likely to act in a timely manner, but here is the kicker. Your decisions will be better suited to the situation because of learning transfer helping to produced a positive outcome. When we train to this level, modifications of learned skills and the ability to adapt those skills when a new context or stimuli without prior training provides us a huge advantage in a critical incident.

There is a time and a place for rot memorization and application, but when you cannot accurately predict the type of deadly force encounter it is much better to adapt. This adaptation and improvisation will survive contact with an unknown, unknowable event.

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Don’t think for a moment that I haven’t failed, whether in life or on the firing line. Believe me, I have learned the importance of failure since I have failed more times than I can count.

Understanding The Lesson

I’m okay with the vast majority of my failures because I choose to look at them as lessons. The hard part is really listening to what the failures tell us. When I’m coaching students during diagnostics the first question I will ask them is “what did they feel.” I’m not asking about their emotional condition, I’m asking them to listen to their brain and body to understand the importance of failure. What did they tell you about the last shot or evolution. This is probably one of the hardest concepts to get across to students. That it is okay to fail and in fact we should fail often. As long as we are willing to look deeply at the failure and try to understand the lesson.

Fast Failures

We place a high premium on repetitions to help students learn new skills. I ask students to move at a speed they can think their way thorugh the drill. When we approach the target, I ask what did they feel. My hope is they were paying attention and can gleam something as a result of their slowed processing speed. This doesn’t come easily to many so my philosphy is to fail fast. What I mean by this is the faster we can fail, the quicker we can learn. It boils down to being able to perform the same drill or relatively the same drill over and over to the point you start to pick up on the micro level details. By quickly getting to the failure point we are able to make a mental jump to the learning point.

Healthy Risk Taking Is Good

With the idea of failing growing more comfortable, we start to shift our mental focus to more about how does this failure lead to success. That leads us to a failing forward mentality. This allows students to embrace their own learning cycle. Some will learn faster than others, requiring less mistakes. Others will take more mistakes to truly begin their learning cycle. Nothing in this world will be achieveable without a little risk taking. There is a balance we all need to seek, right at the point of healthy risk taking. You have to be comfortable taking these risks so you can experience the lesson they provide you. There is a big differnce between letting loose in a semi-controlled manner to complete choas and unsafe.

It Boils Down To Failing Often

Adults learn differently. They have several self-imposed barriers that prevent them from reaching new levels. Failures impact us twice as much as successes. Which is why as humans we are happy staying in our comfort zone. The thrill of victory pales to the agnony of defeat. There is little gained by staying in your comfort zone. Life is best experienced on the edges. In our classes there are standards all must achieve. What so many students don’t learn until it is too late is the importance of failure. To fail early, fail fast leading to failing forward. My biggest advice to new students or even returning students is to go slow and fail often. These are the two most vaulable traits a student can bring to a class.

Getting to the point of getting comfortable being uncomfortable has taken me years to master. But, I feel the most alive and accomplished when I’m outside my comfort zone.

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Regardless of the endeavor you pursue, there is a model you must follow to achieve success. There are no secrets, it is almost common knowledge, but without putting a heavy emphasis on your technique, repetition and pressure you will likely fail to reach your potential.

The Law Of Primacy

When we are looking at teaching a new skill, the most important thing to remember is safety. As we learn a new skill there is a higher risk factor associated. If the acitvity is already high risk, then it is even more important safety is your first priority. The mistake I see is when as a new student you are easily swayed by marketing or celebrety status. Each can be hugely positive, but not everything is as it seems. When we are learning a skill one way of analyzing how well we learn the skill is through some sort of metrics or standard. It is important we learn the skill correctly in the beginning.

Learning Is A Progression

It is not hard for me to rate which of these traits is the most important. It will be technique. Without proper technique your level of safety is questionable. When you are learning a new skill your goal should be not just to learn the new skill, but learn the new skill correctly. If a new student is struggling with their technqiue it will get more challenging as we try to progress to new skills or repeat the skills or add pressure to the new skills. Learning the technique correctly provides you with the most important take away, the ability to produce the desired outcome. Even if it is slower, at closer distance or against a bigger target.

Repetition Is The Mother Of Learning

To master your technique will take repeated effort. Not just any effort, but the effort required to produce the desired outcome. If you cannot put the effort into practicing you will find your technique becomes more and more transparent. What I mean by this phrase is less and less reliable. When you couple consistent effort with an outcome standard you will eventually develop to the point you rely more on the motor pathways you’ve created. Requiring less an less mental effort. In the beginning I encourage students to move only as fast as they can think through their technqiue. It is what I like to call a living check list. The students start with step one, they apply the mental energy required to meet the minimum standard and then move to the next step. At some point, they will achieve a level where their technique is now a smooth, effortless action.

Learn Correct Technique First

As you continue to “rep out” your technique you begin to advance to new levels. It is the ability to pressure test your technique you really begin to appreciate all your hard work. The stress you place on your technique will either produce a postive or negative outcome. If through pressure testing you discover your technique is holding up then you have successuflly trained your new skill. If not, you have idenfitied areas of improvement you need to work on to evnetually get to the point you have developed a new trained skill. There really are no shortcuts, you need technique, repetition and pressure to reach your goal. The biggest mistake I see happens early, when a student fails to put the work into developing their technque. It is then compounded with repetition of doing something that produces a suboptimal result. Leading to failure in the pressure testing phase. If I could offer encouragment to anyone learning a new skill, it would be to make sure you are learning correct technqiue.

Balancing Time With Outcome

The last point to consider is the overall time to achieve the desired outcome. There is a happy balance when technique, repetition and pressure are your focus to stay motivated. Students want to see results. They need to see results early on, or at least at a reasonable time period relative to the skill difficulty. If we rush to learn the skill we could jeaporadize safety and or technique. If it takes forever to learn the new skill we likely see interest wane. In our training classes the most important point I relay to students is this skill is within their ability to master, but it will take time. There will be little victories along the way we must celebrate.

The final goal is going to be different for everyone, but it will have correct technique performed repetitively against a metric that guages your success.

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I have talked about this subject in the past, but the whole cross eyed dominance thing is not a thing. Don’t worry, when you close the other eye, your dominate eye is the one still open.

Disparity in Eye Strength

Too many times I will get the question about eye dominance. Most of the time people are surprised by my answer. While some people make it out to be a thing, it really is not. I get why people have been lead to believe it is an issue. It sounds a little scary when someone says you might not be able to see your sights. Even then, the only reason someone might suggest you continue to shoot with the other eye is the same reason we use to tell people they need to move the gun to the other side. I know many students who back in the day were told to learn how to shoot on their other side when the instructor found out they had a disparity in their eye strength.

Red Dots On Rifles

We have come a long way with so much innovation in equipment. Now, we have some pretty cool sight systems. When red dot sights first came into the picture on rifles so many cross eye dominate shooters were cured. The moment they could look through the optic their brain was able to see the dot and everything was good to go. As I studied why so many shooters were finding it easier to see the dot with the rifle on their right side it occurred to me the majority were right handed. It was more comfortable to shoot on their truly dominate or strong side. As more and more red dot sights showed up in rifle classes we saw this phenomenon more and more.

Unnecessary Movement Under Stress

The problem was compounded with handguns because we didn’t have red dots on them or for defensive use. They were still not on the radar. The traditional sight picture was confusing the brain and mixed messages were being created as a result. The solution was to shift the handgun to align with the left eye and point the chin at the crock of the strong side elbow. This technique would basically shift everything so the shooter could see their sights with their “dominant” eye. This worked wonders for so many people, family members included. The problem was how unnecessary all this extra movement was on top of the precision you needed to perform this extra movement. With these added variables it meant the likelihood one or more not meeting a minimum performance standard. When they failed to meet that standard, the chance of you not seeing the best sight picture was higher.

Simple Solutions To Complex Problems

Unless you are placed in this situation it is really hard to understand the challenges. Again, I totally get what people say when they express their frustration. I am not cross eye dominate, my right hand lines the gun up in front of my right eye. How is it I can speak with such authority on the subject then. Simple, when I shoot on my weak side I am now a cross eyed dominate shooter. Or maybe not. Because I believe it is essential any firearm instructor be able to demonstrate from both their strong and weak side it was something I had to over come. How did I overcome the cross eyed dominance issue. Simple. I closed my right eye. This allowed the gun to line up on my left side in front of my left eye. Problem solved.

What Happens In Reality

Some will mention there is a hole in my theory. You cannot expect to close the non dominate eye in a gunfight. Yeah right, but you think you will move the gun to the opposite side and turn your head away from the threat. Doesn’t make much sense when you think of it this way. When you can keep the gun in front of the eye on the same side as the gun you will be much better off than the alternatives. I continue to work off my weak side and I continue to apply this technique. It works, and is so much easier than the alternative. You may struggle closing the eye at first and if so, I suggest investing in a second pair of shootings glasses. Cover the weak side with painters tape to obscure your vision. While not the best solution it gets you going in the right direction.

There are plenty of challenges many new shooters experience when first starting out. Don’t overly complicate or confuse them with unnecessary technique.

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There is a thought, to be the best at something requires hard work. The reality is it requires deliberate practice in the form of consistency and effort every day.

Control Your Practice

Take shooting and in specific shooting fast. When a new shooter comes into the world, they are bombarded by so much information it is hard to imagine how they select and process. Between social media and internet videos it has to be overwhelming. A common thread through it all is outcome. What is the outcome or the prize. The majority of the time it is speed. Accuracy is seldom as sexy as speed so it makes sense most new comers are focused on trying to be fast.

Excellence In Technique Through Practice

Trying to refocus their goals on accuracy is not an easy task. It takes some persuasion on my part and humility on theirs. I typically give my deliberate practice speech at some point in our intermediate class and lead off with it in our advanced classes. It goes something like this, perfection is not the goal. Mastery is the goal, but mastery of oneself. To achieve mastery of oneself it begins with consistency. You have to do the right things on a daily basis. Whatever the right thing is, you have to do so often it becomes a habit. Then, through consistency you develop excellence in your technique. Through countless repetitions you discover subtle even minuscule cues that further refine your technique nearing perfection.

Practice Takes Effort

Consistency alone is not the solution, you must apply effort. You must expend conscious exertion of power. Working on accuracy is not always fun, it can be a toil. Meaning, the effort you must put in daily can seem tedious or laborious, but more importantly unrewarding. It is hard to see the tree within the forest for some. They don’t want to put in the hard work, they want to be good right now. Never mind the hard work put in by many others before them to achieve greatness. It is tedious and lacking in glamour.

When Practice Becomes Failure

When you combine consistency with effort it typically equals diligence. One of the reasons we see so many student mentally smoked at the end of a hard training day. They were diligently putting in the hard work to achieve greatness. They may not have been successful, but that is okay because they were putting in their best effort. It is an acknowledgement that despite everything they do, they may still fail. The thought of failing for some can be too much emotionally and they opt to avoid the hard work, to avoid the failure.

Daily Deliberate Practice

When you break technique down to its itemized parts it is the attention to detail on those isolated movements that makes the difference. Speed was never the goal, excellent in technique was the desired outcome. Moving with such grace it becomes a thing of beauty. After all, this what we love to watch, the beauty of our art. Putting in the hard work through consistency and effort is what I believe makes deliberate practice.

Through this approach you discover one day you have arrived at your destination. You don’t recognize the length or duration, you just realize you have achieved your goal.

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I have learned over the years, no matter how simple I make the lesson there are always challenges. One I continue to experience is proper trigger finger placement.

What Type of Cup Are You

I have developed a system that allows shooters the best chance of shooting success. We dissect their technique and either push them to sustain or guide them to improve. If they are doing well, there is no need to change their technique for the sake of changing. My ego is well established I don’t need to see my imprint on every student I come into contact with in classes. It is when we need to improve the challenges begin. When it comes to corrective strategies I can break the student down into three different categories. Each category requires a slightly different approach. There is the empty cup, the half full cup and the full cup.

Full Cup Obstacles

The empty cup type students struggle just like everyone else. Typically, they are overwhelmed with so much new material they have a hard time focusing on a single action. Instead, their attention is splattered all over the place. The half full cups are probably the easiest to work with and easiest to see the most improvements. They have a decent knowledge base, can comprehend the material and with a little mentoring can discover on their own the best technique for themselves. The full cups are probably the hardest to deal with for lots of different reasons. The two biggest ones are denial and ego.

Believing Your Trigger Finger Is Right, But It’s Not

They have a hard time accepting they are making the mistakes identified in corrective strategies. On the one hand, they can comprehend the mistake, but on the other there is a disbelief they are actually making said mistake. Through the diagnostics we use I can identify the various types of errors. There are a few we see in every class and are easy to spot. I call these the low lying fruit because if I can get the student to remedy the error, they can see big improvements and quickly. When denial exists, there is little I can do other than apply deductive reasoning in the hopes the student’s logical brain will override their emotional brain. Explaining the error and corrective strategy to the class has it’s advantages. The big disadvantage is the idea the student in question is thinking, “he can’t be talking about me.” Then dismissing the point.

Hitting Rock Bottom

When ego is involved there is a disbelief they can be making the mistake. It glosses over them. It is not until they reach a low point they can accept the possibility they are creating the error leading to their poor performance. About the only way to handle this situation is to wait until they are literally up against the ropes then spend some time one to one. The light bulb moment is the result of exhausting all other options and finally recognizing the problem. In either case, as an instructor you have to be patient. Even if you apply these strategies, there is still a chance they won’t come around taking more time and more failures. I see this a lot in classes with trigger finger placement.

The Right Digit Location

In this case, it had to do with the trigger finger placement. The trigger finger must be completely isolated from the frame of the firearm. It cannot touch, rub or contact the frame. If it does, the finger will place pressure on the frame. This pressure will move the frame in the direction of the pressure resulting in a windage error. While I talk about the trigger finger being low and deep, the main point I try to get across is isolating the trigger finger. Then keeping the tip pointed at ninety degrees. It really is an easy error to spot, both in the shot group and with the shooter. The hard part is fixing the problem when the shooter doesn’t see the problem themselves.

Once the shooter is ready to see the shooting error, they are ready to correct the error. The only thing you can do in the mean time is provide encouragement and accountability.

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Broad Shoulders Indeed

Firearms are dangerous. There is no way to sugar coat this truth, nor is there a way to downplay this fact. We need to ensure we are doing everything to create the safest training environment possible. It is not as easy as it sounds. Most accidents occur due to negligence. Poor firearms handling, not understanding firearm safety rules or not respecting the firearm’s destructive capacity are common faults with accidents. A hard pill to swallow is the fact these all rest on the shoulders of the instructor. It is our responsibility to work within the safe capacity of the students.

Failure To Adapt

Sometimes it sucks when you advertise an intermediate level class, yet the majority of students are well below the threshold. There are four options you have to manage this situation. You can ask to place them in a more appropriate level class for their skill, but only if you have one maybe two max. You can always dismiss them on the count of safety, but only if they committed an infraction. You can take them off to the side and provide remediation in an effort to bring them up to speed. This works if you have assistant instructors and extra range space to conduct the remediation. If you are instructional agile then you can adjust or scale the curriculum to accommodate the actual class skill level. What ends up happening is the class moves along and the slower students are left to catch up creating the opportunity for higher risks.

Stay In Your Lane

When the troubled students need constant supervision it detracts from the class, from those who actually have the requisite skills. It is often times the best option given the circumstances. What ends up happening is the focus is constantly shifting from one group to another. You realize the one group with the skills are not the focus so you focus on them in an effort to make up lost time. Then you keep looking over to the troubled shooters in an effort to keep an eye on their progress. It is a very challenging situation that again creates the opportunity for greater risk. At a certain point the troubled shooters realize they are holding back the class. With the best of intentions they begin to step outside of their comfort zone and this is where accidents are most likely to happen.

Forward & Controlled Movement

The challenge is to keep the majority of the shooters engaged, the higher end shooters challenged and the lower end shooters supervised. If it sounds exhausting then you would be correct. This is where the instructor agility really shines. It means being able to scale drills for the troubled shooters. You can still have still participate, but only dry fire. You can have the class partner up so their is another set of eyes watching their performance. You can even have them go through with man marking cartridges if available. These are just some accommodations that impact the rest of the class minimally.

In the end, the responsibility for safety is the instructor’s. They must recognize when they ask the student to work outside their safe abilities and be able to adjust, adapt or accommodate.

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Every now and then we take a complaint about our accuracy standards for being so tough on shot placement or our scoring. What they sometimes don’t see is how important building trust and treating students fairly is factored into the standards.

Building Trust

On the one hand, I hear what they are saying. I’m not saying our standards are tougher than anyone else’s. What I’m saying is we enforce our standards as a matter of principle across the board. Regardless of the situation, our primary goal is to be as consistent with our standards as humanly possible. I cannot emphasize how important it is to students they know what is expected as far as performance. Students are putting themselves in a vulnerable position when they come to a class. The instructor’s job is building trust at the same time treating all students fairly to ease student’s concerns. What many don’t get and surprising to see so many with instructor titles is the importance behind building trust and managing expectations.

Trust The Process

There needs to be a level of trust the students will be treated fairly, consistently and universally. The last thing you want to do is show favoritism or a bias. This will kill the validity of any program no matter how popular. The integrity of your program needs to be beyond reproach. When students trust the process they are more inclined to invest in the process; thereby reaping the rewards. The idea everyone is treated equally is a fundamental truth we as instructors need to make a top priority.

Time To Get Your Learn On

Expectations are integral to advancing as a student. Not so much in a step by step guide, but in the sense of managing their own anxiety. There will always be some nerves when placed in a new situation. This uncomfortable nature of learning new things happens to everyone. Some will manage it better than others, but when expectations can be managed it makes for a much better learning environment. This in turn removes barriers to learning and paves the way for a positive experience.

Check For Comprehension

The best way to manage expectations is to trust, but verify. While I might explain something as if it were common sense, I do not assume it is understood. I check for comprehension by asking questions and seeking feedback. This allows the student and I to see eye to eye. A lot of times I ask the student what they are thinking, or what do they think happened. This will help me better gauge the understanding of an important concept, but it also allows the student to translate what I said into something that makes sense to them.

Message Deliver Method

To facilitate all of this, there must be a set of standards for everyone to follow. No one is above or below, everyone must satisfactory meet the standards. When you meet the standards it shows the message deliver method was successful.The system looks something like communication, comprehension and application. I as the teacher communicate an idea to the student. The student receives the message, processes it and then attempts to apply the message in practical terms. The means to evaluate how well this system works is through standards. My expectations are that you may not meet the standards, but you understand what is expected. In the beginning of class I express to everyone my expectations of them while in the class. To give your best effort in everything we do, to be honest with yourself and to not make excuses.

The experience for all students should be the same, no matter the format. Create the opportunity for growth by  building trust and treating students fairly is the key.

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Know Thyself

It is always interesting to take the 1,000 foot view approach in classes. You have the opportunity to observe a group of people all participating in the same evolutions, following the same instructions and performing to the same standards. Yet, we have varying degrees of outcome. There is no such thing as equality of outcome when it comes to physical performance. There is the ability to learn and apply only. The better you learn, the better understanding of the actions required. However, the real challenge is not in understanding the task at hand, it is understanding yourself.

Avoid The Dark Path

All things being equal, it boils down to ego, failure to follow instructions and the inability to choose success. Many times I see students who are graduates of other formalized schools show up with terrible skills. The notion goes something like this; I attended this school, I observed my performance amongst my peers and I was near the top of the class. Ergo I must be a good shooter. If this notion is not challenged early on it leads to a dark path. One where the shooter doesn’t put in the work, will make excuses for poor performance and fails to hold themselves accountable.

It’s Good To Be Hardheaded

Humility is one of the most important traits one can have in any high risk endeavor. Respect for how little you might actually control or the realization you don’t control as much as you thought. If one can see this, then one can see the importance of recognizing what is within your control. Which really is just you, your tools and your preparation. This level of understanding can be quite liberating. It can create a sense of intense purpose or determination.

Being Ready to Learn

I have seen students with virtually no formalized instruction make huge gains and those with a fair amount stagnate. A major difference is how well they can follow instructions. When an error is discovered the action is the result of doing something wrong or not right. You can park yourself on the shooter’s shoulder and tell them over and over, but until they can follow the instructions for correcting it may be an effort in futility. In these situations it might prove more valuable to identity the error through the rounds on the target. I explain to the student when they see rounds in this sector what the probable causes are and what they should do instead. After having heard me say it to them a few times they often can start to see the error in real time. Then I typically will step back. I allow the student to experience the corrective strategy first hand because now they are better prepared to “see” for themselves. They become the custodian of their skill development.

It doesn’t happen as quickly as I would like sometimes, but it does produce results. Something as simple as following instructions at the cellular level can be challenging for the majority of us, myself included.

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