Managing the Known

What you have to remember is if you are using a well designed training program it will have some fudge factoring embedded. Not much, but some. This allows you to manage several known issues we typically see such as gear related issues, difficulty in understanding directions or folks who move like pond water. Time is always in precious demand. Your students have certain expectations you will be done by a certain time. When time becomes critical you may have to employ some of these techniques to accommodate.

The Go To Strategies

The first is to cut the number or repetitions. If you planned on performing 10 repetitions of a certain drill, then maybe only perform five. You can also cut yard lines. If you intended to work each yard line back to the 25, then maybe you skip a couple in between. Then you can cut evolutions in their entirety. This is the toughest, but can net you the most time. The problem is not every instructor designed their curriculum well. Meaning, some don’t know the difference between a terminal objective, enabling objective and supporting objective.

The ABC’s

You don’t have to hold a Phd, but you do have to understand some basic curriculum development. Your terminal objective is the reason the student is attending the class. Whatever that may be, usually defined in the early moments of the class. Then your enabling objectives provide the means to meet the terminal objective. Supporting objectives are related, but not mandatory towards achieving your terminal objective. In other words, they are the first you would cut away if time became critical.

The Tip of the Iceberg

When you are designing curriculum, what the student sees is the end product. More like the tip of the iceberg. They don’t see how deep it goes and they shouldn’t. It should be indistinguishable to the student. When your level of understanding as an instructor has this much depth then when you are pressed for time you can seamlessly adjust without the student’s knowing. It might seem simple at first, but it takes a seasoned instructor to make it work. It will take a lot of botched attempts before you figure it out and the main reason why it is so important to know your material inside and out.

Worst Case Strategies

At times I will employ other strategies such as instructor demonstrations only. I typically use this when I know I won’t have the time to move to live fire. In this setting, doing the demo only allows me to conduct the brief, answer questions and then do a live fire demonstration for the students to see. Then, they will have to work on the skill on their own after class. They at least have seen what it should look like and use this to build on the skill. Then there is student dry fire only. I feel either the skill is on the cusp of the student’s capability. Meaning, their safe application could come into question with the limited time we have to practice. In this case, they get the brief, questions, instructor demonstration and then dry fire practice. While not ideal, if time is an issue and prevents you from isolating all the safety considerations then this is your go to.

There are a lot of challenges instructors face, the most important is meeting the needs of their students. They came to you to deliver a product, don’t let them down.

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It’s Not About You

Lately, I have had several conversations centered around instructor’s roles and responsibilities. In every industry there is some type of instructor code of conduct. Sadly, there is not an industry standard within our own. Instead it is up to a handful of instructors to set the example for others to follow. While I am not perfect one thing I have learned over the years is if my job is to help students accomplish their goals I cannot do that if I loss their trust. If students don’t trust their instructor to guide them through what will be a difficult or awkward situation then it is unlikely they will get the most out of their students.

Walk In Their Shoes

You can lose your student’s trust in a lot of different ways. Failing to see their point of view is a major fault for most instructors. Either you forgot what’s it’s like to be in their shoes or you don’t care. Forgetting what it was like is easy. For many of us, we take for granted all the frustrations and failures because they are mostly in our past. Connecting to your past is the best way to connect with your students. You may be tempted to dazzle them with your skill, but there will come a time when your edge is no longer as sharp and fails to impress. It is a hard pill to swallow, but your ego is the last thing the student is interested in or believes will help them accomplish their goals.

The Stick or the Carrot

You may also say things to students without actually saying things. Non-verbal communication is a huge part of our student/instructor dialogue. Positive reinforcement is a powerful teaching strategy, pretty much a powerful life strategy if we are being honest. Negative reinforcement can only get you so much. Especially when the student is a paying customer. Knowing when to use the stick or the carrot is the mark of a seasoned instructor. It really comes down to the little things, simple affirmative comments and gestures go a long way. The hard part is knowing how to motivate the student. The only way you can get to truly understanding the students learning method is when the student trusts you enough to share.

Set The Example

Part of non-verbal communication is also in the way you carry yourself both on and off the firing line. If you do things that somehow seem as though you are exempt from the subject at hand you loose credibility. The old “do as I say, not as I do.” If you lose credibility, you lose trust. If you are asking the student to wear the appropriate safety gear, but you are not it creates doubt in the student’s mind. Why do they have too, but you don’t? Something else you want to avoid is criticizing the gear or equipment of a new student. They often times don’t know what to buy or what to avoid. They probably lack the disposable income to just magically acquire the wonder tool you advertise. The only other thing worse than that is when you fail to set the example in your own gear and equipment. You tell students they absolutely have to have this or that in order to justify why you want to use this or that. You make it out like the student “needs” the gear you want. The other problem with this is when you run a clearly specialized tool in a general class. If it is a general class then run the class with the same gear you expect your students to run. On top of that, do the demonstrations with the same gear so the students see what you are asking is achievable with the same gear they are using.

Being an instructor is a lot more than a title. Earning the title means you put more stock in gaining the students trust so you can do the best job possible; which is making them better shooters.

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