WOW... scary the kind of people that teach new gun owners

[garand4life]

So, I spent the weekend or at least 19+ hours of it obtaining my NRA Pistol Instructor's certification. Went well got to do a lot of shooting and of course plenty of book work but what bugged me was the fact that at least a fourth of the class were NOVICE shooters. By novice I mean shooter's with less than 18 months of shooting experience. I've known several shooters who could shoot as well or better than shooters with a life time worth of experience but this was not the case here.
The only female in the course just turned 21 and managed to find a way to put out of commission 2, count it, 2 Glocks and a SA 1911. I didn't think that was even possible. On top of that she couldn't hit a 8.5"x11" target at 10 feet consistently. I am not bashing her for being a female, in fact that was very interesting to see in a course like this. But, if you are being charged with not only the safety of your students but the public you "unleash" them on shouldn't you be able to demonstrate above average ability before trying to pass on those skills to NEW shooters?
I was surprised to the fact that this course had us shooting more than the Pistol course itself and incorporated tactics much more advanced than those that are typically taught from my experience. We were performing things like, firing from retention, barricade shooting, cornering, shooting from the draw, lateral movement, shooting with a flashlight and shooting and the like.
The only disappointment is that the techniques the retired LEO instructors kept trying to drive into us would actually be ill-advised for a home defense. On the barricade the instructor tried to have us step out and fire versus leaning out and maintaining some level of cover. Anyway I wish they would watch one episode of BD to realize that LEO's and civilians have different needs and teaching the methods of the Las Vegas Metro police to civilians can be a BAD IDEA. Oh, by the way when coming up to a corner or barricade do you a) stick the gun out for the perp to grab or b) keep in close to the body in retention till ready to engage the target? Anyway rant off...

Oh by the way the M&P45 was grouping in the 1/2" range at 20 feet. 10 rounds in a half dollar size hole.

[Pecos Bill]

Good grief you were taught this stuff for the pistol instructors certificate? I think you'd be better to question the competence of those who instructed you than those who were instructed! Gad what a joke or was this meant as a joke? You need to find a QUALIFIED pistol caoch and get properly certified. I had a pistol instructors certificate for a while but I got better instruction than what you got. Not much better but some.

[m25operator]

1st G4life, your female student, probably did not break the pistols, I don't know her stature, but light people may not back up a semi auto, and limp wrist which causes failures to feed, 2nd, the course may have been too much to chew in one or two days. When you have a student that is lacking, that is when, as an instructor, to take a step back and work with that individual.  Watch their motions and see what they are doing wrong, don't get mad about it, just advise and coax them into correct gun handling, maybe those pistols were not right for that particular student. John Shaw, stated, and it is true, firing a handgun is akin to lighting a firecracker in your hand, we know it is going to explode, and our body rejects the experience, but once understood, the mind can except it. I like to teach that way, yes it is going to recoil, but no matter what we do, it is going to happen, so, why not keep the sights on the target and get a good hit. Closing our eyes during the experience does not soften the recoil, everything will happen as normal once the trigger is pulled, so why not make a good hit???

Sir do not let this 1st experience sour you, it is noble effort, and you know what, this lady is a prime example, of why people need training. It is not rote, it is training, and training takes time,  experience and effort on both sides, trainer and student.

Good luck in the future, hang in there, and remember, my best range officer students, decided, that maybe they should not do it.
To which I said to them, you were paying attention.

[garand4life]

Good grief you were taught this stuff for the pistol instructors certificate? I think you'd be better to question the competence of those who instructed you than those who were instructed! Gad what a joke or was this meant as a joke? You need to find a QUALIFIED pistol caoch and get properly certified. I had a pistol instructors certificate for a while but I got better instruction than what you got. Not much better but some.

Don't get me wrong there was plenty of focus on how to conduct the basic pistol course. But, their focus was to ensure we had the ability to handle the firearm in a manner conducive to concealed carry and personal defense as well. I enjoyed the drills more than anything else but I did feel I was supplied the resources by the chief instructor to conduct the NRA course. The instructors that handled the shooting aspect were the ones I didn't care for because the tried to teach us how to do things like managing a barricade or corner for cover like a LEO. I wish RP had conducted that part only because his Combat Focused Shooting is equally applicable to CCW and LEO use.

1st G4life, your female student, probably did not break the pistols, I don't know her stature, but light people may not back up a semi auto, and limp wrist which causes failures to feed, 2nd, the course may have been too much to chew in one or two days. When you have a student that is lacking, that is when, as an instructor, to take a step back and work with that individual.  Watch their motions and see what they are doing wrong, don't get mad about it, just advise and coax them into correct gun handling, maybe those pistols were not right for that particular student. John Shaw, stated, and it is true, firing a handgun is akin to lighting a firecracker in your hand, we know it is going to explode, and our body rejects the experience, but once understood, the mind can except it. I like to teach that way, yes it is going to recoil, but no matter what we do, it is going to happen, so, why not keep the sights on the target and get a good hit. Closing our eyes during the experience does not soften the recoil, everything will happen as normal once the trigger is pulled, so why not make a good hit???

Sir do not let this 1st experience sour you, it is noble effort, and you know what, this lady is a prime example, of why people need training. It is not rote, it is training, and training takes time,  experience and effort on both sides, trainer and student.

Good luck in the future, hang in there, and remember, my best range officer students, decided, that maybe they should not do it.
To which I said to them, you were paying attention.

The female shooter I was referring to was taking the course, as I was, to become a NRA Instructor. So to me it seems that if you are trying to become an Instructor you shouldn't be making the same mistakes as someone who has no shooting experience. Agreed? You are going to be held accountable for teaching others safely so you yourself should be able to demonstrate those skills. The Glocks were shot be an experienced Glocker after the fact and both continued to malfunction so it wasn't just her but prior to her shooting them they seemed to work fine. I just want to give a hard time to the Glocksters who actually believe a Glock won't fail. Fun over.  Again I enjoyed it. I just wanted to point out that some of these people will be teaching new shooters and I can say that I wouldn't be comfortable trusting my family to some of them. I have been a trainer for several very large companies like AT&T and Best Buy and I know how one student can dictate the conditions of the course if they are not kept in check so I was not put off by the few we had that in my opinion were probably not quite qualified based of ability to be in this course. Just my opinion.