ShootingClasses.com Blog

Determining a Student’s Firearms Training Needs

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 13:59:44 -0400

A Common Gun Training Question That Provides Little Value in Assessing Skill Level

Firearms instructors commonly hear the phrase, “I’ve been around guns since I was a kid,” when they ask students about their firearms experience. Unfortunately, that particular response doesn’t tell us much.

The question, “What is your experience with guns?” opens doors for discussion, but it is probably not the best way to get a feel for a customer’s training needs.

Besides being around guns since they were young, another popular response to training experience is, “I was trained in the military.” While this response is a great starting point, let me explain why shooting instructors need to dig a little deeper to determine a student’s firearms training needs.

Gun Knowledge vs. Skills

Here’s a somewhat similar scenario: I’ve been around food all my life, but I am not a great cook. I’ll go even further and say I’m definitely not a chef. There are a few dishes I have the knowledge and skill to prepare, but there are many that I do not. I know a great deal more about cooking than my skills will allow me to successfully create. For example, I have watched someone make a pie crust about 1,000 times, but I have never successfully made one. That’s because knowledge and skill are not the same thing.

Like any martial art, gun skills are perishable. If you’re not frequently practicing them and researching new advancements, you can quickly lose the skill or miss out on a new technique. Technology and advancements in efficiencies and effectiveness impact the way gun skills are taught and applied. This means the firearms training I received in the military, many years ago, is nothing like the skills I use and teach, today.

It’s easy for a student to think they know a lot about shooting. Raise your hand if you’ve ever watched a friend or family member fire a weapon. Raise your hand if you’ve seen a Blockbuster movie with an intense shooting scene. See where I’m going with this? If a student has had former training years ago or has watched some YouTube tutorials, they probably have a general knowledge about guns and shooting. This knowledge, however, far exceeds their skill with the gun.

Developing Skills with Continuous Firearms Training

The knowledge vs skill discrepancy is why training is so important. Training doesn’t just impact what you know, it requires you to perform the associated skills. Can you move to cover while mitigating a malfunction or reloading? We’ve seen John Wick do it and it looks pretty straightforward. But here’s the reality, most people cannot do this - even in a completely stress-free environment. They must train and train continuously.

The idea supporting continuous firearms training is to marry knowledge and skill into a combination of safe handling, rapid decision-making, mindset, efficiency, and effectiveness. It requires introspection, accepting critique, and a willingness to progress.

Great Questions to Ask New Students

Instead of asking, “What’s your experience with guns?” try asking your new students these questions:

“When was the last time you took a training class?”
“How often do you go to the range?”

The answers to these questions will tell you a lot more about the student’s training needs. If you ask yourself those questions, right now, you will immediately know what your training needs are, too.

Skill Level Assessment Questions to Determine Future Firearms Courses

If your student has not been to a course or to the range in more than 3 months, they need to find a course on the fundamentals and make sure they are solid on those easy-to-forget skills.

If they are proficient in the fundamentals, what about their decision-making processes under stress? Are they confident they will make the right decisions in defense of their life? Can they displace laterally or horizontally, or shoot from compromised positions? Can they shoot, move, and communicate?

If they are solid on those skills, what about their marksmanship? Do they feel confident they will not shoot an innocent person if they engage a violent person in defense of their life? These are great questions to ask to determine your student’s next best gun training course.

Continuous training is a commitment to an ethos that is so important to gun owners and instructors. ShootingClasses.com makes it even easier to reach and teach new students. Check out our features and benefits for firearm instructors.

The Myth of Feeling Safe with a Firearm

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 14:03:05 -0400

You might be prepared, but are you ready?

You’ve made an investment and purchased your first firearm. Now you have a tool available to help you mitigate bad things happening to you or your family. For many, having the tool is enough to make them feel safe.

However, I will tell you now that in this context – without proper firearms training – safety is a myth.

Some people take the safety myth even further by sticking the gun – box and all – in a closet. The mystical power that emanates from a closeted gun is definitely a wonder. You are prepared for something, but are you ready?

We feel safer when we have taken a step to mitigate something bad from happening. Yet simply owning, carrying a gun, or having a CCW does not mitigate anything. When you are outside your home, you are not safe because you cannot control all the factors, namely the actions of others and forces of nature.

You’re Prepared and Ready When Driving

Think of it this way. Driving to work in your car feels relatively “safe.” You do it all the time. But consider the number of people hurtling 4,000-pound objects through space in the oncoming lane, while they are texting (4-in-10 drivers) or drunk (1-in-10 drivers). We have 50/50 odds that something bad could happen on the way to and from work every day, but we feel “safe.” This is also a myth.

You, the hero of this story, are (or definitely should be) an undistracted, defensive driver. While you realize that you are taking your life in your hands every time you enter traffic, you are ready for whatever may come your way. What did it take to become ready? Some training and lots of practice with you gun at the range. Maybe a fender-bender or two along the way. Now we are talking about skills and mindset. This adds up to readiness.

Owning a rifle, shotgun or pistol is a great way to be prepared to defend your family. But you also need to get the training necessary to defend your family without being a danger to yourself and others. This is how you become ready.

Transitioning from Prepared to Ready

Quality firearms training is key. You must get the skills necessary to use the tool that will mitigate bad things from happening.

Most of what we initially know about guns is directly or indirectly informed by Hollywood. (Even if Hollywood were an accurate source of information about guns, that’s knowledge, not training.) That is why it is important to find instructors, like those on Shooting Classes, who are experienced and well vetted as great sources of quality training.

Skills are Perishable

Do you know what is not “just like riding a bike”? Riding a bike! If you don’t believe me, don’t ride a bike for 25 years and then give it a try. I’ll wait.

Even if you had great firearms training in the past, your brain will not magically recall efficient pistol fundamentals skills under stress. I recommend going to the shooting range every four to six weeks. Do slow repetitions of important actions like drawing, presentation, and firing from compromised positions. Square range sessions are great for fundamentals. Don’t be afraid to dry fire a lot at the range. (Be sure to check if it is not recommended for your particular firearm.)

When I see someone going through a dozen repetitions without firing, I know they are training, not just dumping magazines. Square range shooting can be effective for fundamentals and magazine dumps make you feel good. They each have a purpose in our lives, but their effectiveness has limits. Stretch your training. Introduce failure and movement. Learn to train the way in which you would expect to use the gun as a tool.

Don’t settle for being prepared. Be ready.

Add to your skill set by taking a firearms class near you.

Have You Trained Your OODA Loop?

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 16:45:16 -0500

OODA is a cool bit of neuroscience, especially since we spend all day doing it and don’t even know it. So what is it? Why do we “OODA” and how are we not conscious of it?

OODA is an acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. It is how our brain collects and processes information so we can make informed decisions and then act upon them. Pretty cool, right?

The OODA Loop is a concept developed by US Air Force pilot and strategist John Boyd. It is designed to explain the decision cycle of an individual or organization. Understanding this cycle allows you to influence it.

Let’s apply OODA to a couple of scenarios. Then we’ll talk about how we can influence our reactions.

Scenario #1 – The Firecrackers

Whenever there is some violent encounter involving a firearm, a number of witnesses are interviewed by the media in order to get that “personal interest” aspect in the story. Invariably, you hear something like, “At first, I thought it was firecrackers.”

When the firearm went off, the brain Observed a “thing” (in this case, they heard an unfamiliar noise) and oriented it. Our brain orients things to something it knows. If your brain does not know or cannot conceive of something other than firecrackers, then it orients to the noise of firecrackers. Yeah – firecrackers… in a shopping mall on August 13. Firecrackers make a TON of sense, right?

“…but then I heard it again! Pow! Pow! Pow! And I was like, Oh crap! That’s a gun!”

In this case, the brain kept working on the orientation and a realization occurred. Ta-da! The noise came from a gun.

“…then I just grabbed my kids and got out of there!”

Bingo! Decide, then Act!

Scenario #2 – Good Guy with a Gun

I know a number of people who carry, but no matter how available we make firearms training to them, they won’t train. They see themselves as “a good guy with a gun” and their intentions are certainly very genuine. But they are actually quite dangerous, and OODA is not their friend if and when they have to draw their firearm.

Let’s go back to the same violent encounter at the mall. “Good Guy” is there and logistically equipped to help stop the bad guy. But he hasn’t been trained on how to position himself in a way that he can shoot the bad guy without hitting the people running behind the bad guy. He has done the first two steps: observed and oriented. Yet now he’s stuck in indecision and can’t act, or worse, he decides to shoot without regard to what is behind his target.

Good Guy could have gotten training to mitigate pauses in OODA. Proper training helps with the following:

Keeping him alive while he’s wracked with indecision
Keeping innocent people alive while he’s wracked with indecision
Allows him to intervene without being a danger to others

Controlling Your OODA Loop

The two things that put a dramatic pause in your OODA Loop are:

Not being able to orient – “That noise can’t be gunfire, because that doesn’t happen here or to me.”
Not being able to decide – “I don’t know what to do because I have never taught my brain to do it.”

How do you mitigate pauses in the OODA Loop?

If you have no intention of carrying a firearm, you should at least take an active shooter course or a violent encounter avoidance and survival course. Heloderm – one of our partners at Warlizard Tactical – delivers an outstanding training experience in these areas.

If you are going to carry, get training. At, Warlizard Tactical, we teach Basics of Pistol Shooting, Defensive Pistol Shooting, and Fighting Pistol classes. These are great courses that teach you to Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act with the best of them.

Bottom line – get trained!

Interested in shooting lessons? Find a firearms training class near you.