Between Youtube videos of idiots who are also 'head instructors' at their various 'schools', assorted self proclaimed experts, and the lack of any meaningful standards of certification (as pointed out in Blue's post), I can't say as I would ever spend my hard earned cash on any 'school/course' supposedly making me a better shooter.
Seems like the Schit/shinola ratio is awfully high in the world of shooting instruction....
The ratio IS awfully high in the shooting/tactics world. That only means you need to weed out a bit before you go. I can give a small dissertation on how to filter trainers.... Or I could just make it easy and say that if you want to learn how to shoot better go to people who are USPSA Grandmasters with a solid teaching background. If you want to learn "tactics" go to someone who is or was a high level special operations member and who also holds a USPSA GM card..... That narrows the list real fast, not to say that there aren't other good instructors, but it does all but insure that the person teaching understands what he is saying and has done it at the highest level.
Here is what escapes most "instructors"....
Most of the instructors I know and have seen teach teach ONLY their way of shooting not recognizing that it isn't the best way for their student.... LE academies are famous for this...
Bob
I wouldn't go or send someone to a low level or mid level quality course as it costs virtually the same to go to "Joe blow the SWAT guy" as it does to go to a Ron Avery/Frank Proctor/Pat Mac/Kyle Lamb/Kyle D./Yousef M/etc course. Despite popular opinion- there is in fact one (1) BEST way for someone to do a particular task based apon they're situation. For instance- baring extreme physical injury, they best way (that is to say the way to achieve the highest skill level before plateau) to hold a semi auto handgun for rapid accurate shooting is the thumbs forward, modified isosceles. That isn't even debatable any more.
Fully 100% of top shooters in both the action pistol match world and the highest military shooters shoot that way. Given that, why would or should someone even introduce another way to do it to beginner or intermediate level shooters?
I won't say that most people have no idea just how awful they are at handgunning, because that would be mean. .
I will- they're flipping atrocious. Incompetent is an understatement.
I understand what he's trying to say and have heard the neural pathway arguments before, but they really seem to fly in the face of what actually happens with people.
If those "data files" are so hard to erase then how are top shooters, who have hundreds of thousands of data files on a particular skill, ever able to change what they're doing to improve?
I dunno. I'm just a scrub trying to figure it all out myself.
Not so much a scrub, you are.....
Top level shooters (or anyone at the "top" in any disipline) are quite different than low to mid level shooters in what they can process and retain. What he is saying is absolutely correct unless you are teaching high level shooters (mid B class or above) generally.
We know from tens of thousands of competition shooters, hundreds of high level military shooters with thousand's and thousands of shootings what it takes to consistently hit a target quickly. With that, barring some extreme instances, there is absolutely NO reason to introduce multiple "ways" to do something.
We know the best/fastest way to-
1) grip a handgun
2) draw
3) use the sights
4) drop a mag
5) manipulate the slide release
6) control recoil
7) transition target to target
Similarly we know how to do the same with a carbine and I can tell you that when we stopped teaching "use what works for you", and started teaching a single "best" way to do most tasks, performance went through roof.
