Always a Student.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard an instructor say that there were “always a student”, I could buy myself a Bren Ten. If I had a dollar for every time I know of a professional instructor who runs his own school or company attending a full course from one of his peers, I’m not sure if I could buy a box of  10mm Auto ammunition.

The months of  August and September have been amazingly busy with the taping of both The Best Defense and S.W.A.T. Magazine TV in full swing. Of course, I couldn’t just take the two months off in order to make TV, so there have been a lot of other things going on as well. As I look back over the recent past, there is one thing that really stands out: There has been a lot of great exchanging of information between some of the most successful instructors in the industry.

Those of you who follow this blog will recall that the last time I found time to post, I was talking about taking a course with Tactical Response. It was the first time I had been able to sign up for a firearms course and attend strictly as a student in quite awhile and it really set the stage for my mindset through August and September. After that course, I attended Blauer Tactical System’s PDR Camp in Virginia Beach. I’ve been able to attend 3 of the last 4 camps and always enjoyed the refresher training and interacting with some great people. This year, in addition to Blauer’s sessions, I really got a lot out of the presentation from Greg Glassman, founder of Crossfit. One of the things that stood out in his presentation was a reminder that instructors should be seeking to find the truth, regardless of there predispositions or expectations. By reviewing data, observing students and asking questions we can provide a better service to our students.

Later that week, I read Paul Howe‘s new book “The Tactical Trainer.” This book is a collection of thoughts, observations and methods that anyone claiming to be an instructor can benefit from. The books speaks to the the thoughtfulness and deliberate process with which Mr. Howe approaches his chosen profession and offers candid insight into how to conduct safe and effective training, especially to higher end tactical teams. I was most impressed while reading the book with the sincerity of the work. It is the kind of book that someone who wasn’t truly interested in the pursuit and exchange of knowledge to make the entire industry stronger would not have published. That book will make many of us better instructors.

My turn in a vehicular team counter ambush drill during SWAT TV Taping.

At the end of August and into September, I got to work with about 8 instructors on the new SWAT Magazine Show. In addition to my own personal opportunity to learn from these guys, I was able to watch them exchange ideas and show sincere interest in the thoughts and methods of their peers. Of course, this wasn’t universal, but for the most part, when one instructor was working with the students, the other guys on the range were paying attention and would follow up with good questions and thoughts.

Shortly after returning to Virginia, I ran a Combat Focus Shooting course at the C2 Shooting Center with a few special guests. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure and honor of having a number of world class instructors attend seminars at conferences or take the time to comment on an article, book or training DVD. This was one of those rare occasions where I had one of the top instructors in the world show up with his student hat on for an entire course. Tony Blauer has been somewhat of a mentor to me in regard to reality based training and fighting upstream in an industry that resists change. As part of a project our companies are undertaking to offer SPEAR, PDR and CFS programs together, he decided to attend a complete CFS course to get the student’s point of view. In addition to Tony, I had two other SPEAR Instructors and one of the lead instructors from the Virginia Beach Police Department’s Firearms Training Unit in the course as well.

Tony Blauer, founder of the S.P.E.A.R. System, on the firing line in his first 2 day pistol course

A few days after that course, I was in Manhattan speaking to attendees of the NYLE Expo on the topic of training strategies to avoid sympathetic shooting situations and about half of the audience were fellow instructors. I was also able to observe Mike Janich teaching some fundamental defense techniques against blade attacks. My biggest learning moment at the conference came while inside the 360 degree Virtra Simulator. This simulator system is a huge leap ahead of any of the systems I’ve experienced before and I got an important reminder about awareness at the hands of an electrical shot simulator that was on my belt when I got distracted by one suspect while another came out of an unnoticed stairwell and “shot” me. The shock wasn’t quite Taser levels, but it was a visceral reminder that we all have room for improvement.

Just this last week, we had several more days of working on S.W.A.T. TV, which meant more instructors exchanging information and more opportunities for me to put my student hat on. Executive Protection Drills, Unarmed Responses and Emergency Driving were just some of the things I got to practice.

So, while it has been a really busy  and  great couple of months in many ways, the juxtapositions of the student and instructor roles was definitely a highlight. It was great to be able to be a student and also have some top instructors as students. It was great to see many top level professionals offering and exchanging information with their peers. It was great to see instructors walking the walk of being Always a Student!

-RJP