Excellent Article, and one that I think many instructors and students would do well to read.
Many times I have seen the merits of "Tactical/Military" skills vs. "Competition" vs. "Self Defense" Debated by experienced folks here. At the end of the day many of the skills transfer, but clearly some do not. In the same light many of the instructional skills transfer and many do not.
While I am a neophyte pistol instructor, possessing only the aforemention NRA Cert, I do have more than a passing familiarity with teaching people to employ weapons systems in harms way. At the high end of the aviation game being a great Combat Aviator does not make you a great Weapons Instructor Pilot. And guess what, we select based not only on ability to fight the airplane, but also how well you TEACH AT THE APPROPRIATE LEVEL and APPROPRIATE TACTICS. Additionally a great deal of time is spent training and yes testing IP's AS Instructors. I was also lucky enough to be exposed to the guys who utilize small arms as their primary means of doing business and their instructors are ALSO selected and Trained as Instructors.
This then is what makes a good instructor in my humble opinion, be able to teach the RIGHT SKILS in the RIGHT WAY for the level of student that are APPROPRIATE to their needs. Sometimes this may mean telling a Student that they would be better served by taking a self defense based course offered by someone else instead of Advanced Door Kicker Team Tactics 350. That is Integrity on the part of an instructor and something I know many of our instructors here practice.
As for Space Shuttle Door Gunners, yeah some guys get pretty close to that qual
Many times I have seen the merits of "Tactical/Military" skills vs. "Competition" vs. "Self Defense" Debated by experienced folks here. At the end of the day many of the skills transfer, but clearly some do not. In the same light many of the instructional skills transfer and many do not.
While I am a neophyte pistol instructor, possessing only the aforemention NRA Cert, I do have more than a passing familiarity with teaching people to employ weapons systems in harms way. At the high end of the aviation game being a great Combat Aviator does not make you a great Weapons Instructor Pilot. And guess what, we select based not only on ability to fight the airplane, but also how well you TEACH AT THE APPROPRIATE LEVEL and APPROPRIATE TACTICS. Additionally a great deal of time is spent training and yes testing IP's AS Instructors. I was also lucky enough to be exposed to the guys who utilize small arms as their primary means of doing business and their instructors are ALSO selected and Trained as Instructors.
This then is what makes a good instructor in my humble opinion, be able to teach the RIGHT SKILS in the RIGHT WAY for the level of student that are APPROPRIATE to their needs. Sometimes this may mean telling a Student that they would be better served by taking a self defense based course offered by someone else instead of Advanced Door Kicker Team Tactics 350. That is Integrity on the part of an instructor and something I know many of our instructors here practice.
As for Space Shuttle Door Gunners, yeah some guys get pretty close to that qual
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