Performance shooting, taught from experience.
I’d spent years in law enforcement and considered myself a pretty capable shooter. Then I discovered competition and realized how much more there was to learn.
Competition forced me to look at shooting differently. I started taking classes, learning from the best shooters and instructors I could find, and deliberately breaking down my own performance. I became interested not just in shooting better, but in why things worked, why they didn’t, and what actually produced improvement.
That process changed the way I trained, and eventually people started asking me to teach. Those opportunities led to a full-time position in the Firearms Section of my agency’s Training Unit, and eventually to teaching shooters, firearms instructors and law-enforcement agencies across the country.
Being able to shoot and being able to teach shooting are two different skills.
Understanding it is only half the job.
I’ve taught thousands of students, from people who had never held a handgun to Grand Master-level competitive shooters.
Competitive shooters generally show up because they want to be there. They’re motivated, attentive and actively trying to improve. Law-enforcement training gives you a wider spectrum: some officers are highly motivated shooters, some simply need to meet the demands of the job, and most fall somewhere between.
Teaching across that spectrum has made me better at communicating. The same concept may need to be explained three different ways before it clicks for three different people. I’ve learned to strip ideas down, communicate them clearly, watch what the shooter actually does and adjust from there.
Good instruction means knowing what matters, what doesn’t and when to shut up and let students shoot.
Mistakes Are the Point
Mistakes are where a lot of learning comes from, but instructors often give students way too much information up front because they’re trying to prevent them before they happen.
In my classes, students are continually asked to perform at a level just outside what they can consistently do. You’re going to miss, make mistakes and make adjustments. That’s intentional. If you’re always successful in training, you’re probably spending too much time doing things you already know how to do.
What matters is recognizing the mistake, understanding what caused it and making a useful correction. I want students making those cause-and-effect connections while they’re shooting, not waiting for an instructor to explain them afterward. That takes time, but once you can diagnose your own shooting, you can direct your training instead of chasing the next technique or drill.
You shouldn’t need me forever.
I don’t expect someone to leave a class with every problem in their shooting fixed. I want them to leave with a clear idea of what to work on, how to recognize the mistakes they’re making and how to structure their training around those problems.
If you leave with a handful of things you want to work on, know how to work on them, and don’t need me standing there telling you whether you did it correctly, I’ve done my job.
A good class shouldn’t just make you shoot better. It should make you better at getting better.
Performance shooting meets law-enforcement training.
Practical shooting changed the way I understand firearms training. It exposed me to better ways of thinking about performance, practice, skill development and coaching. A lot of that now influences the way I teach law-enforcement shooters and instructors.
But the two environments aren’t interchangeable. Agencies have different students, different requirements and institutional realities that don’t exist in a competition class. I’ve spent enough time in both to understand where the ideas transfer well and where they don’t.
That is the agency work I do now: working with instructors, reviewing curriculum, helping restructure firearms programs and figuring out why an existing program isn’t producing the results an agency wants.
I’m not interested in turning an agency class into a USPSA-centered class. I’m interested in taking what practical shooting has taught us about performance and skill development and applying the parts that actually make sense for people who carry guns professionally.
Learning from good instructors.
I knew Ben Stoeger and Joel Park by reputation before I knew them personally. When I was trying to understand practical shooting at a deeper level, they were two of the people I was learning from. Over time, they became mentors, and eventually friends.
I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time watching both of them teach and coach. I’ve learned as much from watching how they work with students as I have from anything they’ve taught me about shooting. Teaching alongside them has also forced me to keep examining how I communicate and approach students.
I’m a USPSA Master-class shooter. Being able to demonstrate the skills matters, but that alone doesn’t make someone a good instructor. The job is helping students understand their shooting, recognize what caused the problem, and figure out what to do next.
I teach practical and performance-based shooting around the country to individual shooters, competitors, firearms instructors and law-enforcement agencies.
I also work directly with agencies on instructor development, curriculum and firearms programs. That work can be anything from helping instructors improve how they diagnose and coach shooters to taking a much broader look at how an agency structures and conducts firearms training.
Whether I’m teaching a class or working with an agency, I’m trying to leave people better equipped to figure things out for themselves. They should understand what they’re seeing, have some idea why it’s happening and know what they can do about it.