Teaching others to shoot
I spent this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in a classroom at the GOAL Foundation and on the range at the Worcester Pistol and Rifle Club. Why did I take a day off work and spend a beautiful weekend indoors? I was taking an NRA Instructor course so I could learn to teach others to shoot.
Why? I'm not the most gregarious of folks and not generally the first to bound out in front of an audience. I prefer the company of a couple of friends to that of a dozen strangers. Yet there I was learning things that will ultimately have me teaching classes of nervous people how safely handle firearms without shooting themselves, their classmates, or me. So why decide to take up teaching?
Teaching the basics brings me back to fundamentals in my own shooting. Ask a top bullseye shooter what their secret is and they'll echo the basic pistol course: sight alignment and trigger control. Once I got to the point where I could get good groups it was easy for me to focus on more "advanced" topics. Teaching the basics brings me back to what matters. Only with a good foundation to build upon will I progress.
I enjoy teaching. Even when I was doing time in tech support I enjoyed it at some level. I love those instants when a face lights up as an idea suddenly coalesces. Getting to teach folks something that I enjoy is a treat. Talking about things I enjoy and know well brings me away from my normal taciturn nature.
There aren't enough good teachers in Mass. There are plenty of places that will take your cash and punch your ticket but not too many that really give the subject the attention it merits. It's not surprising: the places that want to teach well necessarily limit their class sizes; the places that are just in it for the money pack in as many as will fit. My gun club runs a good course but only once a month. I hope they will soon be able to offer it more frequently.
It was fun getting to play the troublesome student. The basic class teaches shooting by putting the students on the range. The instructor class teaches teaching by putting the would-be instructor at the head of a classroom. Lacking any students to practice upon we practiced upon each other. And so the "students" tried to sweep their classmates with their firearms, asked awkward questions, jerked the trigger and threw shots wild, "panicked" after staged misfires and generally did everything I hope my students will never do.
I already knew the two instructors, Jon and Darius, from shooting with them at Riverside. I expected them to cover the material thoroughly. We took nearly double the minimum recommended time for the course and it was time well spent. We were able to "teach" every part of what we will be teaching to our students. If you're looking to get an instructor certificate I highly recommend them. Almost all of us qualified for certification.
Now I just need to wait for my NRA certificate to make its way here from Virginia, send that off to the Commonwealth and wait for my Mass certificate to come back. Then I'll be legal to begin teaching pistol courses which will qualify people for a Mass firearms license.
Why? I'm not the most gregarious of folks and not generally the first to bound out in front of an audience. I prefer the company of a couple of friends to that of a dozen strangers. Yet there I was learning things that will ultimately have me teaching classes of nervous people how safely handle firearms without shooting themselves, their classmates, or me. So why decide to take up teaching?
Teaching the basics brings me back to fundamentals in my own shooting. Ask a top bullseye shooter what their secret is and they'll echo the basic pistol course: sight alignment and trigger control. Once I got to the point where I could get good groups it was easy for me to focus on more "advanced" topics. Teaching the basics brings me back to what matters. Only with a good foundation to build upon will I progress.
I enjoy teaching. Even when I was doing time in tech support I enjoyed it at some level. I love those instants when a face lights up as an idea suddenly coalesces. Getting to teach folks something that I enjoy is a treat. Talking about things I enjoy and know well brings me away from my normal taciturn nature.
There aren't enough good teachers in Mass. There are plenty of places that will take your cash and punch your ticket but not too many that really give the subject the attention it merits. It's not surprising: the places that want to teach well necessarily limit their class sizes; the places that are just in it for the money pack in as many as will fit. My gun club runs a good course but only once a month. I hope they will soon be able to offer it more frequently.
It was fun getting to play the troublesome student. The basic class teaches shooting by putting the students on the range. The instructor class teaches teaching by putting the would-be instructor at the head of a classroom. Lacking any students to practice upon we practiced upon each other. And so the "students" tried to sweep their classmates with their firearms, asked awkward questions, jerked the trigger and threw shots wild, "panicked" after staged misfires and generally did everything I hope my students will never do.
I already knew the two instructors, Jon and Darius, from shooting with them at Riverside. I expected them to cover the material thoroughly. We took nearly double the minimum recommended time for the course and it was time well spent. We were able to "teach" every part of what we will be teaching to our students. If you're looking to get an instructor certificate I highly recommend them. Almost all of us qualified for certification.
Now I just need to wait for my NRA certificate to make its way here from Virginia, send that off to the Commonwealth and wait for my Mass certificate to come back. Then I'll be legal to begin teaching pistol courses which will qualify people for a Mass firearms license.