As reported, I found this to be an immensely rewarding activity, and I hope to be allowed to continue to contribute to this worthy endeavor.
I note that the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club will offer another such FREE course next Saturday, the first Saturday of the month.
Today I sent an email to Mike McCarter, locally the USPSA Discipline Director at ARPC, offering to help with the class if there are any students who have requested this training. I haven't received a response yet, so I don't know if I can work the class.
And I probably won't know until the last minute. Last month, you may recall, the schedule said there were six students signed up as of 2 days before the class. On class day, we had 13 students.
Actually, we had 14, but one backed out (although he showed up and 'audited' the class) because his son was taking the Junior training, and they had only one pistol between them.
This is what makes working this class so rewarding.
The people who attend really want to learn. They want to shoot, they want to know the right way to act at matches, and they want to know what they have to know to avoid looking like a bozo at their first match.
More important, they want to be safe.
If you have the experience, and minimal skills as a teacher, this is the easiest class in the world to teach. That's because the students are more highly motivated than one would expect in, for example a Basic Gun-Handling or a Defensive Pistol class.
In those classes, the motivation is usually to achieve some kind of certification in the form of a certificate of completion. (In Oregon, this is needed to qualify for a Concealed Handgun License.)
After they finish their class, the students in these courses can either get their CHL or delude themselves into believing that they know enough about guns to handle them safely and competently under, perhaps, the most stressful circumstances imaginable. Humans are prone to self-delusion, and teaching a man how to handle a gun is like teaching him how to drive a car; he believes that he knows everything there is to know about the subject before he starts the training, and nothing you can do or say will undermine his confidence.
(Women are not this way. They enter the class with the ingrained understanding that they know little or nothing about the subject, and they will not leave until they believe that they have learned something ... and they are more inclined to practice, if it is recommended to them.)
But in the USPSA training, the students are told that their certification is not awarded until they complete one USPSA match safely. They don't have to be fast, they don't have to be accurate, they only have to be safe. And the definition of "safe" is rigidly defined in the most practical terms, so they are aware that a moment's inattention during the class may cause them shame and embarrassment the next weekend, when they are expected to shoot in competition.
The students are trained, by example and explanation, in all the ways to avoid failure. They listen and, if they are not completely brain-dead, they ask for explanations of the points on which the instruction has not been made crystal clear.
They want to know this stuff.
They are intrinsically motivated.
They're not there to go through the motions, they are there to learn and they will learn or they will accuse the instructing staff of not giving them value for the cost of the instruction ... which is free.
Example: last month, at the match which followed the USPSA training class, one student approached me (we were squadded together) and suggested sternly that it would have been very helpful if we had taught them how the scores were entered on the score-sheets. He had me there; we had glossed over the subject during the class. My only defense was to point out that we had 13 students when we had only expected six, we had only one instructor, and we had gone an hour over the alloted 2 hours of instruction attempting to cover all of the most important safety and gun-handling points for every student.
He understood immediately, of course, but that didn't convince him that he had received the best training available. In truth, he was right: it would have been better if we had taught him how the scoring worked. There wasn't sufficient time or staff available to give him all of the information that would have been useful, but still we should have met this (admittedly tertiary) need.
I'm learning on the job about how to teach people about USPSA competition. I consider myself a good teacher, and I think I know everything there is to know about the subject.
I'm wrong on both counts.
No matter how motivated I am to 'produce' highly trained competitors after two hours of range training, I will always fall short of adequacy.
That's why I want to continue to participate in the training of new USPSA competitors. Nobody can be a perfect trainer, but I want to do everything possible to insure that the people who I have trained will inevitably meet the highest standards possible of gun-handling and competitive skills.
This isn't possible, of course. But it's still a worth-while goal.
In the effort, my reach
If I can impart that dedication to the people I teach, I've achieved a worthy something.
Last month, I taught 13 students. Of those, 2 have violated a basic safety rule in their first two matches.
I can do better, and I will.
After all, I will be shooting with these folks, and I want them to be safe shooters.
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UPDATE: 05-JUN-2008
I received an email from "Mac" today. Yes, some folks have signed up for the USPSA class this weekend, and I will be teaching the class, or assisting.
There's no word on how many people have signed up. It doesn't matter: some won't show up and some other people who have not pre-registered will be there instead. The training is free, regardless of ARPC club membership status.
And that's the way it should be. Nobody is making any money from this. The intent is to provide the training, so new shooters will know what to expect when they show up to compete in their first match. If money is an issue, it may discourage some prospects, and that does not support the primary goal of making New Shooters feel comfortable ... and insuring that they are familiar with range commands, safety rules, and the basics of Gun Handling Skills.
The students will be doing all the shooting. Although I need to practice, I probably won't bother taking my competition pistol with me.
I only hope that nobody points a pistol at me. That happened last month, and it was an un-nerving experience. It's a strange phenomena, but no matter how much you preach "Muzzle Control", folks just don't find it natural to be always aware of the deadly nature of the gun, and how important it is to keep it pointed in a safe direction.[
I suspect it's the consequence of watching to much Television.
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