[rhino]

Buying professional instruction (both in terms of cash outlay and your valuable time) is like buying any other consumer product. You first have to determine your needs and wants, what you don't need and what you don't want. As was mentioned, you let that assessment focus your shopping.

If you're buying a computer, it's not a great idea to wade into a catalog of computers and try to pick what computer and accessories you need. It works a lot better to determine what you need and want to do with your computer first, then you can select the hardware and software that will help you accomplish your goals.

Another thing is that training/instruction is not always about defense or interpersonal conflict of some kind. Some is geared toward different kinds of competitions, some of which have greater or lesser martial roots, but they're still games and as you progress further, the goals and techniques necessary for success may diverge significantly from those of other sports or more serious applications of firearms.

Given that, in my mind, shooting is shooting. The differences arise when you consider the application, both in terms of the difficulty of the shot (and required precision) and the nature of the scenario.