Question for the trainers/instructors:

[ACT II]

I've been shooting since 1994 or so (yeah, I got a late start in life). Over the years, I've accumulated hundreds of hours of classes completed with a variety of both well known and some not so well known instructors. That includes some really good classes geared toward instructor development. Somewhere along the way I did some informal teaching along the way of individuals and small groups. For the last few years I'd been thinking of doing it "for real," but it just never happened until obijohn and couple of our friends formed ACT (to which we added Coach as soon as we could).

I know I'm not the best shooter in the world, but I also know that I'm a really good teacher. I haven't done it nearly as long as Coach, but teaching school is also my primary occupation. Teaching gun stuff has much in common with teaching physics stuff and math stuff.

I'm not sure how anyone can know when they are "ready." When ACT was new, I had many conversations with Glock21 (he's one of John Farnam's associate instructors) about how I could know when I was ready. It seems like the only way to know is to just do it. He also shared with me something very important: we're all instructors whether we know it or not. Any time you handle a weapon or shoot in front of someone, you are teaching them by example whether that is your intent or not.

Some schools/instructors have formal programs for developing their instructors. If I felt that was a necessary part of my path, I'd do my best to go through all of John Farnam's classes. I might not "make it" as one of them, but I guarantee I'd learn a lot and be a better instructor because of it.

Joseph Viray (aka rhino)
Joseph@AdaptiveConsultingandTraining.com