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I asked the question because I saw courses from OFA, REACT, and several others being posted on here. As someone who has been involved in the tactical environment for years, I wouldn't ever waste my money on their classes.
The ignore function is really nice here Joe. Thank you for having it.
Exactly.. instructors can only do so much..
As far as I can tell the best way to vet a class, school or instructors is to "crowd source" using the right crowd.
Class Reviews & AARs
These tend to be some really serious guys when it comes to training and do it a lot. They are able to compare and contrast, reach out to a big pool of contacts to verify back grounds and have personal backgrounds that critically inform their opinion.
As far as I've seen what should really be happening is classes broken down to more focused elements with a clear description of what the elements are along with specifically articulated performance benchmarks students should be able to reach prior to attending. Unless you have time for week to month long classes mixing in too many elements diminishes what students get out of them, the subject matter can just be too dense for a couple of days. Of course people don't know what they don't know and usually have an inflated perception of what their actual performance really is so even good instructors can only do so much but it's nice to see an attempt to do it.
As long as an instructor doesn't embellish their background and "stay in their lane" any student can get a lot out of their classes. A good example is some of the top competitive shooters who are in high demand from units in the special forces community. Those students KNOW the tactics but also realize that they can always learn better shooting from someone who can demonstrate they are better and faster.
Gabe White is probably the best local instructor around. He is clear from the get go that he has no military of LEO background but is an incredible shooter who has broken the elements down to the point he can clearly teach them and really understand the principals with a lot of innovation. He also has a really good grasp on the legal and functional aspects of using a gun in self defense. At the same time doesn't pretend to teach you how to enter a room in a stack.
At this point the biggest problem I see with the civilian training market right not is the trend of offering classes that are more suited to Call of Duty wannabees than solid brass tacks basics focused. Most people are not well served jumping into high speed low drag team tactics classes because they don't need it and worse will not have enough practice coming out of the class and even if they do practice after the class will probably be doing it wrong and just ingraining poor habits. But that's what people want so unscrupulous instructors will jump in and offer them.
Really want to get innovative? The best program I've heard of is a club in Arizona (unfortunately I can't remember the name right now) that blends training with competition a lot like the traditional martial arts approach. Weekly or monthly classes with multi tiered skill levels where the higher level students also help teach. Intensive, repetitive drills along with timed skill testing that is compared to a standard based on the best shooters doing the same tests (a lot like competition) which encourage innovation, along with situational based evaluations that are critiqued by the group. Instead of just getting a belt you get a patch. If you don't perform to the level of your patch you get it taken away because the reality is skills are perishable and just because you did it doesn't mean you will be able to continue to do it without practice.
There seem to be a lot of instructors make some very grand claims about their experience and background. Most of which doesn't seem to hold up even after a quick good search
Having been in the Military for 13 years and after years of DoD/DoS contracting, some of the bio's and claims I read in a couple of the instructor bio's for posted courses were comical at best.
Having been in the Military for 13 years and after years of DoD/DoS contracting, some of the bio's and claims I read in a couple of the instructor bio's for posted courses were comical at best.