Oops.

Because part of my job involves reviewing various firearms training classes, I tend to wind up going to way more training classes than are necessary. If you take one good class and engage in a moderate practice regimen (more on that in a later post) you'll be way ahead of the curve.

Personally, I try to get to one handgun class a year just to get some outside coaching. I know I benefit from occasionally getting another set of eyes watching what I'm doing and calling out any bad habits that I've allowed to creep in. Some people do great with self-coaching or using video of themselves to diagnose errors, but I don't have that sort of discipline. 

If you're engaged in a good practice regimen or shooting competition regularly, I'd spend that one class/year on something like medical, hands-on, legal, force-on-force, or whatever; something other than yet another generic pistol shooting class. Also, unless your job entails wearing a helmet and vest with rifle plates and you're taking multiple carbine classes and never taking a class running your CCW pistol from concealment, I'm giving you some side-eye.

Unpacking from the weekend, I shelved the notebooks we got from John in with my other class notes, filed the certificate away in my "I Love Me" folder, and went to note the class in my records. I should have realized I hadn’t been to gun school in a while when I couldn’t remember the name of my spreadsheet yesterday morning so I could update it.

This is the sort of thing that only happens when training has itself become a hobby (or a job). A two-day weekend class, unless it's happening in easy commuting distance from your house, is effectively a three or four day commitment. Tuition, ammunition, hotel, gas... it adds up. It's as much of a hobby as having a touring motorcycle or a bass boat. 

Plus normal people like to do normal people things with their vacation time. For the average Working Joe who has to decide how to spend that week of vacation, at Gunsite getting sunburned, or in Orlando getting sunburned with the wife and kids, normal family activities are going to win out.

It's why I find programs like the one at Indy Arms Co. so interesting. They've got classes broken into two- and four-hour chunks that can be done in the evenings or on weekend afternoons without eating up a whole weekend. Another handy training tool are smorgasbords like TacCon, where you can combine 2- and 4-hour classes on more esoteric subjects and also audit firearms instructors with whom you'd like to take full classes in the future.

.