Overcoming Obstacles: An Instructor’s Duty

by Paul Wood

            When I was a new firearms instructor working for a sheriff’s office, I had the fortune to assist with some training of several reserve deputies. We were doing some refresher training that included various handgun manipulation skills such as reloading. One of the reserve deputies had a prosthetic arm. It was outfitted with a hook at the end that could be opened and closed to grasp items by moving a shoulder harness that was worn under his uniform. As I watched him preparing to shoot, I was impressed at how the movement of his prosthetic arm appeared so natural and fluid. I then tried to figure out how he would perform actions such as charging, loading, unloading, malfunction clearances, combat and tactical reloads. The experience opened my mind to one of the jobs of the firearms instructor: to assist students in overcoming whatever obstacles may impede them from performing at the pinnacle of their ability.

            We can sometimes become lazy as firearms instructors and teach only one way of performing a task – forcing the students to comply or fail. We become outcome based in our teaching rather than performance based. Outcome based training asks: can you perform the task our way to an arbitrary minimum standard? Performance based training identifies critical performance tasks and asks: How well can you perform that task? Under a performance based training system students are constantly encouraged to find ways to improve their own performance. In such a system, the instructors need to be open to new ideas that support improving performance. Facilitating performance based training is one of the key points of NLEFIA’s Advanced Firearms Instructor certification program.

            One telling test of the depth of our instructor proficiency is how we train left handed students if the instructor is right handed. Often, right handed instructors do not practice nor demonstrate techniques left handed thereby leaving their students to figure out the differences for themselves. Some of these problems include, how to manipulate the magazine release and slide stop, how to rack the slide if you want the ejection port facing the ground, and how to manually lock the slide open. These seemingly simple tasks can be challenging for a new shooter, especially when their instructor only demonstrates from a right-handed perspective when the student is not right-handed  .

            As professional firearms instructors we should not only practice and be able to demonstrate bi-lateral or support side shooting but we should be able to demonstrate everything that we teach both right and left handed regardless of which is our dominant hand. Instructors should have access to right and left hand duty and off-duty belt system set-ups to practice these skills. As instructors meet to develop drills or construct training plans, they should practice by demonstrating to each other both right and left handed techniques. In doing so, they can work out bugs in their presentation before they are in front of students and get good, critical feedback from more experienced instructors.

            Students may face various physical or mental challenges that we, as professional instructors, must help them conquer such as the earlier example of the deputy with a prosthetic arm. These challenges may include strength, physical handicap, coordination, diminishing physical abilities (e.g. eyesight with age), fear, anxiety, and so on. Another example of a physical challenge was an instructor colleague. He had a birth defect that left several fingers on both hands and one thumb underdeveloped to varying degrees. As an instructor, he not only had to learn how to operate a handgun and rifle as an officer but also how to demonstrate as an instructor. Many instructors have worked with aging officers as they begin to lose the ability to clearly focus on the front sight of their handgun. Finding practical solutions that allow them to continue to improve their performance is critical.

Still other students face serious fears or anxieties. One assistant district attorney that I had the privilege of coaching had witnessed a very personal violent act as a young adult that imprinted them with a significant fear of firearms. I say I was privileged to coach them because I witnessed this individual defeat significant fear stemming from a very traumatic event and become a highly competent shooter. Many shooters experience anxiety from any type of testing including qualification. We have a responsibility to help them work through these issues and unlock their performance potential.

As the deputies I described earlier lined up to begin shooting I was truly fascinated to see how a shooter with a prosthetic arm and hook would operate a handgun. First, he was able to place the hook between the middle and ring finger of his weapon hand to stabilize his shooting platform. As he performed reloads, he would rotate the gun 90 degrees and grip the slide with the hook of his left arm. If he was performing a combat reload he had already dropped the magazine and if he was performing a tactical reload he released it after it was gripped in the hook then pulled the magazine out with his weapon hand, stowed it, and retrieved a new magazine from his pouch which was situated directly in front of his holster. After inserting the magazine with his weapon hand, he would re-grip the pistol and either push forward with his weapon hand while maintaining a grip with the hook to charge it or simply bring the weapon back to target if it didn’t need to be charged. He would be back on target and shooting within two seconds or slightly more.

While he wasn’t the fastest at these manipulations out of the group, he was easily in the top third of the group and I never once saw him fumble a manipulation. This reserve went on to become a full-time deputy and prove he was capable of handling all of the duties of the job. I only worked with him for a short time before I switched departments but I had complete confidence in his skills as a deputy. Also, not too many suspects wanted to fight a deputy with a hook on one hand!

It was amazing to watch him shoot and it taught me that there is a technique to overcome any obstacle that a shooter may face and I need to be open minded, flexible and imaginative enough to help them find it. The experience also taught me early on as an instructor that I need to continue to learn new and different ways to perform tasks so I can constantly improve my ability to help students as well as improve my own performance.

Paul Wood is a sergeant with Fort Collins Police Services in Colorado. He has 31 years of law enforcement experience and 29 years of experience as a police firearms instructor. He has served as the Firearms Training Unit Coordinator in his agency since 2006. Sgt. Wood is a certified instructor in handgun, rifle, and shotgun and holds certifications as a tactical shooting instructor, live fire shoot-house instructor and range master. He is currently a Colorado POST full skills instructor for firearms. Sgt. Wood has been an NRA Law enforcement certified instructor in various disciplines since 2000 and is a Charter Member and Staff Instructor for NLEFIA. He has served on 16 use of force review boards as a subject matter expert in firearms for officer involved shootings.