Aaron Cowan recently addressed what I feel is an interesting topic: performance walls, or barriers that prevent us from learning something new, and in the context of training.
At some point in our teaching career we instructors will give a student a bias or a performance roadblock. Often we don’t even realize we are doing it. Speaking for myself, we don’t for the most part do this on purpose; rather it is a byproduct of the traditional and sometimes dogmatic training we went through and in turn pass along. Perhaps it is because we have cherry picked our own personal best results. Teaching is a difficult skill to master. Some would say it’s more difficult to master than shooting, and I would agree. Being able to relate to a student, to address their unique needs, areas of improvement and individual implicit skills requires an attention to detail that will vary from teacher to teacher.
If you’ve trained with more than one instructor (or perhaps if you’re a trainer yourself), you might be able to relate to what Aaron is saying.
Some skills are not open to much variation; sight alignment, sight picture, trigger control and others. However there are some that can be taught in different ways (movement, shot placement, follow through, etc) and allow the student to show the instructor what they already know. This implicit knowledge is a foundation we should be building on. If it’s correct, efficient, safe and adaptable, it needs nurturing. The ideology of instructors shouldn’t be one of an assembly line. We shouldn’t be building mechanical repetition without understanding of purpose. We shouldn’t be scripting skills that leave no room for the student to apply their existing knowledge and we certainly should not be pre-determining their ultimate ability based on anecdotal “laws of averages.â€
This is where the article really starts to resonate with me. When I take a class, I do my best to adapt to the methods used by the instructor. At the end of the class, I keep what worked for me, and throw out the rest. However, what I don’t like is when an instructor tells a student you’re doing it wrong, simply because he or she is using a slightly different method than what is being taught. And I’m not talking about a student who is new to the instructional material and has had zero training, instead I’m referring to the student who is NOT new to the material, and HAS had training, but chooses to do it differently for whatever reason.
Again, personally, I try to adapt to what is being taught for the duration of the class because that’s why I’m there: to learn. However, different does not necessarily mean incorrect.
You can read the rest of the article here on Breach-Bang-Clear. Aaron goes on to discuss a few topics that are sure to illicit some strong disagreement, like movement (crossing your feet), training for head shots, and using the slide stop to release the slide under stress.
I too have been to a class that taught the slide step to prevent one crossing ones feet. I went through their version of “pieing” the corner. I did my best to learn what the instructors were teaching. The way they were teaching it. Haveing not read the full article, I can’t comment. But not being rigid in your teaching methode is wise. Bruce Lee made the exact same point many years ago about the teaching of martial arts. He wrote a book about this exact subject called, “Tao of Jeet Kune Do.”
Another home run. I’ve often wanted to ask more about the why we train a certain way. We aren’t all built the same and don’t move the same way either. If be considered athletic so my ability to move fast would be more that most. Speed doesn’t equate to better shooting but I train myself to reach cover fast where as a slower person wouldn’t have that same option and might have to stand and shoot. I hope that more trainers read this and come to understand that even a trainer or instructor still has to keep learning and evolving. Once the ego is removed we can all benifit from great new ideas. Great job again.