How useful are shooting courses?

How useful are shooting courses actually? This question is asked daily by shooters of all skill levels. Are they worth the money charged by professional shooting instructors? How do you know if a shooting instructor is even that good or not? What is actually allowed and what is not? Can I even participate in such courses, and what would I actually get out of it? 

These are all good and relevant questions, so we asked Khi Pa Landgraf from KLSTRATEGIC for his opinion:

Many already know me and now wonder how objective I can answer these questions, since I myself run a company for shooting training and coaching - of course, I am convinced that a course is beneficial, otherwise I wouldn't offer it; but the question is, for whom is it beneficial and why. I will address this topic in the following.

How useful are shooting courses?

The short answer: They are very useful when conducted by shooting instructors who know what they are doing AND know how to properly teach skills.

The long answer: It depends on what you expect from participating. No shooting instructor in the world can turn you into a world champion with a single course. The topic is too complex, the requirements too diverse and the time of a course (whether it's 1, 2, 3 days or more) is too short. 

So what can a good shooting instructor actually do and what can you expect from a course if not total success. 

First, you should ask yourself where you stand and what you want to achieve. Yes, it hurts when you have to admit to yourself that you don't have everything figured out yet; but that's exactly why you're considering a course for yourself. 

What can you expect from a course?

A good shooting instructor summarizes the contents of a course relatively tightly and describes them as simply as possible; for example, a Pistol 1 course can only focus on the basics of the pistol - anything beyond that would be too much and would exceed the scope of a course. What is considered as basics depends on the respective view of the instructor, but on an international standard, this includes the so-called 5 shooting elements (Grip, Stance, Aim, Breathing, and Trigger pull). 

This may not sound like much, but as a participant, you can expect a lot in this area, because even small details and nuances matter. Individual supervision and correction are simply mandatory in a basic course. As a result, at the end of the course, you should know what to pay attention to, how to apply the shooting elements, and have a basic body sensation to continue training properly at home.

Courses with a higher number than 1 or which indicate "Advanced" have different requirements and you should already have mastered the basics. In such general advanced courses, you can expect more "action", i.e. applying the basics under professional supervision; but here too, individual supervision and error correction by an instructor are crucial, as small mistakes tend to creep in at this stage, which can ruin the overall result. So what can you expect here - a brief review of the basics and then a lot of application, meaning shooting, shooting, shooting.

What do you actually get out of a shooting course?

Those who participate in a shooting course want to learn something for a specific area of application, or become better. I often experience in courses that participants do not have a clear answer to what they actually expect. Frequently, the answer is: "I'll be surprised" - but secretly everyone has certain expectations, because a shooting course is not exactly cheap. 

Depending on where you booked a course, you have either spent a lot of money to be made a fool of, or you have a good instructor who promotes individual performance enhancement. The latter is of course the actual goal that you want to achieve.

A good instructor manages to achieve maximum success in the limited time of a course within the defined course topic, tailored to all participants individually. At the end of a good course, there is performance improvement for everyone, which always focuses on the individual abilities of each person, not on everyone achieving the same thing. The reason for this is relatively clear: if you set a general group goal, individual influence is lost, and you have to submit to the statistical average; in an inhomogeneous group structure, this leads to some being totally overwhelmed, others hopelessly underwhelmed, and the rest making no significant progress. In the end, no one benefits from it and it's not fun either.

So when it comes to improving one's own skills, as an instructor, you cannot avoid individual supervision and that is exactly what participants can expect.

It's a different story when a group is supposed to achieve a collective performance, but we are not talking about shooting courses here but rather team building measures, which require a completely different approach from instructors.

How do you actually recognize a good instructor?

This question is not easy to answer. I have already mentioned some aspects beforehand, such as the clear thematic delimitation of a course, individual supervision, addressing individual errors and their correction; but all of these are things that you usually only notice during the course itself, when it might be too late. 

It is important to approach the matter with common sense. A good shooting instructor knows how to train, i.e. he masters what he teaches, and masters the methodology and didactics of training. This is often lacking in most providers, who can shoot themselves but have no idea how to teach it. You can usually tell that by their inability to explain why something should be done in a certain way, or deeper questions about content, structure, or objectives of a course.

An indication of a good instructor is therefore that he has thoroughly engaged with what he does and is able to answer questions about it.

It also doesn't hurt to familiarize yourself with the topic in advance and to relate it to the application. This way you can also recognize the "shooting range instructors", i.e. those who cannot establish a realistic reference, but only train for the shooting range. This often occurs, especially in dynamic shooting, and when you look at what these instructors do, there is usually a little question mark in the back of your mind that you can't explain; e.g.:

If you watch a video that shows a drill for defense shooting and after the last shot the weapon/weapons cannot be unloaded fast enough, you may wonder what kind of reality reference is supposed to be established there, because a situation that requires a shot does not end after the last shot on the target, but continues (e.g. target observation and evaluation of the effect, magazine change, scanning the surroundings for further threats, ...). When you see such videos, not matter how great and sexy they are made, or how fast the image changes are with rock music playing, you can assume that someone is at work here who has no idea of reality reference – a shooting range instructor.

On the other hand, if an instructor for sport shooting shows exactly these things, you can assume that there is no reality reference to sport shooting, because things like scanning the surroundings, magazine change after the last shot to be ready to fire again, etc. have nothing to do with sport shooting.

Another criterion, of course, is to mention one's own and others' experiences, with the latter always to be evaluated relative. Often opinions are nowadays influenced by social media, social pressure from the environment, and hearsay, rarely by actual experiences.

What is actually allowed and what can I do?

What is allowed is regulated by the respective legislation. A Swiss or an Austrian can do much more than a German; it is worth taking a look at the respective law that applies to you. In general, however, it can be said that everything that is covered by the need with which you have acquired your own weapons is also legal.

It becomes problematic when you do things that are not covered by this, as then you risk losing your firearms permit and very quickly falling into criminal activity. It is important to note that this also applies when you are abroad, where different laws may apply. The best example for this are German hunters and sports shooters who travel abroad and do things with their guns that are prohibited in Germany.

In case of doubt, you should contact the provider of a course in advance and ask explicitly; a good instructor will be able to provide precise information. In case of doubt, you should stay away from this course, even if it may seem very "tacticool".

Often you will find on the websites of various providers a colorful portfolio of offers, from basic courses for beginners to special user courses in various areas. Good providers clearly distinguish between civilian courses and official offers, so that as a customer you can clearly recognize in the description what it's about.

If a civilian still books events where prohibited exercises or contents are taught, they must be prepared to lose their reliability and/or personal suitability and thus their weapons, firearms permits, and possibly even the opportunity to regain them.

Otherwise, less is more and you should realistically assess what you need and what you don't… and fun should not be neglected in the whole matter.

In this sense, I hope that this article can help a bit and even though it seems quite complicated, among the black sheep there are also some really good and capable shooting instructors who can convey shooting sports, practical application, and serious use for protection in a good and safe way with sense, understanding, humor, and the necessary seriousness.

Last but not least, that's why I founded my own company, certified shooting instructors and with the officially nationally recognized instructor in defense shooting (M.D.A.) tried to create a bit more transparency for customers, so that everyone has the opportunity to invest their money in a targeted and meaningful way in their skills.

Train with KLSTRATEGIC. Since its founding in 2014, KLSTRATEGIC has been dedicated to professional education and training, taking innovative paths and rightfully questioning the status quo. CLICK HERE to go directly to the course offerings at KLSTRATEGIC.