Becoming a Defensive Shooting Instructor

Here comes another important tip from the Personal Defense Network. One of the questions I get asked a lot by students, is how do I become an instructor? Well, I usually start off by giving them a quick rundown of how I got to where I am today. First it started in the military, in the United States Marine Corps and it was sort of forced upon me. After teaching a few classes in the military, the feedback was good. So when I exited the military, I went and searched out opportunities to continue as a trainer. One of the first things I did and I was lucky enough to find another shooting school where they would allow me to sit in on classes and observe another Senior Level Instructor. The more time I spent with him, the better more comfortable I felt in the civilian world talking about personal defensive shooting. After after a few months of doing that, the lead instructor told me that he thought I would be, it would benefit me to search out NRA Instruction. During the NRA Instruction, gave me more insight into the adult learning model, the basics of how to be a Firearms Instructor. After I did that, I went back to the school after my certification I returned to the school and began teaching my own intro classes, first steps things of that nature. After a while becoming more comfortable, I sought out my own learning opportunities to improve myself as an instructor, the more comfortable I felt, I started taking more advanced classes for myself to learn more so I could bring back more to my students. That's when I came across Combat Focus Shooting, I took the course, I was really impressed with what I was taught. And I sought out you know, how can I become a Combat Focused Shooting Instructor. After obtaining my certification as a Combat Focused Shooting Instructor then I had to take it on myself to devote the time effort and energy to make it around to hook up with other certified and active instructors, to further hone my ability to be an effective instructor to my students. So after obtaining active status, then I had to take on the task of setting up my own business so I could go out and instruct Combat Focus Shooting at different ranges. The insurance was one of the first things I did and the benefit of when I talked about NRA certification was that qualified me for NRA Instructor and Professional Insurance. After obtaining the insurance, the next part was just setting up the company, simple LLC which was not that hard. Then finally, one of the most difficult tasks was going to the different ranges and meeting with the owners. Owners I'd never met and convincing them that myself as an instructor could come to their range teach a safe class, provide a benefit for their customers, as well as not make themselves look bad or in turn, make myself look bad. So in conclusion, if any of my students want to become an instructor, I highly recommend that they take the steps necessary to obtain their dream, their goal of being a Defensive Pistol Instructor. It just takes a little bit of hard work but I think it's very rewarding. Be sure to check out the Personal Defense Network for more important tips just like that one.