"Shooting Schools"

By John Farnam

(from his DTIQUIPS Newsletter)

08-19-08

(Reprinted with permission from DTI Intl. and John Farnam for the GiYu Dojo Web Site)

A good friend will soon be publishing a book on shooting schools, and he has asked many of us currently teaching this Art to write a few paragraphs on 

what one should expect from such instruction. Here is my contribution:

With regard to shooting/tactics instruction, at the top of the list of “advice" is this: Don't put it off!  We are plummeting headlong into some 

exciting World History, and Art that we teach, like so many other critical life-skills, defines the thin membrane the separates the Quick from the  Dead!

When you walk into Class, leave your ego outside.  Come to learn.  Come to work.  Neither your instructor, nor your fellow  students, are interested in

how wonderful you are, nor in the fact that you think it should be you who is teaching the Class!  Not everyone in the Class will start at the same level,

but all need to have a healthy, discerning, and enthusiastic learning attitude. 

Don't come with the expectation of being entertained, nor to have "fun," nor to relax.  Competent instruction is never relaxing.  It is hard, grueling

work, and the purpose is not to make you look good.  That is of interest only to the shallow and self-centered.  Competent instruction is always a tempestuous 

mixture of success and failure.  Real learning takes place when you fail!  Little is ever learned from success, but there needs to be enough of it to 

keep students motivated and moving forward.  When success is always easily attained, you are simply striving toward the insignificant!

Your instructor should always lead the way, live-demonstrating every drill. You need to see it done, and know it can be done, before starting to learn

how to do it yourself.  Instructors who hesitate to boldly step forward and lead/show/demonstrate the way are always suspect!

Understand that some of the instruction will be dry.  We try to make it as interesting and exciting as we can, but, in order for you to be a well-rounded

and competent Operator, you need to be intimately acquainted with a wide spectrum of subjects and skills.  Some are more interesting than others, but all

are important. 

Finally, expose yourself to as many good instructors as you can.  None of us are perfect, nor does any one of us have a complete understanding of the 

True Way.  We are students too!