I once supervised the firearms proficiency test and qualification of a local Catholic priest. He was a very funny and sociable man. Watching him shoot on the range in full clerical dress was, I admit, an experience I was not entirely prepared for. He passed.
Over twelve years of instruction, that kind of moment has taught me something instructors rarely discuss openly: you cannot predict who will walk onto your range, what they carry with them, or what it will take to reach them. What you can control is whether you have built the kind of relationship in which real learning becomes possible.
That is the subject I want to address here. Not grip. Not stance. Not trigger control. Those are the entry points. The curriculum, in my experience, is trust.
The curriculum, in my experience, is trust.
The Gap Most Instructors Leave Open
I have trained a wide range of students over the years: absolute beginners, seasoned private security operators, local police forces, armed professionals working in demanding international environments. What I observe consistently is instructors who focus exclusively on the mechanical elements and set aside what I consider one of the most important subjects in firearms training: mindset.
This gap is serious when you are training armed professionals. A student who has not internalized the weight of carrying a lethal weapon has not completed their training, regardless of their qualification score. Dave Grossman's work on combat psychology shaped how I approach this dimension. The body and the trigger hand are only part of the system. The mind must be trained with equal seriousness.
Without that foundation, technical proficiency is a tool without a user who fully understands what they are holding.
The Trigger Control Trap
A student places rounds consistently in the low left area of the target. The diagnosis is correct: a trigger control problem for a right-handed shooter. The prescription is often wrong.
I have frequently observed instructors tell the student to simply aim at the high right area of the target to compensate. The qualification score improves. Everyone moves on. The trigger control problem remains.
The student has learned to correct a mistake with its opposite, and that is not correction at all. It is compensation. Under stress, when cognitive load is high and automatic responses take over, compensation does not hold. The underlying error expresses itself at the worst possible moment. John Boyd's OODA loop framework is useful here: when a shooter is cycling through observe, orient, decide, act under pressure, they cannot afford to spend cycles compensating for a fundamental they never actually fixed.
To correct a mistake with its opposite is not correction. It is compensation, and compensation does not hold under stress.
The Student Is a System
With beginners in particular, excessive focus on trigger control is often counterproductive. When a student's entire attention is directed at the trigger, the brain stops managing everything else. Grip loosens. Sight picture deteriorates.
The fundamental elements are interdependent. Instruction that treats them as sequential modules rather than a unified system produces students who perform adequately under structured range conditions and fail when those conditions change.
Reading the Student
There is no universal adjustment, no single cue or drill that produces the same result across different students. This is where you see the difference between a good instructor and an exceptional one.
I pay close attention to communication: word choice, tone of voice, and body language. I try to be thorough in my explanations, often anticipating questions before they are asked.
Safety Is the Standard, Not the Starting Point
I still see experienced shooters who present themselves as experts breaking fundamental safety rules on the range.
When I serve as Range Officer, I am strict about this. No exceptions. No excuses. Safety is not a beginner's concern. It is the permanent standard.
What the Job Actually Requires
The mechanics of shooting can be taught in an afternoon. The ability to reach another human being, to earn their trust, to read what they need before they can articulate it, takes years.
I always try to build the relationship first. Be thorough. Communicate clearly. Establish trust before you ask anything difficult of the student.
Those moments are only possible in a relationship built on trust. That is the real curriculum.