Choosing an instructor

[docrice]

Instead of just range practice by myself, I've been wanting to get real lessons from an instructor for a while now as my groupings at close distances are generally consistent, but I've been concerned about some of the things I've heard regarding different instructors / schools giving conflicting advice. I switched over to the "IPSC grip" (or whatever it's officially coined - the "thumbs-forward" one) with a semi-Weaver stance and I'm generally comfortable with it. My primary motivation is self-defense, not competition. I've heard that some schools will "only teach Weaver" or this and that, and I'm not sure how to select instruction appropriately. Any ideas on this?

[Damon]

I'm far from any kind of expert but here is my opinion.

The school I've been going to teaches "what works best for you".

They do teach the different stances, grips, and ways to rack the slide but they leave it up to you to decide which way you want to do it. They do ask you to try the other ways to see if they work better then what you are doing.

The school I've been going to has a free 8 hour handgun safety class. I went to it even though I've been carrying concealed for 17 years. I wanted to see the facilities and talk with the instructors. I liked what I saw and after doing a little more research I signed up for a class.

I also did google searches on the schools and director/head instructors of the schools. I also searched most of the big gun forums. I found the owner/head instructor of my school was on GT and searched his posts. After reading a lot of his posts I got the idea of how and why he teaches the way he does. I also tried to talk to as many people I could that went to that school.

Most schools web sites should list their instructors. Do a google search on both the school and the instructors. Go to the popular gun forums and search on the school and the instructors.