AAR on Tom Givens 3-Day Instructor Course
I have had a few classes with Tom now and can say that he is without a doubt the best handgun instructor that Ive trained under! With that said, I was anxiously awaiting this class.
The class was held at H&H Gun Range ( www.hhgunrange.com) in Oklahoma City, OK and this would be the first time that Tom had held this class outside of his home range in Memphis, TN ( www.rangemaster.com). The instructors were Tom Givens, Lynn Givens (Toms lovely bride), and John Hearne.
Day One
The class was to begin at 0900, however, we all showed up around 0830 and went in to get our seats in the class room. Tom assigned seats and three man teams for all 18 of us. Tom then started the class with an intro of instructors, material, guidelines for the class, and his expectations for each student. It was then that it really hit me that this class was going to be tough and much different than any other class Ive attended.
We were supplied a 170 page workbook (that is worth the price of class in itself) and advised that all of the questions on the written test could be found in the workbook and we would need to study the book during homework hours. Tom then lectured for a few hours and to say that he knows his stuff is an understatement!! It is best summed up by a comment said by the instructor I assist at H&H while we were on our first break, Two hours ago I thought I was an instructor, now I know what one is!. I believe this was the sentiment shared by the entire class.
From the classroom we went to the range, as the shooting part of the class was to prove tough as well. There were very different skill levels from the students. We stayed in our three man teams; one shooting, while one coached the shooter, and the other coached the coach. We would cycle though this quite a bit that day.
The shooting part of the class was very fun for me as that is the part I do well. Some of the students were struggling, but everyones skills rose that day. However, with two coachs looking on, you could not help but improve.
So back to the classroom for more lecture and Power Point presentations. Tom then gave each team their presentation assignments to be performed on the last day. Each team would have to present a hour long worth of material, with each member using a visual training aid and doing part of the presentation.
We were dismissed for the evening about 6:30 p.m. or so and my team went to a spare classroom to discuss our presentation. There would be very little socializing this weekend. My wife went to get us dinner and we worked until they ran us out of the range at 9:00 p.m., then off to the house to do homework.
Day Two
This day was much of the same. spending more time in the classroom with great lectures from Tom and incredible Power Point displays from John. We went over the workbook and received our reading assignments for that night. Then off to the range where Tom continued to coach the class. One thing Tom has done in every class Ive had with him is admonish us to do non-shooting tasks quickly and shoot carefully!!!!
We shot Toms qualifications course of fire, along with the FBI Instructor qualifications course of fire. They were both very tough with Toms target being the harder of the two, in my opinion. We also shot some of Toms odd guns, which included everything from Lorcins, to old Colts, and one pink grip 25 ACP that Eric traded his CZ 75 for!! LOL All of the students did much better this day, but a few were still struggling with the 25 yard part of the shooting.
I must say that I had an honor bestowed on me that day by Marshal Luton, the lead instructor/owner of TDSA (http://www.tdsatulsa.com). Thanks Marshal!!
Back to the classroom for more lecture and Power Point and class let out about 5:30 p.m. that day. My team settled on our training aids and what each of us would cover, so we went to dinner and then back to H&H to work on our presentation.
A good friend of mine attending the class was struggling with the 25 yard shooting with his Glock 34. So I left dinner a bit early and helped him with his shooting. We made a good breakthrough on his trigger finger placement. He had to move it out to the tip, as his hands are a bit small for the Glock and the result was good center hits at 25 yards.
On to join my team and get our Instructor and Student Handout finished (thanks to our wives for making it look presentable). At this point, I would like to recommend that you have a laptop for the handouts, taking notes - whatever. We did several demo presentations and critiqued each other, until they ran us out of the range at 9:00 p.m. Then off to the house or hotel for our homework.
Day 3
This is it! The last day and all three test lay ahead. However, my Strep Throat infection was back with a vengeance and I felt horrible!! Just my luck!!
An early stop for supplies for our training aids and then off to the H&H. My team meets early in the classroom to set up our training aids.
Tom gave us some final coaching and then two teams (including mine) were off to the range to shoot the qualifications drills - cold. We did the FBI, qual drill twice and Toms drill once.
My shooting took a nose dive that day, probably the combination of feeling awful, the stress of shooting with your piers, and the fact that this one was for the record books. The stress of those situations is something Ill have to continue to work on, as it turned out to be my worst performance of the weekend.
Over 50% of the class shot the FBI test clean, but no one shot Toms target clean!!
While the other teams were shooting, we took this time to drill on the written test and review the work book.
After all the teams had shot, we did our presentations team by team. This was very stressful for some, while others were right at home. We had several instructors from not only TDSA, but the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and these guys really showed the class that they are consummate professionals!
I was the first to get to do the presentation (thanks Tom!). My throat was so sore I could hardly swallow and talking was painful. Of all times to be sick, this would be it!! However, no luck for me today and theres no place to hide while youre in front of the class. There was a misunderstanding on my part during the presentation, but all ended well and the team passed. After each team finished their presentation, Tom would ask the class for positive and negative comments and there would be a short discussion on each.
John then did a very good Power Point presentation on the criminal element and the parallels of there lives and ours. This was very scary stuff and some of the statistics were very startling. The one thing that stood out to me was the gang members understanding that they would end up in prison and the worse stuff they do to get there, the higher there status would be once incarcerated. John had several other Power Points, which were worth the price of admission.
Then the worst part of the class, the written test. For the last three days, Tom had told us that only two people have ever scored 100 on the test and that all the answers are in the workbook. Well, I so wish I would have spent more time in the workbook!! My test score reflected this even though I passed, but by my standards I did a poor job.
Tom then did a presentation on the history of firearms and ammo that I found very interesting!! The Power Point quiz on the firearms was very good and I knew a few, but not that many of the old ones. This was very good stuff and Tom said, from a customer point of view, we are experts, thus we should know how all the odd guns work. This definitely reinforced the point he had made before when we were shooting the odd guns.
Tom had the scores for the class and gave each of us our certificates. He then gave away the Top Gun award to Eric!!!! way to go man..., which is a combo of all the test scores and they had to bring in an extra qual drill score to get a winner, the class was that tight!!
This was by far the hardest class Ive ever attended! If you decide to come to this class expect to work hard and shoot harder!
I highly recommend this class, if you have any desire to teach or if you just want a better understanding of how to teach.
Needless to say, Ive now got my spot reserved for Toms advanced instructor class.
Hope to see you on the range soon!!
I have had a few classes with Tom now and can say that he is without a doubt the best handgun instructor that Ive trained under! With that said, I was anxiously awaiting this class.
The class was held at H&H Gun Range ( www.hhgunrange.com) in Oklahoma City, OK and this would be the first time that Tom had held this class outside of his home range in Memphis, TN ( www.rangemaster.com). The instructors were Tom Givens, Lynn Givens (Toms lovely bride), and John Hearne.
Day One
The class was to begin at 0900, however, we all showed up around 0830 and went in to get our seats in the class room. Tom assigned seats and three man teams for all 18 of us. Tom then started the class with an intro of instructors, material, guidelines for the class, and his expectations for each student. It was then that it really hit me that this class was going to be tough and much different than any other class Ive attended.
We were supplied a 170 page workbook (that is worth the price of class in itself) and advised that all of the questions on the written test could be found in the workbook and we would need to study the book during homework hours. Tom then lectured for a few hours and to say that he knows his stuff is an understatement!! It is best summed up by a comment said by the instructor I assist at H&H while we were on our first break, Two hours ago I thought I was an instructor, now I know what one is!. I believe this was the sentiment shared by the entire class.
From the classroom we went to the range, as the shooting part of the class was to prove tough as well. There were very different skill levels from the students. We stayed in our three man teams; one shooting, while one coached the shooter, and the other coached the coach. We would cycle though this quite a bit that day.
The shooting part of the class was very fun for me as that is the part I do well. Some of the students were struggling, but everyones skills rose that day. However, with two coachs looking on, you could not help but improve.
So back to the classroom for more lecture and Power Point presentations. Tom then gave each team their presentation assignments to be performed on the last day. Each team would have to present a hour long worth of material, with each member using a visual training aid and doing part of the presentation.
We were dismissed for the evening about 6:30 p.m. or so and my team went to a spare classroom to discuss our presentation. There would be very little socializing this weekend. My wife went to get us dinner and we worked until they ran us out of the range at 9:00 p.m., then off to the house to do homework.
Day Two
This day was much of the same. spending more time in the classroom with great lectures from Tom and incredible Power Point displays from John. We went over the workbook and received our reading assignments for that night. Then off to the range where Tom continued to coach the class. One thing Tom has done in every class Ive had with him is admonish us to do non-shooting tasks quickly and shoot carefully!!!!
We shot Toms qualifications course of fire, along with the FBI Instructor qualifications course of fire. They were both very tough with Toms target being the harder of the two, in my opinion. We also shot some of Toms odd guns, which included everything from Lorcins, to old Colts, and one pink grip 25 ACP that Eric traded his CZ 75 for!! LOL All of the students did much better this day, but a few were still struggling with the 25 yard part of the shooting.
I must say that I had an honor bestowed on me that day by Marshal Luton, the lead instructor/owner of TDSA (http://www.tdsatulsa.com). Thanks Marshal!!
Back to the classroom for more lecture and Power Point and class let out about 5:30 p.m. that day. My team settled on our training aids and what each of us would cover, so we went to dinner and then back to H&H to work on our presentation.
A good friend of mine attending the class was struggling with the 25 yard shooting with his Glock 34. So I left dinner a bit early and helped him with his shooting. We made a good breakthrough on his trigger finger placement. He had to move it out to the tip, as his hands are a bit small for the Glock and the result was good center hits at 25 yards.
On to join my team and get our Instructor and Student Handout finished (thanks to our wives for making it look presentable). At this point, I would like to recommend that you have a laptop for the handouts, taking notes - whatever. We did several demo presentations and critiqued each other, until they ran us out of the range at 9:00 p.m. Then off to the house or hotel for our homework.
Day 3
This is it! The last day and all three test lay ahead. However, my Strep Throat infection was back with a vengeance and I felt horrible!! Just my luck!!
An early stop for supplies for our training aids and then off to the H&H. My team meets early in the classroom to set up our training aids.
Tom gave us some final coaching and then two teams (including mine) were off to the range to shoot the qualifications drills - cold. We did the FBI, qual drill twice and Toms drill once.
My shooting took a nose dive that day, probably the combination of feeling awful, the stress of shooting with your piers, and the fact that this one was for the record books. The stress of those situations is something Ill have to continue to work on, as it turned out to be my worst performance of the weekend.
Over 50% of the class shot the FBI test clean, but no one shot Toms target clean!!
While the other teams were shooting, we took this time to drill on the written test and review the work book.
After all the teams had shot, we did our presentations team by team. This was very stressful for some, while others were right at home. We had several instructors from not only TDSA, but the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and these guys really showed the class that they are consummate professionals!
I was the first to get to do the presentation (thanks Tom!). My throat was so sore I could hardly swallow and talking was painful. Of all times to be sick, this would be it!! However, no luck for me today and theres no place to hide while youre in front of the class. There was a misunderstanding on my part during the presentation, but all ended well and the team passed. After each team finished their presentation, Tom would ask the class for positive and negative comments and there would be a short discussion on each.
John then did a very good Power Point presentation on the criminal element and the parallels of there lives and ours. This was very scary stuff and some of the statistics were very startling. The one thing that stood out to me was the gang members understanding that they would end up in prison and the worse stuff they do to get there, the higher there status would be once incarcerated. John had several other Power Points, which were worth the price of admission.
Then the worst part of the class, the written test. For the last three days, Tom had told us that only two people have ever scored 100 on the test and that all the answers are in the workbook. Well, I so wish I would have spent more time in the workbook!! My test score reflected this even though I passed, but by my standards I did a poor job.
Tom then did a presentation on the history of firearms and ammo that I found very interesting!! The Power Point quiz on the firearms was very good and I knew a few, but not that many of the old ones. This was very good stuff and Tom said, from a customer point of view, we are experts, thus we should know how all the odd guns work. This definitely reinforced the point he had made before when we were shooting the odd guns.
Tom had the scores for the class and gave each of us our certificates. He then gave away the Top Gun award to Eric!!!! way to go man..., which is a combo of all the test scores and they had to bring in an extra qual drill score to get a winner, the class was that tight!!
This was by far the hardest class Ive ever attended! If you decide to come to this class expect to work hard and shoot harder!
I highly recommend this class, if you have any desire to teach or if you just want a better understanding of how to teach.
Needless to say, Ive now got my spot reserved for Toms advanced instructor class.
Hope to see you on the range soon!!
