Say hello to a newly minted NRA Certified Basic Pistol Instructor!

I finished the course work this past weekend, and it was an interesting experience.

The BIT portion (Basic Instructor Training) was on Friday night. This is apparently a standard start to all Instructor Training, no matter what discipline ( pistol, rifle, shotgun, etc). That lasted about 4 hours.

Then, Saturday was the meat of the deal, with group activities, role-playing being a teacher/leader in front of a group, and a ton of information that we would need to be competent instructors. This lasted about another 9 hours or so. We had a good group of six student/candidates, so we had a fun time of it, in addition to learning the essentials. 

My only frustration was that because ( I think) the materials have recently been changed, what was on the power points didn’t necessarily match up with the order that things appeared in our hand outs. Being a control freak, this made me crazy at times. From med school and residency, I am programmed to follow along on the power points with my handouts, step-by-step, and make corresponding notes as I go along. This bit of disorganization was frustrating for me. But – improvise, adapt and overcome, as they say.

There was also  a range qualification. I am happy to say that I passed this with flying colors. I used my Gen3 Glock19, because it was my first gun, and I thought it might be good to qualify with it for sentimental reasons. I “may” have even shot the best out of the group, but I’m not positive. I had some worries about my performance going in (pre-match jitters), but those worries dissipated when my first set of five shots produced a single ragged hole in the target! 🙂 I was very proud of myself, especially considering that  we did our shooting outside, when it was 15 degrees F. Brrrr. 

So, it was an interesting experience despite my inner control freak twitching from time to time, and I now have an NRA diploma in my office right next to the medical diplomas. I hope the wall doesn’t burst into flames.

I don’t think I’ll be offering classes anytime soon yet. But I’d consider assisting someone else here and there ’til I get a better feel for things in the meantime.

My next immediate focus is SHOT Show. I leave on Sunday. 

I’ll try to post new updates every day, both here and on the Facebook page.

Stay tuned!