ON POINT STEEL TARGETS

In the current training environment, thousands of companies compete for customers while striving to positively impact the industry. Now, I sincerely believe that every training organization (instructor) brings some value to the community. But, the reality is that some instructors do it better than others. In Jeffrey Gitomer's book Differentiate or Die, Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition, Jeffrey makes a powerful point when he said, "Differentiate with value or die with price". It is with value, not price, that we differentiate ourselves from our local competitors. While some instructors will use whatever is available on the range, others choose to travel with all the necessary range equipment to ensure the right experience for the student. No instructor's equipment list is complete until they have a smartly thought-out steel target package. There are several advantages to running steel in your courses, but for me, there is no other more important reason than time. When running specific range drills that limit the number of students firing at one time, steel is necessary to eliminate the need to check targets, a must to enforce accountability. The time it takes to review and mark paper targets drags out training decreasing motivation among the students.
 

One of the greatest minds of our time on the subject of human performance and limitations in violent encounters is Bruce Siddle from Human Factors Group. He stated that learned survival responses come from the instructor's intentional training methodology. The basis of this training methodology is developing the student's confidence in a skill at a subconscious level. The challenge for the instructor is to implement strategies that help motivate students to want to learn. Richard W. Schmidt whose research on cognitive and affective factors stated, "A motivated student devotes greater effort to the task, with more serious practice and longer practice periods, leading to more effective learning." It is Instructor Bravo's experience that students who exhibit higher levels of motivation are more cognitively engaged and tend to ignore certain negative physical effects of training such as fatigue and discomfort. This causes the student to push themselves harder, train with more focus, and do more self-evaluation to improve. Effective use of steel targets helps the instructor achieve this.