John Farnam is one of the best-known firearms instructors in the country. With his wife, Vicki, he travels to ranges in this country and abroad, teaching through his organization, Defense Training International (DTI). Like other top instructors, John and Vicki have a core group of affiliate instructors, trained according to their methods and available to assist with classes as needed.
Participation in the annual DTI instructor development program is by invitation, and enrollment is always small and restricted. This year, the course was given in late June at the Branch County Conservation Club range in Southern Michigan. John, Vicki and two senior assistants taught seven affiliate instructor trainees over a long weekend that consumed a thousand rounds per student and included a night shoot.
The typical instructor trainee was a business or professional man in his 30's or 40's who had taken several DTI courses and was fully committed to the Farnam Method. Only two had any combination of military, law enforcement or serious martial arts experience. Thus, they were similar to the students they will teach -- people doing their best to prepare for a first violent or lethal encounter they hope will never come.
I was older than the others, had much different experience and was less fully indoctrinated into the Farman Method. My association with John had been in private sessions directed toward specific handgun skills. Also, two Gunsite classes and other training left me with techniques just different enough from DTI methods that they were very difficult to alter, even if I had been immediately willing. It is a tribute to the teachability of the Farnam Method and good coaching by other trainees that I successfully completed the course, but perhaps only just.
Most of us brought Glocks or 1911's. One LEO had a Sig. Required back-up guns were small autos and revolvers. The core instructor development curriculum was to review the entire Advanced Handgun Course at a much higher level than required of students while team teaching, analyzing and discussing both content and instructional methodology.
Everything we did was based on the Farnam Method, which conveys basic handgun skills within John's particular system of confrontation management. It is described fully in John's book, The Farnam Method of Defensive Handgunning, available from www.defense-training.com. There are a few basics. Firearms are carried concealed. Movement is required during all draws, magazine changes and stoppage clearances, before holstering and after shots are fired. Scanning is incessant. Multiple shots are delivered to the torso center line. The head is seldom a target. Combined with these shooting skills are verbal commands, body language and engagement termination techniques.
The essential targets and training aids for DTI courses are Rotators, manufactured by Steve Camp, one of the course assistants. Basically a sohpisticated double paddle spinning target, the Rotator design has been refined for several years to fit exactly into the Farnam Method and to adapt to John's travel. They can be configured both horizontally and vertically and placed in multiples to provide a variety of moving and fixed targets. They can stand alone or be integrated with any targets a range might have. Well-engineered and durable, Rotators are the most competent steel targets I have ever seen. Steve Camp can be reached at BBP@bbponline.com.
During the first day, course drills alternated with discussions and brief lectures. Coaching is essential to DTI teaching methods, and it is difficult to do well. There must be a good human dynamic between the coach and student and prudent balance to avoid distracting rather than helping. Successful coaching identifies and eliminates specific problems one by one until the shooter reaches the required level of consistent performance. General advice to calm down or take it easy is usually not helpful and often not welcome.
John assigned each of us several brief lectures on short notice, often selecting topics to fit trainees' particular strengths or weaknesses. In general, everyone was prepared, able and successful. Questions, suggestions and analysis helped improve from an already strong base. This was a supportive environment, but not a tolerant one, and occasional substantive mistakes or pedagogical failures did not escape attention.
After every break for lectures or discussion, we returned to the targets, practicing draws, movement, reloads, challenges, multiple shots and other components of DTI doctrine, always working toward more speed while maintaining accuracy. The Farman Method is simple, but demanding in detail. Every trainee was already a good shooter. For many, hitting the targets was easier than mastering DTI's very exact requirements of gun handling at the level required to teach them competently.
At the end of a long, tiring first day, we ate at the range and transitioned into a long, tiring night shoot. We worked through low light to full dark, with both illuminated sights and flashlights. John teaches both the Harries and Goode flashlight techniques. He emphasises intermittent use of the flashlight to identify targets more than to help sight alignment. Problems with night shooting occurred and were discussed at length. The humid air of Southern Michigan quickly produced a haze that obscured targets and introduced other difficulties that never happen in simulations.
After sleeping quickly, we returned early on the second day for more shooting drills. New material included employment of backup guns, battlefield pickup drills with unfamiliar weapons and the creation of different stoppages that were cleared on the clock. We broke for a brief, sobering lecture by John on his view of the value of human life and the moral dimension of taking it. Then, Vicky discussed gender differences in learning and retaining information and other issues that apply to teaching women.
After more drills and lunch, the afternoon was devoted to the serious, demanding tests required for graduation. These examinations were by no means perfunctory, but students who needed them were given multiple opportunities to pass. Minor deviations from the DTI gun handling requirements were spotted by the two coaches who observed each test run. Every test was stopped at the first mistake to avoid repeating errors. Eventually, we all managed to meet the requirement of one hundred percent accuracy with no procedural errors within very tight times.
The graduation ceremony was followed by critiques and comments from John, Vicki and their assistants. Steve Camp made the pertinent observation that all students had arrived with mature shooting skills and the course had been intentionally demanding. DTI doctrine is simple but specific. We had to show that we understood it and could teach it. In addition, and we had been required to shoot much more accurately and quickly than the students we would teach. In effect, the Farnam Method for teaching the Farman Method had been a success.
John Newman
21 June 04