Whether you’re attending in-service, an instructor development class or a professional development course, training provides an opportunity to improve our knowledge, skills and abilities. It can be a source of motivation and a break from our normal schedules. Training may even be an opportunity to recharge our batteries and energize us for a big project, investigation or new career challenge.

As good as this can be, how often have you been in class wondering, “What the hell are we doing here?” We’ve all attended training that leaves us scratching our heads, wondering who thought it would be a good idea to waste our time listening to this garbage. We’ve sat through a compost pile of nonsensical classes, questioning how the material relates to working as a police officer.

Conversely, there are the classes that interest and engage us. Maybe the presentation is flashy, or the instructor has a dynamic and charismatic personality. Unfortunately, when this happens, too often we take the information at face value, failing to question its validity or appropriateness. Too much of what we do in training is based on “the way we’ve always done it” and lacks something fundamental: critical thinking.

Hurt feelings

This is going to raise the ire of some instructors. It’s not meant to be insulting or a personal attack, so don’t look for a reason to be offended. But if we want to benefit our officers, some things need to change, and if this is what it takes, I’m more than willing to sacrifice your feelings. One reason we continue to do things the way we’ve always done them is because we’re afraid to try something different. We’re afraid of being the one to do it differently. We’re afraid of standing out from the rest of the crowd, because it can be lonely being the only person banging that drum. But consider this: nothing ever improved by doing the same thing over and over.

Maybe the best place to start is with the single most sensitive group of instructors, the ones who argue incessantly over the most frivolous and insignificant topics but rarely push for true improvements in the skills and abilities of their students: firearms instructors. As a longtime firearms instructor, I have been as guilty as the next guy, but I am working hard to do better.

Here’s an example I see all over the country, going back more than 30 years, and this is definitely going to ruffle some feathers: “Getting off the X.” We’ve all heard it and repeated it. It sounds amazing. “Getting off the X” is a classic example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions. It was intended to introduce officers to the concept of moving during a gunfight. But in firearms training, it is most often taught with the instructor standing behind a firing line, having officers take a single step left or right while drawing or reloading. It sounds awesome and looks very tacti-cool. But it doesn’t make you a harder target.

What it does is condition officers to take a single step left or right while drawing or reloading. That’s it. End of story. If you don’t believe me, have someone stand in front of you and take a single step to one side or the other while you point your finger at their chest. Try it at different distances. You will discover that even people with the worst hand–eye coordination can easily keep their finger pointed at your chest. It adds unnecessary movement to the draw or reload and wastes time. If we want to make officers harder targets, we need to get them moving deliberately and dynamically offline.

This is where some instructors will make the excuse that moving deliberately and dynamically offline with a long line of shooters would be unsafe. They will also say the movement is meant to “simulate the officer’s first movement to cover.” Sorry, that’s not how we learn. All you have done is train a conditioned response to take a single step left or right while drawing or reloading. If you want to train movement to cover, place cover nearby. Use barrels, narrow barricades or anything else that simulates actual cover. Stop making officers do a dance that amounts to nothing more than range theatrics.

We can’t keep doing things the way we’ve always done them and expect to improve.

Slow motion

Here’s a less controversial example of the lack of critical thinking in firearms training. Most academies and departments include some type of training block that covers shooting on the move. This usually involves some variation of the “Groucho” walk, where the shooter focuses on rolling their feet smoothly from heel to toe while moving forward slowly. And when I say “slowly,” I mean s-l-o-w-l-y. They’re moving so slowly that time seems to go backward. A shot timer is overkill when a sundial would do.

You would think this would only occur when introducing new shooters to the concept. Unfortunately, that is not the case. It doesn’t get any better (faster). This is what we see in academies, and this is what we see in in-service training: officers being trained to move slower than walking speed while shooting to save their lives or the lives of someone else. Does that sound realistic?

We have decades’ worth of officer-involved shooting videos showing exactly what happens during gunfights. If officers are moving, they are moving fast. If they are firing multiple shots, more often than not, they are shooting fast. Regrettably, too often they are doing these things for the first time while trying to survive. It would be far better to experience these things in the safe, controlled setting of training than in the dangerous and chaotic environment of a real gunfight.

Do better

It’s not just firearms instructors and their students who have failed to think critically about what we’re doing and how we’re training. This problem exists in every topic covered in law enforcement training. These are just some examples drawn from my experience as a firearms instructor who has taught all over the U.S. and Canada.

Of course, if you’ve gotten to this point in the article and are thinking this doesn’t pertain to your classes, your experience or your agency, then you must be the unicorn who works for the magical department in Delusionville. It also means you missed the point about critical thinking.

We must do better. We can’t keep doing things the way we’ve always done them and expect to improve. As trainers, students, supervisors and leaders, it’s up to us to escape the curse of mediocrity. Let’s raise our expectations and do better.