The Instructor: Bill S. plus 4 students
First thing, I highly suggest taking carbine operator the week before(especially if your not, or cant shoot regularly) if your schedule permits it and the facilities schedule has operator and instructor back to back.
The reason for this is that it gives you an entire week of study on the instructors and the rifle. Carbine Instructor is NOT carbine operator week 2, it is essential that you come a shooter, you will be teaching short lessons to the others in your class in no time everyday, all day, thus its paramount you know how to do what you are teaching. You will be fine tuning a lot during this course.
Day 1 started with a detailed lesson on the rifles parts all the while the instructor detailed techniques for clear communication to adult students, problems to look out for(such as people attempting to put the bolt carrier in backwards), and when it might be a good idea to take a short break.
We quickly progressed to public speaking skills and individual short lessons, each member of the class running a lesson on a different part of the M4.
I should add here that there were only 4 people in this class. Which was and is a great benefit because of the flexibility you have as well as the speed at which the course can go. It also helped that 3 including myself were in carbine operator the week before and the 4th had plenty experience on carbine so there wasn’t really a gap between us. A big difference from the previous weeks 14 person class.
When we got to the range, we zeroed up and simultaneously learned how to rectify issues people might have, windage, elevation, trigger control, and most importantly WHY certain actions make the bullets DO certain things. Best example was probably laying the rifle barrel on a steel plate for a rest and watching the difference even at short range. (metal on metal reverberates quite a lot) I think we were at 75yrd and it was around an inch between the 2 shots on paper. 1 metal on metal, 1 hand against metal.
We also shot the qualification course that the instructors do. If I remember correctly all 4 students met the minimum.
A lot of time was spent perfecting instructor tools, such as running the range (safety brief, rules, plan, water), set up/breakdown, hazardous debris check, how to set up drills, safety and placement of targets and steel plates. Running the line (of shooters).
Another important instructor tool we learned is how to remember how we were going to teach a technique, sometimes you describe/demonstrate first, other times, demonstrate then describe and break down the technique. I used the demonstrate first almost immediately, not only is it a confidence booster but it gives you a quick review before you start speaking. Added to this was when does the instructor shoot? If you have 2 instructors, 1 can take the class for a spoken lesson or while loading magazines, and the other instructor goes down range and runs a few drills for review before teaching them.
It is important that the instructor isnt shooting while the students are shooting, at that time the instructors job is to observe/critique and maintain safety.
You become the main conductor numerous times through out the course, we were never interrupted by the instructor unless something was unsafe or was just plain wrong. After each short lesson we would do a quick review and critique of what was right, wrong, and could have been better/more detailed/said differently.
We were also pushed quite hard on our shooting drills. It is important to know how you feel and shoot when fatigued. Another aspect to this is that the more you shoot, the more you can feel the gun, every little creek, impulse, sway, recoil of the tool. The more you get in tune with it, the more you can control it, the more it becomes an extension of you.
The highlight of the course, was a bit of a surprise, I think it was a Wednesday we were told we would be teaching a real 1 day intro to carbine class. Its one thing to shoot around friends or in a class your learning in, but to shoot in front of people you need to be teaching and delivering proper information and safety to is another. After all, everybody will know if you miss or not, and the instructor should not be missing.
With that said, the 4 of us convened on what each person would instruct and how we would help each other and communicate through out the day of the course.
We had 12 students on Friday, many had no firearms experience. We started with safety, a break down of the rifle, zeroing, body positioning, prone, kneeling, standing, drills on paper targets, multiple shots, multiple targets, and then finished out the day with shooting steel, which is a great exercise because you receive instant feed back.
Friday was a lesson in itself, all 4 class members learned what it takes logistically to build a lesson plan for just one day, obtaining the rifles, magazines, slings, and ammunition for the class, and maintaining clear communication through out the day. Communication is probably one of the most important lessons we learned because it is paramount to safety, instructor cohesiveness and smoothness of a course.
The instructor, Bill S, for the entirety of range portion of the class watched from a distance and let us run the range as actual instructors. This was a huge confidence boost because it let us know that he had enough trust and confidence in us and in his instructing abilities that he didn’t need to be on top of us to make sure we were doing the right thing, he simply observed us doing proper techniques.
We graduated the 1 day class students, presented certificates, turned in weapons to the armory, and then we were presented with our certificates, and of course, we still did a debrief of how the day went.
Bill is very proficient, very straight forward, and insists on questioning everything, he frequently said do not hesitate to ask “why?” about a technique he is teaching or another instructor. After all, it is important to know why we do a certain thing that certain way, and be able to explain it. Or even change it.
Keep in mind that for any courses here that bringing more magazines than the suggested 3 or 4 can be very advantageous. There are opportunities in which you will be shooting every single magazine you have, pistol and rifle.
3 mags goes very quickly on a lengthy drill. You will not be disappointed if you bring double the mags…if not triple.
Noah