Training issues/ Student issues.

The situation within the training industry today is rather sad. I've been teaching some skill or certification from the time I was 23 years old. It was motorcycle racing and track days, then it was SCUBA diving and new electricians, now it's survival/primitive skills and firearms as well. Over this time I've had some really great students. They didn't have to be the best at what they did to be good students, they just needed to have a good outlook and the will to stick with it. Today things are changing. They want instant professional grade acumen and zero effort to boot. It's driving me absolutely batty.

Another issue is cost. They want a budget class with high end training. I really wish I could do that. Let's break it down. Rent the range at a premium training facility that will let you shoot a 3 dimensional class. 20 per student/per hour for an 8 hour class. 5 students- $800 before I even get out of my truck. Now lets get into paper targets, balloons, rope and cones, steel targets and wear and tear. Call it 300 per class for that. Now factor in my time and that of the other instructor. 16 hours classroom and range time total times 2. At twenty bucks an hour we cost 320 bucks. Range ammo we use to demonstrate skills and run through the gauntlet confidence drills is about 140 bucks per instructor so 280. Let's total that all up

800 + 300 + 320 +280 =1700

5 students =340 bucks cost.

We charge 350 for the above cost associated carbine course coming up next weekend.

Every prospective student says it's too expensive. After costs, he and I can't take the profits and buy a lunch at McDonalds. I make 3x this hourly rate at work.

Here we are, an NRA trained instructor and a 22 years Special Forces vet that worked Special Operations CIF for quite a few years, then attended the police academy upon retiring from the military at an E8. The wealth of knowledge on 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation warfare sloshing around in his head is staggering. You literally cannot buy that knowledge anywhere. You must live it. Yet we can't get 5 students who want to learn carbine use and drills for advance and break contact from a guy that's taught the special forces from more countries than he has fingers and toes. Frustrating isn't descriptive enough.

Then tonight I had a SCUBA class for the first rating, Open Water. One of the students couldn't make the first class, no big deal. He let me know and we can make up the work if he misses one. Tonight, same douche nugget forgets his books. Now let me drop the hammer on the whole deal. These people are in a hurry to get certed before they go to Florida in 2 weeks. Yep, in a hurry but don't care that they must take responsibility for getting it done. I'm so sick of it. There's no money in training, we do it out of love for the things we do. We think it's important to teach people how to properly do things. I'm teaching people with ZERO skills how to stay safe in a foreign environment that you can't breathe in. You'd think they would consider it important!

You're paying not just for training, but to learn the tips and tricks that others, including myself have spent tens of thousands of dollars to experience and test the ideas we teach. Literally decades of training and putting rounds down range, thousands of dives up to 300+ feet in underwater caves and wrecks, dragging a knee on a racetrack at triple digit speeds, and last year alone I spent 70+ nights in the field under the stars. But it's still too expensive to pay to learn what would have taken you literally years of experience to figure out on your own. Go ahead, be my guest.

The Firearms market is back in flux due to the elections and everyone is stockpiling weapons and ammo, but if they have to fight to keep them, a 10 year old with a Ruger 10/22 can swiss cheese these turd blossoms before they figure out how to charge their weapon and turn off the safety. Forget about their gun having a good repeatable zero because they can't remember their cheek weld or body position, or their optic's battery is dead. They have no damn clue. If that's you..... Get your life sorted. You owe it to your country and your family to get your stuff squared away.

That is all. Carry on.