DTI Instructor

On Saturday, October 14 and Sunday, October 15, 2023, Defensive Training Solutions and Surprise Break hosted the legendary John and Vicki Farnam for their two-day Defensive Handgun Instructor Program. My role besides event coordinator, was Assistant Instructor, as I have been a Staff Instructor for Defense Training International for six years now. John and Vicki were the first traveling nationally known instructors that I trained with, so you can say they have very much influenced my path as an instructor and as a man. This was the second time I assisted with this class. I took it as a student before that after John surprised me by introducing me as “one of his instructors” during their Urban Rifle course I hosted them for in 2018.

Consider this my after-action report of this class and the experience of teaching alongside four of the greats. I say four because assisting John and Vicki were myself, Bill Martin and SuAnn Cook, all DTI Staff Instructors who get John and Vicki’s endorsement. I will not dive into the minutia of the contents of the lectures and range drills, as I think all persons who teach anyone about firearms whatsoever will benefit from taking this course.

On Saturday morning, John started with introductions which always involve the firearms the students plan on using for the course. John goes into detail about the firearm each student brings so the whole class has a good understanding of different types of firearms. For this class, that topic revolved around pistols.

After introductions, John went into discussing how he expected the lecture to go. Instead of him lecturing, students were going to give five-minute teach backs about whichever topic John assigned. Students only had the time it took them to walk up to the front of the classroom to prepare to give the lesson. During this, Vicki, otherwise identifying herself as “Mable” would ask questions when she, the “new student,” did not understand what you were talking about. John in true Farnam fashion, had his instructor staff demonstrate this first for the students. Afterwards our various styles and the overall presentation was discussed. My topic was what do when your pistol stops working. After we all failed magnificently, it was the students turn. Feedback was given by all instructors and students with the goal of improving each other’s public speaking and instructional methods.

After the morning lectures, it was time to head to the range. After a lecture on our emergency

procedures plan, John paired students up for the dry practice exercises that he teaches in class. Once students got a few runs as students, roles were switched and the process was repeated. After gun handling skills were proven to be safe and some coaching regarding proper stance and presentation, the students were given control of the range one at a time. The student had to assign targets, explain the drill, demonstrate the drill, allow the rest of the class (both relays) to complete the drill, grade the targets in between relays and give feedback to the students. All the drills, to the students’ credit, ended up being fairly like what I like to call the DTI Kata. If you have trained with DTI, you understand what I mean when I say that. After the drills were complete, much like the classroom portion, feedback was

given. The day was concluded with one of Johns famous memorized and recited poems.

Sunday began with Vicki taking front and center in the classroom. Vicki is an expert at training women and more importantly teaching male instructors how to be more successful when teaching female students. If you feel like that is a strong suit of mine, Vicki Farnam deserves all the credit. Vicki did a condensed version of her Teaching Women to Shoot Instructor Course. She started by showing how men and women do things differently when it comes to completing tasks and learning in general. Physical challenges also faced by women regarding shooting that most men take for granted were discussed in detail. This can be evidenced by grip, stance, and presentation from the holster as all this was demonstrated.

Two nuggets that I will give you from Vicki when it comes to carry gear for women are these:

1.) Zendira carry bags. These are pricey (~$200), but provide a fashionable option to off body carry bags that also allow a smooth presentation. Marie has one and loves it!

2.) Mitch Rosen’s Nancy Special for belt carry. This is a great forward cant option for women

looking for a good on body belt holster that is designed for women. We will probably be

ordering one of these ourselves eventually for testing. They have an advertised price of $160

but I am sure it is quality as all offerings from Mitch Rosen are.

SuAnn and John added their closing comments regarding teaching women. John wrapped the morning lecture with advice on how to run live fire drills and exercises that best prepares students for likely situations they will face when they are attacked. After this, we concluded the rest of the second day at the range.

John started the range portion with describing the loading procedure he recommends be taught to all students that includes a press check at the conclusion of the loading procedure. After unloading the pistol and inspecting it, John advocates students get a few dry practices runs from the holster practicing the DTI Kata before live fire commences as we all did the day before.

After this was done, students performed range teach backs. Topics included hostage taker shooting, shooting around innocent bystander targets, and moving around others with loaded guns in hand. All these topics I feel are needed to properly train future operators. The training progressed to shooting three dimensional, reactive targets. John’s favorite steel target: the rotator became the star for high volume of fire. As the name suggests, the target rotates after the shooter imparts the fundamentals of shooting and proper timing to the rotator with bullets fired from their pistol.

After students learned how to successfully rotate the rotator, the fun had only begun. Students were shown how to stop the rotator before learning how they can be used as innocent bystanders either in front of or behind the threat rotator to drive home the importance of Rule 4. Know your target and what is around it. Multiple target drills using the rotators and moving around other students carefully was added to this before we concluded rotator drills pairing up in team drills. The rotator is a very good target that can be used for a variety of drills to challenge students and keep them involved at solving problems on the fly.

As in all fights, through the mud, the blood, and the beer, as John is fond of saying, we do not know which gun we may end up with, but we better know how to use it when we do! Thus, the battlefield pickup concluded day two’s shooting exercises. This gives students an opportunity to learn how to operate other firearms that they are not familiar with. John ended the day with a lecture and demonstration of the long guns he currently travels with. After all pistols are only carried because they are concealable and convenient in our current society. They are not great fight stoppers. John discussed travel mode with his Springfield Hellion in 5.56x45mm, which is a bullpup rifle with a compact profile and a full sixteen-inch barrel. John discussed the same topic with his MAC 1014, a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun which is basically an affordable Benelli M4 style shotgun made in Turkey.

In typical DTI fashion the two-day course was closed out by a hot wash from students discussing their overall thoughts of the class. In the years of assisting John and Vicki, I have never heard any students say anything negative about the training. There have been some frustrated students due to their performance, but failing is learning as SuAnn pointed out during the lecture that morning. After all the instructors gave their feedback, Vicki and John, ever the warrior poets, closed out the course with memorized stories and poems that cause reflection on behalf of all present.

In summary, I truly enjoy being allowed to be a part of the excellent instruction that John and Vicki impart on students in every class. So much that I typically volunteer my time when I teach with them. John and Vicki are some of the greats whose shoulders instructors like me stand on and you owe it to yourself to train with them. Both are now in their golden years. Tomorrow is never promised. Train with them soon at www.defense-training.com.

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