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I think it's worth bringing up Jim's point again about dry practice. I haven't met an instructor yet who didn't place a high value on it, and some, like Gabe Suarez, go so far as to say that dry practice IS your training, that live fire should be thought of as periodic examinations to make sure you're training correctly.

Suarez has written that, "Live fire is an important but minor part of the overall training of a tactical shooter." Now, if that sounds as if he feels you don't need to ignite some primers, it has to be viewed in perspective of his overall training program. Suarez feels that a "perfect practice" live-fire session of about 75 rounds once per week or once every other week is sufficient. But ideally he'd have you doing a 30-minute dry-practice session every day.

And when you think about Suarez's distribution, that's one reason why IDPA and USPSA can come in so handy for most folks. Your local range may not allow you to draw from holster, move while shooting, etc., but an IDPA match will. You get about twice the number of rounds off in USPSA as IDPA, but even IDPA matches meet Suarez's thoughts on live-fire minimum round count.

Plus, you have the advantage of scenarios that you didn't create yourself; you're seeing them for the first time and have to apply some mental skillset to decide, tactically, how you should shoot the CoF. For example, I've seen scenarios simulating hallways and room clearing; going in, of course you've viewed the layout and know where the "bad guys" are, and I've seen some shooters move quickly--within the rules--and others slow down and be a lot more careful, as if they were truly clearing a blind doorway. And that's a great thing about IDPA: you don't have to feel pressured to turn in the best times. Folks that shoot it know that people are there for different reasons and bring in different skill levels. As long as you are a safe gun-handler and shooter, any club will welcome you to its matches.

On the matter of professional training, I'm a huge advocate, even for ex-military and law enforcement. Though many of the technical foundations were established in Jeff Cooper's generation, things have continued to evolve...including equipment. And I find it fascinating to compare and contrast the methods and philosophies of the different trainers. As G.C. noted, another reason we should be happy to be in Texas is that puts us, probably, in the top five states for amount of advanced instruction without having to leave the borders. Springtime always offers a lot of options, including visiting instructors who make it to the state a few times per year.