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I recently attended an NRA instructor certification course for Home Firearm Safety and Basic Pistol at Elm Fork, taught by Dan Graeber from The Trainer's Group.

It was a lot more of a "how to teach" class than anything else (as expected) so I'm not sure how applicable it is for this board, but I figure there have to be a few readers who might be interested in getting NRA credentials and could benefit from a review.

Dan was great. He really showed an interest in the students and offered a lot of situation specific advice and guidance. He kept things moving along and interesting over the course of the two days. The facility was great (we were in the shotgun clubhouse) and there were no issues with that.

As for the course itself... we started with the basics of how to teach and then progressed to the specific curriculum for the two areas in which we were getting certified.

I've been a trainer in the corporate world for a long time, so while there wasn't anything earth shattering in the "how to teach" portion, I can say that everything taught was in line with the normal industry practices. In other words, you get good information that really works. In the course specific instruction, we received detailed lesson plans and went through them to make sure that we understood what we were expected to teach and Dan pointed out some areas that are typically confusing for new shooters. We also practiced teaching the curriculum and received good critiques that included pointing out what we did well, and where we needed improvement.

There was also a little bit of range time included. We shot various pistols and worked on coaching each other.

Overall, I was very happy with the quality of the class. If I decide to get any additional NRA instructor certifications I will definitely go back to Dan to take the classes.