Thinking Man's Corner

Article By: David K.

 I remember a moment that drove change in me.  I was standing on Gainesville PD’s range in 2019 with a mandate class.  They were doing officer survival drills with two other instructors for the state that will remain unnamed.  The students were doing various physical tasks designed to exhaust themselves before moving to a target and engaging.  The two other instructors were yelling at various cadets and expressing to them that they had to work harder to save their lives and the lives of their partners.  The two state instructors yelling at the students to work harder were morbidly obese.  Both firearm instructors were telling students that they had to be in better shape in order to be able to function under stress and save lives.  It was at that moment, I decided that I could not have any instructor credibility in teaching Officer Survival, without being in better shape myself.

As Firearm Instructors, we frequently teach high liability subjects involving Use of Force, Firearms, and Officer Survival to name a few.  We stand in front of new officers and instruct them on how to succeed and save lives.  Our officers are encouraged to make themselves better officers through skill development and through staying in shape.  But how can we stand in front of them without being in shape ourselves?

Now granted, to achieve Firearm instructor status, we generally are veteran officers.  We have time on the job and time on life.  Frequently, we are the ones who multitask positions are our agencies.  We supervise, we work cases, we work the road, and we administer.  We are pulled in various directions.  And as I looked around the rooms at the last conference, we also tend to abandon our commitment to exercise.  

I asked for a show of hands from our Firearm Instructors at the hotel from those that were active shooter instructors.  Out of the ten hands raised, eight were past the point of obese.  How do we in good conscience instruct our officers to run to the gunfight, if we were not capable of running three hundred yards?  How do we stand there, tired from walking to class and exhort our students to run toward the threat?  

I know that several of us have years of experience, which translates to years of wear and tear.  Yet how many of us were subjected to David Aderhold’s SWAT school and him leading the run at 60 years old? How many Hall county training attendee’s have driven past Lt. Wilbanks running the hills out there along the road? How many of Gainesville’s officers have seen Lt. Barnette sweating gallons on the mats in a jiujitsu gi, working on his fitness? 

I absolutely accept that we can all be better.  There is always more that we can do to improve.  But can we agree that in order to develop increased credibility when we teach, we could be in better shape?  We don’t have to run marathons, we don’t have to bench press 400 lbs.  But when we walk from the range house to the targets, we shouldn’t be out of breath.  Law Enforcement Officers have a shortened life expectancy compared to other professions.  This is directly related to fitness.

Our credibility depends on students perception of us.  We have a built in credibility that comes from achieving the status of Firearms Instructor.  Build on the inherent credibility that comewith that and be reasonably in shape.  I see several Instructors every year that fight back the years and stay in shape.  If we are trying to make our students hard to kill, can we be in that same boat?  Fellow instructors, do not feel that this is finger pointing and a lecture from some high mountain I am on.  This is an observation that caused me to have to look hard in that uncomfortable mirror and make a change.  I encourage you all to self evaluate and think about the perception that students have of you.