Customer Reviews

Teaching Women to Shoot: A Law Enforcement Instructor's Guide

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Once in a great while a shooting book comes along that truly breaks new ground. Teaching Women To Shoot is such a book. I have taught with Diane Nicholl for ten years and have watched her apply her scientific background to solving the problems of beginner and remedial shooters. The book is deliberately structured to lead instructors along a path that begins with identifying problem areas, and understanding why women learn differently from men, to providing practical solutions. Written from a law enforcement training perspective, this book is a valuable reference for any instructors who train women. Any man who has failed to teach a female relative to drive a car, or shoot a gun, knows how frustrating it can be for both parties. The teaching and learning processes are the same in both cases. Among other things, this book will help men to understand how women listen, understand, and learn, their mental focus, and the physical size problems they have with firearms designed by men, for men. This is not a feminist book. It does not advocate special treatment for women. It does provide instructors with several valuable tools to make them more effective. And all good instructors are always looking for that...

Anyone who is alive knows that men and women communicate differently. With the influx of women in professions where they are armed it is imperative that instructor's posses the skills to insure women get the most out of their survival skills training. You can take these concepts and apply them anywhere where men and women are around each other. The author teaches real life saving skills that in combination with her husband has literally saved my life. I agree that if you are a man and in a position to communicate information to women you need this book. It helped me greatly to train women in firearm's and in the patrol field training officer.

If you teach women, you need to read this book. Even if you think you know it all, read it anyway. Its good stuff.

Written primarily from the law enforcement instructors point of view, it is equally valuable to anyone who teaches women how to shoot.

This book is a bit too short, but quite valuable nevertheless. It covers essential gender differences (e.g., spatial and verbal skills), shooting fundamentals (e.g., sight alignment, trigger control, and grip), and shooting psychology (e.g., mental focus and performance stress). Powerful techniques to ensure a proper grip, overcome strength/endurance limitations, and adjust for torso length are presented. The thumbs-up grip, for example, is a neat trick. I've taught college-level computer classes, martial arts and business seminars for years and even written a book about teaching yet I found some valuable new perspective in this fine book. Well done!

Lawrence Kane
Author of Blinded by the Night, among other titles

The book is a must read for all firearms instructors. It puts you inside the mind of the female shooter and gives great tips on how to correct shooting problems.

Understanding the mind of a student is as important to the teacher as the subject being taught. The book states simply, women are different in their thinking. That's not exactly PC in a PC world. Quite frankly, more and more women are participating in a man's world while retaining their female abilities and male instructors have to be aware.

Guys, buy the book. You'll increase your class size and introduce women into a fun hobby that can also save their lives.

The book had some interesting points on the differences between the way men and women think, but was not very specific in how to apply these differences to the teaching situation. Once given a general picture of things to consider when teaching women, it would have been nice to have outlined a curriculum geared toward teaching women. Better yet, two for comparison purposes: one for men and one for women so the reader could better understand what points needed to be emphasized.

As a Firearms Instructor I felt that the book helped me have a better understanding of what and how to teach my female students . The book has very detailed instructions and is pleasent to read,on the down side it(the book) can be a bit redundent in making its points. I would recommend this title to any Instructor,coach,boyfriend,husband trying to teach firearms handeling to women.

This book is aptly titled and concise: it is intended for law enforcement and military instructors, who are constrained by curriculums developed previously for male students, set teacher-to-student ratios, allowable class and range time, "one size fits all" equipment, and also who are constrained in other ways that produce imperfect learning environments. The authors share their views on sex-based differences in communication and learning styles, awarness of which is applicable more broadly than only to shooting instruction. They concede that some men have what they characterize as female traits, and vice versa, so the value of their message is in understanding the potential teaching issues, regardless of the audience. This book is primarily about how to teach, and secondarily about successful and proven ways of communicating shooting fundamentals. I attended Farnam's class on the same topic, and my prior reading of the book was invaluable.

Good tips in here for women, but the book tends to repeat itself in some areas.