In January I was invited to attend the NRA Training Counselors workshop.
The workshop is an intense 4-day training which is held at NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. To be eligible to attend a Training Counselor Development Workshop, you need to be an NRA Certified Instructor for a minimum of two years, have conducted a minimum of ten NRA courses (as the lead trainer), have taught a minimum of 50 students, and successfully reported your training activity at NRAInstructors.org. Meeting the eligibility requirements, I registered myself for the workshop. I was eager and excited to get started on my journey.
I met seven other excited candidates taking the workshop; all which are professionals in law enforcement or safety training fields from across the country. 8 registered candidates did not attend the workshop.
My eagerness very quickly turned to nervousness and stress. It become clear that being recommended for counselor by the training staff was not going to be an easy accomplishment. Being constantly evaluated by unemotional training staff was not a comfortable situation.
- Day 1: Not one person passed safe handling of semi-auto, revolver and single-action firearms. I did however pass safe handling of both revolver and single-action. I came to find out that I did not pass semi-auto because I racked the slide in a different manner than the trainer.
- Day 2: The shooting qualification, 6-inch group of 16 shots out of 20 with in a 9-inch circle. A very difficult qualification under enormous stress. I was only 1 of 2 people to pass.
- Day 3: Defensive qualification, one candidate was actually removed from the workshop for being unsafe. 5 people reattempted the shooting qualification from day 1 and only 1 more person passed it.
- Day 4: Half day of classroom and then exit interview.
Four days of intense classroom and role-playing with the above qualifications proved a stressful and mentally exhausting experience. It was eye opening and humbling. At the end of all exit interviews I found out that I was only 1 of 2 candidates that were being recommended to become an NRA Training Counselor. I am proud of my accomplishments and eager to be bringing a new level of training to Andover Sportsmen’s Club.
-Steve Cioffi, Director of Training
