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Throughout the book, Bettis advises that instructors should be close enough to physically intervene, when necessary, to preserve safety—particularly in dynamic training exercises / drills.
I’m part of a team that teaches instructor-level classes to law enforcement officers in California. Depending on the subject, these courses range from two to four days in length. While we keep the students very busy and create numerous opportunities for them to develop and practice their skills as instructors, there is never enough time to teach them everything we’d like to know about being a good instructor.

Beyond the Muzzle is primarily aimed at instructors, but it also has tremendous utility for students of the gun.
A good instructor is a lifelong student, and in that vein, I’d like to recommend Greg Bettis’ book for firearms instructors, titled Beyond the Muzzle: The Firearms Instructor and Shooter Development Guide.
Who Should Read It?
As the title indicates, Beyond the Muzzle is focused on teaching firearms skills. Still, it would be a mistake to pigeonhole it into the “gun” category, as Bettis does a great job of discussing how to be a more effective teacher, regardless of the particular discipline. Officers assigned to teach driving, defensive tactics, or arrest and control will benefit from the book just as much as those assigned to teach firearms. So will officers assigned as Field Training Officers. In fact, anyone who’s in a position to teach others can learn something about how to improve their game from what Bettis has assembled in this book.
I think one of the best aspects of Beyond the Muzzle is Bettis’ use of his “See, Say, Do” concept of instruction, which helps to promote effective two-way communication. For each of the firearm skills that Bettis addresses in the book, he coaches instructors on the positive and negative student behaviors they should look for (“See”). These will indicate whether the student is following directions and executing the desired skill properly. He then provides the instructor with suggested phraseology (“Say”) that can help to clearly explain the skill to the student and emphasize the key points that deserve their focus. Lastly, he explains the physical actions that the instructor should take (“Do”) to help the student understand the objective and execute the skill properly.
For example, in the section of the book that addresses how to grip the pistol with the shooting hand, Bettis provides a detailed explanation of his suggested technique, breaking it down into its core components and explaining how each contributes to the objective of building a strong grip. So far, this is what you’d expect to see in a training manual dedicated to developing marksmanship.
Grip, For Example
However, Bettis goes beyond this exploration of technique to provide the instructor with a roadmap that will enable them to teach the skill more effectively. Using his “See, Say, Do” model, Bettis explains that an instructor should:

An interesting technique suggested by Bettis: When your student has been coached into a proper grip, mark their hands with an index line, to show where the hands should line up . . . (Cont’d)
See: Hand as high on the gun as possible, wrist as straight as possible, hand muscles working hard, gun barrel in-line with the forearm instead of bent too much to either side;
Say: Try to pull the gun through your palm; use your whole hand, not just your fingertips;
Do: Place my hand on top of the student’s hand to demonstrate the strength I am expecting.

(Cont’d) . . . and it will show whether the student has established the proper grip on subsequent presentations. Here, it’s easy to see the student’s grip is not the same as his ideal grip, and needs adjustment.
This is a particularly useful model for an instructor. Most police instructors are given a script or syllabus to follow and told to go teach it. Still, they’re rarely given direction or advice on how to effectively implement it. There is a feedback loop that needs to occur in teaching, where the teacher receives some signal from their student that the message was properly received and understood. Absent this feedback, there’s no way of knowing if the transfer of information actually occurred. The strength of Bettis’ “See, Say, Do” model is that it provides meaningful ways for a teacher to evaluate whether good communication and learning have occurred and to provide guidance on how to reinforce the lesson through a multisensory approach (see, hear, touch) to teaching.

Bettis urges instructors to get close and watch the shooter, not the target. The holes in the target will be visible later, if you’d like to see them. Watching the shooter will tell you more about what they’re doing than the paper.
Other Topics
Aside from the strong description of shooting techniques and the useful “See, Say, Do” approach to teaching them, Bettis does a strong job of discussing other topics that are important for instructors to understand, such as the differences between how men and women learn, how to design an effective training program on a budget, and the critical importance of proper documentation.

Bettis reminds instructors of the importance of providing timely and accurate feedback to their students.
Practical Application
Bettis also includes a compelling section on the differences between the range and the street. He explains how a good instructor can develop a firearms training program that addresses tactical realities while keeping students and staff safe.
Final Thoughts
While Beyond the Muzzle is primarily intended as a helpful read for teachers seeking to enhance their craft, it will also be useful for readers aiming to improve their tactical awareness and shooting performance. His discussions about threat awareness and identification, his “FACES” model for teaching a family response to violent encounters, and his recommended post-incident tactics and actions are as useful as his detailed breakdown of the shooting fundamentals.
Ordering
Beyond the Muzzle is aimed at instructors but is equally valuable for the students they teach. I highly recommend it. You can purchase it from Amazon or directly from the publisher (use discount code GB1522 for 15% off from the publisher).