Editor's Note: This piece is written by our Dealer Wire Editor, action shooting competitor, and marketing master Paul Erhardt. Sometimes we need to look at what we do from the outside; he provides this snapshot for us. by Paul Erhardt A strange thing happened at the NE Shooters' 2011 Summit, instead of conforming nicely to my preconceived notions about what goes on at such a gathering, the Summit surprised me by teaching me some important lessons - not the least of which was don't underestimate the value of good training. Before I explain it's important that you realize that I am probably the least tactical person you know, and my presence at a tactical conference featuring several top tier instructors is akin to a fish out of water. My area of expertise is competition, and for some people competition shooting and tactical shooting go together like oil and water. There are in fact any number of endless arguments between the two groups of thought available for review on just about every online shooting forum. So you can imagine what I must have been thinking as I pulled into the parking lot of the Pelham (N.H.) Fishing & Game Club to spend two days hopping from one two-hour training module to the next.

'Accuracy is King', but so too is running to cover as demonstrated by Scott Conti.

Well it didn't take long for my internal bias to give way to a simple if not elegant truth that you can always learn valuable lessons from good instructors. This was immediately apparent during the first module with Chris Fry who was instructing on the use of rifles when shooting around barricades, or cover. While I was beginning to ignore the content of Chris' presentation - not being an AR owner and obviously having no use for this segment - he yelled out this simple statement, "Accuracy is King!" Bam! There it is. I was now back in the class on those three words. I already knew "cash is king" and with websites and blogs "content is king", but I never thought of accuracy that way. Yeah, I know, stupid isn't it? So simple and important a concept this was that I remember turning to my buddy Scott Conti, the designer of the SPD pocket armorer's tool and the reason I was that that weekend, and repeating Chris' words.

Mike Janich works with Katharine and David Snyder during his seminar on knife fighting.

After wrapping up Chris' module we headed to the next one on knife fighting with Michael Janich. Now, I know Michael Janich having met him through my good friend Michael Bane. I've seen Janich on TV on both Shooting Gallery and The Best Defense and was already very familiar - and impressed - with his teaching style, which is why I was looking forward to seeing him in action. I think the best way to explain how good Michael Janich is as an instructor is to tell you that while I have no burning desire to learn to knife fight, after spending two hours watching him teach I'd take his class in a heartbeat. At the end of the two-day conference both Scott and I ranked a Janich class high on our wish list of courses. After lunch our group headed to what I'll say was the one segment that I expected to like the least. It was Gun Retention and Takeaways with William Aprill. Honestly, my assumption was that learning to take a gun away from a bad guy that's pointing it at you isn't a real good idea and preparing for that eventuality was, well, silly. When Aprill said that handing over that wallet or expensive watch was his plan, just as it was mine, I felt a lot better. He then explained that what he was teaching was not about ego gratification or becoming an action movie hero. It was about what to do when you are faced with a situation where you realize you may not get out alive. It's a course of last resort, and with Aprill's no-nonsense delivery style surprisingly informative.

Besides the chair, Wes Doss made students shoot from the ground, mud and all.

The day ended with another class I was looking forward to: Shooting from Unusual Positions with Wes Doss. Wes is another instructor I know and have heard nothing but good things about. And frankly, his course actually relates well to practical shooting competition where shooting is rarely done from a static standing position. Using a simple, no frills folding metal chair, Wes ran drills that forced you out of your shooting comfort zone. Duh, why weren't we already doing this during practice? Day two of the Summit brought another round of courses starting with Tactical Medicine with Bill Lewitt, a nurse and EMT. While the tactical angle of emergency medicine in the midst of a gun fight was not a good fit for me, I immediately saw the value in learning what to do out on the range when the worst happens. Scott and I were so impressed with the potential of Lewitt's instruction that we urged him to consider a course for shooting clubs specifically on emergency medicine for the shooting range. Another class I'd take in a heartbeat.

Snubbies might not be my thing but there's no denying their importance in personal defense.

Next came Claude Werner instructing on the use of Snubbie revolvers. Now this is one where I really checked out since snubbie wheelguns don't work well for me due to my hand size. But Scott, who does carry a snubbie, assured me that this was an excellent course and really worth the time and money. He's likely to take another class with Werner, that's how good it was. The final two courses of the day were also with instructors I was interested in seeing. The first was Managing Unknown Contacts with an instructor known as Southnarc. Due to his law enforcement and previous undercover work he prefers that we not use his real name. I gotta admit, alias or not, I really enjoyed this course and like the others was surprised how quickly time passed. One minute we were getting insights into the habits of criminals approaching their prey, and the next we were lining up to shake the instructor's hand because it was over.

Rob Pincus breaks down the meaning of combat accuracy into a simple 'yes' and 'no'.

Last but not least was Rob Pincus and his Combat Focus Shooting. I know Rob, again through Michael Bane, and have seen him on TV. I assumed his class would be "overly tactical" - don't ask me why. But, it was actually cerebral. Rob's class made you think, or in the case of understanding accuracy, not think. Perhaps the perfect bookend to Chris Fry's earlier "Accuracy is King" approach, Rob declared that combat accuracy is a yes/no proposition. What? Let me think about that for a moment.... Oh, yeah. Rob was dead on. Using a metal gong as an example, a shooter hits the outer edge and another hits the center. Both are accurate shots and neither is more accurate than the other. It's yes or no. Yes you hit it - accurate. Or no you missed it - not accurate. Surprisingly, I saw how this clarity of thought could easily apply to competition shooting. So what's the moral of this story? Well here it is. There's a lot to be learned from the tactical world and the "Whitman's Sampler" structure of the 2011 Summit is a great way to experience a number of instructors and courses. Scott Conti and I now have a shopping list of courses we'd take and instructors we'd seek out. If you're in the Pelham, New Hampshire area of New England around this time next year, might I suggest you make plans to head over to the 2012 Summit and find out what you've been missing. That's what I did. - Paul Erhardt, Editor of The Dealer Wire