Teaching Women

Its no secret that I love teaching women.  And its something I am always seeking to learn more about and improve at. 

At the TWAW National Leadership Conference this year we had the blessing of having Vicki Farnam as one of the presenters.  Vicki is the wife of John Farnam, who is a well-known instructor and who in 1996 was selected to receive the "Tactical Advocate of the Year" award from the National Tactical Association.   Vicki has years of experience in teaching and has developed a program to help male instructors be more effective in instructing women.

This may come as a shock to you, but men and women are different.  We are totally equal, but we are different.  We (generally speaking) communicate differently.  Ask any couple who has been married for a while, we definitely communicate differently.  We process information differently.  There are even biological bases for the way our brains process information. 

To illustrate this at our Conference, Vicki asked 3 men who were present to come up on the stage and make a circle with the chairs.  They did.  Then she thanked them and told them to put them back where they belonged.  We all laughed, but this was much more than just a stunt to get laughs.  She made her point crystal clear when she said, "now if I had asked women to come up on the stage and make a circle with the chairs it would have gone very differently.  They would have asked questions.   They would have wanted to know how many chairs?  How far apart do you want the chairs?  Do you want the seats facing in or out?  Where on the stage do you want the chairs? 

And we laughed again because we all knew it was SOOOO true. 

Women, generally, like details. 

This is just ONE way in which men and women approach a task differently. 

Now can you imagine how that might relate to teaching someone to shoot? 

Vicki had made the point too that women like to completely understand and "master" one task before they move on to the next.   I had to laugh because I remember at one of our classes a woman became frustrated with one of the male instructors and said, "JUST TEACH ME ONE THING". 

It does all of us as Instructors well to consider these differences.  I do believe men can teach women. I have learned from some of the best male instructors out there, , but not every man is willing to adjust his approach to do so well.  We have all encountered students who we could not teach because they believed they already knew everything.  Instructors can be much the same.  Even great instructors can learn how to be better.  In fact, a great instructor WILL make an effort to learn how to be better.  If our goal is truly to impart a skill, we will be open to leaning new ways of doing that better.

I am grateful for Vicki, and for her influence on the TWAW founder Carrie Lightfoot who developed a course for instructing women.  Carrie now teaches the TWAW Instructor Certification Course at the prestigious Gunsite Academy in Arizona. 

You can check out Vicki's book and website at Defensive Training International