Video of Sample Class Related to This Block
The sample videos below are to help you see how this instruction is actually taught. Now, this is not the only way to instruct, but it is shown to give you an example.
You have invested in your dojo facility; you have real estate in your dojo that is perhaps not utilized during all hours of the day. To be financially successful, you need to have “feet on the mats”, or perhaps people training in areas where you don’t even have mats on the floor. Within your space, you need to define a dedicated training area for conducting the pistol training with SIRT Training Pistols. We call this area a SIRT-Fire Training Area. This training area doesn’t have to be exclusive 24-7, but it does have to be an exclusive training area during your Introduction to Pistol Handling Class.
A SIRT Fire Training Area is a dedicated space where SIRT Pistols will be handled and absolutely no live fire tools or weapons are allowed in this area. It is paramount to keep this “cleansed” area, that is, an area with no live fire weapons or ammunition. This protocol is discussed below in detail and covered extensively in the accompanying videos, but it is paramount that you have strict protocols diligently practiced to prevent a live fire tool (a gun) from entering the SIRT-Fire Training Area.
This strict safety protocol not allowing live fire guns in an area shouldn’t be confused with being “anti-gun” or “anti-conceal carry”. To the contrary, more advanced courses such as force-on-force courses adopt a similar strict protocol to ensure absolutely no live fire tools are in the training area. Force-on-force training is where the students are pointing SIRT Pistols (or marking paint cartridge training pistols) at each other for scenario based drills. Out of an abundance of caution, this curriculum adopts the stringent force-on-force safety protocols so you as a dojo owner and instructor can deliver curriculum with absolute confidence of avoiding the catastrophic mistake of a student mistakenly firing a live fire gun in your Dojo.
The training area must be exclusive to the trainees with choke points for limited access. In other words we do not want people to freely come in and out of the SIRT Fire Training Area because there’s a safety hazard. Obviously, they could be carrying a live-fire pistol; therefore, the instructor must be aware of this delineated area and the entry and exit points. If it is logistically difficult to maintain an entry and exit point, purchase caution tape to create a SIRT fire delineated area. Such basic tape can be easily strung across from one wall to another to segment off a portion of the dojo so it is clear that it is not to be crossed without a safety check.
To enter the SIRT Fire Training Area, every person seeking entry must be rechecked head to toe to make sure they are not carrying any live-fire tool. If one of the students leaves, for example, to go to the restroom and reenters the SIRT Fire Training Area, they need to be safety checked upon reentry. Make sure you just pat down the waist area, ankles as described below to ensure there’s no live-fire tools and they are “SIRTin”, that is certain they have no live fire tools, weapons or ammo on their person. This has to be habit and due course; students need to understand it ab initio and further have the discipline, fortitude and authority to check instructors as well who leave and enter the SIRT Fire Training Area. Firearm instructors are the number one killers in law enforcement training accidents in the setting of force-on-force training, so instructors need to be checked as well to ensure there are absolutely no live-fire tools in the designated SIRT Fire Training Area.