When I was a freshman in high school, I was pretty good at math. In my geometry class, I did very well. I was not THE best, but I can easily say that I was probably above the average. Proofs killed me, but they killed everyone so it was not really that big of a deal. Then one day, my teacher sat a senior down next to me, introduced us and told me that it was my job to make her pass the class. Sharon (not actually her name… I changed that) had a decently low F in the class at that point in time, and she needed to quickly learn geometry or she was not going to graduate. So I taught her.

Every day, I learned what the teacher taught and then re-taught it to Sharon. We spent time together and she asked questions and I had to answer them… even though we were both learning the same information. Sharon ended up going from that F to a C and she graduated with her friends. That was awesome… but it wasn’t my big triumph. I had a different win. The class was silent as we all worked on our class work. I heard my own voice break the silence when I unconsciously said, “Oh my gosh… I get it!” I was, of course, talking about the proof that no one else in the class could figure out, and I was immediately hounded for an explanation. I finished the class with the highest grade and went on to secure myself a similar position in a number of math courses following. My point? My point is not to say I’m pretty good at math. My point is to say that when you have to teach someone something, it greatly improves your own skill in the area. You learn faster and retain more, while helping someone else do the same.

Front Sight Firearms Training Institute’s gun training program practices these techniques. In each gun training course you attend at Front Sight, founder and director, Dr. Ignatius Piazza, will have you pair up with someone in your class. This will be your buddy, and you will help each other through the course. You watch their form and correct it where needed, offer them feedback and basically become their own personal gun training instructor. Similarly, they do the same for you. Of course, each gun training course at Front Sight is taught by seasoned professionals who will supervise and offer personal training as much as humanly possible, but in order for each course to maintain the highest level of safety, each person holding a gun will always be supervised by another student. You will be amazed at how much you will learn when you need to help another student learn.

During my first gun training course at Front Sight, I paired up with someone who had taken a course there previously. He taught me so much… and even though I was a complete beginner, I was able to help him, too. Coming out of that gun training course, I know that I learned more than I could have if everything was just handed to me. Having to help someone else learn forced me to really internalize the information because if I cheated, he would suffer. The concept of peer education helped me indisputably. It goes without saying that Ignatius Piazza really knew what he was doing when he set up Front Sight’s gun training program.