Dave Spaulding - Feedback

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Since I am in angry old man age range (older than Dave and told him so) - it's just a silly worry. His comments are well taken. Mocking what he called the 'beefalos' - like me - trying to quickly exit a car - well, he's right.

I've taken classes from young SWATish guys, Middle aged scientific types and angry old men. They are all good experiences if they personally are good teachers. Dave is quite worthwhile.

If you don't have a thick skin in today's age to handle factual critiques, go on Twitter and tweet about it.

[Randy Harris]

MVS apparently tagged me on this since I have done several classes with Dave.

I'll second or third or fourth the old man "Get off my lawn" persona. That is just his schtick and it works for him. It is not off-putting (at least not to me) it just is what it is. Some people might find it a bit prickly though. If you have thin skin and can't take a little "heckling" then he might not be your ideal trainer. His material is solid even if some of it might be arguably a little dated.

My personal experience negative was that the overall level of students might have held back his Critical Space class to being a bit overly remedial on Saturday but then it was GREAT on Sunday. He had to spend far too much time getting folks up to speed on Saturday. But that is not on him as much as it is on people not getting appropriately ready for a higher level class like that before they arrived. The instructor only has so much control over people being ready for class. If they'd been more tuned up before hand then this class would have been even better.

I'd say if he's in your area you should definitely sign up. He's not getting any younger and you don't want to end up wishing you'd done a class with him after he's retired.

[octagon]

Great point. I'm looking for experience, quality, and integrity.

Dave has those in spades.

[Erick Gelhaus]

I've taken two classes from Dave and will fly back to Boondocks, MO in the fall to take the last iteration of his vehicle class. I find Dave to be in the vein of Scott Reitz, in that it is about what actually works based on experience & study as well as being legally defensible. I have no problem recommending him; however, he says he is done doing CA classes - which I understand.

[Mas]

I took a class from Dave in Texas in 2016 and thought it was excellent. Recommended.

[Sauer Koch]

I took a class from Dave in Texas in 2016 and thought it was excellent. Recommended.

Top tier instructors,training with other top tier instructors...speaks volumes about both!

Thank You!

[pangloss]

I took Spaulding's Combative Pistol class, his most basic class, last weekend at the Boondocks training facility outside Jackson, MS (~35 minutes from my house). I thought it was a very good class, and I'm planning on taking another of his classes when he's in town again next year. All total, this was my third pistol class and second at Boondocks. I was curious how much the course content would overlap with Tom Givens' class that I took last year. Obviously there has to be some overlap, but it was actually much less than I expected. A significant portion of Tom's class was spent on mindset, but Dave spent relatively little time on that topic. Dave did spend a good bit of time (part of the first day and most of the second day) on reloading and clearing stoppages. He also spent a great deal of time going over how to grip the pistol. I don't practice reloading and clearing stoppages much, so this portion of the class was very beneficial for me. Dave did an excellent job of articulating exactly why he does things the way he does and was very receptive to questions. The class ended with shooting a set of six course standards. I passed four of those but only beat the desired time on one. In summary, I think it was a very worthwhile way to spend a weekend and would certainly recommend his classes to others.