I first learned about him through here when there was a thread last year talking about the current state of demand for training. Jay Cunningham said he looked awesome, and I saw he was teaching a class in my state, so I signed up.
Despite his physical appearance and image presentation on social media, his manner of speaking and teaching was pretty down-to-earth, at least to a square like myself. I'm probably going to see him again next year same time as the first.
I have no thoughts on the guy or the phrase or the trademarking, but I did misread the company name as a misspelling of "remuneration" and this confused me so much I googled it and the first hit was from a nun-specific forum, asking about how nuns get compensated for their work in the form of a pun: "reNUNeration?"
I had to come back here to clarify the spelling because the more I looked into it, the more confused I was getting.
I did eventually grasp the "rune nation" meaning but it was a strange few minutes there.
My brain did the same thing.
So, here's my real deal. This dude might be offering squared away training, but I have to ask myself...why would I give him money? Unless I woke up one morning and Craig, Ernest, Tom, Cecil, Hilton, Duffy, Jedi, and like 15 other people were all in some kind of freak building collapse at SHOT Show, why? What makes this guy worth my money?
That's a good question that everyone who has put serious thought into teaching/training/instruction/coaching/etc has probably asked of themselves.
From where I'm sitting, it's probably a question of timing and location, even with the knowledge of being able to host a class. David S. is doing some good work I have hopes for to address some of this. I'm not sure that 26 traveling trainers can meet the different needs and schedules of students across the country. For me, going outside of Arizona to train with someone between Monday to Friday is out of the question, though there is one exception I plan to take to that next year.
Mr. Jedlinski has talked about the importance of marketing, so there's also that. Ian Strimbeck and his company's aesthetic do not particularly resonate with my personality and preferences, but I'm probably not taking a huge leap to say that there's a lot of others it does appeal to. In my case, I did some more online research after reading his initial mention on this forum and saw that he shared some association with BAER Solutions and Kagwerks, so I thought his class in my home state earlier this year was an opportunity to see the style of instruction they've developed. Granted, that's probably beyond the normal reasons someone might choose to take a class at all.
One thing brought up in Strategies and Standards was that if the number of gun owners who choose to seek more training increased even by a relatively trivial amount, the current supply of personnel and venues we have could not keep up with the demand. If what David Yamane has said about Gun Culture 2.0 is to be believed, then I'd guess we're probably there. We can't have the sort of progress in Gun Culture 3.0 that I think it was you? were podcasting about, until we have more people who want to shoulder the responsibility of training others than we have now. Some of that might change for better or worse if what you've established as an ideal course of action for IDPA comes to fruition, particularly with allowing appendix.
I agree. It's very likely that you're at the point where you need to train with higher level trainers.
But this guy might be good, or good enough, for a local-level trainer. He may not be able to teach you something new or insightful, at your current level.
A couple years back I took a couple of buddies of mine to a local trainer. I learned one small thing from the class, but otherwise I was at or above the level of training for the class. For my buddies, it was an outstanding experience, and they learned a lot. I've never taken a high level class from a named instructor, but I felt this class was great for the price and location. I wouldn't hesitate to take another class from this trainer at a higher level. This trainer didn't have a stellar resume, but I knew that he was an excellent shooter, and I knew that he did something well that I don't.
We need "high school level" instructors for regular folks. We also need "college level" or "grad school level" for those with better skills.
I agree, his marketing is a little over the top. But I might check him out, if he was local.
Last edited by Clusterfrack; 09-28-2019 at 04:28 AM.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
Good for him. He's trying to make a living, like the rest of us, but pitching to his skills and background, like any other Instructor. The marketing is positive, in the sense you get a mental image of what it might be like to take a course.
Obviously I have no idea who this gentleman is, but the fact there is a thread here (and I'm posting in it) means his message is getting out - so that's a plus since he will get some exposure.
As to training effectiveness and knowledge transfer...I dunno. There is (as most here know) a student mindset based on "edutrainment" (not my word, think someone said this online somewhere). You know; a person pays a fee to be entertained. Not unlike a cosplay session where you get to dress up like your favorite character for a weekend. There is some money in this, of course.
To the degree that the training offered tilts toward that as an objective, there's nothing wrong with that. It may also be that the training results in a better or more prepared person, so that they can defend themselves, I don't know. Or it may be just "about the fun" and you get to experience some fellowship with like minded people who man a keyboard at the office during the week, and don't regularly concealed carry, but don boots, a pair of tactical pants, stretch a black T-shirt over an ample mid-section and strap on a tactical vest for a weekend AR class in how to enter and clear a room.