I recently had the honor and privilege of attending a firearms training class held by Mr. Richard Smith from The Firearms Training Academy. I was looking forward to learning something new, as I am currently an NRA Instructor, and have been a police trainer many years. I was not disappointed as Mr. Smith has the ability to provide students a significant amount of individual one on one coaching. I was amazed at the intense level of customer service and coaching I received throughout the training class. I was able to learn MANY new training techniques, ideas, and methodologies from Mr. Smith, and I openly told him "That's a great idea. I am going to steal that from you and use it going forward in my classes", which he gladly approved of.
Anyone who is in the market for ANY type of self-defense training should reach out to Mr. Smith, as your search ends with him. He is a subject matter expert and has an encyclopedic knowledge of countless tools and techniques in the self-defense world. I have been exposed to various training classes over my 30-year police career, but never experienced an instructor who was so well versed in a variety of teaching topics.
Additionally, Mr. Smith routinely has subject matter experts come into his academy and holds classes to anyone who wishes to attend. These classes cover topics from self-defense with edged weapons, firearms self-defense, shooting tactics, and self-defense in the home. These experts, many who are well published authors in their field, have decades of experience in their topic, were elite instructors in the military for top tier special operators, and are national competition shooting champions. You can't get better training then from his long list of training contacts.
Mr. Smith has a very long list of expert level instructor credentials and has been an active trainer for many years. I can't recommend him enough to anyone looking for any type of defense training. Simply put, I would send my own family to him for additional learning opportunities.
I wish Mr. Smith continued success in his pursuit of perfection, as I feel he has that task in his rearview mirror already, and thank him for teaching this old dog a book full of new tricks.
Greg Solowsky - Retired Special Operations Police Commander/NRA Instructor read more