Serious answer - in virtually every class I get something. As other people have mentioned, I'll watch for the delivery of a drill or a tip or explaination.
Tom Givens is one of the best firearms trainers around. He and his wife Lynn have gone to Quantico multiple times to help train the FTU at the FBI academy. He makes an excellent point on why he goes and takes classes as a student every year.
He's looking for new ways to teach a specific idea.
Gabe White was a house guest last year while teaching a class here in Texas. He gave me an idea on how to track my front sight during recoil that was simple and helped reduce my split time. Note - I do NOT worship at the altar of fast split times. But if I have to transition from a chest shot to the head, that tip is important.
(Note: Some people are unimpressed when you shoot them in the chest. But connecting to the skull brings results, even if it's just temporary.)
Can you imagine how many people have worked with my poor dumb self to do that over my life? But Gabe gave me a lightbulb moment sitting on my couch drinking Bourbon.
Ernest Langdon helped me with recoil control. Spencer Keeper taught me a nugget about grip. Paul Sharp got me thinking about my pinkie strength. John Murphy showed me a tell on an opponent's draw stroke. Craig Douglas showed me a neat tip on double-edged blades. Chuck Haggard taught me a cool trick about pepper spray and baseball caps. Chris Fry about blade carry, Steve Tarani about improvised weapons, Cecil Burch about regaining your feet in a fight.
Wayne Dobbs, Darryl Bolke, Guy Schnitzler, Claude Werner, Hany Mahmoud, Gary Greco, Mark Fricke, Greg Ellifritz, John Farnam......I can go on and on about nuggets from dozens of teachers. All of those people are tremendous trainers that I have sought out multiple times. And I know I am leaving people out - sigh.
I have a habit of taking a beginner handgun class every year. I ain't showing off, and I keep my mouth shut and don't play Mr Know It All. I do it so I can run my carry gun with my weak hand.
I've been the weirdo in class running a S&W 686 L-Frame revolver and speedloaders. Why? Because if you put 17,000 rounds through a double-action revolver in a year of classes, guess what that does to your trigger control on a striker-fired pistol? The answer is you'll never pin a trigger again, and you'll be very fast and accurate. You'll also need to send the thing back to S&W for some warranty work - that was worth it.
There is always something to learn. You have to be a disciplined enough student to watch and learn.
Coming from Florida, you know that summer is usually break time. Very few trainers come to Texas in the summer, it's honestly dangerous to students. So from mid-June to early September, I'm not doing classes. I'm practicing the drills I learned in the first of the year. So it's basically three months of training - two month summer break - then four more months.
I hope that helped a little bit.
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