Making Shooters Better

What happens when two elite competitive shooters reach the top through completely different paths?

Randi Rogers began shooting at just 11 years old alongside her grandparents in Cowboy Action Shooting, competing under the unforgettable alias “Holy Terror.” Shooting became almost second nature, and over the next 28 years she accumulated more than 85 world and national titles across nine different shooting disciplines.

Gordon Carrell's journey couldn't have looked more different.

After years of football, pole vaulting, rock climbing, hiking, hunting, and other athletic pursuits, Gordon entered competitive handgun shooting in his mid-thirties. He quickly began applying lessons from athletics, physical education, movement, mental performance, and eventually detailed performance analysis to figure out exactly where shooters gain or lose time.

Together, their contrasting approaches create a fascinating lesson in how shooting skill is actually developed. 

In this episode of Making Shooters Better, we dig into why many shooters misunderstand speed. Gordon explains that meaningful improvements often aren't found by pulling the trigger faster, but by eliminating unnecessary movement, hesitation, inefficient transitions, poor positioning, and tiny pauses between actions.

Randi adds another piece: eliminate mistakes.

Missing targets, poorly planned reloads, forgetting stage elements, and failing to analyze previous performances can cost far more time than fractions of a second gained through raw shooting speed. Her experience across multiple disciplines also illustrates just how much shooters can learn simply by carefully watching other competitors. 

We also explore the mental side of competition.

Gordon shares the lesson he learned from legendary shooter Rob Leatham about conserving mental energy during long matches, along with his own method for reframing nervousness as preparation rather than something negative.

Randi takes a different approach. When she reaches the line, she narrows everything down to one simple internal cue:

“Sights. Sights. Sights.”

Different mental strategies. Same objective: get the conscious mind out of the way and allow trained skills to perform. 

Then comes one of the most valuable training discussions of the episode.

Gordon argues that many shooters practice what they're already good at because success feels good. His philosophy is almost the opposite: practice should deliberately push you beyond your existing comfort zone, then analyze why each repetition succeeded or failed.

Instead of hoping you've improved, create baselines.

Measure your draw.

Measure your transitions.

Measure your splits.

Record your movement.

Study your video.

Then compare what you actually did against what you're capable of doing.

As Gordon puts it, practice makes permanent. Poor repetitions simply make poor habits more durable. 

Randi provides the perfect counterbalance. Her ability to watch a movement and reproduce it almost instinctively comes from decades of observing other shooters, beginning with her grandfather. It's a reminder that improvement doesn't happen only when we're pulling the trigger. Watching, visualizing, analyzing, and mentally rehearsing can all become part of training. 

And then there's the minor complication that these two champions happen to be married.

We get into competition between spouses, learning when to coach each other, and the surprisingly useful rule they've developed whenever one begins talking about a problem:

“Do you want me to listen, or do you want me to offer advice?”

Possibly the most marriage-saving shooting technique ever discussed on this podcast.

Ultimately, this episode isn't really about trophies.

It's about deliberate improvement.

Whether you're a competitive shooter, defensive shooter, instructor, or simply someone trying to become more capable with a firearm, Randi and Gordon offer a remarkably practical blueprint:

Train consistently.

Work on weaknesses.

Get outside your comfort zone.

Measure performance.

Analyze what happened.

And never confuse doing more repetitions with actually getting better.

Because sometimes the fastest way to become a better shooter is to slow down long enough to figure out what's costing you time.

What if the biggest weakness in your personal protection plan has nothing to do with your shooting?

Lou Ann Hamblin has trained thousands of shooters during a career spanning more than 30 years. She is a retired police officer, longtime firearms and defensive tactics instructor, international trainer, and the creator of Building Warrior Women®.

And her message is refreshingly uncomfortable:

Being good with a gun does not automatically make you good at protecting yourself.

In this conversation, Lou Ann and Terry examine the broader “personal arsenal” every responsible armed citizen should be developing.

That includes shooting ability, but also fitness, mobility, situational awareness, verbal skills, medical preparedness, judgment, emotional readiness, and the ability to recognize when a situation should never become a gun problem in the first place.

Lou Ann shares lessons from law enforcement, undercover work, scenario training, and thousands of students, including why people routinely overestimate what they will be capable of under pressure.

They also tackle the firearms-training industry itself.

How do you tell the difference between an experienced instructor and someone who has simply memorized someone else’s PowerPoint?

What happens when an instructor can demonstrate a technique but cannot diagnose why a student is failing?

And what can an instructor's social media behavior reveal about their judgment before you ever step onto their range?

Finally, Lou Ann explains why she continues to seek out younger instructors, ask questions, change her thinking, and stay curious after decades in the profession.

Because experience is valuable.

But experience without curiosity can become dogma.

If you carry a gun because you take personal safety seriously, this conversation will challenge you to look at everything surrounding that gun.

What happens when a decision made in a fraction of a second is later examined for months, or even years, by attorneys, experts, judges, investigators, and jurors?

In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Terry sits down with Lewis “Von” Kliem, a nationally recognized expert in use-of-force law, constitutional policing, human performance, and police practices.

With more than 30 years in the criminal justice profession, Von has served as a police officer, prosecutor, legal advisor, military attorney, educator, policy specialist, and litigation consultant. He currently serves as the Chief Consulting and Communications Officer at Force Science, where he works on high-profile use-of-force cases across the United States and internationally.

This conversation bridges both the law enforcement and civilian self-defense worlds.

Von explains what the law actually means when it asks whether a person’s actions were “reasonable.” That question is far more complex than whether a weapon was ultimately found or whether a threat was visible on video. The legal analysis must consider what the person perceived, what those facts meant to them in the moment, the context surrounding the encounter, and whether their response fell within a reasonable range of options.

Terry and Von explore the difference between fast, intuitive decision-making during a violent event and the slow, deliberate analysis that follows afterward. As Von explains, force decisions are often made under stress, uncertainty, time pressure, incomplete information, and the permanent consequences of getting it wrong. Those same decisions are then evaluated later in quiet courtrooms, where footage can be paused, replayed, slowed down, and examined frame by frame.

They also discuss why video does not necessarily reveal what the officer or civilian actually perceived, how still images can be weaponized in court, and why hindsight can distort the evaluation of a rapidly unfolding event.

The conversation moves deeply into jury psychology as well.

Many jurors have learned about violence primarily through television and movies. They may underestimate the danger of a single punch, misunderstand the speed of an edged-weapon attack, or assume that a person under threat had more time and more options than were realistically available.

Von shares examples from both police and civilian cases where jurors were asked to judge shootings, physical altercations, mental-health encounters, and self-defense claims. He explains how prosecutors and opposing experts may build competing narratives, how personal beliefs can influence verdicts, and why even legally justified actions can produce unpredictable outcomes once a case reaches a jury.

For armed civilians, the episode delivers an especially important warning: carrying a firearm is only one part of being prepared.

Training should also include decision-making, de-escalation, avoidance, verbal commands, movement, retreat when practical, threat recognition, and the ability to explain why certain actions were taken. Von refers to these as law-driven tactics: actions incorporated into training before an incident so they become available under stress and can later be clearly articulated.

The episode also examines the importance of documenting training, understanding the legal principles of innocence, imminence, avoidance, proportionality, and reasonableness, and considering the financial realities of defending a use-of-force case. Expert witnesses, attorneys, video analysts, engineers, medical specialists, and human-performance experts can all become part of a legal defense, making self-defense coverage an important consideration for responsibly armed citizens.

Finally, Von speaks directly to anyone who may one day sit on a jury.

His message is simple but critical: recognize what you do not know about violence, remain open to expert testimony, understand that the reality of violence rarely resembles television, and follow the law even when you dislike the outcome.

Whether you are a police officer, firearms instructor, concealed carrier, attorney, trainer, or potential juror, this episode provides a powerful look at how force is perceived, evaluated, defended, and judged.

It is a conversation about fear, responsibility, preparation, human performance, and the enormous gap between making a decision in the moment and defending it afterward.

What happens when the uniform comes off, but the need for mission, community, and purpose remains?

Viviana Morales Kolb served twelve years in the Army, including time as a preventive medicine specialist and drill sergeant. But when she transitioned into civilian life, she discovered that leaving the military meant more than changing careers. It also meant losing the camaraderie, structure, and shared purpose that had shaped much of her adult life.

In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Viviana explains how veteran organizations, endurance training, and time on the range helped her rebuild that sense of connection.

She also brings a refreshingly honest perspective to firearms training: shooting was not one of her natural strengths.

Rather than avoiding the discomfort of being a beginner, she chose to surround herself with people who were more skilled, more knowledgeable, and willing to help her grow. That decision became one of the most rewarding parts of her journey.

Terry and Viviana discuss:

• Why veterans often struggle to replace the mission and camaraderie of military life
• How shared challenge builds genuine community
• Why being around people who are better than you can accelerate growth
• The value of admitting where your skills need improvement
• How women can begin developing confidence and competence with firearms
• Why supportive instructors and training groups matter
• How physical fitness can improve performance under pressure
• The importance of realistic, repeatable training
• Raising children around firearms responsibly
• Why service does not have to end when the uniform comes off

This is not a conversation about pretending to be the most capable person in the room.

It is about having the humility to enter the room, the courage to learn, and the discipline to keep returning until the skill becomes yours.

In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Terry Vaughan sits down with Dr. Travis Yates for a frank and deeply important conversation about what is happening inside modern law enforcement and why the consequences reach far beyond the walls of any police department.

Dr. Yates brings more than three decades of law enforcement experience to the discussion, including over 25 years in supervision and upper management with a large metropolitan agency. He is a former ILEETA Trainer of the Year, has trained and consulted with agencies in 46 states and three countries, and is the author of The Courageous Police Leader.

He is also the developer of FOCUS, Field Observable Cues for Unknown Situations, an evidence-based behavioral recognition framework designed to help officers identify, articulate, and respond to the warning signs that often appear before violence begins.

During this episode, Terry and Dr. Yates examine why so many of policing’s most important indicators are moving in the wrong direction, including recruiting, retention, morale, officer safety, operational effectiveness, and public trust.

They also explore the growing disconnect between falling violent-crime statistics and the continued rise in assaults against law enforcement officers.

Dr. Yates argues that the common thread behind many of these failures is leadership, specifically the absence of leaders willing to support officers, defend sound police work, challenge politically convenient narratives, and speak honestly about the realities of crime and public safety.

The conversation also takes a hard look at mandatory de-escalation policies and the unintended consequences of teaching officers to remain in a verbal problem-solving mode even after the behavior in front of them has shifted toward violence.

Rather than asking only whether an officer used force, Dr. Yates urges leaders and trainers to examine what happened before force became necessary.

What did the officer see?

What did the suspect do?

Were there signs of noncompliance, concealed hands, movement, declarations of intent, tactical positioning, or behavioral clusters that indicated the decision to resist or attack had already been made?

This is where FOCUS becomes central to the conversation.

Dr. Yates explains how officers can move beyond vague phrases such as “something didn’t feel right” and begin identifying specific, observable, evidence-based indicators of danger. He also explains why earlier intervention at a lower level may prevent a far more violent confrontation seconds later.

The episode covers:

• Why law enforcement may be facing a leadership crisis rather than a staffing crisis alone

• Why officers are leaving agencies that fail to support them

• How politics has reshaped police leadership and training

• Why assaults against officers continue to rise

• The limits and unintended consequences of mandatory de-escalation

• How hesitation can place officers and civilians in greater danger

• The pre-attack behaviors that frequently appear before an officer is assaulted

• Why noncompliance matters more than many officers realize

• How behavioral cues should be viewed in clusters and context

• How FOCUS gives officers a more structured way to recognize and articulate danger

• Why civilians need a better understanding of police decision-making

• What police leaders can do immediately to rebuild trust inside their own agencies

This conversation matters to officers because ignoring these lessons may cost them the chance to make it home.

It matters to civilians because when policies, politics, and poor leadership hollow out law enforcement, the consequences eventually reach the public. In the worst moment of your life, calling for help only works if someone is still there to answer.

This episode is not simply about what is wrong with policing.

It is about what happens next if we refuse to fix it.

What do dangerous people teach us about human behavior?

Dr. Mary Beth Wilkas Janke returns to Making Shooters Better for a deep, fascinating, and at times unsettling conversation about the mind behind the threat.

A former Secret Service agent turned forensic psychologist, Mary Beth has spent her career studying human behavior from both sides of the danger equation: the people trying to prevent violence and the people trying to understand it after the fact.

In this episode, Terry and Mary Beth explore criminal behavior, psychopaths, sociopaths, stalking, domestic violence, fear, lying, body language, restraining orders, and whether violence can truly be predicted.

But this is not an episode about becoming paranoid.

It is about becoming harder to fool.

Mary Beth explains why dangerous people rarely look the way we expect, why many acts of violence are situational rather than pre-planned, and why the public often wants to explain violence away as mental illness because it feels safer than admitting ordinary people can be capable of terrible things.

The conversation also digs into stalking and domestic violence, including why victims often stay, why shame and isolation are so powerful, why restraining orders are not magic shields, and why some perpetrators escalate when they feel humiliated or exposed.

For anyone interested in personal safety, human behavior, threat recognition, self-defense, law enforcement, or the psychology behind violence, this episode is a masterclass in seeing the world more clearly without letting fear run the show.

Every episode of Making Shooters Better delivers a story, a lesson, and a way to train smarter. This one delivers all three with a forensic flashlight and a very sharp edge.

In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Terry sits down with Brian Baxter, combat infantry veteran, retired Texas State Trooper, and CEO of Force Science, for a conversation that changes how you understand perception, memory, decision-making, and accountability under stress.

Why can two honest people experience the same event and remember it differently? Why might body-camera footage miss the very information that drove an officer’s decision? Why can a defender continue an action for fractions of a second after the threat changes, even when they are trying to stop?

Brian breaks down the science behind time compression, tunnel vision, attention, automaticity, fragmented memory, and the uncomfortable truth that human beings do not make life-or-death decisions the way calm people imagine they do from the sofa.

This is not a conversation about excuses. It is about honest accountability: holding people to clear standards that are actually within the limits of human performance.

Whether you are law enforcement, an instructor, an armed citizen, a home defender, or simply someone who wants to better understand how the brain behaves when the stakes become terrifyingly real, this episode delivers rare insight from the world of Force Science.

You will learn why you are always behind the power curve, why “vision” is not the same as a video recording, why memory is not a playback device, and how better awareness, better training, and a little more patience after a critical incident can matter far beyond physical survival.

Can you trust your training when everything goes wrong?

In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Terry Vaughan sits down with Erick Gelhaus, retired law enforcement officer, military veteran, firearms instructor, researcher, and founder of Cougar Mountain Solutions.

Erick has spent decades bridging the gap between academic research and real-world violence, earning a reputation as one of the firearms industry's leading "pracademics" someone who understands both the science of human performance and the reality of applying it under extreme stress. 

Together, Terry and Erick explore:

✅ Why good people sometimes make catastrophic decisions under stress
✅ How overconfidence can be more dangerous than lack of skill
✅ Why traditional firearms training often fails to prepare people for real-world encounters
✅ The science behind decision-making, visual processing, and use of force
✅ How scenario training changes the way we perceive threats
✅ Why police use of force is often misunderstood by the public
✅ The surprising research on "mistake-of-fact" shootings
✅ How to train judgment, not just marksmanship
✅ Why every shooter should understand medical emergencies as well as firearms skills

Along the way, Erick shares practical drills, fascinating research, and hard-earned lessons from nearly three decades in law enforcement, military service, and teaching. 

This isn't just a conversation about shooting.

It's a conversation about how humans think, fail, survive, and learn.

Connect with Erick Gelhaus:

• Cougar Mountain Solutions
• Instagram: @cougar_mountain_solutions
• American Cop Magazine

Most people think situational awareness is about constantly scanning for danger. The reality is far more interesting and far more important: it's about recognizing danger sooner.

In this solo episode, Terry Vaughan, former Royal Marine Commando and TEDx Speaker, breaks down the three biggest reasons good people miss obvious threats, even when those threats are hiding in plain sight. Drawing on neuroscience, threat recognition, body language, and real-world defensive training, Terry explains how the brain processes visual information, why normalcy bias leads us to explain away danger, and how simple changes in how we scan our environment can dramatically improve our ability to spot trouble before it reaches us.

You'll learn why your eyes aren't actually seeing the world the way you think they are, how inattentional blindness can make you miss even the most obvious warning signs, why most people talk themselves out of trusting their instincts, and how establishing baselines allows you to identify anomalies long before everyone else notices them.

Most importantly, you'll walk away with practical tools you can use immediately to become more aware, more confident, and far more difficult to surprise.

In This Episode

• Why the only thing you truly control is how quickly you recognize a threat

• The science behind saccadic suppression and why your brain literally hides information from you

• How to use Terry's three-ring scanning method to see more than ever before

• Why hands, faces, and attention reveal intent before action

• The dangers of inattentional blindness, cell phones, and transition zones

• How normalcy bias causes people to miss threats that seem obvious afterward

• The power of baselines, context, and behavioral clusters

• Why prolonged eye contact and attention can reveal more than words ever will

• How to become a harder target through observation, pattern recognition, and deliberate practice

Because the bad guy controls the when, the where, and the how.

The only thing you control is how quickly you notice him.

Brian Taylor has spent his life studying firearms from three very different perspectives: as a Marine infantryman, an executive protection professional, and an attorney.

Raised in inner-city Chicago with little exposure to firearms, Brian discovered shooting as an adult before joining the United States Marine Corps in the wake of 9/11. What followed was a journey through military leadership, corporate security, executive protection, and ultimately the legal world, where he gained firsthand insight into the consequences that follow the use of force.

In this episode, Terry Vaughan and Brian explore what most gun owners never think about: not just how to use a firearm, but when, why, and whether you should.

They discuss:

• Why situational awareness is more than "paying attention"
• The leadership lessons the Marines teach young men
• How executive protection is far less glamorous than Hollywood suggests
• Why many concealed carriers stop training far too soon
• The surprising realities of firearms law and permit denials
• How simulated training can create safer, more confident shooters
• Why families, children, and first-time gun owners need approachable training environments

Brian also shares the story behind founding Precision Shooting Center, a unique laser-based training facility designed to remove the intimidation factor from firearms training while building real-world skills.

Whether you're a competitor, concealed carrier, law enforcement officer, or brand-new shooter, this conversation offers practical lessons on leadership, preparation, and the responsibilities that come with carrying a firearm.