Why Aren’t There Coaches in the Shooting Sports?

If you look at any sport, other than practical shooting you'll notice that people work with a single coach for a long period of time. In practical shooting though, folks tend to work their way up the rankings alone, with just dryfire and live fire practice, and the occasional training class from someone who's a national champion or something. The trouble here is that when you're going to learn from someone who doesn't know you, and might not ever see you again, you're only getting the day or two of instruction, and then it's all back on you. When I was a kid I played a little bit of little league, and I remember our coaches being immensely helpful in making us better players. Our dryfire was playing catch, or practicing pitches, or even the pickup baseball game in the grassy lot behind the local church. Then we got actual coaching from our coaches where they'd help us learn how to practice better, make corrections, etc. Then, the best kids on the team (not me...) would go off to clinics in the summer time where they learned more in depth how to pitch, swing a bat, etc, and these classes WERE taught by people who were like D1 college coaches, or former MLB players, etc. To me, this is the equivalent of taking a shooting class from a big name instructor. But notice, there's no equivalent to the coaching model in the practical shooting sports, and in my opinion, is one of the most important parts. Why?   Plug of the Week: Go check out the Finding Mastery podcast. I just came across it the other day, listened to a handful of episodes, then subscribed and downloaded a bunch of his back catalog. If you're interested in mastering the shooting sports, I think learning about the mindset of other people who are masters in their fields is important.  Here's his episode with Anders Ericsson, that I'd highly recommend you listen to. Just the Tip Don't ever, under any circumstance, ever, EVER, finish shooting a stage, pick up your magazines, and put them back on your belt before you stuff them back full. You will forget, and you will not remember until you're halfway through a stage and you realize you don't have any more ammo. Resist the urge!