Product Description

The book is a training guide that addresses training and training development at the individual, team and organizational level.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27197 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 188 pages

About the Author
The author is a former Special Operations Soldier/Trainer and currently owns his own his own security training company.

Customer Reviews

A magnificent training resource
In the tactical operations and defensive firearms training world there is a bounty of varying personalities, egos (usually of monster size), levels of experience, competence and knowledge. This population of trainers usually vigorously self promote with various techniques of naming methods after themselves and inventing catchy names for their presentation of the same fundamental methods of effective weapons and tactical deployment that the next guy is teaching. Many of these trainers are very good, some are superlative and many of them are nothing more than charlatans. Many of them have "been there, done that" and many more haven't and lots of them have written, or will write, a book about their craft.

Along comes Paul Howe, a real deal American military hero from the pinnacle of U.S. military special operations units and one of the most humble, low key, effective communicating and controlled ego guys that you could ever imagine. Paul has spent his time on the pointy, bloody and rotten end of this nation's spear dealing with the guys you see in your nightmares and dealt with them quite effectively. Most importantly, Paul has used those experiences to come back and begin a successful training operation that is devoid of the smoke, mirrors and hype that pervades today's tactical training field. He knows and teaches that solid fundamentals of preparation, training and most of all, solid leadership, are what will carry individuals, law enforcement officers and tactical teams and our country's military to prevail over the evil that they will confront now and in the future.

In that vein, he wrote and published Leadership and Training for the Fight, which set forth in very practical terms and format many hard lessons he has learned about selecting, training, managing and most of all, leading, personnel who are expected to confront the criminal and terrorist threats that threaten all of us. To use an old quote about Jeff Cooper, Paul is "either a breath of fresh air...or a blowtorch on your neck". In his new book, The Tactical Trainer, Paul lays out his training philosophy, methods and his attitude about how to treat people and solve the myriad of issues and problems that arise when trying to convey a set of critical skills to folks who may have little prior reference for such a thing. He fronts out dirty little secrets that many of us in the law enforcement training world have known of and struggled against for years involving watered down standards, favoritism and the incompetent antics of the many "booger eaters" that exist in law enforcement and military supervisory and command ranks.

The methodology and philosophy that Paul sets forth in the newest book isn't anything new or revolutionary. It's actually quite old and traditional and is based on honor, integrity and hard earned competence in the field of endeavor by the warriors we seek to develop. If you're offended by straight talk and the honest truth about training warriors, this book isn't for you, nor is the first one. If you're tired of the politically correct, flaccid approach to dealing with armed evil that is proliferating, then you will find both of these volumes valuable sources of real world usable information and motivation. Don't get the wrong impression that this book is full of crude attitude or language because it's not. Paul is one of the truly honorable men in this profession who rarely resorts to foul language or raised voice, because he can effectively communicate in both verbal and written form what needs to be learned by his students without resorting to such methods. The book is comprehensive and straightforward in its approach to the goal of showing his methods to teaching and training the military or police operator going in harm's way. The only downside to this book is that it has a number of proofreading errors that need correction in the next edition. While this is aggravating, the message and methods remain intact. If you are a trainer, teacher, leader or manager of military or law enforcement personnel, you need this book.

Conducting tactical training from one of the best.
Paul Howe's second book, THE TACTICAL TRAINER, provides excellent information on exactly what at least part of the title implies: "training and training management." While the book does provide tidbits and hints at improving one's own personal capabilities in tactical skills, that's not its primary aim.

That being said, much can be gleaned from any material put out by Howe. Paul Howe has tremendous operational experience, and while that's not as unusual in current times as it once was, Howe has instructor capabilities that go well beyond operational experience alone. In spite of increasing numbers of individuals with solid operational background, those who can actually learn from and expand that experience into a usable knowledge base, and then, more importantly for instruction, transmit that knowledge to others is very rare. Paul Howe does a remarkable job.

Howe's primary orientation in this current book is towards developing an understanding and ability in the demands of instructing tactical teams and small unit programs, and he provides some extremely good insights in this area. However, if your interests are more in the direction of improving individual capabilities, Paul Howe's first book, LEADERSHIP AND TRAINING FOR THE FIGHT, likely will be of greater interest.

However, he does provide an important insight in at least one vital area regarding personal training. In particular, I found his comments on page 27, under the heading of "Simplifing (sic) Your Personal Combat System."

"Try and find one stance that will work for rifle, pistol, knife, hand combat, etc. This way, your platform will be the same for all systems and you will learn and establish it rapidly."

This concept that all personal weapons should be utilized from a common platform is core to Integrated Combative Systems training, and is the basis from which I coined the phrase, "One Mind, Any Weapon." Considering Paul Howe's background and professionalism, I'm not surprised that he advocates an integrated approach to weapons use, I just wish he had gone into greater detail on this in either of his books.

Finally, I'm sure there will be plenty of comments regarding Howe's writing style, typos, and occasional poor grammar, but I find that he writes with such an obvious grasp of his subject, and presents it with unusual clarity, that any faults in his writing style are easily ignored.

Another must-read from Paul Howe
There is not much I can add to Wayne and the Reverend's reviews other than to second them without reservations. If you are in any way involved in training law enforcement or military personnel for close combat you need to put any books you have on the subject to the side and read Paul's book first. It is really that good.