Would you rather be informed about skills and tactics, or experienced in skills and tactics?

If you think that sending top-tier operators to a lecture, and sending top-tier operators to a fully operational training certification course are the same thing, then do I have a story for you! Consider all of the training you've attended in your life:

• Clicking through an informational training slide show

• Sitting through a training lecture

• Having a trainer coach you while you are learning a skill

• Training by drilling a specific isolated task

• Completing scenario training

• Running through an entire operational training event

I'm Pat Watson. For almost two decades now, I've been teaching students that range from county plumbers, to patrol officers, to SWAT members, and up to special forces and three letter agency personnel. I have a wealth of knowledge and experience with nondestructive entry, and covert entry tools & techniques, and I have an immense passion for the art of teaching.

Here is one of the secrets that my team and I have uncovered while sharing our expertise with the special operators of the world:

"Presenting information, coaching someone, running drills, running scenarios, and conducting operations, are all different phases of learning and they all have their own benefits, but they are not created equal."

This is not a "value judgement" to say that scenarios are better than lectures etc. But, this is a real objective data driven consideration that there is a time and a place to conduct each of these different phases of learning depending on the goals of the training and depending upon the students attending.

If you are an instructor, have you just been randomly picking and choosing "let's talk about this, let's walk through it, let's try a drill now!" Or, do you intentionally choose which phase of learning fits best based upon environment you find yourself in?

For every hour of training that our Open Door Entry students receive, our staff has easily put 100 hours or more into the framing and the design and the presentation of how should we teach this. We know how to bring students from zero to one hundred in a skill, and we know how to read our audience/students, and when to shift phases.

If you are an agency head, or a Chief of police, or a Sheriff, do you know the difference between sending your operators to a "lecture series" to obtain a certification, and sending your operators to a "coaching, drilling, scenario and operational training course" to obtain their certifications? Hopefully now you do.

Open Door Entry offers several courses in the field of nondestructive entry (NDE) and we are happy to help you provide your operators with certifications and qualifications that equate to competency and not just "attendance."

If you are interested in sending your operators to one of our Covert Entry courses, Tactical Lock Picking courses, Restraint Escape courses, or any of our other offerings, please fill out our "Request a Quote" form as our 2025 calendar is already accepting bookings.