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The Tracker Trail website has no
official connection to the Tracker School or Tom Brown Jr. whatsoever.
The Standard is great, short and simple. Perhaps the most
important thing to know is that the class is geared to giving you as much info
as possible on survival, at the expense of practicing the skills. There is
more lecture than practice, but there always seemed to be enough practice to let
you take the skill home and teach yourself the rest.
Although I never heard complaints at the class, class size is
large, about 100. But since the class was geared to lectures, it wasn't as
important. There were always enough instructors when they were needed, and
it was fun to be surrounded by lots of people interested in the same thing as
you. The class size used to be 50 and the waiting list a couple of
years. I prefer it this way :)
They taught an amazing amount of stuff: bowdrill, handrill,
throwing sticks, deadfalls/snares, tanning, camouflage, ropemaking, cooking,
wild edibles, stalking, shelters, and tracking. The best endorsement
for the class is what Tom Brown said: "You'll never look at the ground the
same way." It's true.
The instructors were great, and I've seen lots of bad teachers,
so I know (too many years in school). Tom himself is an intense speaker,
and gives a few of the lectures on philosophy and tracking, and shows up at
other times. He's set up the course well, mixing up lectures with practice
and changes in subject so that you never get too overwhelmed or bored of one
thing. Apparently he is much more involved in higher level courses. The
other instructors all knew their stuff, they were clear, paced the lectures
well, friendly, patient, fun... Fun is especially important... by the Thursday
of the course a lot of the people in the class were talking like pirates...did I
mention the days were long? |
