Training scars: "Cruiser ready" with hammer down on a pump shotgun

A lot of people advocate leaving one's pump action shotgun in 'cruiser ready' or 'cruiser safe', which means that the chamber is empty, the mag tube is fully loaded, and the trigger has been pulled, so that you can just rack the shotgun to get a round into the tube and fight.

In my opinion, the step of pulling the trigger while the mag tube is loaded is unsafe and unnecessary. It eventually could lead to a negligent discharge if a round somehow found its way into the chamber due to inattention.

Regardless of the potential safety issues, I think it's preferable to train always hitting the action release lever the first time that you rack the bolt.  That way, the bolt will come back whether or not it was locked forward.  It doesn't take any significant extra time and is more reliable.

I had long had this opinion, but I was reminded of it recently in a Magpul Dynamics shotgun class where Chris Costa said something to the same effect.

Training scars: no-look holstering

This one is probably somewhat controversial.  See http://jumpthestack.blogspot.com/p/about-me-contact.html for a disclaimer on my qualifications or lack thereof.

A lot of trainers focus on always holstering without looking.  I think this is overrated in terms of importance.  Remember, you only holster once you are fairly certain the situation is over.  One should always holster slowly and reluctantly, for safety purposes.  So, it's a relatively safe time, when looking down for one second is not that big of a lapse in awareness.

It has happened before that a piece of someone's shirt or various straps or other pieces of gear get snagged on the trigger as a person goes to holster, causing an unintended discharge even though the person was keeping his finger straight and away from the trigger.   This is especially likely with concealment holsters that hold the gun close to the body.  Holstering slowly and carefully would also help prevent that, and the shooter should pause if he feels any resistance while holstering. 
But taking a quick peek would certainly help prevent this issue as well.

Practicing holstering without looking is a useful skill that people should practice, that could be useful in some limited situations.  But I think it is overemphasized sometimes.

Edit- FYI, I recently took a class from Kyle Defoor, who advocated looking at the holster as you holster, for pretty much the same reasons as above.

Training scars: fast scan and assess

One common practice in firearms training is to scan and assess after finishing a firing string.  The purpose is to break tunnel vision after focusing on the target, and to maintain awareness of your surroundings. This is a good idea, but in practice it's sometimes done in a way that's less than optimal. 

A lot of people swivel their heads to the left and right really fast.  The problem with this is that if you turn your head that fast, it's hard to actually see anything.  It would be better to turn your head relatively slowly, enough that you can pick out distinct details.  If you actually can see things while moving your head that fast, that's fine, but make sure you can.  It's good to try to actually pick something to the side of or behind you that you see and take note of, just to force yourself to look for real.

Another common practice is to only look left and right.  It would be better to make sure to look behind you as well. 

 There's also some small controversy over whether or not the muzzle should move with your eyes.  I think that obviously if you're going to look to your sides or behind you, you can't keep the muzzle pointed in those directions, so it's better to keep it simple and keep the gun pointed at the original target or straight down while you look.