Shepherd Development Brings Training Courses to Germany

Anyone who has taken a closer look at modern, performance-oriented handgun training in recent years has probably come across Shepherd Development. LOWREADY has also covered “ShepDev” several times, most notably its freely available training program, “From the Ground Up.”

In September 2026, the next step is about to happen: Shepherd Development is coming to Germany for a course for the very first time. Together with APX Rescue, the two-day Pistol Performance Concepts course will be held in Schweinfurt, marking its first appearance in Germany. Shepherd Development’s Jason Rafferty himself will be making the trip across the Atlantic to teach the course.

From the LE/MIL World to the German Shooting Range

Shepherd Development follows an approach that deliberately moves away from simply “running drills.” Instead, the focus is on understanding why a certain technique works – and how an individual shooter can systematically improve their performance.

Shepherd Development combines experience from professional firearms use and competitive shooting with a strongly performance-oriented approach to training. Objectively measurable performance, body mechanics, biofeedback, and the shooter’s ability to identify and independently work on their own weaknesses all play a major role. Anyone following Shepherd Development on YouTube or Instagram will already be familiar with Jason’s “super scientific” approach.

Europe is not entirely new territory for Shepherd Development. Together with Norstar, Jason has already taught several courses in Switzerland. Until now, however, this type of training has primarily been reserved for the LE/MIL community.

For the German course, APX Rescue and Shepherd Development therefore worked together to create a concept that makes the core elements of this training accessible to advanced sport shooters, while taking the legal and infrastructural realities of shooting in Germany into account.

Picture above: More than just “bang” – theory and teaching methodology play a major role throughout the course.

Pistol Performance Concepts

The name says it all.

The course is less about working through as many spectacular drills as possible and more about understanding fundamental concepts and applying them to your own performance. What kind of body mechanics allow for fast yet controlled strings of fire? What feedback does the gun give me? Where am I losing time? And how can I actually tell whether a change in technique represents a genuine improvement?

This is exactly where Shepherd Development’s approach comes in. Training becomes less of a collection of individual exercises and more of a systematic process of performance development. By the end of the course, the goal is not simply for shooters to perform a particular drill better, but to leave with tools that allow them to analyze and improve their own training over the long term.

Or, to put it another way: The goal is not to get better at one particular drill – it is to get better at getting better.

Bild oben: Until now, the training has clearly focused on professional LE/MIL firearms users. For the course in Germany, the content has been specifically adapted to the needs of German civilian firearms owners.

Why APX Rescue Is Bringing Shepherd Development to Germany

If you have never heard of APX Rescue before, there is no need to feel bad about it. For one thing, our training programs have a strong focus on emergency medicine and are primarily aimed at EMS organizations and government agencies. For another, we have so far completely avoided advertising on social media – so we are actually not that easy to stumble across.

Whether we are dealing with emergency medicine, tactical medicine, or firearms training, we believe good training should not simply consist of reproducing established procedures. What matters is understanding concepts, making them reliably accessible under stress, and continuously developing them further. Students should also leave a course with the ability to continue improving independently.

Shepherd Development follows a very similar philosophy. What started with a few conversations and emails across the Atlantic eventually developed into the idea of bringing this training to Germany. In close cooperation with Shepherd Development, Pistol Performance Concepts was adapted so that the course can be conducted on a German shooting range without including any training content requiring special authorization under § 7 AWaffV – while making no compromises in terms of teaching methodology or the underlying concepts. This means that any German firearms license holder (WBK) can attend without requiring any additional permits.

We did, however, decide against putting Jason through a crash course in German – so the course will be taught in English, with German translation provided where needed.

Apparently, We Weren’t the Only Ones Waiting for This

When we started planning the course, it was difficult for us to estimate just how much interest there would actually be. We got our answer pretty quickly: The course sold out completely within a very short time. For us, this is not only a great confirmation of the work that went into planning the course. More importantly, it shows that there is considerable interest in Germany in modern, performance-oriented firearms training and international training concepts.

We are not only looking forward to two intensive days of training with Jason Rafferty. For us, the course is also something of an experiment: Can we successfully transfer high-quality international training programs, previously aimed primarily at professional users, to the needs of advanced German sport shooters? The overwhelming demand certainly makes us optimistic. And if everything goes the way we hope, September 2026 will not be the only time we do this.

We are already hoping to bring Jason and Shepherd Development back to Germany in 2027.

For more information, feel free to check it out:

Shepherd Development im Internet: www.shepherddevelopment.com

APX Rescue im Internet: www.apx-rescue.de