By Jodi Stemler

One of the best enhancements at the recent ROSE Retreat in New Hampshire was the ability to increase the hands-on range time at SIG SAUER Academy. Through three days of classes, the women who attended were able to hone their skills in small groups based on their shooting experience levels. A key part of the training was that each of those groups featured talented female instructors, women with tremendous firearms experience and the ability to translate that information in a way that helps other women learn best.

Haley O’Neil has worked at SIG SAUER for over six years, starting on the assembly floor and working her way through quality and project management, playing a key role in major product launches, including the M400 ROSE. During that time, she pursued her passion for training and competition, earning her place as an instructor while continuing to compete and develop her skills. After further investing in her own training, Haley made the decision to fully dedicate herself to instructing, where she now thrives alongside the Academy’s talented team. She notes that the Academy’s curriculum is based on a wide variety of both male and female experience in law enforcement, military, competition, and civilian carry. 

“We come together to outline the essential building blocks for new to advanced shooters and fine tune each concept based on audience analysis and customer feedback,” Haley says. “Training isn’t one size fits all, so we don’t treat it that way. We’ll see what skillset you’re bringing to the table and work with you to make sure you leave more confident and have the tools you need for success so you can achieve your personal goals.”

For Kaylee Lane, a SIG Affiliate shooter who won the Ladies Practical Division in the 2024 Practical Competition Shooting League 2-Gun Nationals and was part of the women’s gold medal team at the 2025 International Practical Shooting Confederation World Shoot, the training is even more relevant since she’s only been shooting for about ten years. After meeting her future husband Mason, a Team SIG competitor, she started loading his magazines and building her own skills. Later she began helping his instruction by translating high level concepts to new shooters. In 2025, she was invited to become a SIG instructor starting the assessment process, trauma response training, and learning how to teach SIG’s Level 1 & 2 courses.

She says that after going through the training, instructors can serve as assistants for a while but then need to be assessed to move to lead instructor. “This isn’t an easy process, but it ensures consistency in instructors and in the classes that SIG provides.”

This structured approach provides information that helps all skill levels according to Allison Glassick, who is in law enforcement and has been a firearms instructor for 10 years. She teaches pistol, rifle, and shotgun classes at SIG as well as the concealed carry classes for women.

“Our courses layer skills in a progression that is easy to process and implement,” Allison says. “This allows students to practice those skills in an environment that is open and inviting. Regardless of skill level, the training that is provided is in-depth and comprehensive.”

For the most part, however, there aren’t significant differences in women’s classes versus men’s classes. “Women’s classes are similar to other level training classes, they are learning the same concepts,” notes Kaylee. “The main thing is that we will often use a different firearm, and in more advanced classes we do offer very specific changes that work for women because of body and carry differences.” She also says that not all women’s classes are taught by women, but that women do bring a different perspective in their teaching.

The main reason for women-only classes, including the ROSE Retreats and seminars, is that women like to learn with other women.

“Women generally learn better if they are comfortable and able to relax,” Kaylee continues. “This was my first ROSE Retreat, and I honestly didn’t know what I was getting into. Women in large groups can sometimes be a bit catty, but not here. Everyone was so positive! The women at the retreat were so supportive and this really helped to increase the confidence and comfort, and it showed in everyone’s progress. My group was encouraging and very safe. It was cool how empowered and motivated these women were. It was great to see them push themselves.”

Allison agrees that the range time is always the best part of a ROSE Retreat. “Getting to teach and see the women light up and have fun on the range is always my favorite part,” she says. “There were a few participants in my group who were very quiet but had great skills and did really well. I had some participants make huge strides in their shooting skills and to see them light up when they did well was a huge highlight.”

“The ability to give these women the most support on the range with hands-on training means a lot. We worked through a lot of firsts. It’s very rewarding to see each lady leave the day with more and more confidence,” Haley adds. “The fact that we were able to support nearly 40 women with three days of pistol and rifle training was really amazing. Working from a holster is not something everyone has the luxury of being able to do at their range so the fact that we got to do a safety build-up is really awesome. One of the many exciting ‘firsts’ for our attendees.”

As an experienced rifle shooter, Haley gave one of the women in her rifle group a new technique to try and it turned out to be the missing puzzle piece to her student’s rifle recoil management. “Seeing how excited she was to have unlocked this next step,” said Haley, “was my daily reminder of why we do what we do!”

All three instructors agree that keeping range time fun is key to improvement.

“I try to tell shooters that it's a skill that is perishable, but there are lots of fun drills to use to help keep those skills where you want them to be,” says Allison. “I talk about various drills or classes that help develop skills but are fun at the same time.”

“Training should always include a fun aspect, so you want to keep doing it, not push it off,” Haley adds. “For some folks, that means incorporating fun drills or games, for others it’s competition. Regardless if you train for self-defense, carry or for competition, our goals are similar: to shoot accurately and quickly and be more effective and efficient with a firearm.”

Kaylee teaches how she wants to be taught, helping shooters set small goals to reach big goals that build to success. “Breaking down what to do so the small things go well helps them be more competent,” she says. “Those small bits of information ultimately bring them to their big goal.”

For the women instructors at SIG, teaching firearms safety and skills is a true passion – being able to bring that passion to other women through the ROSE Program just adds to that enjoyment. What women who participate in the ROSE Program are learning isn’t different than what men are learning in their classes. The difference is that SIG has recognized how a community truly is key to empowering women on their firearms journey.