Thank all you for your comments, feedback and the kind compliments Pace & Ridger
I have always felt I received the best possible training from my instructors who I (and my parents) feel did an outstanding job of training me to be a safe, confident pilot. They're "old school" instructors who believe in solid stick & rudder skills. When my school was training in strong, gusting & swinging x-winds, the other aircraft at the field had been put away.
Not sure how many pilots are trained by their school to do s-turns, slips, hover taxi / strip run just above stall 2 or 3 feet above the strip for most of the length of the runway (it's tough
), flying without instruments and glide approaches on every landing they ever performed.
I'll see if I can find a video of my strip run training. Below is a video of my shortfield / crosswind / no instruments training. I do prefer my check ride short field landing though...