To further flog the deceased equine ...
Can we go back to the whole "holding the gun sideways" thing? What does that mean? Canting the pistol to one side or the other with the muzzle still pointed downrange (or otherwise in a safe direction)? Never heard the phrase, "hold the gun sideways" in any training before.
I can confirm that many female officers do initially struggle learning how to lock the slide to the rear without a magazine inserted or even trying to rack the slide all the way back to chamber a round; in early training, I've witnessed them (and to be fair, a lot of male officers with no handgun experience) on the line or in lanes pointing the muzzle to one side or another when racking the slide of an M&P.
I happen to work for an employer whose standard issue pistol is the M&P; at NO time do we teach that the trigger is pulled after clearing the pistol (so it's not cocked? -- it's a striker-fired pistol, if it's unloaded, it's unloaded). I'd be interested in seeing the instructor guide for this academy's pistol training.