I wouldn't be commenting in this thread or section if it was just about competition,skill building and fun for fun sake. The title and premise related to LE development. If it is just about skill building there are much better ways to accomplish that for LEOs. Timer and accuracy drills,man v man and force on force scenarios will be thousands of times better for LEOs than competing especially if the LEO is "gaming" the system, using a different gun,different holster,different mag carriers in different location,angle and spacing. different belt set up, cleats and comfortable flexible attire and ammo made for lowest recoil while making a floor limit.
I'll leave it at wastefully inefficient when considering the cost of all the added gear,time to travel to a match,cost of match and the numerous differences between it and the LEOs reality for simple skill building.
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
It is about how to most efficiently learn to press a trigger with time pressure, which I believe is 80-90 percent of what is required to shoot well. I really do think everything else can be taught fairly easily, but it is trigger pressing that the shooter has to learn mostly on their own.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
Much is made of the unrealistic walkthrough.
But the walkthrough itself is a learned skill. Serious USPSA competitors call it "breaking down the stage."
The occasional shooter can look at a stage and gain very little by it. He is still surprised to find himself facing an array of targets or to notice that his gun is empty. He will find himself outside the choreography of an IDPA CoF and no thought of how to get back in train before garnering a Procedural Penalty.
Anecdote: I recall an old gunzine article. A division of the Border Patrol noticed that they still had funding for a pistol team, even though nobody from there had been to Camp Perry much later than Charles Askins' day. So they had a talk with the local IPSC club. The club was glad to get the added attendance and income, so they agreed to leave targets set up after the match. The BP stayed after and shot through again, with peer review of tactics instead of timekeeping. Hits and misses, were, of course, still scored. Then they came back and shot again after dark with vehicle and handheld lights, this long before the accessory rail.
Code Name: JET STREAM
People with a strong "Competitor" theme are driven to compare.
"Competition is rooted in comparison. When you look at the world, you are instinctively aware of other people's performance. Their performance is the ultimate yardstick. No matter how hard you tried, no matter how worthy your intentions, if you reached your goal but did not outperform your peers, the achievement feels hollow. Like all competitors, you need other people. You need to compare. If you can compare, you can compete, and if you can compete, you can win. And when you win, there is no feeling quite like it. You like measurement because it facilitates comparisons. "
http://news.gallup.com/businessjourn...mpetition.aspx
Not everybody is wired the same though.
Without a high Competitor theme I don't know how someone could burn an entire Saturday on a constant recurring basis to shoot a couple hundred rounds and then spend an hour or two helping tear down.
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
USPSA isn't skill building.
USPSA is probably the best TEST of dynamic handgun shooting skills.
Taking the results of that test and then using range time to correct the deficiencies is where the skills building comes in.
Competition is not training is not practicing is not qualifying is not real life
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
Practicing cover and "surprise" situations at a shooting match is like practicing underhand softball pitches at a state bowling championship.
If you want to see USPSA as a training arena for tactical situations you're going to have very few people agreeing with you. As long as it's within the rules it's all good though. How (and how effectively) you utilize a deep fundamentals test like the game is up to you.
Semper Gumby, Always Flexible
Any LEOs out there who shoot a solid M or GM game with just their duty rig? That would be cool to see. Like the LE version of Gabe.
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