How do you stress test your technical shooting skill level?

[olstyn]

I would gladly pay a higher match fee for an express lane.

If you're in the Twin Cities area (guessing based on your Twins logo avatar and your location listing of "Midwest"), check out Stock & Barrel in Chanhassen - they run indoor matches in the winter for $15 in what they call a "shoot and scoot" format. It's rolling signup per-stage, so you show up, put your name on the sheet, and you're probably shooting within 10-15 minutes, rinse and repeat for the second stage on the other bay, and then you can leave immediately if you choose. Indoors with only 2 bays means it's somewhat limited, but it's at least a miniature version of what you're asking for.

[Dismas316]

Why does competition make you better? It’s simply the ability to shoot very well on demand and in front of people. You get one shot at it and you have to be fast and accurate and are scored as such. When I practice on a range or do drills, the reality is that I alway have a do over if I want. Just about every competition I’ve done so far, I wish I could have just another run at each stage as I have no doubt the second run would be better. For those golfers out there, you know what I’m talking about when you are getting ready to hit off the tee and a foursome rolls up on you. It always turns into a shankathon.

With regard to the time it takes to do a match, I get it. One of the reasons I moved away from golf was I just don’t have the time to spend 4 + hours for a round. I could shoot for a lot less time. It also helps a great deal now that my boys are older and my weekends are not longer spent going to baseball tournaments all weekend. As a someone new to the competition game, it’s still pretty fresh. It also is one of the few sports that at 54 I can still be realtively competitive.

When it’s all said and done, it really is the competition. I am pretty competitive and as a new shooter, I pretty much suck, so it drive’s me to get better, almost to an obsession. I find that I usually have two stages that I kick ass but the rest I fall apart. Knowing that I have the ability on occasion to do really well in a stage or two keeps me coming back, because if I can ever put it together, I can do really well against good shooters. Plus it really teaches you to shoot often in not ideal stance or set up as well as shooting while moving. Again, while you can practice this on a range, very differenet when scored in front of your peers. To sum up, for me it’s the competition that allows for quicker improvement and for me it is just like golf was and that is, it’s actually extremely relaxing and de-stressing for me.

[GJM]

Talking about efficient competition, my wife and I got to shoot “Tuesday Night Steel” at Rio Salado yesterday afternoon. About two hours to shoot the five stages, with 191 shooters in the match. Awesome fun and serious competition.

[Doc_Glock]

Talking about efficient competition, my wife and I got to shoot “Tuesday Night Steel” at Rio Salado yesterday afternoon. About two hours to shoot the five stages, with 191 shooters in the match. Awesome fun and serious competition.

I thought you would like steel matches.

[Trigger]

Shooting, like many other disciplines, is part physical skill, and part mental. Once you master the physical skills, the game remains a mental challenge. I would guess 20% physical skill and 80% mental preparation. Competition tests the mental side of the game MUCH better than practice. Even tough, disciplined practice is still less mentally challenging than competition. The pressure to win is just not the same.

That is why I think competition is an essential skill to master. How to mentally prepare, how to focus, how to concentrate. How to exclude distractions and perform to your potential.

There are many books written on the mental side of shooting, and sports (like golf). Brian Enos’ book, shotgunning has several books, golf, auto racing, skiing, you name it, they all have a bunch.

I spent time in college on the shotgun team, and teaching soaring with Gyro. IMHO, the two most important things I learned there were how to concentrate and how to take checkrides. Those skills pay off during shooting competition. How to concentrate and focus as you enter the shooting stage, and how to put mistakes behind you and focus on the next target. Don’t let a single mistake derail your entire day.

Practice is indispensable, but there is no substitute for competition.

[olstyn]

Talking about efficient competition, my wife and I got to shoot “Tuesday Night Steel” at Rio Salado yesterday afternoon. About two hours to shoot the five stages, with 191 shooters in the match. Awesome fun and serious competition.

Holy shit. That's more shooters than the MN USPSA section match, and spread across half as many stages. I guess not having to reset stages helps, but still, 2 hours is IMPRESSIVELY fast to finish a match with 40-shooter squads.

[GJM]

Holy shit. That's more shooters than the MN USPSA section match, and spread across half as many stages. I guess not having to reset stages helps, but still, 2 hours is IMPRESSIVELY fast to finish a match with 40-shooter squads.

Matches like this is why there are so many great shooters in AZ.

[ST911]

Talking about efficient competition, my wife and I got to shoot “Tuesday Night Steel” at Rio Salado yesterday afternoon. About two hours to shoot the five stages, with 191 shooters in the match. Awesome fun and serious competition.

Matches like this is why there are so many great shooters in AZ.

Impressive. That would be awesome.

[CraigS]

I agree w/ Triggerf16. I have been competing on a local level for 1.5 yrs or so. My last IDPA match two weekends ago I was pi$$ed at my self when I saw the results. It was the first match where I felt like I was comfortable w/ the overall process. No sweaty palms like I used to have. I knew some of the problems right after they happened. And then there was another one I hadn't remembered. Looking at the results chart, I had NO failures to engage or hits on no-hits. IE; I hit everything I shot at and didn't hit anything I wasn't supposed to. But, I had several procedural penalties. One stage I shot the various targets out of tactical order. Another stage I shot at the targets on either side of a no-shoot but did them wrong, not slicing the pie correctly. Another stage we shot sitting w/ gun and mags on the table. They took considerable effort to tell us the old mag has to be on the table at the end. They even allowed a pickup as long as you grabbed it before your last shot. Mine hit the table and bounced to the grass just out of my reach. Certainly there were plenty of shooters who are simply faster than I am but, when I beat myself by making errors, shows how much of it is mental. And then I also realize no one was shooting back at me so how badly would I do in a defense situation?

[ASH556]

I agree w/ Triggerf16. I have been competing on a local level for 1.5 yrs or so. My last IDPA match two weekends ago I was pi$$ed at my self when I saw the results. It was the first match where I felt like I was comfortable w/ the overall process. No sweaty palms like I used to have. I knew some of the problems right after they happened. And then there was another one I hadn't remembered. Looking at the results chart, I had NO failures to engage or hits on no-hits. IE; I hit everything I shot at and didn't hit anything I wasn't supposed to. But, I had several procedural penalties. One stage I shot the various targets out of tactical order. Another stage I shot at the targets on either side of a no-shoot but did them wrong, not slicing the pie correctly. Another stage we shot sitting w/ gun and mags on the table. They took considerable effort to tell us the old mag has to be on the table at the end. They even allowed a pickup as long as you grabbed it before your last shot. Mine hit the table and bounced to the grass just out of my reach. Certainly there were plenty of shooters who are simply faster than I am but, when I beat myself by making errors, shows how much of it is mental. And then I also realize no one was shooting back at me so how badly would I do in a defense situation?

I think that's an issue with IDPA. I understand the premise of trying to introduce "tactics" into a match, but getting your score dinged for procedural things like that is not an indication of or reflection on skill. You'd get better application clearing your house with a Nerf gun than worrying about whether or not you picked up a mag and put it back on a table.

Interesting premise this whole thread. In shooting 3gn, I've shot with several real "been there, done that" guys from Army SF, Marine Corps Force Recon, and other State Department and Federal agencies. Sometimes I beat them, sometimes not. At the end of the day, though, they've all done something I've never done; multiple times, and were successful. So, does my beating them under the "stress" of a 3gn match mean I'm better prepared to win a gunfight than they are? Probably not. Yes, shooting competition is probably the best way to simulate stress and force you to do things under speed (shoot, move, manipulate, reload, etc). However, it's still different than real gunfighting and not all the skills are weighted equally in competition vs gunfighting.