Originally Posted by
Glenn E. Meyer
As a fat old civilian who has done a great deal of self-defense oriented training with Karl Rehn, Ayoob, Spaulding, Givens, Moses, Claude, Andy, Insights (Hamilton, Holschen), been to the old NTI several times through their ATSA village, Polite Society/TacCon, some local SWAT guys teaching classes, compete in IDPA, some steel, now some USPSA PLUS a PhD in Cognitive Psychology, Post Doc in Visual Neuroscience - blah, blah - IMHO:
The gun games are just for trigger skills practice, reloading - they have little relation to self-defense decision making. They are not enough for someone wanting to defend themselves. Increasing performance in the games is fine but does not increase self-defense decision making. Unless you are with the Suicide Squad and facing Starro the Conqueror with Peacemaker, good speed on a Texas Star is nice but so what - you had better know about how to use the gun for self-defense and not just hits and scores. Yes, have gun handling skills but you need much more. No piece of cardboard ever approaches you in a dark room and says: Hey man, don't shoot me but keeps approaching. You never get held at gun point by a piece of cardboard that you try to disarm. Sometimes you 'die'. You might use an unrealistic gun. We've run small gun matches and watch the hits performance sink. Rehn has shown that.
This isn't even discussing a good class on legal principles, tactical anatomy, etc. C hits - fast - so what.
As JLW mentioned, Force Science and other human factors folks have worked out the timing of shots, stopping shots, more shots still fired after the decision to stop, etc.
Steve Moses has it right. BTW, he and his co-instructor jumped me when I had to go throw a door with a revolver and unknown number of rounds. That was a touch more exciting than a Texas Star. I got shot in the shoulder, I shot them COM, IIRC - all in about a body touching cluster F.
If the cardboard targets in the games were replaced by opponents who were armed (as in some FOF), you would be killed after the first 'target'). Certainly running full speed to an open door - great plan.
What does the USPSA being cheaper than a class have to do with it? Nothing. I see folks who buy and buy new guns. Now a lot of the competitors I know train.