Merging Competition and Training

[MDS]

Not to necro-post, but I shot my first match in over a year yesterday, and boy, was it useful for training! You see, my marksmanship has been improving in leaps and bounds over the last few months. It's gotten to the point where I'm happy enough that I've begun working on draws and reloads. Well, my performance showed clearly that my weakest link is definitely marksmanship. I had way too many points down on targets past 10yd, including a -8/FTN at 15yd that I'm especially fond of. I say fond, because it's been a great kick in the ass - you can bet I'm going to shift the focus of my practice back to accuracy at speed.

At least at my level of shooting, competing seems like a pretty good way to diagnose and motivate. It was great to just watch a bunch of other folks shoot, too - very educational for that alone.

[NGCSUGrad09]

I agree with others that saying they HAVE to do what they would do in a "tactical situation" is a crutch for poor ability. Some of the best competitive shooters I know are some of the best "tactical" shooters I know.

To me, a true sign of mastering the art of the firearm is being able to apply the necessary skills to the situation at hand. This means ALL possible instances from competition to the street.

[jar]

At least at my level of shooting, competing seems like a pretty good way to diagnose and motivate.

I don't think that ever goes away. Competition is a great motivator to practice what you suck at. People tend to practice what they're already good at because it feels more satisfying to do something well. Competition causes you to work on what you suck it because the satisfaction of doing something well is much greater at a match when all your friends are watching.

[HeadHunter]

To quote an old friend, former SEAL, and serious paintball competitor: If you cannot separate competition from fighting, you probably shouldn't do either.

My opinion is that if your state of training is so weak that shooting one match a month is going to screw you up, you need to train more.

[Mitchell, Esq.]

It's kinda odd that in almost every physical activity, boxing, football, running, weight lifting...serious people compete in objectively measured activities to determine skill level.

However, when it comes to making uncooperative people who want to hurt you unconscious, or putting lead into uncooperative people who want to kill you...objective measurements of skill are a bad thing.

[BWT]

Being inexperienced I'm going to minimize my input.

But I'd think getting behind a gun, drawing from concealment, practicing the fundamentals, in a stressful environment (differs person to person, some people really fear getting infront of crowds/competitions), moving and shooting, are a good thing.

It's no substitute to the type of training one could get, but it beats shooting at a range with fixed target distances, from magazines laying on a counter, from a standing position only.

I'd say getting comfortable being conscious of the gun's orientation, moving, manipulating it under stress, all are good things.

What does an IDPA competition cost? $5-15? What does a training class cost? $400?

Well then I'd say you got what you paid for if you look at them comparatively. Just keep the context of what you're doing in mind.

[Chuck Anderson]

I shoot a lot of competitions, everything from USPSA and Multi Gun to Bianchi Cup. I've also been shot at on more than one occasion. At no point did my competition mindset kick in making be try to jump out from cover and treat it like a 32 round field course. I've shot enough in training and under the stress of competition that I wasn't worried about getting hits on target if need be. I didn't worry about what would happen if I had a malfunction. I didn't worry about my movement between positions of cover. I'd done it all. Because of my performance in competition I knew I had the skills and abilities to succeed and that gave me the time to focus on tactics. It allowed me to be further away from the suspect, because I knew I could hit from there. It allowed me to rapidly assume field expedient shooting positions, because I'd done it all before.

As to the OP's training scar that he was worried about. Clearing a malf one handed. If you're in a shooting and you have to resort to one handed shooting, and you have a malfunction and you try to clear it with your opposite hand, your either going to clear it or realize very quickly that it isn't working and swap to your other method of clearing malfs. I tell my guys they can shoot competition however they want. Tactically like they are in training or balls to the wall competition mode. Either way it's trigger time.

[ToddG]

I shoot a lot of competitions, everything from USPSA and Multi Gun to Bianchi Cup. I've also been shot at on more than one occasion.

I know things can get tense at Bianchi but people shooting at you? Man, that's just crazy!

At no point did my competition mindset kick in making be try to jump out from cover and treat it like a 32 round field course.

For a short while, I worked with a decorated Navy SEAL who was also a nationally recognized paintball competitor. He always used to say, "If you can't tell the difference between a game and a gunfight, you shouldn't do either."

[NickA]

After watching Tom Givens' DVD and hearing his lecture I don't remember thinking "Hey that's just like the IDPA stage I shot last week! " about any of the gunfights he described. If that Bad Day ever comes the difference between the two will be immediately apparent I'm sure.
While IDPA isn't perfect the bottom line is it's the only way I get to shoot at all some months, and it beats square range shooting or none at all IMO.

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Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[Chuck Anderson]

I know things can get tense at Bianchi but people shooting at you? Man, that's just crazy!

Ever been on the practice range in Columbia? There are some scary dudes walking around there.