Competition Bad Habits? Do any exist? Competing Anonymously possible?

[deflave]

You are in no way measured on correct use of cover to protect yourself from incoming fire, be when engaging targets or during movement.

You have vision barriers that block targets from being engaged, as well as hard cover painted on target or the use of no-shoots to force harder shots.

If I cannot shoot through it, I consider it to be simulated cover.

I don't think it's feasible for clubs to construct stages with impenetrable cover. The cost of time and money would be excessive.

I am only offering my opinion.

[deflave]

Sorry, I'm not tracking. USPSA shooters don't use cover.

If I'm not using cover, what is that snow fence that I'm arching around, over, or under supposed to be?

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the use of them.

[AGR416]

Walls, barrels etc are vision barriers, forcing you to move to engage targets.

You are not required to limit exposure to targets that you are engaging.

[deflave]

Walls, barrels etc are vision barriers, forcing you to move to engage targets.

You are not required to limit exposure to targets that you are engaging.

I understand that I am not required to use them.

I was stating that a lot of USPSA matches force the shooter to utilize cover.

If others see it differently that is fine.

[Wake27]

Again, there is no correlation between proper tactics and a USPSA stage.

You are arguing a point no one has made - no one is saying that shooting IPSC/USPSA is good training for self defense or tactics. It is a good measure of shooting and gun-handling skills.

If you want to get better at self defense, take classes/training that directly focus on that, which is scenario based training.

The point I’m arguing is the one that I made. OP asked if there are any habits that could be bred in competition that may not be suitable in an SD shooting. I gave him my opinion on the only two I could think of. Just as you said, USPSA has nothing to do with actual use of cover. Therefore it’s possible that good USPSA habits regarding cover/obstacles would build bad SD habits for the same principles. That’s all.


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[Clusterfrack]

If I'm not using cover, what is that snow fence that I'm arching around, over, or under supposed to be?

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the use of them.

If you want to think about cover during a USPSA match, that's cool. I think most USPSA shooters just think of walls and other stage props as part of the shooting challenge. It does make shooters really good at shooting over, under, and around things. I think USPSA is a good compliment to training for tactical use of cover and concealment.

[RJ]

I have one.

Normally before a stage run, I stare at the ground and only look up at the ‘Are you ready?’? I’m running my stage plan in my head.

Today, in my class, I found out that would be a really bad idea in a Self Defense situation. So I’m not going to do that anymore.

[AGR416]

The point I’m arguing is the one that I made. OP asked if there are any habits that could be bred in competition that may not be suitable in an SD shooting. I gave him my opinion on the only two I could think of. Just as you said, USPSA has nothing to do with actual use of cover. Therefore it’s possible that good USPSA habits regarding cover/obstacles would build bad SD habits for the same principles. That’s all.

And as I am trying to explain to you, that has nothing to do with competition skills giving you "training scars", it has to do with being poorly trained for self-defense.

[deflave]

If you want to think about cover during a USPSA match, that's cool. I think most USPSA shooters just think of walls and other stage props as part of the shooting challenge. It does make shooters really good at shooting over, under, and around things. I think USPSA is a good compliment to training for tactical use of cover and concealment.

Yes I agree. I pay no mind to them from a tactical/self-protection standpoint.

My only point is that simulated cover does exist in most USPSA matches and that if the utilization of cover is a concern, a shooter can feel free to use it as they see fit.

Their scores will suffer but if it's important to them, they are free to do so.

[JAD]

I have one.

Normally before a stage run, I stare at the ground and only look up at the ‘Are you ready?’? I’m running my stage plan in my head.

Today, in my class, I found out that would be a really bad idea in a Self Defense situation. So I’m not going to do that anymore.

There are a lot of things that shooting USPSA properly (to win, since it is a game) inclines one to do that would be a bad idea in a fight. I don’t think there’s much wrong with shooting a monthly match to win, since if you have the ridiculous amount of time it takes to participate in even a club match then you should have no problem doing stuff right in practice at a 2-5x rate, and it should all work out.