Five Rounds, Five Seconds, Five Yards, Five Inches

[BCGlocker]

Good easy to set up drill. I will use it for my beginner's class.

[74novaman]

I have little or no experience in personal defense oriented shooting competitions, but it seems to me that the TWO things they don’t seem to account for are (1) your target is most likely mobile, and (2) he may be shooting at you....which places a whole new spin on things.

Like I said, all I know about shooting competition stages is what I’ve seen on YouTube videos, and that’s not very much. But from what little I can deduce, none of them prepare you for actually shooting a moving target while on the move yourself. I do believe that the training you get from competition is better than not training at all.

I shoot IDPA and USPSA. I've taken self defense classes, including force on force. I have thankfully never been involved in an encounter that required the use of a weapon.

You're right in saying that competition doesn't teach you how to engage with a moving target shooting at you (though force on force classes do, which is why they're 100% worth the time and money).

What I believe competition does fantastically well is teach you how to do "stuff" under pressure. A timer and a bunch of people watching you is not "someone is trying to kill me" stress, but it is stress. Anyone who has shot more than one match likely experienced the same thing I did: the stress does not go away, but the amount of your mind it occupies and the effects it has on your ability to perform diminishes significantly the more you expose yourself to it. I've had a lot of repetitions under the most stress I can artificially create to 1) draw 2) get sights on target 3)make good hits 4) move with a loaded gun 5)handle malfunctions 6) figure out what to do next when things don't go to plan.

Competition is stress inoculation. Being able to think, move and work while stressed is pretty darn valuable for self defense.

A (not so) quick anecdote: I was driving a car a few Christmases ago with my wife, my sister, her husband and my parents in the car with me. We got in a wreck when someone pulled out in front of us, a hard enough collision to deploy airbags. When my face came out of the bag, I look up and the collision had carried us across the road facing into oncoming traffic. Even after getting smacked in the face with an airbag, I was able to see the danger we were in, notice that the car was still rolling downhill and get the wheel cranked over enough to let the car roll back across the highway out of oncoming traffic and all the way over to the side of the road before I bothered to hit the brakes again...after getting smacked by an airbag with traffic heading my way at highway speeds.

As we got out of the car my wife, sister and I were all calm, checking on everyone, making sure we were in a safe position and no one was injured. My parents and my brother in law were completely freaked out, had to be told what to do, and mentally locked up. (In BILs defense, he smacked his head on the A pillar and I would have been loopy too).

My wife is a MD who has run codes in a hospital setting. My sister is a fighter pilot in the Air Force. Both of them have been exposed to life or death type intense stress in their careers that helped them handle a stressful situation well. I am none of those cool things, and neither are my parents or BIL. The only thing I can think of I have done that my relatives who didn't handle the crash well haven't....is shoot pistol competitions.

So no, competition won't teach you how to gunfight. But it will make you better at working and thinking under stress, which is why I believe competition is an incredibly valuable resource for anyone who carries a gun for self defense.

[Paladin]

What I believe competition does fantastically well is teach you how to do "stuff" under pressure. A timer and a bunch of people watching you is not "someone is trying to kill me" stress, but it is stress. Anyone who has shot more than one match likely experienced the same thing I did: the stress does not go away, but the amount of your mind it occupies and the effects it has on your ability to perform diminishes significantly the more you expose yourself to it. I've had a lot of repetitions under the most stress I can artificially create to 1) draw 2) get sights on target 3)make good hits 4) move with a loaded gun 5)handle malfunctions 6) figure out what to do next when things don't go to plan.

Competition is stress inoculation. Being able to think, move and work while stressed is pretty darn valuable for self defense.

...
So no, competition won't teach you how to gunfight. But it will make you better at working and thinking under stress, which is why I believe competition is an incredibly valuable resource for anyone who carries a gun for self defense.

[Paladin]

What I believe competition does fantastically well is teach you how to do "stuff" under pressure. A timer and a bunch of people watching you is not "someone is trying to kill me" stress, but it is stress. Anyone who has shot more than one match likely experienced the same thing I did: the stress does not go away, but the amount of your mind it occupies and the effects it has on your ability to perform diminishes significantly the more you expose yourself to it. I've had a lot of repetitions under the most stress I can artificially create to 1) draw 2) get sights on target 3)make good hits 4) move with a loaded gun 5)handle malfunctions 6) figure out what to do next when things don't go to plan.

Competition is stress inoculation. Being able to think, move and work while stressed is pretty darn valuable for self defense.

...
So no, competition won't teach you how to gunfight. But it will make you better at working and thinking under stress, which is why I believe competition is an incredibly valuable resource for anyone who carries a gun for self defense.

I should add that if you are running your street gear, it's a good test of your equipment too.

[Ruark]

competition won't teach you how to gunfight. But it will make you better at working and thinking under stress,

There may be some truth to this. I remember my very first shooting competition, at a local indoor range. It was simple, just seeing who could shoot the smallest 5 shot group on a paper target. We all started firing at once, and
I got so tensed up, my groups blew from the usual 2" out to about 8". It was a VERY educational experience. Then I understood how a cop can empty his gun at a bad guy
and miss.

[74novaman]

I should add that if you are running your street gear, it's a good test of your equipment too.

All shooting steel challenge with a J frame taught me is that I should stop carrying a J frame.