| What
do military shooters think of our Practical Shooting sport?
by
Rob Leatham, USPSA / IDPA national champion , IPSC world champion
| I
recently ran a class of military shooters, and among other things,
ran them through the IDPA classifier, participated in a local
steel match, and shot the Arizona State IDPA Championships! |
Rob
Leatham is
perhaps the most famous practical shooter of all time.
Due to his consistent year-after-year performance
- even against younger shooters, a well-earned title
of "TGO" ...
(The Great One) was thrust upon him - and it stuck. -Editor |
Let
me share with you some interesting observations. They get more
wound up and nervous in a match than they do in combat! Why?
Because they have time to think about it and get tense! I
respect these guys' opinions more than ANY so called tactician
out there who is sure he knows the tricks to surviving an armed
confrontation. These guys have been doing that a bunch lately
and think IDPA and IPSC shooting both offer much to the testing
phase of ones ability.
|
On
the other hand, they to a man do not agree with the
philosophies that either is inherently more practical. All the
little things like which way do you turn or where you reload
is something we can discuss all day on the range, but on the
battlefield, men do things that may not be considered practical
or tactical and live because they did it fast, accurately and
decisively.
And,
there are those who did it "right" by
some folks' judgement and still lost. We all have our ideas
of how it should be done, and the rules of the existing games
are just that, someones' ideas. To say going to any kind of shooting
event will teach you technique that will get you killed is
idiotic and irresponsible. Guys, it is cool to have your own
plan but do not try to pass it off as gospel to the rest of us.
A discussion of technique and philosophy seldom ends in agreement,
but that does not make the other guy wrong or stupid. |
| These
are just games designed to test your abilities in a very controlled
and pre-planned arena. Who wins is your best shot, not your most
likely survivor. That can not be tested under the clock. However,
those that master executing under the timer are probably more likely
to do well in a pressure situation, than someone who chokes, misses
or gets procedural penalties. This is a point the boys all agree
on, thus they train hard and test themselves in the arena of competition
to see what they know and whether they can do it. |
| -Rob
Leatham [quoted from his post on the Brian
Enos forum] |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<-Back
Webmaster's
Corner
|
| |
|
