How Shooting Competitions Build Skills for When It Matters Most
By: Austin Chamberlain
Let’s set up the scenario. You are asleep and are awakened by the sound of a loud thump at the front door. You pause and wait to see if that thump was real, or if it was the bass drop at the sick rave your unconscious self was at 15 seconds ago. Another thump, followed by some glass shattering, dumps adrenaline in your brain, and you realize it’s go-time. After dialing 911, you grab your new Gen 6 Glock 17 that you just purchased for your first firearm, and realize none of your magazines are loaded. The clock has started; what are you going to do? You load five rounds because surely that will be enough, right? As you open the door to your bedroom, you think about how you’ve only shot 50 rounds of ammunition (one whole box) through this new Glock, and your accuracy needs work. You make it to the corner of the hallway and the living room, and can see an arm through the broken door window, trying to find the doorknob. Out of everything you’ve ever experienced in your life, this is by far the scariest
It’s unlikely that you will experience a break-in; however, the chances are not zero. Being prepared to the best of your ability will put you on the best foot forward. However, what does being prepared look like? How you store your firearm is important, whether it is loaded or unloaded. A situation like this, whether it’s at home or in public, is a very fast event in which giving yourself every advantage is crucial. Once a storage condition is decided upon, what are your skills with your firearm? Can you bring your sight right up to your eyes efficiently? Uncertainty is reduced by eliminating variables like these. Scenarios like this come with a lot of pressure, as well. There isn’t really a great way to replicate this scenario exactly; however, there is a way to put yourself in intense situations to build your proficiency in performing under stress. Competing in practical shooting competitions is a great way to test yourself and build the skills needed to perform. Shooting competitions replicate this pressure by measuring your performance in terms of time and accuracy. Successful competitors have fast times and accurate shots, thanks to well-developed fundamentals and a solid understanding of their gear.
Among all the shooting disciplines in the U.S., three big ones involve practical shooting with a handgun: USPSA (United States Practical Shooting Association), PCSL(Practical Competition Shooting League), and IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association). Each of these shooting sports hosts competitions with multiple stages, also called courses of fire. Each of these shooting sports has stages set up for shooters to engage multiple targets of varying difficulty levels. These stages are timed and then scored depending on the sport. Let’s go over how shooting these competitions translates to possible success for the previous thought experiment.
Competitive Shooting Teaches You Fundamental Skills Required to Defend Yourself
Being in a self-defense situation and shooting a stage have more in common than you would think. Both events require a baseline of firearm safety knowledge and the ability to shoot accurately. If you are not safe in a match setting, you will be disqualified and may cause harm to yourself or others. If you are not safe with your concealed carry gun, you can also cause potential harm to yourself and others. You must be able to shoot accurately in both settings as well, because misses can come with extreme consequences (although at a match, the worst that can happen is you are penalized in points). Accuracy is just one point of focus in shooting competitions. The other one is time. Time helps measure competitors' efficiency; a short time is the goal while maintaining a high level of accuracy. Some argue that accuracy matters more and that“there isn’t a timer beep when you have to defend yourself.” Logically speaking, if you were to assume that accuracy is the same whether shooting faster or slower, it would be better to be able to perform the required tasks faster than slower. On the same token, almost every shooting sport involves some element of time. Time is a very critical factor in both situations.
Shooting Competitions Build Familiarity with Your Gear
You’ve likely heard the phrase “Practice makes permanent”. That idea definitely applies to shooting of every kind. Becoming a regular at your local range or at local shooting competitions will do two things for you: plug you into a community of like-minded individuals, and create an atmosphere of friendly competition. One might ask what that has to do with getting more familiar with your gear. We know that competition drives improvement because everybody wants to be at the top of the podium, even if it’s just for bragging rights. That improvement will inevitably come through increased practice. Those who practice practical shooting learn pretty quickly that good shooting involves a deep-rooted level of consistency and fundamentals. The trigger press is the same every time; the input to bring the firearm back down out of recoil is the same every time; the grip is the same every time. Great shooters can produce solid performances with such consistency that they can almost predict the outcome of a performance before they even load their firearm. This consistency and familiarity will also build your confidence as you progress with your skills.
Now, one might ask how someone builds that level of consistency. No one was born with a gun on their hip, and so every shooter goes through the phase where they have to build their first belt system and get used to it. For me, it was a Gen 3 Glock 17, five magazines, and Blade-Tech magazine pouches and holster. That rig became the clichéd extension of my body. I rose through the ranks relatively quickly by getting to know my gear through daily practice.
Something that you will notice about people who excel in their craft is that they always know their gear inside and out. NASCAR teams know their vehicles and their tools; phenomenal electricians know the use of every tool and how to use it efficiently; shooters who are worth their salt can usually tell you when a screw on their optic is just starting to loosen. If you want to get to know your gear on an intimate level, start shooting in some competitions. I guarantee you will know more about your gear after just one match, because there is a requirement to know it. This requirement doesn’t come in the form of an official quiz about torque specs or anything like that; it comes in the form of successful performance. To be successful, you need to know your gear well and keep it well-maintained to avoid issues that can arise during performances. This means knowing what kind of ammunition works well in your firearm and what doesn’t; knowing what distance your sights are sighted in at; knowing where the magazines are on your belt and being able to grab them properly without looking; knowing exactly what a good grip feels like on your firearm. Knowing your gear well results in consistency, reliability, and confidence, allowing you to perform without worrying about something going wrong with your equipment.
Shooting Competitions Add Stress to a Shooting Environment
I think we can all agree that a self-defense scenario is a “high-stress situation”. So, how do you recreate that stress in a training context to learn how to work past it? You could take a force-on-force class (typically a level two or three firearms class, depending on where you go) where you use simunition ammunition and actually “shoot” at each other. In my opinion, I’d say that’s probably the closest you can get. However, these classes are expensive. When you take into consideration tuition, travel, hotels, meals, and whatever else you might need, along with the time investment, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to pay upwards of a thousand dollars.
If you can’t fit one of these classes into your budget, that’s ok. There are other opportunities to train in such a high-stress environment. Shooting competitions help replicate that stress by shooting multiple small courses of fire that we call stages. Stages in a practical shooting competition are all shot on the clock because time is a variable in your score. There is something about the human brain that activates stress when you are being timed. I think you can relate to having a project deadline at work or cooking a meal without burning it. You can feel that things need to be done in a hurry because there is typically a consequence for not finishing on time. That same feeling happens when the timer beeps. The consequence for being slow, in the context of a stage performance, is just a worse score. You can still feel that stress building over time, and it is similar (albeit not the same) to the stress felt in the “high-stress situation” discussed previously.
Hit Factor Scoring Methodology Promotes Practical Accuracy at a Fast Pace
We have briefly discussed scoring methodology, but let's dig into the meat and potatoes for a minute. One of the main methods is called Hit Factor scoring, and, in my opinion, it’s the best way to analyze proficiency. Hit Factor scoring boils down to points divided by time. Typically, you have a stage full of cardboard and steel targets. On the cardboard targets, there are scoring zones (below is a picture of a USPSA target) that are worth more points the closer you get to the center of the target. Steel targets are all worth the same points. Once you have gone through and shot the stage, the officiant (called a range officer or RO) will go through and add up all the points that you have accumulated on the targets. The RO will then take the time measured from the timer beep to your last shot and divide your total points by that time. That number is your hit factor for the stage. You can consider it a metric of how efficiently you earned points on the stage.
I’m an engineer, and therefore I am a nerd. So let’s crunch some numbers to understand this scoring method better. Let’s say that you are shooting a stage worth 100 points, and you get all the points, and you complete the stage in 10 seconds. 100 points divided by 10 seconds results in a 10 hit factor. Easy math. Now, let’s say you decide to put on the speed and shoot the stage in eight seconds, but you drop five points. 95 points divided by 8 seconds yields an 11.875 hit factor. You can tell that you still maintained a high level of accuracy at a higher speed and were rewarded with a higher hit factor for your efficiency. You can play these kinds of games to gain a better understanding of the trade-off between accuracy and speed (although these two concepts are complementary, not adversaries)
You might be asking why this even matters? How can 3rd-grade math translate to a better understanding of self-defense scenarios? Hit Factor scoring rewards practical accuracy at high speeds. We have already defined that success in a self-defense situation requires accuracy and speed. Measuring your performance with HitFactor scoring rewards performance that meets the requirements of speed and accuracy. If you train correctly and consistently, using Hit Factor scoring, you can increase your speed and accuracy in your stage performances. Higher-stage performances indicate a good understanding of advanced shooting and the ability to demonstrate that understanding on demand in a high-stress situation.
Dispelling Arguments
There are more than a few people who disagree with my opinion that there is acorrelation between being good at shooting competitions and having success when in aself-defense situation. Many good arguments supportthat opposing view as well. Let’sbring those arguments up and discuss them. It is a good idea to actually find some ofthose people and listen to their reasoning to develop your own opinion. But ultimately,as the author, you have to deal with my opinions throughout this article.
Shooting Competitions Get You Killed in the Streets
A lot of people think that the format of shooting a competition is completely different from a self-defense situation. In a more general interpretation, I would agree with that. Stages don’t often imitate a Walmart parking lot with cars and other people, or a sidewalk with storefronts on your left and cars on your right. However, the skills required to be successful at a match are also useful in a self-defense or active-shooter situation. You have to be able to hit your target with high accuracy and speed. A very good place to check these skills is at competitions.
Another point would be that competitions don’t teach tactics. On a stage, I can run and fully expose myself around a wall to a group of four targets, engaging them all efficiently and not being penalized for it. I doubt you would experience the same level of success in an active shooter situation. What you have to realize, though, is that you don’t go to competitions to learn tactics. You learn to use your firearm efficiently and at a subconscious level, so that shooting becomes second-nature and you can focus more on your decision-making.
Competitive Shooters Use Different Gear than a Practical EDC
This argument is very easily defeated. All you have to do is use your EDC gear when you shoot competitions. Below is a picture of one of my competitive setups, and it is the exact setup I carry every day. I use competitions as a place to measure my abilities with my everyday carry rig. I also use a gear setup for going fast, and it’s not what I carry. I love shooting fast, and my race rig reflects that (also pictured below). But ultimately, if your goal is to better yourself with the gun you carry every day, use that exact rig in a match! It’s also a good proving ground for testing tools and figuring out how you like your gear set up.
Conclusion
Up to this point, we’ve discussed in depth how shooting competitions relate to the ability to use a firearm in a self-defense situation. Consistently going to competitions builds your shooting skills, which in turn builds your skill set in using your firearm efficiently. Shooting competitions also increase your ability to perform on demand during high-stress situations. Along with understanding Hit Factor scoring and using it to practice, these skills will greatly increase the probability of a positive outcome should you find yourself in a horrible situation.
