We are often encouraged to get training. Training can be everything from the basic concealed carry classes to advanced courses teaching skills like drawing from concealment, engaging multiple targets, using cover, and moving while shooting. But competition shooting can also be an excellent way to learn tactical shooting and self-defense skills. When I was looking for my first contract as a private security contractor, I spent a lot of time training, and some of the best training I undertook was shooting in USPSA matches.

What is Competition Shooting?

There are numerous types of competition, but this article will focus on United States Practical Shooters Association (USPSA) and International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) matches because they both focus on handguns and provide the best simulation of a self-defense encounter. Both involve shooters running timed stages with a variety of shooting problems to overcome and score on both time and accuracy, and include divisions based on types of guns and shooter experience. But there are also some differences.

USPSA classes range from Production Class, where participants use their basic street gun (which is what I ran), to Open Class, where master competitors run “race guns” costing many thousands of dollars. On the other hand, IDPA matches are designed to simulate real-life self-defense encounters. Classes reflect different types of handguns, such as Custom Defensive Pistol, Stock Service Pistol, Compact Carry Pistol, Revolver, and even Back-Up Gun, with no provisions for race guns and custom holsters. Both USPSA and IDPA require the shooter to draw, move, use cover, and shoot from awkward positions, and the timer keeps running when there is a malfunction. This makes them realistic and excellent training. Both emphasize safety, and any violation, such as flagging yourself or someone else, or turning more than 90 degrees to the left or right while running a course, will get you disqualified.

Skills Required for Self-Defense

The skills necessary to be effective with a handgun and survive a defensive encounter are straightforward:

Draw (including from concealment): Clear your cover garment, draw your weapon quickly, and get it on target.

Proper Grip: Get a proper grip so you can control your firearm, including one-handed and both strong and weak sides.

Balanced Stance: No matter what position you are in or if you are moving or standing still, being off balance will affect your aim.

Using Cover: It is not only important to get some cover between yourself and your assailant, but you must also be able to shoot over and around cover.

Fast Target Acquisition: Identify the target and at least get the muzzle of your gun aligned with it as quickly as possible.

Accuracy Under Pressure: This is entirely related to staying cool and keeping your head.

Target Discernment: Training your mind to recognize a threat from an innocent bystander is another function of staying cool.

Ability to Switch Targets Smoothly: Keeping your muzzle on-line with the target when transitioning to a second or third target.

Shooting at Varying Ranges: Knowing how to hold, present, and shoot at targets from point-blank to 50 yards or more.

Shooting While Moving: Standing still in a gun fight is usually not a good thing, especially with multiple assailants. Be able to move and still shoot accurately.

High Speed Weapon Manipulation: Changing magazines, reloading a revolver, and clearing malfunctions quickly rely on a cool head, familiarity with your firearm, and muscle memory.

Gun Safety Under Pressure: The last thing you want to do during a defensive encounter is to shoot yourself, a family member, or a bystander.

Skills Necessary for Competition Shooting

Without exception, the skills required for competition shooting match those necessary for effective defensive shooting.

Draw

I do not recall ever starting a stage with my gun in my hand when the timer went off. I have drawn from a holster, from concealed, with the gun sitting on a shelf under a table in front of me, and even on my knees, back to the lane, gun in my holster, and hands behind my head. The stages and target arrays are creative and demanding.

Proper Grip

A proper grip is one of the most basic of necessary skills for any kind of shooting. Competitive shooting requires that you achieve a proper grip quickly. Stages often impose special circumstances, such as one-handed and weak side grips. Circumstances can also add realism, like sweaty hands and dusty conditions. I once shot a stage that required a weak hand grip in the freezing rain. Fortunately, I was shooting a Glock, so I wasn’t worried about it getting wet.

Balanced Stance

Most stages require you to move both laterally and forward, usually on gravel and often while stepping around obstacles, and always while being timed. That is the kind of practice in staying balanced you can never get on a static range and often do not get from many formal training classes.

Using Cover

Competitive stages for both USPSA and IDPA often include shooting around, over, and under obstacles. This can force you to shoot from an awkward position, like a right-handed shooter shooting around the left side of a corner or wall.

Fast Target Acquisition

Since you are generally moving during a stage, targets come into view suddenly as you clear obstacles or move further down the lane. That gives you experience and practice in quickly identifying and engaging targets.

Accuracy Under Pressure

When the timing beep sounds, you experience an adrenaline dump that puts your system into hyper mode, very much like what you would experience in a sudden defensive encounter. If you want to be accurate under those conditions, you must stay cool, master the urge to dump the magazine, and focus on your shooting skills.

Target Discernment

It is not at all unusual on a stage to step around an obstacle and see either a bystander target or one illustrating a bad guy shielding behind a hostage. In real life, hitting a bystander or hostage is a tragedy, but in competitive shooting, it is only a point deduction. Better to learn to keep a cool head and pay attention in competition rather than in real life.

Ability to Switch Targets Smoothly

Stages practically always include multiple targets to engage. It may be a row of steels, or a layout of silhouettes arranged at different angles and distances, but whichever it is requires you to rapidly shift targets. One of the earliest critiques I received from a Grand Master at my first competition was that I was slightly raising my muzzle while transitioning targets. Correcting that bad habit improved both my speed and my accuracy.

Varying Ranges

I recall a stage where I had to engage a target at 5 yards, then step around a corner and engage several targets at 2 feet, then round another corner and shoot a row of steels at 10 yards. It was great practice at engaging targets at varying distances. While you can vary distances at a static range by moving the target back and forth, it does not have the immediacy of engaging them quickly one after another.

Shooting While Moving

Practically all IDPA and USPSA stages require the shooter to move both laterally and forward, and I’ve shot some where I had to move backward. This forces you to learn to multitask to focus on your target while not tripping over something as you move.

High Speed Weapon Manipulation

When you are shooting for time, you must accomplish everything as quickly as possible. Drawing, working a manual safety if you use one, reloading, and clearing malfunctions become second nature.

Gun Safety Under Pressure

Something else that needs to become second nature is safety. Competitive shooting is a remarkably safe sport. Other than getting hit with a bit of ricochet from a bullet off a steel target once, I have never seen anyone get shot or injured at a competition. When you constantly handle loaded guns, safety becomes ingrained.

Do You Get Any Training When Competing?

When the timer went off on my first match, I was completely focused on speed. I rushed, I missed, I was rattled. The guys who had been around a while watched and were able to analyze my performance very quickly. Without exception, they were willing to offer solid guidance on how to improve. One in particular, a retired professional baseball player who was a Grand Master, gave me a great deal of mentoring. So, while there may not be a formal trainer walking the line and critiquing your skills, the opportunity for receiving practical, useful training and practice is definitely there. The trick is to be social and make friends with the big dogs.

Cost

The cost for a formal training course can range from $200 for a one to two-hour course to $3000 for a multiday camp, plus the cost of gear, ammunition, and travel expenses. By contrast, IDPA and USPSA memberships run around $60/year. The entry fee for matches varies by location, but most are $20 to $30 unless you’re in a large metropolitan area. Both organizations hold frequent matches all over the country, so unless you’re traveling to a big regional match, you can find several each year within driving distance.

As for equipment, IDPA matches are designed for your EDC or home defense gun, and USPSA has a Production class for unmodified guns. Since I was competing to improve my tactical skills, I shot all my matches with a Glock 21 using standard range ammo with no problems. The only modification was a 4-pound trigger.

The Verdict

Does competition shooting have practical applications? Absolutely. The skills I learned when I started competing in 2003 served me well in Iraq and continue to be of benefit today. If you are nervous about the other competitors being better than you, don’t be. I have never met a nicer or more helpful bunch of people.

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