#mindsetmonday

In this case, I am using Redux not to mean “Redux is an open-source JavaScript library for managing and centralizing application state” but rather “redux describes things that have been brought back—metaphorically, that is.”

Ten years ago, I wrote this post about Competition, Practice, Training, and Testing, https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2014/09/29/competition-practice-training-and-testing/

The subject has reared its ugly head once again, so I’m revisiting it. For personal reasons, I stopped competing for a number of years but recently rejoined IDPA and got back into it. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to shoot a thoroughly enjoyable and challenging match at my gun club. It featured a variety of start positions, had scenarios in which required or allowed shooting on the move, reloading on the move, shooting either with the Support Hand or Primary Hand, and various other skills. While many of these skills are not entry level skills, they are skills that someone who is an Intermediate or Advanced shooter should be at least capable of, if not proficient at.

Here’s a video of the entire match from the shooter’s (mine) perspective.

What did the match cost me? About 40 minutes’ drive, $10 entry fee, two boxes of ammo, and three hours of my time on the range. I also had the opportunity to hang out with friends and people who are on my same sheet of music. It’s also an ego investment, good or bad. That’s a pretty good value for the experience I received. It was a good investment with, to me at least, a high Return On Investment.

Many years in the real estate industry taught me the value of ROI. I submit that shooting in competition may have a much higher ROI, in addition to being fairly accessible, than is generally acknowledged by the training community.

I’m very rusty, as is obvious in the video, but it was a really good TEST for me. One of my benchmarks is how well I can hit the mini-poppers, and I’m pleased that I hit them all with one shot. The skill of being able to transition to a precision target quickly and make the hit is something that every Intermediate and Advanced shooter should be capable of, on demand.

Afterward, I shot the IDPA 5×5 Classifier on my own to get a benchmark of where my skills are at. They’re pretty sad (Sharpshooter) compared to where they used to be (4 gun Master) but at least I have a solid and repeatable measure of my marksmanship skills. My plan for the year is to shoot the 5×5 every month and shoot the full Classifier once a quarter.

I’m looking forward to improving this year. The VP9SK is a great pistol that I really enjoy shooting. The Assassin mentioned that he’s confining himself to one pistol, his Pizza gun, for six months and I’ll probably do the same with the VP9SK.