First IDPA Match Yesterday

[MrBorland]

I agree with Sam1911's excellent advice, but personally, I'd switch #s 3 & 4 in order of priority, as much bigger gains are to be made in movement than shooting speed.

Sam's sub-points in #4 are all excellent, and can generally be summed up as "show up ready to shoot". Lots of time is wasted arriving at a position with your gun down while you look for the target. Lots of time is wasted by ducking back under cover to reload (if you're not busting cover while shooting, you're not busting cover while reloading). Lots of time is wasted by reloading, then moving that extra step to engage the next target from cover. Reload while you slice the pie so you can shoot as soon as the gun comes up.

Also, I'm not sure whether to put this under accuracy, speed, or movement, but reloads also take up a chunk of time, so they need to be worked on so they're smooth & quick (in that order), and so the shot before and after the reload is good.

Fortunately, much of this can be worked on at home through dry fire drills. You can set up some scenarios that include movement, cover & reloads in your garage, or if do-able, in the house, e.g. leaving and entering rooms, moving down halls, dim light, etc.

 

[Sam1911]

Unfortunately a lot of my number 4 sub-points are the kind of things that start to give some (TINY) bit of validity to the "IDPA isn't training" flak.

There are plenty of little motion and time-saving techniques you will learn to do if you want to succeed in competition that are quite unsound in a self-defense scenario (as I'm often advised by the NTI crew who make up the bulk of my shooters).

Maybe that's part of why I put those things 4th. If you're deeply into the game, you should recognize and use these techniques. If you're using IDPA matches as (simply) a great chance to practice practical shooting skills, you might not want to divert your attention into the choreography of running a known COF.

But some of those skills do translate -- like not crowding cover, keeping your gun up in your work space and oriented toward the threat, efficient and opportunistic reloads, etc.