IDPA Practice Drills

[vsorrentino]

Just started shooting IDPA. Great stuff.. Great practice for a real life situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x51vDlGBFo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBoGiF7EFk

 

[jmorris]

Just started shooting IDPA. Great stuff.. Great practice for a real life situation.

Welcome to THR. Shooting IDPA is great practice for a real life situation, if the situation happens to be stages at an IDPA sanctioned match.

If the situation is not set in a game/points/time arena some of the methods to win at IDPA will be losers “in real life”. On the other hand, I guess it is better than a video game.

 

[Topspeed]

I think that any training or competition that requires you to draw, aim and shoot under timed conditions is helpful. You need to learn that your gun may not come out of your holster smoothly or your aim may not be true under stress. IDPA is very similar to the police training I am familiar with. Move, shoot and reload while being timed. Most police officers are never involved in a shooting situation but they have to rely on their training when and if needed. Practice and training regularly may be a lifesaver some day. Enjoy your IDPA experience and welcome to the forum.

 

[David E]

I am a Charter Life member of IDPA, etc, etc.

However, I'd never call an IDPA match "training," or "practice for real life situations."

Some of the rules are utterly STUPID in real life. (what am I saying? Some of them are utterly stupid for the match!)

It IS a good way to improve your shooting and gunhandling skills under pressure and THAT can be helpful if ever faced with a "real life situation."

 

[Sam1911]

Just started shooting IDPA. Great stuff..

Yup! Great challenge, great fun, great people.

Great practice for a real life situation.

The gun handling skills and practice you get in drawing from concealment and placing shots on target in a moderately stressful situation are very valuable -- especially for someone who's gun experience is mostly on a "square" range shooting bullseyes.

There are some aspects of the game which cannot be considered good training for any realistic shooting situation, and it pays to think about that as you analyze the stages you see/shoot. Your actions and reactions to the scenarios would be (well ... should be) very different if there was a chance the targets were mobile, hostile, and armed.

With those caveats, it is FAR better practice than 95% of gun-owners ever get in using their sidearms in actually working with a sidearm in a real-world kind of way.

Enjoy!

 

[W.E.G.]

Practice shooting with one hand!

Left hand and right hand.

I had no confidence shooting weak-hand only until I started IDPA.

 

[jmorris]

Practice shooting with one hand!

Left hand and right hand.

I had no confidence shooting weak-hand only until I started IDPA.

Practice and training are not quite the same thing; however, both can rarely hurt performance.

 

[Hk Dan]

Here is how my practice goes:
1 Mag of group shooting from 30 yards. Target is a 2.5" painted circle.
1 mag of one shot draws at a 6x12" steel plate at 15 yards.
3 Bill drills. 1 at 5, 1 at 10, and 1 at 15 yards
3 El Presidente drills, same distances.

"Mini stages" set up with 3 targets, focusing on movement and use of cover for the most part. Some reloads with retention, some tactical sequencing.

Hope that helped, and welcome aboard! It's fun (but it ain't training. At best it's practice). But? For stress innoculation, it's better than a sharp stick in the eye. <g>