Could be considered a "serious" variant of LARP perhaps. It can definitely be valuable training to try and roleplay realistic scenarios as accurately as possible.
Like I bet the defender's performance would've been greatly diminished, had he been standing in a small crowd of all the other students for 10 minutes or so, everyone wearing the same safety gear and armed the same, before being suddenly attacked out of nowhere. Meanwhile, everyone else screams and runs in random directions, some directly between the attacker and the victim. Movement, noise, other distractions, and the need to try not to shoot anyone else, would add an entire new dimension.
For a less high-intensity variant, one of the real old-school guys, like Applegate or Fairbairn, recommended issuing students absolutely, 100% unloaded revolvers, their chambers blocked with wax, and pairing them up. At completely random intervals throughout the day of training, when one person spies his partner, he'd yell "draw!" and then each would try to draw and "shoot" the other first. Supposed to be good fast-draw practice, and more valuable training than merely drawing and "clicking" over and over, or reacting to an anticipated beep.
Simple "canned" scenarios are much better training than paper punching, but still far less than a dynamic, unscripted, "role-played" scenario. Of course, you also need to walk before you can run, and crawl before you can walk, and just raise your head before you can even crawl. Each "level" of training has its uses.
But I'm sure Mercop knows all that already.
One idea I had awhile ago, don't know if it has ever been implemented, and I don't know if it'd be particularly effective, would be to have some sort of "after action report," as realistically as possible. Things like describing the medical bills and hospital stays which would likely result from the chalk or paint marks on the defender. The legal ramifications of accidentally shooting an innocent bystander, if it happened, and of shooting the attacker. Speaking of everything as though it were a reality, currently happening, that the defender is going to have to live through. Some people may react poorly to that kind of thing, but for others it may be a hell of a motivator to do better next time! "Next time" may just be the real thing.
