IDPA/IPSC being mentioned brings up a memory or two.
Bear in mind I was born in 1955.
Not long before grandma died, so I was five years old getting close to age six.
I am in a shoot house, and the set up was BGs in the house and I was to retreat, and shoot if BGs came to where I retreated.
Both hands, and I could not miss the targets, from kneeling, sitting or prone.
Yeah I was feeling pretty smug about how well I was doing...
Grandma had this laugh.
Mentors tossed a stuffed dawg at me and said "pretend that is a baby, and the little brat wants to crawl out from behind cover".
Rut Roh. Now I have to hold this "brat" with one hand and shoot threats with the other.
Did I mention Mentors tied a cord to this stuffed dawg? Yeah, and they tugged the stupid cord.
Grandma is laughing, I mean it bad enough I am not doing nearly as well [read: I missing big time], but my own darn grandma is laughing!
I did, I missed a moving scarecrow, that was adult size from less than 5 yards, from prone, one handed.
I was not feeling smug. No, in fact I felt pretty stupid if the truth be known.
As always mentors asked what they always did, and always would:
Young'un, what did you learn?
I get bigger, grandma is gone, and a similar set up. Third grade, as JFK had been shot in Dallas.
Now I got live fire, folks screaming, yelling, cursing , lights are low, and mentors done stuck a sock over my weak hand and arm up to elbow and "you done got shot, now whatcha gonna do?"
Now understand, I started at age 3, and even then not all my targets stayed still, or were flat. Most targets from the get-go, were three dimensional, and the bigger I got, the more targets moved, and the more other things were added to my lessons, like not hitting innocents, hostages, or the family dawg or ...
I remember standing there watching a dad teach his daughter to shoot at a flat target, and she was using both hands.
What is this stationary target bidness?
What is with the target being flat and face on?
I never got any of this, that I remember. At age 3, I shot some tin cans and then one day the can moved just as I was about to shoot it.
Grandma, laughing...
String tied to can and another mentor pulled the string.
"Everything is always moving. If the target is not moving, you are moving or both. We will not teach you to become a programmed shooter, instead mobile, flexible, and adaptable..." - gist of what she said and I heard all the time and still do.
So time passes and I show up to shoot for fun this IDPA/ ISPC dealie for practice.
Sure enough, there is a stage where one is prone, and one has to hold onto a child.
I know grandma and mentors were grinning.
I was shooting for fun, and I was one of the top folks on that stage that day.
Another stage, was at the ATM, and having to shoot the threats, one handed, as one had a child in arms.
Another was sitting on the couch and giving a baby a bottle...when threats appeared.
Difficult? Hey, this is stuff Mentors had me do back when.
So having spent time with ladies, one "set up" is while they are nursing or giving a bottle.
Just another something guys often do not think about...
This was a long time ago, and how raised, and how me and mine did "lessons" and "set ups".
Before IDPA/IPSC and so forth.
To me, those old antiquated lessons are priceless! I miss the mentors, and all I have left is memories and what they passed forward to me.
It was not the guns, or ammo, as we run what we had, instead it was correct basic fundamentals and thinking.
Just common sense, thinking on your feet, with a gun and knowing how to run the gun.
If you need to reach around and shoot one handed, do it.
Watch Jesse Abbate shoot this stage and pay attention to the last shots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K6h7Nkxm8U&feature=related
Mentors had a similar "set up" , starting from recline, when I was around ten years old, making this about 1965.
For me, shooting weak hand only (one handed) afforded me the best way to handle a few presentations from how mentors set this up.
This again was in a shoot house they had built.
Shooting indoors differs from shooting outdoors.
See for yourself, set up exact shooting presentations indoors and outdoors, and then shoot them.
The more tools in the tool box, the better one is able to choose the better tool for task.
That said, one is wise to have learned correct basic fundamentals, or those tools in the tool box might as well be soggy oatmeal.