Training

Question
Hi. I'm a CCW permit holder and I've taken several training classes on handgun safety and drawing/shooting from the holster. We also covered close-quarters combat.

I was wondering if there were any programs in the Seattle/Tacoma area that cover real-life shooting scenarios. I'm not interested in competitive stuff like IPSC. Most civilian gunfights occur from distances of less than 10 feet and involve 2.5 shots on average. This is the type of skill I'd like to master. If there are no programs like this, any range practice ideas? Thanks!

Answer
Matt,

Insights Training Center operates out of Seattle, and holds classes around the country.  Thunder Range recently relocated to Lakeview, OR.

I would see if there is an IDPA club near you as well (www.idpa.com).  Although I'm not a big fan of IPSC for truly practical shooting, I like IDPA a great deal.

I teach numerous one day seminars.  I've never seen anyone really learn those skills in the one day class.  They know what they look like, and have a rudimentary idea of how to do it, but can't do it well.  Like any martial art, shooting well take thousands of repetitions before it's done right, and more importantly, effortlessly.  If you are introduced to that skill set through training, and practice it in competition, not caring whether you win the competition or not, you'll have opportunity to drill those skills again and again.  If you actually start to win a few matches doing everything right against people who are taking "game shorcuts" you'll be a force to be reckoned with.

When I practice I like to shoot a magazine full of rounds up close as fast as I can run the trigger.  But a magazine is all.  Most of my practice is done at distances far greater than I ever anticipate facing, for the simple reason that if you can hit at distance, you can hit fast up close.  Several of my students can hit any reasonable target on demand in a compressed time (e.g. head shots @ 75 ft in under 4 seconds from the holster).  My students who can do this NEVER miss at closer ranges or larger targets.

The other benefit of IDPA competition is that for most people, it introduces an artifical stress, the amount varying from person to person.  But if you can learn to control the effects of stress in competition, it will be easier to control them in a situation.

There is a benefit to learning CQ tactics because most people have never thought of doing those things with a handgun, but they do not take practice to master.  "Front sight, press quickly" at distances where you actually need those sights is simple but not easy.  Most people who shoot only at targets within 15 feet, cannot slow down when targets are further off, and miss (I've never subscribed to the idea, "I'm more likely to be robbed in a parking garage than be caught in something like the LA riots" - that may be true, but will comfort you little if you are caught in something like the LA riots, and can't hit beyond 15 feet).

I'll mention two other benefits of IDPA competition.  The first is that depending on the club, rules dictate that targets be fairly close, and there not be multitudes of them, which is more realistic than IPSC.  The other is that if you shoot an IDPA match, you are very likely to be saying to yourself "this isn't the way it would happen."  That's a good preparation.  In interviewing numerous people who have been involved in critical incidents, they all have one things in common:  "I didn't think it would happen that way."

As my Tae Kwon Do Grand Master told me many years ago, "You will be introduced to everything you will ever learn by time you earn your first black belt.  The next 50 years will be spent actually learning how to do it right, to perfecting it."