The fifteenth annual indoor winter national championships of the International Defensive Pistol Association (www.idpa.com) wrapped up last weekend, and I was pleased to see some friends in the winners’ circle, including my teammate Bob Vogel from Team Panteao, the overall winner and also high police officer.
Randi Rogers turned in her usual stellar performance, capturing the women’s championship. Her mid-teen protégé, Tori Nonaka, won the junior championship. Tori bested both genders in her age group to claim her title, and Randi kicked a lot of male boo-tay on her way up the scoreboard, too.
This pleases me, as a father of daughters. Randi and Tori both come from shooting families. Randi rose to prominence in the firearms world when she was about Tori’s age now, shooting three-gun cowboy competition (single action revolvers, and Old West style rifle and shotgun) under the auspices of the Single Action Shooting Society (www.sassnet.com). There, the young Randi didn’t just beat the other women and the other kids…she beat EVERYBODY, including prime of life males.
It is the almost universal observation of shooting instructors that females more quickly learn to shoot than males. Some part of it is probably their inherently better fine motor coordination. When a male like football player Roosevelt Grier learns to knit, it’s national news; women are more or less expected by our culture to take to knitting. Trigger pulling, like knitting, is a fine motor skill.
Most schoolteachers will tell you that girls focus better than boys. Shooting is a discipline that DEMANDS mental focus. Women are more flexible than men, supposedly by a factor of 30 degrees in the pelvic axis. In position rifle shooting, where some downright contortion-like postures are demanded in, for example, the sitting stage, the overall national champion is often a female.
Congrats to Randi and Tori, and indeed, to all who competed at the Indoor Winter Nationals hosted by Smith & Wesson at their facility in Springfield, Massachusetts. It’s always a well run match, and a challenging one.
Thanks for posting this Mas. You sure as heck won’t see this on the big networks. Congrats to all.
It’s always great to know there are Lady shooters out there. My sadness is that I could not compell my daughters, 17 & 18 now, just to come out with me to watch and find out what it’s all about.
Congrats!!
Yep, one of my female sophomore students (I teach high school mathematics now) is turning out to be on of the best shooters on the air rifle team. I talked the SGM about her the other day and he said she came in with no experience or ability and quickly built up to one of the top shooters. And I have seen a change in her over the course of the season outside of shooting. She is a highly intelligent student who was very quiet and shy, now she is much more confident and outgoing and excelling in other areas like leadership in JROTC.. Not bad for a sport that many would like to see kicked out of all schools!
Mas,
Don’t know if you saw this recent article in the Wall Street Journal:
“Can Female Athletes Compete Against Men? In Shooting, Yes”
Hope the link works.
Mike
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203960804577239540945498130-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwOTEyNDkyWj.html?mod=wsj_share_email
Its great to see the ladies turning up at matches, training, and the hunting lodge. Tim, I teach high school science and see exactly the same thing. Our girls are strong competitors and will go to pains to out shoot, hunt, and fish their brothers, boyfriends, etc. They have the skills to do it.
Women learn better, they approach shooting instruction with an open mind, then learn it right. Men… first you have to get rig of all their bad habits. We’re macho! We’re born knowing how to shoot , in our genes ya know. Nobody’s going to tell us!!! And that’s another reason why they’ll do so well.
It’s not just female bodies that are flexible. I’ve had many women students, in three hours, go from “OMG I’m holding a real gun.” to “I can HIT the target!” to “IS THERE ANY MORE AMMO?”
Guys, not so much.
I taught one of my nieces how to shoot when she was in her early 20’s. She was a natural. Within ten minutes of being taught how to shoot a .22LR pistol, she was putting all of her shots in the X ring at 15 yards. Within half an hour, she was putting most of them in the 10 ring at 25 yards. Later, she was doing the same at 50 yards with a .22LR bolt action rifle using iron sights, shooting off of sandbags on a shooting bench. I have told her many times how good she is & how much better she could become with practice, but she’s not interested. Occasionally, she would accompany me to the range for fun, but now she’s the mother of three young children & she has no interest in owning a gun or in competing.
My youngest daughter had the greatest time going to indoor ranges and letting the boys brag, then breaking out her Gold Cup .45 and kicking butt. At 16, she picked the .30-06 for her hunting rifle. I’m also very proud that she was the only person in her AF basic training squadron to shoot expert.
Randi, Holy Terror in the SASS world, has done us Cowboy Action Shooters proud! Quite a lady from quite a family!
YeeHaw!
CF
I agree with everything which has been said, but I want to get practical, not just talk about “games.” If a wife gets sick, should her husband know how to cook? Of course. If a husband gets sick, should his wife know how to cut the grass? Certainly. Ideally, men and women should know how to do each others’ jobs. Now, of course we want the men of the house to confront threats to the home. But should women be able to defend themselves with guns and other weapons? Of course! Being perceived as weaker, they are more likely to be victimized. Yes, women should be ready to zap goblins, trolls and zombies, and the “games” will help them be prepared. Since women will be the last line of defense for themselves and their children, they better be good with guns.
Regarding the above- I often reflect on how more likely a woman will be home (without a man around) especially during a daytime burglary. In a fair world there would be more women than men trained and competent in armed self-defense.