Woo-hoo! Just finished competing in the World Championship of IDPA, the International Defensive Pistol Association (www.idpa.com), held at Frank Garcia’s splendid Universal Shooting Academy in Frostproof, Florida. The tournament continues through the weekend.
It was a fun couple of day with folks from Costa Rica, Italy, Romania, Venezuela, and more countries whose citizen shooters I probably haven’t met yet. The majority of contestants, naturally, were fellow Yanks.
Some complained that the courses of fire were too hard: some long shots, often with the target barely exposed from behind cover, and exposed VERY briefly. Well, duh. You don’t go to Carnegie Hall to play Chopsticks, and you don’t go to a world championship to solve easy shooting problems.
Any fantasies I might have had about winning a world title disappeared in my very first stage. Having shot every target I could see, I lowered my Smith & Wesson and waited for the range officer to come and supervise the mandatory unloading of the gun.
…And waited…
When I finally turned around, they were looking at me with something between horror and stark pity. I realized there must be one target I hadn’t shot yet. I brought the gun back up, moved and scanned, and found the target I’d overlooked that was hiding in a corner. By the time I’d put the requisite two bullets in it, I had added some 12 seconds to my time.
How fast you solve the “shooting problem” determines whether you win or lose. Accuracy counts, of course, with a half-second added to your time for every point down from a perfect hit on the silhouette target. Shooting in Master class, I had tanked myself right there.
Well, at least it took the pressure off.
I shot with folks as young as 18, and geezers even older than me, if such a thing is possible. Male and female, black and white and brown and Asian…and had a ball.
The defensive shooting games are, I have long been convinced, the most egalitarian of the shooting sports. The rich shoot alongside the poor. “Civilians” shoot alongside cops and soldiers. It’s about a core value – the protection of the innocent from evil – which is sincerely and universally shared.
IDPA is a dynamic shooting sport. Here, keeping his 9mm Glock 34 in a safe direction, Steve Koski sprints between shooting positions.
Elaborate stage includes targets that charge the shooter, run parallel to the running shooter, and appear very briefly from behind steel cover.
In Frostproof, Florida, the match goes on rain or shine. Here Lance Biddle shoots a stage just after torrential thunderstorm, with water nearly to his ankles, using 3″ barrel S&W Model 65 in Stock Service Revolver division.
That looks like fun! I need to get my backside in gear and do one of these. Not that I can compete, but just to say I did. If traveling with a firearm wasn’t such a pain I would. I can only hope to catch something up CT way.
No, I take that back. I will catch something up this way.
Mas
I have been with IDPA for about a year (SSP-MM) Great group of guys and LOADS of fun
It’s nice to know a master can still have a brain f##t like us new guys
See you in Sacramento (cant wait)
Frostproof looks like a hoot. Thanks for the report. For a brief moment I was in envy of that experience, until I contemplated what your travel schedule must be like. I’ll have to be satisfied with my hokey little range just 3 miles down the road.
Remember , Mr. Ayoob, we are not geezers anymore. The national AVERAGE age in nursing homes today is 93..I am a retired nursing home Administrator, and verified the figure. We both have almost 30 years to go before we are average Geezers! LOL!
I shot my first two IDPA matches and about a half dozen practice shoots over the summer. What a great time! Met a lot of really really outstanding people and learned a lot. My most embarrasing moment was when it ran out of ammo after three rounds because I had forgotten to reload my mags!
“I lowered my Smith & Wesson and waited for the range officer to come and supervise the mandatory unloading of the gun.”
They don’t run a “hot range”?
@ Rob Robbins: Per IDPA rules, all sanctioned matches are cold ranges. They sometimes run the bay hot but after the shooter finishes the stage, he or she is unloaded.
@Mas Ayoob. I am sorry about the forgotten target. I was the Safety Officer on that stage. It is one of those times I wish the rules allowed us to remind the shooters.
Your squad was very fun to run as you all had a great attitude and were great shooters. Hope to see you all again on the range.
Ted