New Shooter DQ's

I've noticed a disturbing trend over the past year, and that is:

I have been "DQ-ing"  (Match Disqualification) people who have attended the "Introduction to USPSA" class on their first match experience ... more than I have in previous years.

Are the shooters this year less competent in their gun-handling skills?  Have I become more "picky"?  Am I watching them closer?  Have I learned their weaknesses during the class, and learned to watch them more carefully?  Am I just getting old and cranky?

While I've been trying to find the answer in myself, perhaps the answer is some weird combination of "all of the above".

Shooter Incompetence?
The "safe gun-handling skills" required in IPSC type competition are far beyond the experiences of most shooters, for a lot of reasons.  Not least of these is that when they go to the range with their friends, there's an easy going, complaisant attitude toward gun safety.   In evidence to support that conjecture, I've seen TWO people DQ'd in the past year because they broke the basic rule of IPSC:  you do NOT handle your firearm unless at the safety table, or under the direct supervision of the Range Officer.

In both situations, the stage called for starting with the pistol placed on a table.  In both situations, the "next shooter" casually wandered up to the starting table, drew his pistol and placed it on the table .. while the RO was still involved with clearing the previous competitor.

These new shooters were in a semi-euphoric mood (evidenced by their laughing demeanor) and obviously didn't even think about what they were doing.  Nobody was downrange from them when they pulled the gun, and their lizard brain told them they were safe.

Both were embarrassed by the outcome, but neither of them had actually THOUGHT about what they were doing until they were DQ'd.  Both realized that they had violated safety rules ... after the fact had been pointed out to them.

I don't think it was actual INCOMPETENCE on their part.   It's just that, when they were at the range and shooting casually with friends, they thought nothing about handling firearms when there was nobody down-range of them.  In a very real way,  the experienced shooter has become habituated to the relaxed range rules of  'casual plinking'.  Even though they had been told the rules, and they had been enforced in training, it hadn't actually sunk in until they were DQ'd.  (Note that, generally speaking, both of the individuals involved had been taught in the class the rules of IPSC ... but this had not been emphasized;  the INTRO class syllabus has since been changed to include this specific issue.)

Have I become more "PICKY"? Am I watching them closer?  Have I learned their weaknesses during the class, and learned to watch them more carefully?

Yes, I have.

In a four hour class which sometimes involves more than a couple of students, it's difficult to immediately discern ALL of the 'bad habits' that people have picked up due to their prior experience.  As a consequence, I know what faults these people have demonstrated in class, and I am particularly watchful for any sign that they have fallen back to their old bad habits.

My experience has been that it is impossible for everyone to learn how to break their bad gun-handling habits from a single four-hour training experience.  The huge volume of information about protocol, procedures, learning the mantra of unsafe (DQ) actions, scoring, and a plethora of other "competition-related" subjects takes up a lot of the 60 minute time-span allotted to this complex subject.  In a large class, it often takes over 90 minutes.

The remaining (notional) three hour "Free Fire Exercise" is the real meat of the course of instruction.  It's not acceptable to cut down on the classroom segment of the class, because they NEED to know all the basic information.  The "Free Fire Exercise" where the students actually shoot, engage targets, and have an opportunity to show how well they can translate the instruction to actual experience ... is usually enough to find issues with each  student, and to address them.

But we're all only human, and sometimes in the week between the class and their first match ... old habits may sometimes overwhelm training.

Sometimes, the best training is to be told that you have failed to live up to the VERY exacting standards of IPSC Safety Rules;  the best thing you can to is to DQ a new shooter.  Having been DQ'd a few times myself, I can assure you that nothing so sensitizes a person to a particular safety rule than being kicked out of a match for its violation.

So .. yes, I am watching them very closely when I RO them during a match.

Trainer Skills Improvement:
I can say that, even though I've been a Certified Range Officer for over 20 years, nothing has sensitized ME more to watching for violation of safety rules, than watching new shooters during their first few matches.

Am I just getting old and cranky?
 Well, yes.  I am.  And I am becoming increasingly impatient with shooters who cannot manage to keep ALL the rules in the forefront of their minds.  They are running around with loaded guns, and I am very aware that in the class (and preceding documents which I have sent them via EMAIL before their class), I have told them:  "IPSC is safer than High-School Football!"

The reason for that assertion, of course, is that in IPSC competition there is always a Range Officer watching them closely to ensure that they compete safely .. it's not about scoring a goal for the home team.  It's about nobody getting hurt.

"Hurt Feelings" don't count.
The only one on the range who is possibly more disappointed when I DQ a new shooter .. is me.  I want them to do well, to be safe, and to enjoy the experience.  But if they can't handle all of the complex conjugations of competition vs safety, they are better off knowing that there is someone watching every move they make, every step they take, I am watching you.  (Okay, I stole that last part from a song.)

At the same time, when they go home to admit to their loved ones that they have been kicked out of an IPSC shooting match because they were unsafe ... there's an "UP" side to this.

The upside is ... nobody got hurt.  Nobody bled.  Nobody went to the hospital.  Nobody even got SCARED, because one shooter violated a safety rule without being called on it.  Usually, nobody else on the range that day even saw the safety violation .. except for the Range Officer.

That's his job .. to keep everybody else safe.

Every time I DQ someone, I'm disappointed.  I'm a Trainer.  I'm suppose to teach people better than that.

Well .. I do teach them, but it's impossible to know who is going to remember those lessons and incorporate them into their "Muscle Memory".  (How easy is it to learn to not handle your gun unless there is an RO there?  To keep your finger off the trigger if you're not engaging a target?  To not handle your gun unless there's an RO telling you to "Make Ready"?  To ALWAYS keep your firearm pointed safely down-range?  And a bunch of other rules that they have never before been required to follow?)

I'm sorely tempted to avoid squading with a new student in his or her first match.  I avoided that specific situation in the MARCH match, and there were NO Match Disqualifications on that day.  I was pleased to hear that, but I still wonder .. if I had been their Range Officer, would that have happened?

I think it would have; I had some excellent students during that period, and honestly I do not typically DQ new students at every match; in fact, it's an unusual occurrence when I DO have to DQ a new student.

The message I'm learning from this is that new shooters don't necessarily always find them selves overwhelmed in their first match.  Sometimes .. yes.  Sometimes .. no.

But when that happens, it pays to have an experienced, critical Range Officer watching to ensure that they are as safe as they think they are.  If they aren't, they are treated just like any other shooter: if they violate a safety rule, then their experienced responsible RO will (reluctantly) DQ them and get them off the range until their newly learned lesson sinks in.

Hopefully, I'm not going to be that RO.  But if I am, I can do that.  God knows I've done it before.