This weekend I was privileged to instruct four potential USPSA competitors in the Albany Rifle & Pistol Club's "Intro to USPSA" class. If you are a regular reader, you may be aware that I have been volunteering my time to perform this necessary function since July of 2008.
This may be my fifth or sixth class ... I've already lost count of the classes and the number of students ... and as usual I found the experience taught me as much as it did my students.
INTRINSIC vs EXTRINSIC attitudes:The people who sign up for this class (free to ARPC club members) are highly motivated, which is the best condition for any training situation. The alternatives are those who are
Intrinsically motivated (these people, who sign up "just for the fun of it", or because they derive a benefit from the course of instruction), or those who are
extrinsically motivated ... they sign up because they are obliged to do so because it is a necessary stop to achieving another goal.
Intrinsic motivation insures that the student performs to his/her highest possible degree of endeavor.
Extrinsic motivation tends to result in poor student performance; he just wants to get through the day and achieve certification which allows him to compete.
I have been fortunate in that most people who enroll in this introductory course want to learn the skills necessary to compete successfully in USPSA competition. They have an
intrinsic interest, because they want to learn how to shoot safely, and to feel more comfortable in the competitive environment.
Those students whose motivation is
extrinsic seem, if a generalization may be suggested, to only want to achieve a sign-off. They usually have the attitude that they already know everything they need to compete, and anything that they may learn from the instructor can readily be picked up during competition.
I've been fortunate so far in that most of my students are intrinsically motivate. Those students who are only extrinsically motivated are easy to identify: they either don't show up for the confirming match (see below), or the do show up and are filtered out because they are demonstrably unable to compete safely. It's a Darwinian solution: they drop out of future competition because they don't have the skills, and they are too proud to ask for help.
We know who they are before the complete the "Introduction" class. They don't want to learn, they are confrontational, they "have an attitude".
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The Class Experience:I was extremely fortunate in the four students who arrived early for the class, and were happy to help set up the stage props for the class.
Here's the student roster. (I feel confident in revealing backgrounds while maintaining a sufficient degree of anonymity. As is my usual practice, I provide my blog URL and my personal email address on a "Get Out Of Hell Free" card so they can monitor what, if anything, I have to say about their course of instruction.):
"
TOM" is the friend of Aaron, an experienced USPSA competitor. Aaron is actively encouraging his friends to try USPSA competition because it's fun.
"
WES" signed up for the course because he wants to compete. I have no idea what his background is, because the training is so compressed into a short time period that it is impossible to interview the students individually. What I know about the students is whatever the volunteer during the training period. It's perhaps enough to know that Wes is willing to work as hard as is required to learn new skills.
"
Don" is a USPSA member, a LEO, who has 'other' training and has demonstrated his gun-handling skills during the course of training. As is true of almost all students, I don't really know whether he has actually competed in USPSA matches.
"
Chase" is a youngster (perhaps 10 years old ... I don't know, and I didn't ask) whose father "
Wade" enrolled him in the class. I don't know if Wade is an experienced Competitor, and I didn't ask.
I won't get into the individual details of training, because frankly the skills and familiarity with USPSA range commands, practices and procedures is almost invariably know and is universally confusing.
The most telling significant events are how they handled themselves and their firearms in situations where the one-hour discussion of test questions and hypothetical scenarios were not adequately covered. It's impossible to cover every event they may encounter, and that's precisely why we start with exercised designed to introduce skills and procedures in a manner which limits the 'new things' they need to do.
First scenario: Load one round in your magazine. At the sound of the starting buzzer, shoot target T1 with one round only.
The purpose of this exercise is not only to familiarize the new shooter with the standard range commands (and his response) but to allow the shooter to make mistakes and see how he handles them.
One shooter responded to the start signal by drawing his pistol and then racking the slide of his semi-automatic pistol ... thereby ejecting the single cartridge. His response was to wait for further instructions from the Range Officer.
Positive results: he knows he doesn't know everything he needs to know, so rather than compound his instinctive error (he is not accustomed to a structured shooting scenario), he waited for, and actively requested, further instruction from the Range Office.
Instruction received: "
The clock is still running, you may reload with another magazine and continue to satisfy the requirements of the published Stage Procedures".
Lesson learned: the competitor is responsible for every event which occurs after the starting signal.
The second scenario: Load with a full magazine, carry every reload magazine you can carry. Engage target T1 with at least 2 rounds (Comstock scoring), perform a mandatory reload, and engage target T2 with at least 2 rounds.Objective: become familiar with the 'reload' requirement; also, indexing between targets, be aware of the passage of time while striving for accuracy.
Note that all scenarios were scored by the RO, and time was announced as well. Class members were designated "A Squad", and were required to tape and reset all targets ... to familiarize them with the etiquette of "everybody works".
Reportable Event: One shooter performed the reload when appropriate, but then racked the slide of his pistol, ejecting a perfectly good round and incurring a 'time penalty'. The student said to himself: "
Oh, I didn't need to do that. I'm sorry." Not necessary to comment, of course, but it's important that he realized that he had performed an unnecessary function, and understood that time was a necessary factor in his competitive performance even though the defined imperative was first to shoot safely, and second to shoot competitively.
Note that the competitor is ten years old, and he is THIS aware of his priorities!
Also note that the competitor experienced a jam during the reload. He immediately effected the "
Tap/Rack/Bang" resolution, in which he smacked the magazine to seat it ("
Tap"), racked the slide ("
Rack"), and continued shooting ("
Bang!") , apparently without even having to think about it. Excellent gun-handling skills, you can tell that the shooter has been well trained.
Also in the same scenario of engaging two Metric (cardboard) targets with a mandatory reload between targets,
another shooter demonstrated his prior training by NOT hesitating after successfully engaging the first target and then performing the mandatory reload. Typically, the new student will hesitate between the first target. He will obviously begin to engage the second target, realize at the last moment as it occurs to him that there is something he needs to do before engaging ("shooting at") the 2nd target. Instead, this student got too good hits on T1 and immediately performed his reload.
Lesson Learned: Know what you need to do before beginning the stage. Walk through the functions you must perform at each significant tactical point, and be prepared to perform that function without pausing to think about it.
Finally, we get into
the ultimate scenario:
Engage two Metric (cardboard) targets from the shooting box. Move to the second shooting position (in a shooting box behind a Bianchi Barricade. Engage a Pepper Popper from the left side of the Barricade, index, engage a U.S. Popper from the right side of the Bianchi Barricade. Minimum number of rounds: six shots.
Mandatory reload between the two shooting positions (eight feet apart). Do NOT attempt to reload "on the move". (Safety/training issue.)
One student experienced some problems engaging steel targets around a barricade. He ran out of ammunition for his Single-Stack 1911 Pistol. During the standing reload, he forgot to remove his finger from the trigger. He had been repeatedly warned during the exercise to show that his finger was NOT on the trigger during movement, clearing a jam, or while reloading. Still, he had his finger within the trigger-guard while performing a standing reload.
He was DQ'd (Match Disqualified) as a consequence of egregious failure to observe basic safety rules. The failure was carefully explained to the entire class. The consequence of his Match DQ was that he was required to reshoot the stage safely, which he did.
Why do we expend such effort to train new shooters?Our goal was primarily to train the new competitor in safe shooting, which includes and emphasizes safe gun-handling skills. All students are required to either demonstrate his ability in a beginning "Introduction to Pistol Shooting" class, or to convince Range Staff that he has the skills. When these skills are not demonstrated during the Advance "Introduction to USPSA Competition" class, we have two options:
- Re-enforce the necessary skills through repetition;
- Require the student to successfully pass a (remedial) "Introduction to Pistol Shooting" class, and then require that he successfully pass the "Introduction to USPSA" class.
In this specific instance, the first step was adequate to allow him to move forward.
The next step in certification if that each student must successfully complete an actual match. This explicitly requires that he shoot all six stages without violating safety rules. We watch New Shooters very carefully, and nobody gets a "Free Pass". The new shooter is held to the same standards of Safety as is every other shooter.
The Downside:Yes, we have lost enthusiastic, motivated new competitors because they are unable to safely complete their first match.
Yes, we regret that they lost confidence in themselves to the point that they declined to continue trying to safely complete a match.
And yes, we have had people who required more than one match to learn how to shoot safely, but had the confidence and the "gumption" to keep coming back until they learned how to shoot safely.
We regret the loss of New Shooters who are discouraged. And we recognize the courage and determination of those who are willing to learn the lessons we teach.
This is an entirely self-regulating sport, and one which potentially can result in injury, even death, when the mandatory safety rules are not instinctively observed.
But the record of injury and death is less than the record of injury and death incurred in High School Football.
Bad Days:We realize that we are 'playing' with tools which are essentially deadly weapons. We make every effort to train new practitioners. We use multiple levels of caution to prefent unsafe actions of every competitor, no matter what their level of experience may be. And if you, as a competitor, violate a single Safety Rule in even the most minimal manner, we will disqualify you from competiton for the balance of them match. The rationale is that you have demonstrated that you are unable to compete safely today, and while you may be more "in the game" tomorrow we are unwilling to risk injury to yourself or to others by permitting you to continue shooting when you are "having a bad day".
We don't do "Bad Days".
We train you so that you know if you are having a Bad Day.
We don't want you to have a "Bad Day", because we want everybody to go home in exactly the same condition as you were in when you showed up at the range. Nobody bleeds, and if you leave limping it's only because you pulled a muscle by trying to move faster than your physical condition would allow. You may be tired, but nobody was seriously damaged because firearms were involved in your chosen sport.
Practical Pistol Competition is the safest sport in the world, because we make the effort to insure the safety of everyone who shows up at the Range on Match Day.
I guarantee it.
