Springfield - Worlds Collide: Practical Competition Stage
Rob LeathamDescription
In this companion to the Worlds Collide video about shooting a competition stage, PDN’s Rob Pincus uses the same setup as that competition stage to show Team Springfield’s Rob Leatham how a defensive shooter would shoot it in order to get value out of it as defensive shooting practice.
These two handgun training videos illustrate how differently competition and defensive shooters think and how differently they must think in order to accomplish the radically different goals of competition and defensive shooting.
In the first video, we saw how rule-bound competition shooting is. In setting up the defensive shooting, Rob Pincus finds it unnatural to dictate how many shots should be fired at each target, because in an actual defensive shooting, the correct number of shots is “as many as it takes to make the bad guy cease his actions.” That may be one precise shot, or it may be several combat-accurate shots, or some number in between.
Defensive Shooting Scenario
Defensive tactical shooting drills should have a defensive goal in mind. For this drill, the shooter must move from the start of the course and reach his daughter, who is at the opposite end of the course (i.e., house or hallway). Visualization is important in defensive shooting drills to create some stress and sense of urgency in the shooter.
Likewise, when running this competition stage as a defensive shooter, the shooter should visualize how an actual defensive shooting would be: the targets would all be shooting back and would not be stationary. The shooter’s movements should reflect this.
How To Do It
Rob Pincus demonstrates that the keys to turning a competition stage into useful defensive shooting practice are to expose yourself to one target at a time, cut the angles, and make the shots as easy as you can.
Rob P, it seems like you are trying so hard to find fault with competition shooting, I think we get the message that competition is not the same as a real live event. In my opinion trigger time is important and competitive shooting gives you that much better than just putting holes in paper at your local range.
this is by far the best series you guys have ever done. Keep them coming.