Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/739629
This is their comfort zone, place where they feel safe. What they are interested in are mostly speed and time. Drawing speed, rate of fire, transition rate between the points of aim, speed in running along the course of fire. In IPSC time is of the essence. Each one thousandth of a second torn from the overall time can give you points and let you win. Their 'comfort zone' is delimitated by their sport rulebook. And there's nothing wrong with it, quite the contrary: this is just wonderful fun, but one being strictly limited by the rules, and most people does not feel the urge or see any sense in 'pushing the envelope' as flyers call it. Now let's get back to the people who treat the hand- gun as offensive tool, let's call them 'practical shoot- ers' – while bearing in mind, that IPSC, although the abbreviation stands for International Practical Shooting Confederation, has in fact nothing in common with such 'practicality'. It's loads of fun, a fine sport in itself, but un- fortunately it does not prepare one for dealing with real threats in a 'tactical' situation. Let's concentrate then on such people, and what's most important for them. This group trains for real threat situations, and remov- ing the threat with the firearms they carry. Their mo- tivation to train is using the gun in self-defense, and the sporting events like IPSC are secondary. The legislative aspect of the defense is a separate issue. What I would like to focus on, are the training methods I deem appro- priate for these people. In my opinion practical training at a firing range is not a waste of time and making expensive noise only if you com- bine it with endurance and stamina training by perform- ing composite drills. Yes, I know how it sounds: crossfit with shooting for tacticool uberninja. In reality it is not about circus acts. I'm not a big lover of the classical gym where one is performing separated, isolated exer- cises – as much as I'm reserved towards the crossfit, which focuses on numbers and time, with such an inten- sity, that quantity tends to substitute quality. Sounds familiar? Yeah, it should so, as crossfit distorts fitness exactly the same way, as IPSC distorts real shooting. Don't get me wrong – there's nothing wrong with a little friendly competition, and there are people able to achieve superhuman levels by extreme exploitation of their bod- ies – but for an average Joe an attempt to emulate them TRAINING