Quote Originally Posted by JoshIronshaft View Post
My advice would be to participate in the game as everyone else is, go fast and play the game. Here are my reasons why:

- it's fun

- competition with others is good for you, don't handicap yourself by drawing from concealment, then you don't know how you're comparing to people who are good at shooting fast and accurately.

- I've been shooting USPSA for over 10 years. I can shoot a handgun accurately and faster than the average gun owner. Big deal. But there are two other things that USPSA can help you learn to do faster.

A - Seeing. Over time I've trained my eyes to see faster. I can see my hits faster. I can move my eyes between targets faster. I can tell where I hit the steel and if it's going to fall, so I can decide to fire another shot or if it is ok to move to the next target. This is probably the hardest thing to maintain. I have to shoot regularly to keep this skill working.

B - Mental processing under stress. This is probably the biggest takeaway from USPSA for anyone. For some people performing in front of a crowd while being timed is incredibly stressful. For others it's less so, but usually everyone feels a little stress. Now, the goal of USPSA is to execute your pre-determined plan as quickly as possible with no mistakes. This requires all the mental processing speed you have. Your plan might go to hell and you have to figure out a solution, fast. As you shoot more USPSA, and push yourself to perform at a higher rate, your mental processing speed will go up. Eventually you learn to tune out the stress of performing in front of a crowd. So now you know how to tune out stress while performing a complex task with a gun and your brain works faster. That is a very valuable skill to pair with having a gun in your hand.

"USPSA will get you killed in the streets" has officially been debunked but the idea still circulates. To people who say that, I ask them if they can only use their self defense skills while standing at the range, flat footed, slow firing into a target. No, we are adaptive creatures. You are smart enough to be able to use a gun laying on your back, or while seated in your car, just like you can pull a gun out and not go into full USPSA game mode. You can go into slow and steady room clearing mode instead.

Thanks - that's great food for thought and allows me some perspective to reconsider!

I certainly agree with the performing in front of a crowd piece. That was something a while back that really helped me on my training journey. I enjoy adding all of the stressors I can to safe training situations.