New Shooters

[Jim Norman]

The thread about how to treat a new shooter prompted me to post this poll. WHat do we expect from a new shooter? How do we form our opinion of said shooter? What training do we offer? Do we require any instrucition before we let you shoot?

I know that when I started, i should probably have been DQ'd before I ever fired a shot, I had no idea about the rules other than a very small bit I had read on the web, most of which I did not understand. That having been said, my actions were not unsafe, just not with in the rules., ie., unbagging outside the safety area and the like.

A few years back our Match Director started a "Tutuorial" program at our Friday night practice match. We run this 1st and 3rd Friday of the month. Generally we try to get the newbie to the first, but will always run the course if requested. It consists of about 1-1/2 hours of rules, history and general information about USPSA and IPSC. We follow this with a live fire safety check and very carefully coached participation in our match. No safety chack card is issued at this time. We reserve that for participation in our regular monthly outdoor match.

We feel the benifits of our informally formal approach are many. We gain new shooters. We don't scare them off by exposing them to a full bore match, we can take the time to coach them and carefully mentor their first exposure to actioin shooting. Many of theise people have gon one to join not only USPSA but also our club.

We do continue the mentoring program at the ourtdoor matches until we feel they are competent.

Jim Norman

[Ron Ankeny]

Jim:

We have a real small club with 10-15 shooters at a match. We read the most common safety violations at the squadding/shooter's meeting, and we assign an old hand to mentor the newbie. If it's the shooter's first time, we coach them through the course of fire.

[John Dunn]

The one guy I've recruited to USPSA and I generally ride to matches together. For us it has been a 3 hour drive, so the first time out I tried to give a thorough safety briefing. Worked well except for holstering up at the truck, which I neglected to mention.

[MikeFoley]

New shooter check, followed by squadding with two experinced RO's and other new shooters, high touch all the way for the first match or two.

[Carlos]

I am for Ron's approach; thorough briefing & then mentoring.

There is a 12 week introduction to USPSA & IDPA shooting class taught at Shooters Paradise (www.shootersparadise.com) in Northern Virginia. Among the many benefits is class bonding that often leads to new shooter retention/interest.

The class meets once a week for all twelve weeks & covers a different topic every week, including: safe equipment, the trigger squeeze, sight picture, how to draw safely, the reload, a barricade exercise, shooting at a steel target, etc. No competitions can be shot while the student is learning. The instructor, Jeff Hogue, has been teaching this for over a decade and is probably responsible for bringing more shooters into the sport in the VA/MD section than any other single person. The twelve week approach may not work everywhere that USPSA is shot, but its a great opportunity for a new shooter living in this area.

D.C. Johnson

[Jim Norman]

Not sure about the twelve weeks. It would require a commitment and also a lot of range time that we don't have. However, your list of what is taught gives me ideas for enhancing our practice matches.

As stated earlier, we have a basic intro, then the new shooters are coached, I suppose you could say taught, basic action skills over the succeeding weeks. Generaly when the new shooter transitins to the regular outdoor match he is at least prepared with the basics so as to be able to have fun and not get a DQ for things he just doesn't know.

We have a limit on available range time at the indoor range which precludes us running a similar course unless we would be willing to forego our regular practice match.

Jim

[Dead Buff]

I give formal training to a newbie the weekend before the shoot with formal coaching before and after each CoF. We however have not implemented a pass/fail scenario...

[Glen]

This is for ipsc and new shooters, and applies to those who

want to shoot in sanctioned matches.

We have to take (and pass) a Black Badge course. It's a

formal course on the ipsc rules and gun handling skills.

It covers the draw, loading and unloading, reloading, movement

with the gun, barricades and ports, stong hand/weak hand, etc.

Essentially it is a non-match, in-depth introduction to ipsc. The

instructor can locate problems, reinforce good practices, etc.

The instruction is the first half of the course. The second half

is competing in a sanctioned match as a Novice.

The entrance requirements are a 1) a sight picture 2) trigger

control 3) desire. It usually is a two day course and then at some

point in the future the novice shoots his/her first match.

The novice shooter is still in the deep end, but at least they can

tread water.

Glen

[Jim Norman]

As I read through the responses posted, I notice one thing, Very few are saying where they are from.

What is a "Black Badge" Is this a requirement of your club? Your state or country? Your region?

For what its worth, I'm in NJ, USA.

Jim Norman

[Glen]

Jim:

The Black Badge course is for Canada, and

is nation-wide.

Glen

[Jim Norman]

Glen,

Thank you. Is it a governmental requirement? Or is it IPSC Canada?

Jim

[Tman33_99]

Most of the the clubs in eastern CO run new shooters thru a one day orientation/safety class which covers the basics. At matches a new shooter is introduced at the shooters meeting and experienced shooters are asked to help them through.

One club does a 2 hour class the day of (just before a match) then they shoot with the class instructor and a few other experienced shooters as a squad.

[Glen]

Jim,

It is an IPSC Canada requirement.

Glen

[Jim Norman]

Glen,

Side question here, but related. If a US Classified competitor were to come to Canada to shoot, would he be required to take youe course to compete? or would his USPSA classification serve?

Jim

[Glen]

Jim,

The USPSA classification would be just fine. The

judgement of the other areas is trusted.

Glen

[ScottQ]

Before I reply, let me introduce myself. I'm about as new a shooter as you'll find, having purchased my first handgun only about a month or so ago. I've been reading the forums here for several weeks, but this is my first post.

In my particular case, I decided to purchase a handgun for personal defense reasons, and I figured there wasn't much point in having one if I didn't learn how to use it, so I started looking for resources on the Internet to help me in that task. I may be a bit unusual in that I own an Internet business, so the Internet is generally the first place I go when I'm looking for information.

I read a lot of general information articles on the Internet, and read a few handgun magazines, when I stumbled across the website of a local USPSA club. What I read there sounded both fun and practical, and their website sounded very welcoming to new shooters, so I went to check things out.

At this point I did not own a gun at all (actually I had not completely made up my mind to purchase a gun at all), so I mostly went to see what it was all about, and see if it looked like something interesting. Shooting a few rental guns at the range and a basic handgun safety class a few years back was basically the total extent of my firearms experience.

What I found was the people were every bit as friendly and welcoming as the website lead me to expect, and the shooting looked like a perfect way to learn how to effectively use a handgun. And of course it looked like a lot of fun.

Well, the following weekend I bought my first gun at a local gun show (an HK USP Compact 40) along with some extra magazines, holster, mag holders, etc. Some enterprising gun dealer out there ought to put together a starter package for USPSA/IPSC, cause that process alone can be pretty intimidating and expensive.

So the following week I headed out to the weekly club competition, for my first actual try at shooting IPSC. My introduction consisted basically of about 15 minutes of overview of the safety information and the basics of how to shoot a stage, along with a couple of handouts. Now, I may be unusual in that I had already read just about everything on the very excellent GPSL website, and had read most of what was available on the USPSA website, along with having already watched a match, so I was already pretty familiar with how things were going to go.

I set three goals for myself before I went out, which were as follows:

1) Be safe.

2) Have fun.

3) Try to hit the targets.

I'm sure most of you remember what it was like the first time you ever did something like this, but for me that memory is very fresh, as it was only 4 weeks ago. It was truly amazing to me how much of a blur that first stage was. For someone new, there is just SO much going on all at once it's hard to process it all. I don't recall a single target, nor do I even remember the gun firing during that first stage. So much of my attention was on keeping the gun safe (remember, this was the first time I've ever shot with other people around), remembering how to operate the gun, and negotiating the course of fire, I'm amazed I actually hit anything. I still remember being surprised to look up and see the slide locked back a couple of times, and practically forgetting what to do when that happens, depsite having practiced reloading at home for hours on the day before the match.

For the record, it took me 76 seconds to shoot a 24 round course, and I had 2 misses. My hit factor was 0.8325. I don't think the grand masters need to be worried about me catching them just yet.

After I was done, I was totally convinced of two things. One, this sport is a LOT of fun! And two, while I hope never to need to use a gun for self defense, the training and practice that I gain here will be very valuable. I'm not gonna get into any sort of debate about various types of training and competition, but for me, I wanted to learn how to operate a gun under pressure, and have those skills so ingrained that I don't have to consciously think about it. Shooting IPSC will be a good start down that road.

So, all that being said, how does this relate to the original question? Well, speaking for myself, I love the mentor idea that was mentioned here. I've certainly found that lots of the more experienced shooters have been extremely helpful, but if I had a mentor assigned to coach me through the first few weeks, I think that would have helped a lot. It certainly would have made me feel a lot more comfortable.

A second issue for those who haven't competed before is "stage fright". It's inevitable that a new shooter is going to feel nervous before their first time shooting in front of 30 or 40 people. I would have loved an opportunity to shoot a practice stage with a more experienced shooter, more or less walking through it in slow motion with live fire. I think another local club has a little more extensive new shooter training class, but I'm not sure if it includes this type of thing or not, since I haven't yet gone and done it. I'd have certainly felt more comfortable had I been able to do something like that, and I'd have been much more aware of what was going on around me.

To me, that awareness is pretty important. With greater awareness a new shooter will be safer, and have more fun. We can only process so much new information at one time, so the less new things we have to deal with that first time up on the line, I think, the better. And I'm not talking about awareness of the sights, and the targets, and all the sorts of things the more experienced shooters focus on. I'm talking about awareness of my position, the position of the gun, the range officer, their commands, etc. The sort of awareness that's focused on keeping the whole thing fun and safe for a new shooter.

Scott

[Jim Norman]

Scott,

Welcome to the most fun you can have with your clothes on. USPSA is fun, it is safe and it is challenging. You will meet some of the friendliest people here that you will ever meet on the face of this earth.

I don't know where you shot, but it sounds like you got a good place nearby. If you show up, help out, you will probably make some good friends, probably more than a few will be happy to set-up and practice with you.

Jim Norman