FUNshoot News - The Winning Combination
A newsletter for the modern pafisto.
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Competition or Combat:
Fast 'n Accurate is the Winning Combination!
Recently, a "name" shooting school circulated a meme insinuating competition shooters routinely fail to shoot accurately when under pressure. "We see it all the time" the meme-maker retorts despite offering no data to support the assertion. I guess Precision Pistol, High Power, Smallbore, et. al. don't know how to shoot precisely...
Anti-competition comments are similar to anti-gun claims. In both cases, real data indicate both competition and gun ownership by well-regulated (trained) shooters is beneficial but some continue to maintain a cognitive bias despite this.
Even if we limit "competition shooters" to action/practical shooters exclusively, this baseless claim still falls apart. Here's an example of what real data looks like. The following analysis is from Steven Cline of the Deadeye Method
https://www.facebook.com/TheDeadeyeMethod
https://www.thedeadeyemethod.com/
Some time ago a shooter with some acumen in statistical analysis posted these two pictures to a forum dedicated to ruthless trolling of “tactitards” by some very high level competitive shooters. As I recall some clueless gent had grievously erred by wandering in and spouting off about missing fast enough to win.
This particular member grabbed up the data for the results of a USPSA Nationals. Our statistician created two charts for us. The first is total time by overall finish and the second is the percentage of possible points by overall finish. A USPSA Nationals is a more statistically valid pool of data than some local match [and certainly better than stories from barracks lawyers and barstool philosophers, as well as shooting schools that fail to show compiled data - Ed.] The guy was nice enough to break out the shooter classifications for us as well. Let’s take a brief look at overall time (speed) as a performance measure related to overall performance. See below.
When it came to the Grand Masters (GMs), the very fastest shooter was not the top finisher as High Overall went to the 5th fastest shooter. The top Master was the quickest in his division, the top A shooter was 2nd fastest in his division. The top B shooter was 4th in his division. Apparently, speed alone does not determine the winner. That brings us to the second chart; % of possible points (accuracy) in relation to the overall finish.
Amongst the GMs, the match winner had the 2nd highest number of points. Second and Third place had the 4th and 5th place highest points. Mr. 7th place had the highest points.
Together, these charts allow us to make a mature and clinical assessment of what produces National Champion skill (and World Champion, too). It is the balance of speed and accuracy.
Recall, the charts start by identifying the shooter’s Overall Finish first, then their performance in Accuracy (percentage of possible points) and Speed (total number of seconds). The National champion was neither fastest nor most accurate. He was the shooter with the healthiest balance of speed and accuracy. He was 5th fastest and 2nd most accurate. The fastest shooter was something like the… 11th most accurate shooter. He was too inaccurate to win. Our most accurate shooter was 7th overall. He was too slow to win. That most accurate shooter appears to be 17th in overall speed. His balance of speed and accuracy is a bit out of whack as well. He took too long to earn the most points.
Competition drives (should drive) us to learn our best balance and make that performance our habit until even better performance becomes our habit. That is to say a habit wherein we produce high accuracy in the least amount of time.
High accuracy in as little of time as you can manage as a habit. That sounds like a sound philosophy for winning gun-fights, to me.