That's the description I recently provided a co-worker when he asked me what exactly I meant when I said I went "IDPA" shooting over the weekend. More technically, IDPA (which stands for "International Defensive Pistol Association") is an association formed to allow its members to practice shooting skills in simulated self-defense scenarios. Shooters are classified as either novice, marksman, sharpshooter, expert or master for a given weapon (standard or enhanced service pistols, custom defense pistols or revolvers). By far, the easiest way to describe IDPA is to refer you directly to one of the many you tube videos on the subject, like this one:
So anyway, I shot my first IDPA event a few days ago. It was a lot like the one depicted in the previously posted video. I shot from behind barrels, from behind desks and through car windows. I shot at still targets, disappearing targets, and swinging targets. I shot with my left hand. In a word, it was AWESOME. It's SO much cooler than just shooting pieces of paper at my normal indoor range.
As for how well I shot? Well, I finished 32nd out of 38 semi-auto shooters. (Results can be seen here: New Holland IDPA Scores (May 1, 2011)). Among the beginners and novice level shooters, I was roughly in the middle of the pack, which exceeded my well-published pre-shoot goal of "don't be last!" In all, I was pretty happy. I committed three errors that I consider major: (1) failing to shoot two bad guys (FN, or "failure to neutralize" for those keeping score); (2) dropping a mag to the dirt while doing a tactical (non-empty gun) reload rather than stowing it on my person; and (3) "sweeping" the muzzle of the gun over my left arm while climbing out of the car to shoot more bad guys -- a genuine NO NO (for obvious reasons). I didn't even realize I did the last error until I saw the replay on a video that another competitor had recorded. (NOTE: Speaking of which, if the aforementioned other shooter emails me the vids of me event, I'll post. Unless they make me look like a dumbass, in which case I'll delete them.)
My M&P performed well, though it's a lot tougher to acquire and shoot multiple targets in an IDPA situation than I had anticipated. The two main components of score are speed and accuracy. I can tell you, I wasn't particularly fast, nor should I have been. In fact, if anything I was probably trying to be a little too fast for a beginner. As a result, I wasn't particularly accurate either, scoring 65 "points down" which was a relatively high figure. Points down are added to your time for not making center hits (which can range from just-off of the 10" center target to my perviously-mentioned FNs).
Nevertheless, despite the errors and the less-than-spectactular score, I had a great time, and plan to shoot these events regularly. The next match at New Holland is a "classifier," which means my score will translate into a classification, which I will then wear like a scarlet letter until I shoot another classifier that translates into a new classfication. I hope to shoot better in that one.
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