Defensive firearm techniques and safe firearm handling skills are a depreciating skill set, meaning they degrade with time. Thus it is very important to maintain some training and stress inoculation on a regular basis to maintain skills and proficiency. One of the best and most fun ways to do this is by finding a local International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) match and shooting it for fun. Yes, one can get competitive, but remember that as one starts to try and “game” the results, the importance of the “surprise” factor becomes less and less and one can vastly underestimate their abilities based on their scores at the monthly match.
I try to get to a monthly match at least every quarter, to supplement my regular weekly training with my defensive firearm. At my local range in Piru, California, the IDPA matches are every 4th Saturday of the month. Luckily this July’s match, I ran into a friend who happens to be a videographer and he videotaped some of my strings of fire. Check it out here: