When officiating in IDPA and USPSA matches, I have been surprised to encounter some individuals who object to stages designed to test a full skill set, such as weak hand shooting, head shots, shooting while moving, Bill drill, Mozambique, targets at 35 yds, etc.
Their usual attitude is that they have thoroughly studied what skills are needed for "real world defense" (never took a pistol combat course or got in a gun fight, real or simunitions) and ONLY THEIR chosen skills should be in the match.
How does that attitude sound to you?
Weak.
Certainly not well-rounded.
Reminds me of some folks who only trained to learn and practice a limited range of techniques in the martial arts, thinking they'd never need to know how to do anything else.
That might work okay in the dojo or training hall, especially where your opponent is cooperative and you know exactly what he will be doing, but outside in the real world it's not quite so predictable and accommodating.
I'd not go quite so far as to undermine someone's confidence in an intentionally restricted shooting and manipulation skillset. However, I'd point out that if they can't effectively respond to some sets of conditions which aren't considered uncommon in the everyday world, even though they might be outside
their normal range of experience, perhaps they might consider becoming at least a little better rounded in their ability to respond to someone who hasn't been using the same sheet music.
The other side of that coin, though, is the occasional instructor who tries to cobble together unusual and often awkward sets of training scenarios just to call it "tactical", and
theirs, without being able to support them by using general or specific examples of actual shooting incidents. What skills are being assessed, created or refined? Creating "no win" and overly complicated scenarios may stroke some instructor's ego, but it's not doing a service to someone trying to learn relevant and practical
new skills, or figure out how to apply
existing skills in new, but relevant, situations.
Just my thoughts.
I prefer to have everyone with whom I work be able to walk off a qual or training range and have a
justified confidence that they can immediately apply whatever skills we've been working on, and do so right away.
