My first IDPA match

I shot my first IDPA match today. It was a very exciting and humbling experience. I was quite nervous walking up to the firing line of the first stage but once I pulled the trigger to send the first round down range all the jitters went away.

The match was comprised of six stages. Some stages where more difficult than others. The one I enjoyed the most was stage three where I had to engage nine targets, including a couple of poppers. There was even a swinger partially obstructing four of the targets. The stage I enjoyed the least was stage six. It was the only indoor stage and involved a lot of shooting on the move. There I had to engage three targets (two shots each) while moving from left to right. Then I had to reengage them again (two shots to the head) from cover. I had a few misses on that one although surprisingly I did OK with the head shots.

This whole IDPA experience taught me a few of things:

1. I have a long way to go before I can consider myself a decent shooter.
2. Moving and shooting when performed at the same time are very difficult.
3. I need to slow down. I shoot too fast thus collecting many unnecessary penalties.
4. There is no better place to practice my skills than an IDPA competition.

I came in second in the CDP (Custom Defensive Pistol) class.  This would have been good except for the fact that there were only three people shooting in that class.  Still, I wasn't too far behind the first place and quite a ways ahead of the third place.

The next match is on January 9th and you better believe it that I will be there.