[Scattergun Bob]

Guess I am just totally out to lunch on this. I believe competition is what humans do to hone the edge of the weapon.

In the time of the great tournaments, (in between great wars) combatants from different city states conducted mock battles (actually fairly real) for the joy and adoration of the crowds, the weight of another’s armor (if you won) and to test the edge of your sword against another’s shield. This was stylized war, but it reinforced the basic skills.

The great age of archers, constantly tested in battle and on the lists, used competition to keep the skills of alignment and release sharp and focused. A jingle of the purse, stills the blood and focuses the eye. Again nowhere close to volley fire at a forward moving enemy, whom wished to shred you if they could close, but it did reinforce the foundation skills.

The age of firearms has seem it’s share of martial competition not only to establish the best, but to keep the edge.

I my years as a peace officer I can not remember a firearms qualification either PPC or practical that did not have bragging rights as part of the qualification score. Competition kept those courses from becoming mental masturbation exercises. Not street combat, but reinforced the needed basic skills.

I have been both a street shooter and a competition shooter and for me the basic skills that I honed on the square range helped me on the street.

Scattergun Bob says;
“Once the combat envelope wraps its' cold clammy arms around you, there is more than enough to think about besides how your weapon works, what condition of readiness IT IS IN, or where it shoots.”