Moving Outside My Comfort Zone

I am taking the competition plunge today and I'm a little nervous about the whole thing.

I recently found current USPSA Production Champion Ben Stoeger and his writings on all things competition. Stoeger has a common sense approach to shooting that I really like, to the point that I bought one of his books, Practical Pistol. It got me to considering.

I had always been of the mind that I'd try my hand at IDPA. I even had Michael build me a rig for that specific purpose. I have since decided to go ahead and give USPSA a try, mostly because my local range and club, Southern Utah Practical Shooters, is a USPSA affiliated range. I sent an e-mail off to a club contact yesterday and got an invite to a steel shoot tonight as well as a newbie class on Friday. I have accepted their invitation and will be shooting steel this very evening.

I am of two minds about this. First, I'm a pretty experienced shooter and no neophyte when it comes to steel. Embarrassment holds no terrors for me. If I don't shoot master I will not wilt away in a cloud of fail stink. On the other hand I am naturally competitive and hold my shooting skills as dearly as anyone. I don't want to stink up the place just for personal pride if nothing else. That makes me slightly nervous. I have never shot this range, do not know any of the shooters and have absolutely no idea what to expect. The club guy has been very supportive and kind. He basically told me to bring my gun and just have fun. The club seems pretty squared away and actively recruit new shooters. That's a good sign for me.

Going into any brand new situation, especially one where there will be scoring and ranking, is very boundary challenging. I've never shot competition in any form before. Stress is an old and familiar partner so I don't anticipate collapsing under the glare of public scrutiny. But. I haven't done much shooting since I retired 3 1/2 years ago so I'm...well, rusty is probably being charitable. In reality the suckitude may be epic.

Still, I am determined to at least go and try my hand at this endeavor. I'm certainly not getting any younger so if not now perhaps never and that is unacceptable.

So wish me luck, if you would be so kind, that my suckage will be something less than catastrophic and I will at least manage to not sweep the entire firing line and be sent off to forever exist in durance vile. I will be running my G35 in my Michael's rig so at least I will be stylish. If I do moderately well I will update with a new post on my experience.

If not I will disavow this entire post and allow it to self destruct in a laptop destroying cleansing ball of nuclear annihilation.
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