I've been thinking a lot about this lately, especially as I gear more and more of my training to winning at the game of IDPA.
When I first started shooting IDPA, my sole focus was on "tactical training" with my home defense pistol. I liked that the stages were set up to simulate CCW situations or home defense situations. I thought that the guys shooting their Glock 26's and other compact pistols really "got it," and that the guys with their Glock 34's, and other race guns with mag wells and kydex holsters were just gamers who weren't in the spirit of the sport.
However, now I have a totally different perspective. The guys with the gear that's optimized for winning are simply better shooters. It's true 99% of the time, and I think there is a reason for it. By choosing the very best gear that allows you to shoot the course in the lowest possible time, you eliminate variables that cloud the true benefit of competition: To measure yourself. Let's put it this way: if I have a Glock 34 with fiber optic sights, a tuned trigger pull, and a blade tech holster and magazines - and I lose - it's clearly because I've got a personal deficiency that limits how well I can do. Either I'm not as fast as I could be, or I'm not as accurate, or I don't problem solve while shooting (i.e. I don't "manage" a course) as well as I could. By stripping away all of the extraneous hindrances that come with using a subcompact in an IWB holster in competition, I see exactly where my own improvement areas lie. The gamers then go fix those areas and continue to get better and better. The problem is that it's so easy to ignore those improvement areas.
And that brings us to the other side of the argument. There are plenty of people who prefer to shoot the competition in their regular carry gear. Of course the reasoning is that they're training with their carry gear in case they ever have to use it. If that's the real reason, then I applaud them. However, more often than not I suspect it's a different reason entirely: Most people don't like to lose, so they compete in their carry gear in order to give themselves a built-in excuse for losing. I'm pretty new to this sport, but in just a few months I've seen plenty of people ignore their sights, and then blame their short sight radius for poor accuracy. I've also seen plenty of people do a full Cagney and Lacey presentation from concealment, and of course blame their poor time on their slow draw from their concealment holster.
I will say that, to the extent that really good shooters choose to use IDPA for training in their carry gear, then I applaud their choice. However, people who aren't good shooters would be well-served by becoming "gamers" at least until they can see exactly what needs to be improved in their actual shooting technique.
I think most people could benefit from becoming gamers for a couple of reasons. The first of course has already been mentioned, and that is the fact that using the best, fastest equipment forces you to figure out why you're not as fast or as accurate as others using the same equipment. Once you figure out where your deficiencies lie and how to correct them, you will be a better shooter once you transition back to your carry gear. The other potential benefit is that some people will find that they're top competitors with gamer gear, and they will be forced to realize that the problem lies with their carry set up. At that point they can either adjust their carry gear, or figure out a way to carry something closer to a full size pistol. Either way it's win-win to cross the chasm into the realm of the gamers at least once in a while.
Of course, this doesn't mean that everyone should adopt the ugly side of "gaming" IDPA, such as round dumping, screaming at SO's, using extremely reduced-power ammunition, etc. Those things are clearly illegal and the people who do them would do well to practice their integrity the way the rest of us would do well to practice our trigger pull. But by refusing to give ourselves an excuse to fail, and by stripping away the things that distract us from the problem areas with our shooting, we open the door to rapid and meaningful improvement - and that's what the "training" that comes with participating in shooting sports is all about.
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