"In my opinion, the people who compete with the attitude that "it's just training" and DON'T try to win are doing themselves a tremendous disservice. I can "train" all by myself and work on specific weaknesses. DEALING WITH STRESS is the most beneficial part of competing. And when you deny yourself that stress in the name of "training", what you've done is denied yourself the most useful training you could get out of the entire day."
Perhaps you misunderstood. I used the competitions for training. It's not that I didn't try to win, and in fact, ended up winning quite a few, but winning wasn't why I was there, testing myself was why I was there. Improving myself was why I was there. My choice of weapon was based on what I was forced to carry on duty. Most of the ranges I could shoot at, didn't allow for rapid fire, drawing and firing, movement between targets etc. If one wanted to train for that...one needed to shoot competition. That was the only game in town. It was a good way to push one's personal envelope, and not have a bunch of disapproving slow fire target shooters chase you off their range.
