IPSC Pistol Training Course with Eric Grauffel
The knowledge and skill base of a champion IPSC competitor’s potential is contained in the depth of their experience. Eric Grauffel, one of the most successful IPSC competitors in the world, shares this knowledge and skill base with other shooters in several types of training course. After taking part in an IPSC Level III Championship Match Eric typically runs one of his training courses.
Eric
I spent one of these days with the current IPSC European and World Champion and closely examined how Eric demonstrated his skills and impaired other competitors with the knowledge to improve their performance in IPSC competition.Does being one the most successful IPSC shooters in the world make you suited to teach the complex demands of the IPSC competition shooting circuit? This certainly would have been going through the minds of the participants in this training course. So, on the day after the conclusion of a level III Championship Match, a group of eager IPSC students came together to improve their competitive abilities under the guidance of Eric Grauffel. Living in Brittany,
Techniques were demonstrated by Eric and then dry practiced by the students and then put into effect by live firing on the range
After a thorough introduction to the safety rules of IPSC competition and the attention of the course participants to safety during the course, Eric covered all of the important base aspects. Starting from the correct positioning of equipment, he then covered the basic techniques such as grip, the draw, stance and balance and breathing as well as movement between shooting positions, up to basics of mental attitude towards competitions. All of the basics where thoroughly covered in theory as well as in practice.
Many stages will start with the competitor having to pick the pistol up from a table. Both dominant and support hand techniques were demonstrated, with both the pistol in a loaded and unloaded condition
Demonstration
Competitions nearly always have a strong hand only and / or a support hand only stage. Eric demonstrated both techniques; either by drawing from the holster or picking the gun up from a table. When reloading many shooters bring the pistol down to nearly waist level. Eric teaches you to keep the pistol up at eye level, which will save time in getting you firing again.
When reloading Eric demonstrates the need to keep the pistol at eye level and bring the magazine up to the pistol and not to bring the pistol down to the magazine
Techniques for running down range or retreating back up the range were demonstrated. With the importance of keeping the muzzle of the pistol under control and facing down range was empathised. Also many stages in a competition involve moving both left to right and right to left. Eric also demonstrated how to reload when moving forwards or backwards and both moving either left or right.
Everyone one involved in IPSC competition knows that Eric moves and shoots very quickly. The participating shooters on the course may have been surprised with the emphasis that Eric and Gerard place on precision shooting, which both of them consider to be especially important. With the IPSC target having three scoring zones ( A, C and D ), it was emphasised that you have to try and make every shot an A zone hit. A lot of people do not understand that a miss does not just cost you the 10 penalty points; it costs you 15 points, because also you are not getting the five points for that missing A zone shot in the first place.
When a young Eric Grauffel started learning to shoot IPSC, he used a single stack M1911 .45 ACP calibre pistol. His first trip to the range with his father was with 500 rounds of ammunition and 10 magazines for his pistol. His dad told him that for every D zone hit he would confiscate one magazine from him. In a very short time he was out of magazines! His second trip to the range did not last much longer! On his third trip to the range he managed to fire around 300 rounds before running out of magazines.
When shooting with one body is pushed forwards as far possible to counteract the forces generated by recoil.Gerard Grauffel supervised the live firing parts of the course.
D Zone Hit
The live firing parts of the course were run by Gerard and he applied the D zone hit – loose a magazine rule for that stage of the training. Many course participants were rapidly running out of magazines until they switched on to the need to concentrate on the sight picture to keep the hits in the A and C scoring zones of the target. With D zone hits you are losing a lot of points. You should consider that every shot in the D zone means dropping a position in the final results listing. Eric reckoned that in a competition that, at the most, your number of D zone hits should be no more than two percent of the total shots fired in the match.
Get a D Zone hit and loose a magazine. The magazines pile up as Gerard Grauffel takes a magazine of each student who hit the D scoring zone. This makes everyone really concentrate on their sight picture.
Course Levels
Eric runs three levels of course as follows.
Level 1
- Grip, stance
- Draw
- Magazine change
- Dominant hand
- Support hand
- Support hand draw
- Pick up the gun from a table
- Kneeling
- Low kneeling
- Prone position
Level 2
- Shooting box to shooting box, left to right
- Shooting box to shooting box, right to left
- Shooting box to shooting box left to right with magazine change
- Shooting box to shooting box right to left with magazine change
- Exiting the Shooting box
- Shooting box to shooting box forward
- Shooting box to shooting box ( left side and right side )
- Shooting box to shooting box forward with magazine change
- Shooting box to shooting box backward with magazine change ( left side and right side )
- Shooting on the move left to right
- Shooting on the move right to left
- Shooting on the move left to right with magazine change
- Shooting on the move right to left with magazine change
Level 3
- Bobbing target
- Moving target
- Carrying object in support hand
- Shooting through small ports vertical
- Shooting through small ports horizontal
- Prone roll technique
- Exiting a chair ( 5 techniques )
- Opening windows
- Opening doors
- Shooting around barricades
When shooting with both hands on the pistol note that the head is neither tilted forward or upwards, but is level and concentrating on acquiring a sight picture on the targets. You can see here that the body weight is projected forwards.
Tips
Before trying to master any physical skill and perform that skill at any significant speed you need to spend some time perfecting your technique. There are a lot of subtle details in your grip, draw, stance, sight alignment, target acquisition and reload. Part of learning to go faster is to break down what you are doing and analyse it. Compare your ability to someone else's, preferably someone who is a lot better than you are. When you practice, concentrate on smooth, relaxed motion and correctness of form. You are far better off with a smooth reload, for example, than a tense, jerky reload that is slightly faster most of the time, but one time out of ten you botch it up.As Eric testified there is no substitute for diligent practice. The hard truth is that unless you are willing to spend some time dry handling at home or on live firing at the range, you will not see any dramatic improvements in speed. It will take several sessions per week to show significant improvement; otherwise you are only maintaining your present capabilities or inching forward. Spending several secessions per week dry handling will help if you cannot get to the range, but there is also no substitute for going to the range and setting up multiple targets and shooting a lot. How you practice is as important as how much you practice. Eric placed emphasis on the fact that to be a complete IPSC competitor, you must be capable of doing everything that is required in an IPSC match.
Eric demonstrated the techniques by carrying out live firing exercises on the range. Note the empty magazine in mid air as the spare magazine moves to the grip to be inserted.
The sport of practical shooting is both great fun and exciting and also addictive. If you are the least bit competitive in nature, you are going to want to do well at matches and you are going to have the desire to improve and win! The skills demonstrated by Eric Grauffel in his training course will certainly help you improve both your gun handling techniques, reduce the time required to complete each stage and also sharpen your mental analyses about how you will actually solve the problem presented to you by the course of fire.
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