Directive from IDPA HQ: "Effective immediately, we will discontinue giving
procedural penalties for movement."
In other words, if a course of fire requires a shooter to shoot while moving,
and the shooter does not move while shooting, the shooter will not be given a
penalty. This directive applies to classifiers as well.
I’m in favor of this directive as it eliminates unrealistic “baby steps” to
satisfy an arbitrary movement requirement. It also lets the shooter determine
if they have the skill and/or physical ability to shoot while moving.
The full text of the directive with rationale follows:
From Executive Director Joyce Wilson:
“There has been much discussion recently on the definition of movement and its
purpose or place in IDPA. At the time the Founders developed the sport, it was
fairly common among defensive shooting instructors to teach shooting while
moving. They felt it was an important skill and most taught that you should be
moving off line from your aggressor as you returned fire.
As time progressed and legalities ensued, we’ve found that shooting on the move
is not as readily taught among instructors today. And with the shooter being
ultimately responsible for every shot that is fired, they must know their own
skill level to accomplish this task in a real-world situation. While IDPA is
not ‘real world’, we strive to maintain principles and training that support
sound practices that may be needed ‘in the real world’. As one well known
trainer and our Executive Director were recently discussing, if you think you
need to move to another position, then you should probably be moving as fast as
you possibly can to present less of a target to your adversary.
In IDPA scenarios, shooters can explore their own skill levels without the
dangers involved with a real gunfight. They can choose which targets in the
scenario they feel comfortable shooting on the move or shooting from a static
position. I feel that course of fire design should encourage shooting on the
move but not require it per se. A good course of fire will give shooters of
different skill levels different options. A marksman may choose to move to a
position and shoot the first target then move to the second position to shoot
the second target while a master class shooter may just continue moving while
shooting each target. This way the shooter determines their own comfort level
and their own time, therefore their own score. With the new scoring of 1
second per point, I feel this is even more important to encouraging accuracy.
Judicious use of non-threat targets in these scenarios makes the situation even
more realistic, as in a real-life situation a shooter mostly will stop to make
a more precise shot if there are civilians around.
Effective immediately, we will discontinue giving procedural penalties for
movement. We will, in the very near future, develop more course of fire
recommendations to encourage movement but make it the option of the shooter as
to how much moving they do while shooting. As always, we want to continue to
improve IDPA and make it a fun, enjoyable experience for shooters of all skill
levels. This information will be included in an updated version of the MD/CSO
Guide on www.idpa.com.”
<http://www.idpa.com/blog/post/2018/01/18/No-penalty-for-not-moving-on-a-stage.aspx>
