I can be taught

Earlier this week I had a post up about IDPA adding a Grandmaster classification.  In the post, I was indifferent about it; I didn’t see how it would change IDPA or make any difference to the average competitor.

I was wrong.  After reading and considering the arguments presented in the comments, I’m in favor of an IDPA Grandmaster division.  It makes sense to take the top 5 or 10 competitors and take them out of the running and put them in their own division, so that the high level non-professional Master Class shooters can take a run at 1st Master, etc.

Of course, with that consensus the real question is how do you go about putting the IDPA GM class in place?  I tend to agree with the idea that it can only be based on Nationals (Indoor and Outdoor) performance, because that would prevent the “paper GM” issue that you see in USPSA.  In the initial bump, take all past National Champions and bump them to GM; then from there on out the only way to get the IDPA GM tag would be to finish within 95% of the total score of the National Champion in your division.  I like the suggestion that the GMs only compete for Division Champion as well – leaving the other trophies such as High LE, 1st Master, etc for the non-professional shooters.

More thoughts from our readers, of course!

2 Comments

  1. IDPA would not have the “paper GM” problem that USPSA does, because it only has one classifier. USPSA has the problem that all classifier stages are not of equal difficulty – it’s possible for an M level shooter to shoot GM scores on cherry picked classifier stages.

    The 95% rule applied to major matches would place the IDPA GM bar much higher than IPSC. If you look at IPSC match scores you’ll see true GM level shooters often shooting match scores in the 85-95% range.

    I think the simple solution is just to define GM level times for the IDPA classifier.

    1. That’s actually the idea for the IDPA GM in my opinion to create a truly seperate “champion” class (to borrow from Todd Green) where only the proven IDPA champions compete for DC. If you want to join them in that class, well you better win!

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