If you can afford it and have the time, take the Black Badge even if you participate in other disciplines.
Agreed. I took it a few years ago, as an active bullseye shooter and occasional falling plate and just-for-laughs PPC pistol & slug gun shooter, mostly out of curiosity. Figured it would be interesting. It cost me a lot of money and a weekend out of town, but it was a big, fat ball of fun. And very educational.
If we want to treat shooting sports like other sports, we have to get creative in allowing people to try it out. Not too many folks I know go buy a set of Ping, TaylorMade, or other clubs before making their first golf swing.
This is crucial!
I already had an old school IPSC-compliant holster when I took my course, and a proper belt and some mag pouches, but that was only because I'd bought them used from a guy at our club for our informal falling plate nights. I also had a 1911 pistol that was pretty suitable for hitting IPSC targets, luckily.
The thing that made be decide to sign up (and pay for!) for Black Badge, though, was an open house & demo that an IPSC club held at a range that was hosting a bullseye and PPC weekend I was competing in. They came out in their Safailand T-shirts and did their demo and stuff, a little 25-round running stage with four firing points and lots of steel, and then they invited questions.
I raised my hand, said I'd never shot a course of fire like that and that it sure looked like fun, and asked if I could try it.
They looked at each other, scratched their heads.
"That would be highly irregular. I don't think we'd be allowed to let you! You haven't taken Black Badge, and..."
"But how will I know if I want to take a $140 course, if I can't try the game first?"
They scratched their heads some more.
"Well, if you had a proper gun... But you don't have a holster!" I twisted and pointed at the holstered, beavertailed 1911 on my hip, still sooty from from that morning's PPC failfest.
"Oh. You do."
They asked for and got some action pistol experience credentials from me. Then, with worried looks screwed onto their faces, they let me and another similarly persuasive guy shoot the stage, glancing over our and their shoulders all the while, lest the inspector-general for IPSC descend in a black helicopter and DQ them all for frickin' life.
I'm glad they did that. That was a fun way to empty all four of my magazines. Took the Black Badge course as soon as I could arrange it afterwards, and while I've been in and out of shooting for the past few years now, and haven't shot an IPSC club match in a couple of years, IPSC certainly hasn't lost me as a friend.
Get people in the door. Do it safely, yes, absolutely, but the Catch-22s need to be looked at.
