{"id":2453,"date":"2013-09-23T11:33:15","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T15:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=2453"},"modified":"2013-09-23T11:33:15","modified_gmt":"2013-09-23T15:33:15","slug":"chicks-rule-at-idpa-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/chicks-rule-at-idpa-nationals\/","title":{"rendered":"CHICKS RULE AT IDPA NATIONALS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vogel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2013 National Championships of IDPA, the International Defensive Pistol Association, locked into shooting history this past Saturday night.\u00a0 My teammate on Team Panteao, was overall winner once again, the incomparable Bob Vogel<\/a>.\u00a0 Bob<\/p>\n

has won this title several times, and he wrote on Facebook yesterday, \u201cI am thankful for a solid performance. Ninth year in a row I’ve shot the match, and overall I think this was the hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another teammate, Tom Yost<\/a>, was National Senior Champion (age 50 and over) and First Master in Stock Service Pistol, shooting a Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm.\u00a0 There were many fine men there, who did much fine shooting.<\/p>\n

What struck me, though, was the performance from the distaff side of the house.<\/p>\n

Randi Rogers<\/a> is barely getting to her mid-twenties. She was a young teen when she dominated the Cowboy Action shooting game, kicking male butt all over the place in what looks on the surface like the most male-oriented of shooting sports, which generally are <\/i>male-dominated across the board.\u00a0 She won the IDPA National Woman\u2019s Champion title, and not for the first time.\u00a0 But she also came in extraordinarily high overall, which to the best of this old testosterone creature\u2019s memory is the highest that someone of her gender has yet placed in that sport.\u00a0 She shot for many years on the Glock factory-sponsored pistol team, and just recently changed allegiance to Team Smith & Wesson. She has, no pun intended, started that new position with a bang.\u00a0 I\u2019ve long considered Randi to be a role model in every respect: my girlfriend thinks she\u2019s adorable and would adopt her if she could.\u00a0 Frankly, so would I.<\/p>\n

The high junior was Ashley Rheuark (at the awards ceremony, they pronounced it \u201cRoark\u201d). Ashley is 16 year old.\u00a0 She beat most of the men, too\u2026and remember, at a national championship, you\u2019re shooting against the cream of the nation\u2019s crop.<\/p>\n

\"Ashley\"<\/a>This young woman\u2019s rise in the sport is nothing short of meteoric. In the summer of last year she was a novice. The month before the Nationals she earned Master ranking.\u00a0 Shooters will be hearing more about Ms. Rheuark.<\/p>\n

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my own significant other, who tied for third place on hit value in the 42-shot Standards stage of the Nationals, with only two points down from a perfect score.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, but I shot it slower than I wanted to,\u201d she said. I replied with the advice my mentor Bill Jordan passed along from a veteran of some 26 gunfights, Texas Ranger John Hughes: \u201cSpeed\u2019s fine, but accuracy\u2019s final.\u201d<\/p>\n

(I should not have had to say this to a woman who constantly reminds me, \u201cYou can run, but you\u2019ll only die tired.\u201d)<\/p>\n

I enjoy hell out of IDPA, and you probably will too if you give it a try.\u00a0 You can find local matches near you through www.idpa.com<\/a>.\u00a0 It pleases me when I win, and when I don\u2019t do well my excuse is that for me, IDPA stands for \u201cI Don\u2019t Practice Anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the 2013 Nationals, though, my excuse is:\u00a0 I obviously didn\u2019t have enough estrogen.<\/p>\n

IDPA head Joyce Wilson, left, a past National Champion herself, presents the National Junior Champion award to Ashley Rheuark, right.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"AshleyAward\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My own Evil Princess completes her Standards stage, flanked by perfect-score targets on either side, and only two points down on the one behind her.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Gail<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2013 National Championships of IDPA, the International Defensive Pistol Association, locked into shooting history this past Saturday night.\u00a0 My teammate on Team Panteao, was overall winner once again, the incomparable Bob Vogel.\u00a0 Bob has won this title several times, and he wrote on Facebook yesterday, \u201cI am thankful for a solid performance. Ninth year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-competition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}