Cherokee Gun Club in Gainesville hosted an International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) Safety Officer (SO) Certification Class on Sunday, February 13, 2011. The class was attended by 11 SO candidates.
As a volunteer driven sport, IDPA depends heavily on Safety Officers to officiate at IDPA competitions. To provide for uniform officiating, IDPA has Safety Officer Instructors train and certify IDPA members as Safety Officers.
The Certification Course is a minimum of 8.5 hours. This time begins with classroom instruction on the rules of IDPA. After the classroom instruction, candidates proceed to the range for demonstrations and practical exercises.
At the end of the classroom portion, candidates must take a written test on the rules of IDPA. It is a closed book test consisting of 50 questions. A passing score on the test is required before candidates can begin the range exercises. Candidates stated that this classroom portion was helpful not only for learning to officiate but also to understand the nuances of shooting IDPA successfully.
The range exercises begin with demonstrations by the Safety Officer Instructor of various IDPA techniques. Then the candidates are required to perform the techniques satisfactorily while being observed by the instructor. As a final exercise, candidates must shoot a scored test, while other candidates time, score, and record each candidate’s results. The candidates are evaluated on their ability to officiate properly and on satisfactory gunhandling skills. This final evaluation must be performed to the instructor’s satisfaction.
After passing the written test and satisfactorily performing the practical exercises, the candidates’ information is sent to IDPA Headquarters for final Certification as Safety Officers. Upon certification, they are qualified to serve as Safety Officers at Sanctioned Championships and to serve as Match Directors of an IDPA Club.
The next Safety Officer Certification Course in Atlanta will be conducted at South River Gun Club on March 26, 2011. For further information, see the Greater Atlanta Defensive Pistol Association website.
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