What other competitions should I look at besides IDPA and the three gun match? I am looking for real life skill building competitions.

Competition is not training, in spite of what the IDPA founders wanted you to think.  It's still a game, just like USPSA.  

And the answer to your question depends on what skills you want to build.  If you want to be a high-drag, low-speed operator (... or something like that ) there are a number of classes around the country that teach those types of skills.  

Personally, if I were to spend money on training, I would go to competition-specific training.  Because that's what I want to improve on.  I'm not on a SWAT team.  I don't see myself busting down doors and taking down bad guys.  I do go play on the weekend and try to poke little holes in cardboard and knock down steel targets in the shortest amount of time possible.  In doing so, I become more familiar with my gun and my abilities and limitations.  And I have fun in the process.  If I ever had to defend myself with a firearm, I feel confident in my guns and I know my limitations.

The "operator" types may have different opinions.  That's fine too.

IDPA can provide a valuable training experience, if you approach the stages as training stages, rather than attempting to game the stages for the purposes of winning.

If you use your IDPA match as a series of training scenarios and apply sound tactics to the stages, it can provide some valuable training opportunities.

That may be true.  But are you actually "applying sound tactics" when you shoot IDPA?  Supposedly, the IDPA rules were written so as to penalize you for not using sound tactics, so why is that an issue? (no - I'm not criticizing cmeyre001.  I'm just using his comment as an example.)

So are you actually using sound tactics, or are you just shooting slower than the people who do well at these matches?  What kind of feedback do you get?  Is there a "trainer" there to critique your run after you're done?  Or are you just practicing poor tactics, thinking you're doing good?  

If you want training - take a class.  

Shooting competition is a lot of fun.  You will get better with your gun by doing so.  But a game is a game.  It's still not "training".  

But then I ask the question again - what do you want to get out of "training"?

None of them.  Go take some classes



 

Any shooting competition can build skills: speed, accuracy, gun handling, etc.  If you want to build tactics - you're going to have to look somewhere else.

Athletes cross train to develop their skills. I played ice hockey and basketball and many of the drills I did had nothing to do with actually playing the game. They were there to develop a specific motor skill or reaction. Shooters need to cross train to develop these same skills. If your main focus is self defense, then taking a class focused on that particular aspect is probably your best bet. I shoot bullseye, highpower rifle, and indoor smallbore. While none of these are recognized as having any direct real life application, I have developed a skill set that translates to any firearms related application. Remember that trigger time is trigger time. You can train on a .22lr and your skills will transfer over to anything else you like to shoot.

Real life skills?   You have to be more specific.

Are you looking on improving SHTF skills, or walking down a dak alley in ward 4, or home invasion, or when china invades?

Take several classes and really decide exactly how you want to shoot/move/reload/whatever.

Do it in an IDPA match focusing on doing everything correctly. The stress of doing it in front of everyone else and looking like the kid on the short bus is nowhere near as stressful as an actual defensive shooting, but it gets you used to functioning under stress.

But the skills come from real instructors.