Nice topic. Let's remember a few things. The action sports are just that. Sports. They are not training for the street and the by-laws and info from IPSC and IDPA stress this rather well.
Now that that is out of the way there is an up side. Competition is an an excellent way to get used to shooting under pressure.
There are similarities to real world versus competition in having to shoot fast, think, and do it all well. Some of the thinking is tactical. But a lot of what IPSC and IDPA have you do in competition will not work in real defense showdown. While IDPA has some tactical format it is still a sport. IDPA was started to get the "practical " back in shooting with regular sidearms. Not as a training tool to better one's skills for the street.
IDPA follows basic tactical concepts that can change over time and then makes adjustments to keep updated. One has to shoot targets in tactical order or in certain number of shots. Gunfights are messy and will not happen the way they do in competition.
For instance. In one scenario last year, there were a number (more than 3) of pit bull targets to overcome. My daughter hit it on the head. She had made the observation that one could have shot a couple of dogs at most. Maybe. Hitting and stopping a vicious animal that is out to kill you and on the move, bobbing and weaving, makes a hard target to hit and neutralize. They feel no pain and are"on a mission". They do not care about being hurt or injured. Frenzied activity such as that is hard to overcome. Throw in more and a pack would have the person attacked down and killed in seconds. The pit bull targets were sitting still. Animating them to real life standards would be near impossible.
There were also armed drug dealers to deal with at the same time. I am not stating that this was totally ludicrous. Just that it does not mirror reality at times and should not be taken as such all the time. The scenario had to be shot and the targets taken in a certain order. Two shots per animal and bad guy targets as well.
The thinking it out, drawing and shooting in order, and using cover if necessary, if available,and doing it accurately and beating other's time runs are hard things to accomplish. But, oh, so much fun.Some of same pressures and shooting abilities that are needed, out on the street, can be seen on the competition field.
Some of the best shooters in competition, also had real life gunfights. They won the real deal because of mindset and ability to do well under stress. IDPA and IPSC provided that impetus. Even bowling pin shooting and SASS can offer this to a limited degree. All of these are also just for fun and what one wants to take away with them from all this. Just kind of giving out the basics to consider. Nothing more.