Blake Miguez was the 2011 World Champion in the Standard division

Is it possible to be an IPSC world champion without a training routine, preparation and dedication as top athletes do? In Blake Miguez’s case, yes it is. By stating that shooting is just a hobby for him, the world champion in the Standard division must cause envy in a large number of shooters who are professionally dedicated to the sport. However, Blake does it quite naturally. He simply acknowledges having this natural talent.

Blake Miguez inherited the passion for firearms from his father. It was him who took little Blake, at the age of eight, to watch him at shooting ranges. By the age of 12, the boy had already been competing in Practical Shooting. “After competing in IPSC for a few years, I quickly noticed that I had a natural talent for shooting handguns”, ​​said the American. There had been eight years of competitions in the Open division until he chose Standard.

– I liked the challenge of the standard division due to the large recoil and iron sights. I thought that those who do not shoot IPSC could relate easier to my shooting talents if I did it with a Standard gun instead of an Open Gun. I also felt that Standard division would be where most of the competition was in the following years – he states.

By the age of 12, Blake Miguez had already been competing in Practical Shooting

Despite the talent and desire to shoot in many of the competitions in the IPSC calendar, time brought responsibilities to the young shooter. The making of this sport into a hobby was not accidental. His family owns oil companies and Blake devotes most of his time as a corporate attorney. He works 40 hours a week, which keeps him from training regularly. “Before a large match, I will try to go to the range twice a week to get warmed up.”

The difficulties of his busy life had, by the way, influenced his participation in previous World Shoots in 2005 and 2008, when he finished in seventh and second respectively. The first time, Blake was starting classes in law school. Therefore, he had a brief participation in the pre-match and had to return to the United States in order not to fail the course.

Three years later, he could not get prepared for the World Shoot. He had spent the summer studying for one of the toughest tests in the U.S., the Louisiana Bar Exam, which had to be taken right before the competition. To his own amazement, he finished the competition in second, after leading it for the first four days. “From that point on, I knew I could win the match and told myself that I was going to win the World Shoot in Greece in 2011.”

And that’s exactly what Blake Miguez achieved. The preparation for the World Shoot was short. With “a feel” for the European style of shooting, Blake participated in the 2010 European Championship in Serbia, in the 2011 Infinity Open in Germany and in the 2011 Greek Nationals. He was vice-champion in the first competition and champion in the subsequent ones. The IPSC World title in 2011 was a consequence of this brief preparation, in addition to his usual practice.

With Blake Miguez, Standard American Team won the World Shoot

– It was a great achievement for me personally to win the competition. I do not regret my past losses at all because my career always comes first. I am just glad that I was able to do well in both – Blake Miguez says.

The athlete returned home with two medals on his chest: champion as an individual and as part of the American Standard team. Even without always training with his team mates, Blake recalls that they shoot regularly in competitions across the country and that, having become friends, they know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

“Although IPSC is an individual sport, we supported each other through the entire match.  We always tried to keep each other’s spirit up through the entire match.”

For the next World Cup in 2014, Blake says, once again, that he won’t have time for any special preparation. With the growth of the companies where he works, free time will be scarce. Nevertheless, he will have a special motivation to try to keep the title in the division:

– The next World Shoot will be in Florida. I have competed on that range many times in the past and will do so again much over the next three years. For once, I will be competing on my home grounds. It will be a great honor for me to defend my title on American soil. God willing, I plan to follow with another Standard World Title in 2014 – he states.

Blake Miguez in the reality-show "Top Shot"

Out of the practical shooting world, Blake Miguez had an experience which made him known of many other shooters. In 2010, he was invited to participate in the reality show “Top Shot”, on History Channel. Blake had to be confined for about a month with 15 other participants, competing in duels and shooting with different weapons. Despite the seventh place, he believes he might have had a far greater achievement than just perfecting his shooting:

The show was a very fun experience.  It brought me much notoriety to millions of shooters around the World outside of IPSC.  It has given me the opportunity to help local youth organizations and charity shooting events. Top Shot is a test of many different weapons so it didn’t help my handgun shooting ability much. The only way that it helped was with dealing with the pressure of competition.  The show puts you deep into the experience of competitive pressure. Unlike an IPSC match, we were locked in a house and only let out to compete. The competition’s pressure was with us 24 hours of the day even when we were not on the range – he said.