How many of your hits are alphas

[HalRex]

In yesterday's USPSA match I shot 77% Alphas with a 9mm major open gun. I started shooting various types of pistol competitions (IDPA, Steel Challenge, USPSA...) about 18 months ago and am a mid-level C class shooter. 

[tanks]

Last match I shot 77.6% As (97  of 125, same as overall winner). That translated to 95.4% of available points before penalties and 93.7% after penalties (had 1 Mike) shooting Limited Major. Now, if I can only shoot sooner ;).

[CTJer]

I don’t shoot enough Alpha’s.  I started last year and was the typical go-fast shooter.  I’d put up 6-8 Mikes a match (local).  

 

I’ve gotten better about the Mikes this year, but only recently realized at Area 7 that I need to shoot more Alpha’s.  

 

 

I’m a Production shooter.  

 

Last match was 75% A’s.  1M, 1D. 

Edited August 4, 2018 by CTJer

[broadside72]

7 matches to date.

 

A 71.1%

C 20.8%

D 3.15%

M 3.78%

 

Thanks goodness for shooting Major! Single Stack in .45

However steadily improving with fewer and fewer Mikes and Deltas each match. Missed "C" by 0.47% for initial classification. 

[stick]

My last match was a 6 stage classifier.

I shot:

A-97

C-6

D-2

M-1

NS-1

[quliming]

I recently shot a major match and am not very happy about my alpha hits percent. 255 A, over 90 C and 9 D. That's a lot of C and Ds there. I don't think it's the problem to slow down to get my hits, rather than paying attention of where A zone is actually.

[boudreux]

I usually shoot 80%+ A's. Shooting limited that wasn't as bad because of major power factor. Shooting carry optics now I am focusing on shooting a few more A's

[Smithcity]

Would alphas per second be a better metric? 

82% alphas here, shooting minor

[kmanick]

this was my first season and I am shooting on average between 76-80% alphas , but I am getting killed on time. Way to slow

going to do a lot of drive firing and work on reloads etc. I DQ'd twice early this year so the last 2 matches I shot I purposely went slower

than I normally would to just make it through the match, but my confidence is coming back up so I am working on speed again.

I have found that I am a much faster shooter in steel matches than I am in USPSA. I tend to alternate weekends

shooting one then another monthly and my steel times have been dropping consistently, where my USPSA scores have not been improving 

at anywhere near the same level.   

[kneelingatlas]

1 hour ago, kmanick said:

this was my first season and I am shooting on average between 76-80% alphas , but I am getting killed on time. Way to slow

going to do a lot of drive firing and work on reloads etc. I DQ'd twice early this year so the last 2 matches I shot I purposely went slower

than I normally would to just make it through the match, but my confidence is coming back up so I am working on speed again.

I have found that I am a much faster shooter in steel matches than I am in USPSA. I tend to alternate weekends

shooting one then another monthly and my steel times have been dropping consistently, where my USPSA scores have not been improving 

at anywhere near the same level.   

 

Why not all alphas?  If you're going slow, what's stopping you from putting them all in the a zone?

 

I'm not trying to be a jerk, I too have to remind myself to aim for the a zone, if you're just pointing at brown and mashing the trigger it makes it really hard to score well.

 

When you're focused on speed, it's easy to neglect accuracy.  If you've never aced a stage, I highly recommend it every once in a while, what have you got to lose?  It's a great confidence builder and a reminder that it's possible, even easy.  Wishing and wondering really slow you down, that's what calling shots is all about.

[kmanick]

9 hours ago, kneelingatlas said:

I'm shooting fast, I'm moving slow, I broke a 180 pretty badly a few matches ago, so the transitions from target to target are slow, once I get there, I'm firing as fast as I 

can  without shooting wildly. Mag changes slowed down as well.  You really shouldn't make jugements on the internet without knowing what's really happening.

It's all good, I'll be ready to go next season.

"

Why not all alphas?  If you're going slow, what's stopping you from putting them all in the a zone?

 

I'm not trying to be a jerk, I too have to remind myself to aim for the a zone, if you're just pointing at brown and mashing the trigger it makes it really hard to score well.

 

When you're focused on speed, it's easy to neglect accuracy.  If you've never aced a stage, I highly recommend it every once in a while, what have you got to lose?  It's a great confidence builder and a reminder that it's possible, even easy.  Wishing and wondering really slow you down, that's what calling shots is all about.

"

[kneelingatlas]

52 minutes ago, kmanick said:

"

 

You've got me all wrong Nick, I'm not passing judgement, just making a suggestion.  I don't know you, I just know I started having more fun (and scoring better) when I started aiming to shoot all alphas.

 

You say you're shooting fast, but moving slowly, and I'm suggesting you try the opposite: shoot only as fast as you can shoot all A's and move faster.

Edited October 16, 2018 by kneelingatlas

[JAB]

Delete 

Edited February 23, 2019 by JAB

[Joe4d]

Took me awhile to learn this game,, but it isnt all accuracy.. I was a 95 to 100% of points shooter, I am very accurate,, but was still losing.
its not the percent A's, its the percent of available points. Not the same thing... Then it is Points per second or HF.
Take a 100 point stage,, you shoot 18 "A's... ( 90 %...   but then you hit a NS,,, and a full circle hit on hardcover,,,  So you end up with 2 mikes 1 
NS for 80 points.
Your Buddy runs same time, but only hits 10 A's.. (50%) but the other 10 are C's,,, So he gets (assuming Major) 90 points...
 Way I learned. 90 % of points is good, less than that slow down, more than that speed up.

[Silver_Surfer]

This is  my guess

 

Classification Bracket Percentages
Grand Master 95 to 100%
Master 85 to 94.9%
A 75 to 84.9%
B 60 to 74.9%
C 40 to 59.9%
D 2 to 40%
 

[CoyoteMW]

Recently I heard that Eric Grauffel says a shooter should strive to shoot 90% As. That’s not 90% of available points, but 90% of all shots should be Alphas. And he certainly isn’t slowing down to get his hits.

 

90% As while shooting as fast as possible is certainly a lofty goal, albeit out of reach for most shooters.

[xdf3]

On 2/27/2019 at 4:57 PM, Silver_Surfer said:

This is  my guess

 

Classification Bracket Percentages
Grand Master 95 to 100%
Master 85 to 94.9%
A 75 to 84.9%
B 60 to 74.9%
C 40 to 59.9%
D 2 to 40%
 

And it's not real. But it would be a good idea to have > 90% points to be grandmaster, and like the above post, you shouldn't slow down while doing so.

 

I think the common mistake is to shoot when you're not ready to.

 

Another common mistake is not to do anything to leverage the speed of shooting itself (like proper recoil/cartridge balance)

[xdf3]

On 2/23/2019 at 10:27 PM, Joe4d said:

Took me awhile to learn this game,, but it isnt all accuracy.. I was a 95 to 100% of points shooter, I am very accurate,, but was still losing.
its not the percent A's, its the percent of available points. Not the same thing... Then it is Points per second or HF.
Take a 100 point stage,, you shoot 18 "A's... ( 90 %...   but then you hit a NS,,, and a full circle hit on hardcover,,,  So you end up with 2 mikes 1 
NS for 80 points.
Your Buddy runs same time, but only hits 10 A's.. (50%) but the other 10 are C's,,, So he gets (assuming Major) 90 points...
 Way I learned. 90 % of points is good, less than that slow down, more than that speed up.

Another mistake I've seen is that people like to say "I'm not fast but at least I hit all alphas"

Ok, this is not IDPA, and there's no need to aim for 3 seconds to hit an Alpha. Of course it takes time to find the proper balance

[PlayFront36]

These days?  Much less.  When I was shooting more often it was likely 75-80 percent.

[kevin c]

I rhink it was Saul Kirsch who basically commented that you need enough accuracy to get all A's, and then you add speed to your performance that makes you give up some of that accuracy. More speed, more loss of accuracy. Seems like the consensus is to get 90 to 95 percent of the points. D class will do that a lot slower than GM class. Training gets you more speed with the same points. But Kirsch says being able to get those points in the first place is just as important as getting the speed.

[blackfatbob]

I tend to look at it more from the bottom up.  I try to limit my speed just enough to Keep the D's and M's to a minimum.

[MemphisMechanic]

1 hour ago, blackfatbob said:

I tend to look at it more from the bottom up.  I try to limit my speed just enough to Keep the D's and M's to a minimum.

 

You’d like your scores a lot more if your eyes locked onto the A-zone of each target then brought the sights to that exact spot, while you hustle through the stage as fast as you can.

 

Think of a task you will execute: ”I will shoot right here twice, move, repeat this fast.”

 

Rather than focus on something to avoid. That has you shooting cautiously, which means you slow down.

 

Most of us are guilty of putting the sights in the center of the brown thing and shooting twice when we’re bleeding points, rather than making the actual rectangle of the A-zone our target. And aiming as if the C/D zones didn’t exist at all.

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by MemphisMechanic

[blackfatbob]

16 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:

 

You’d like your scores a lot more if your eyes locked onto the A-zone of each target then brought the sights to that exact spot, while you hustle through the stage as fast as you can. 

 

Think of a task you will execute: ”I will shoot right here twice, move, repeat this fast.”

 

Rather than focus on something to avoid. That has you shooting cautiously, which means you slow down.

 

Most of us are guilty of putting the sights in the center of the brown thing and shooting twice when we’re bleeding points, rather than making the actual rectangle of the A-zone our target. And aiming as if the C/D zones didn’t exist at all.

 

I don't think I explained my approach.  When shooting, I am always focused on the A-Zone and working to manage recoil and dot.  I'm working past the whole blast two shots at the brown bad  habit.  But when I evaluate my performance at the end of the match,  a success for me is minimizing D's and M's and keeping my stage times down doing it.  

 

After a typical club match,  I'm usually in the high points group of shooters that fall in the second tier overall..  I  notice however that the couple of GM's and M's that shoot regularly have lower points than us.  They win by accepting some A-C  or C-C targets instead of all A-A targets and run stage times 5-8 seconds faster than the next tier of shooters.

 

The ideal would be all A's and screaming times,  but that is the result of a long term commitment to improve.  I'm just starting the path up the mountain and movement and time are bigger areas of opportunity.  My practical marksmanship is going to take some temporary hits along the way as I'm learning things like shooting on the move and so on.  But trigger time and live fire practice should bring my hits back up  acceptable over time. 

 

I'm not trying to be a newb know it all. But I hear the same bad advice all the time.  "Slow down and get your hits"......it should be "go as fast as you can and learn to get your points doing it".

 

Thanks for the input.  

 

Edited June 25, 2019 by blackfatbob

[MemphisMechanic]

52 minutes ago, blackfatbob said:

The GM's and M's that shoot regularly have lower points than us.  They win by accepting some A-C  or C-C targets instead of all A-A targets and run stage times 5-8 seconds faster than the next tier of shooters.

 

This response really did fill in your perspective  differently from the first one. Thanks!

 

It’s very seldom worthwhile to sacrifice your stage time in order to shoot better points; the hit factor has to be well below the 6-8ish that is typical at club matches on the majority of stages.

 

The trick is to avoid penalties and Deltas (or TOO many Charlies) while still shooting at a very fast pace, and that’s what separates the A through GM shooter from your average B-class guy.

 

This is why “slow down and get your hits” is the stupidest thing you’ll hear at a match. It a  a completely backward philosophy. 

 

Edited June 25, 2019 by MemphisMechanic

[blackfatbob]

"The trick is to avoid penalties and Deltas (or TOO many Charlies) while still shooting at a very fast pace, and that’s what separates the A through GM shooter from your average B-class guy."

 

Yup,  when I finish a club match with nothing but A and higher shooters above me shooting around 2:1 A's to C's and D's, M's and penalties are at a minimum,  I've shot up to my capabilities.  When I haven't,  it usually shows up in the D's M's and No-Shoots, indicating I over ran my sight picture.

 

Thanks again