True or False?

[Ken Kwiat]

It depends on the Comstock factor...

And, Eric G. and Max Jr. (and others) get upset with themselves these days if they drop more than 3-4 points on a big field course!!! There's the bar. I think even the "90% of possible points" wisdom is way too low -- 95%+ seems to be the better target.

Not that I do it...

The reason for the name dropping is that there are folks out there getting great points and also being very time competitive. Just look at TGO's points on virtually any stage at Natls. The machine was in full operation.

[AikiDale]

When I 'try' to be fast I am usually successful, but my points are low. When, immediatly after the fact, I remember what just happened it occurs to me I got A hits just as fast as I got C, D and Mikes. It is not the speed. It is the awareness. I only saw the A hits.

When I get this all worked out I'll get my GM card, write a book and let you know how to do it.......

[EricW]

I deliberately shoot Bravos to make myself feel Tactical.

[chp5]

I deliberately shoot Bravos to make myself feel Tactical.

[Jake Di Vita]

Big false on that one.

Sevigny constantly decimates the competition in Prod because he simply points us all to death.

[Ron Ankeny]

I voted true, going too slow. But I wasn't thinking in terms of one stage. I know I could shoot a whole club match all A's, but I would need to obsess over the sights to pull it off. I'll keep working on it and someday I'll be able to hit all A's as fast as I can just hit the paper.

[Tman33_99]

It is good to know that I am NOT shooting too slow

[Skywalker]

I voted true, but due to the fact I shoot major and I acknowledge shooting minor is a whole different story.

My opinion is that IPSC shooting is a balance among...well, you already know this.

If you un-balance it to accuracy, then you're loosing something.

The only time shooting all As won't slow you down is in fixed_time stages (provided you can have all needed hits in the allowed time frame... ).

[rhino]

Big false on that one.

Sevigny constantly decimates the competition in Prod because he simply points us all to death.

Jakester ... do you mean he scores a lot more points than everyone, or that he is a talented point/instinctive shooter, or both?

[Jim Norman]

If you are shooting all A's and you are not in the top couple shooters, then you are shooting too slow. If you are winning most of the time and are finishing well up to the top the rest of the time, then you are doing it right. True, you might go faster, but then you might not get sufficient points to offset the speed increase.

Remember, this is supposed to be a balance Speed Accuracy and Power.

With a production gun, you almost have to shoot slower to get all A's because you are hit sho hard shooting minor. In the other divisions a few points down can be made up with speed. Limited, 10-A 2-C = 58 points, Production = 56 points, same times you get a lower HF. You have to shoot production 3.5% faster to get the same HF in this example. change to 5-A and 7-C and you get 53pts vs 46pts, now the production shooter has to shoot 13.3% faster OR shoot more A's slower to get the same HF

Like most things in life, this is a balance.

Jim Norman

[Tri Burst]

What are there a bunch of IDPA shooter responding to this poll??? Evryone knows in IPSC if your shooting all A's you are going slower than you should be.

[Bear1142]

In General, I say yes, but it depends on the COF. Most of the discussion on this thread seems to revolve around an unspoken, wide open, target array. Hard cover, Swinging/Moving targets, and No-shoots, play a very important role in determining your "Percentage of points" available statistic. If you have a no shoot blocking the entire A zone, but the head is open, are you going to try to get the 2 A's on the head shot? If it's more than 10 yards, probably not. Trying to steal an "A" on a 12-15 yard, half no-shoot target array can be done, but the time it takes to do it usually is not worth the extra point (or 2, if minor.) A certain percentage of "C's" is desireable, maybe even necessary.

Erik

[BSeevers]

I got something from Brian's book recently that has been my inspiration or my ?@*&*$^

Something like,

"I realized that I could shoot A's as fast as I could shoot anything"

I am there and it can be a b---h

[B.J. Norris]

I agree pretty much with Erik. Honestly, I believe there is no "right" answer to the question. If we just shot the same stage over and over again, and it had a HF of about 4, then yes, you have to shoot every A you can. But, we don't shoot the same stage with a HF of 4 over and over. Every stage is different, with even a slightly different HF, some as low as 3, or as high as 16 or 17. On the really HF stages, you better be cranking your speed up or your behind the curb, even if you shoot all A's for the most part. But on the ultra low HF stages, you have to earn every point you can, otherwise you're in the hole unless you shoot it VERY fast. I'd suggest you spend more time figuring out how to factor a stage, instead of figuring out whether you're shooting too slow by shooting all A's... the only thing that will give you a definitive answer is the high hit factor, and it only applies to that one COF.

[chp5]

I'd suggest you spend more time figuring out how to factor a stage, instead of figuring out whether you're shooting too slow by shooting all A's... the only thing that will give you a definitive answer is the high hit factor, and it only applies to that one COF.

Absolutely!

Anyone for a new thread on factoring stages?

[DogmaDog]

False.

In the MS classic match last weekend, there's only one stage I felt I really burned down. I dropped one point on a 135 point course, and every moment I wasn't shooting, I was sprinting full tilt to the next place I wa going to shoot from.

I think the biggest problem with thinking you're going too slow if you shoot all As is that it suggests that getting sloppier will be faster. Shooting faster seems (at least partly) to involve less visual confirmation that the sights are in the A zone, but that's not the same as NO confirmation, and it's not the same as confirmation that the sights are somewhere on the paper; it just means finding that minimum threshold of visual and tactile feedback that will tell you you can shoot an A.

Now as a training technique, I think it's very worthwhile to "push" yourself faster, and experiment to find out where that threshold is, and even to drive it lower. In the course of experimenting, it's certainly OK to shoot Cs and Ds and even Mikes, but you should do so with the intent of learning how fast you can shoot As.

DD

[Loves2Shoot]

If you are shooting all A's, you are going too slow.

Not at all. Some courses require you to get all A's (ie 60 point stages) if you want a good score. Now does that mean that if you don't get all A's you are going to fast, nope. Some course require you sacrifice a A or two because of target presentation, distance, and many other factors. Just because the statement is in fact false doesn't mean a statement to the contrary is true. Course of fire are so varied the stategies in shooting each stage varies, thus some stages you need to shoot all A's and some stages you need to take the most points you can (ie partial targets at distance) and call it good. my 2 cents

[Jake Di Vita]

Rhino,

What I'm saying is if you take the top 10 Prod shooters in the country. As long as there are no malfunctions or brain farts they will all run a given stage within about a second of each other. Sevigny wins because he does that and out scores everyone...and does it consistently.

[kdj]

I think every one answering TRUE is assuming that it is always true you can go faster if you don't shoot all As. Is that true?

Further, I'd assume that they are assuming (isn't this getting convoluted ) that the "not shooting all As" means "shooting the odd C". If the word "Mike" had been in the poll, there'd be a different ratio in the results.

I voted FALSE since if you are shooting as fast as *you* can and are getting all As, then you are still doing OK

On any given stage, you can do relatively simple arithmetic to work out if you need all As or can risk the odd C for the odd 1/10 of a second, right? However, shooting all As as fast as you possibly can, still seems to be a pretty safe bet.

Kevin

[TDean]

I'd say TRUE based on the fact that the stage winner will most likely NOT have all the possible stage points. We sometimes see a shooter with all the points further down the results page, but they just took too much time doing it.

The current question I'm asking myself is "If I'm shooting nothing but no-shoots, am I going too fast?"

[benos]

I didn't vote because the correct answer - maybe - wasn't available.

I've won many stages not only with all A's but with the fastest time as well.

If you think you are going too slow if you're shooting all A's, you are limiting yourself with that conclusion. I'm not saying it's necessary to believe you must always shoot all A's, but I would say the underlying concept - you can see what you need to see AND shoot all A's as fast as you cannot do either - is something worth considering.

be

[Singlestack]

I would say the underlying concept - you can see what you need to see AND shoot all A's as fast as you cannot do either - is something worth considering.

be

ummmm..... care to translate that one for me BE?

I find it difficult to consider something I don't understand.

[BigDave]

John - I think what Brian was getting at is that we need to get out of a limiting mindset (do this, or do that) and consider the possibility of doing both things as well as you'd do either one individually. That's how I'm reading it.

[TDean]

He (Brian) once posted that there came a time when he realized that he could shoot all A's intentionally just as quickly as he could point shoot at them.

[38supPat]

I too think the premise of the question is wrong; to shoot faster you must give up points. How about shooting faster A's?

In the end you will do what you trained to do. If you trained with the focus on going faster, you will, but your attention won't be on shooting points. If you trained to shoot only A's (or even worse, gave yourself that instruction just before you shoot) you will likely slow down, because the belief is that you must do this in order to GET A's.

Try this for a good example: with your shooting partner set up a target at 5 yds, one at 10 and one at 50 yds. Now do timed single shot draws on each target. watch your partners draws. Most people will slow the draw motion down on the 50 yd target and speed it up on the 5 yd target in comparison to their draws on the 10 yd. (pay attention to the motion and speed of the draw stroke, ignore the timer just watch the movement and speed of the arms)

The same thing happens visually when we tell ourselves to shoot only A's, we slow down the process because we believe it is nessessary.

Train to get your hits, fast!