Stage Tactics Or Strategy

[GentlemanJim]

I know this info has to be on the forum , but I can't find it.

Some stages have many points, some have few.

I know good shooters devise a plan of attack based on the time and possible points.

Are we to assume a probible hit factor ?

How do I approach this problem?

Slower for max points? faster for minimum time and possible loss of points?

Please help me understand the proper solution.

Jim

[IronEqualizer]

Best advice I know to give is to read Saul Kirsch's Thinking Practical Shooting. He has a chapter devoted to this subject. You will also find the rest of the book very helpful.

Edited January 13, 2007 by IronEqualizer

[Flatland Shooter]

Courtesy of Matt Burkett's comments on Comstock Scoring at the USPSA website. Check it out for further information.

Comstock factoring is the average points per second. A one-hundred point course shot in ten seconds is a ten factor. So is a fifty-point stage shot in five seconds. Divide the factor by the time, and that's the factor -- the amount of time earning a point on that stage should take.

A five-factor stage is worth five points per second, so each point is worth 1/5th -- or 0.20 -- second. If you shoot a miss on a five factor stage and make it up in exactly three seconds you have the same score. If you make it up in less than three seconds, you're earning some points back. If you take longer than three seconds to make up the shot you're losing more points than the miss cost you in the first place. Something to remember is that a miss on a Comstock stage is fifteen points: Ten penalty points, and the five points that you didn't earn for an "A" hit on the target. What it boils down to is this: The lower the stage factor, the more important it is to shoot all "A's" and vise versa; with higher factors, speed becomes more important. On a ten factor stage, you better make up that shot in a hurry or forget about it! You should always average a minimum of 90-95% of points available on a stage. These days, at the upper levels of competition, you need to earn 97% or more of the available points to win the match.

[stockton]

Best advice I got early or was Alpha, Charlie as last as you can pull the trigger. If you start pulling more than a couple Ds or Mikes in a match, get back on the sights.

[XRe]

Jim, what Flatland Shooter posted is spot on.... In addition, something that Saul lays out really well in TPS is the need to know what you can do in a given circumstance (you do this by running drills in practice and maintaining a log book of your times, etc...). You need to know what your draw time will be, what your splits and indexes will be, your reloads, movement, etc. When you have that library of skills to work from, you can easily estimate the time it will take you to shoot a given course, and thereby know approx. what hit factor you will shoot on it.

Then you can make strategy decisions based on that.

Shoot Alpha/Charlie as fast as you can pull the trigger isn't going to win the match (you're giving away 10% of the available points....). You want to shoot Alpha/Alpha with no concern for speed, just drive the gun, triggering when you have an appropriate sight picture.

Given all that - stage strategy that doesn't involve some major decision, like should I ignore a disappearing target, or something like that, comes down to efficiency. How do I get to the last spot I need to be in in the most direct way possible, seeing all the targets along way. Burkett's "IPSC Strategies" DVD gives you some great insight into how he picked some stages apart. Obviously, its not comprehensive, because every stage is different - you have to apply some basic principles and learn by trial and error, etc...

[stockton]

. . .Shoot Alpha/Charlie as fast as you can pull the trigger isn't going to win the match (you're giving away 10% of the available points....). You want to shoot Alpha/Alpha with no concern for speed, just drive the gun, triggering when you have an appropriate sight picture. ---

Sure you give away 10% of the points, but if you also shave 10% off the time, the HF works out the same. And if you shave 15-20% off... Anyway, for a newer shooter the point is that they are not as time-efficient as they can be. Most B class and below shooters can still A/C everything (and get 90% of the points) while shaving AT LEAST 10% off their time.