Shooting for A class

[boo radley]

1) Start fresh in a different Division and...

2) Shoot Production. The same hit factor in Production seems to generate a higher percentage than in Limited, or L-10.

3) Try to shoot one (or more) of those 4-classifier matches. This removes the <dramatic organ music> "It's the CLASSIFIER" </dramatic organ music> aspect of local matches, since EVERY stage is a Classifier, and if you can't get at least one or two A-class scores out of 4 stages, you probably shouldn't move up.

4) If you know what the classifier is going to be for a match, try to set it up for dry-fire (or live-fire, if you're lucky enough to have the resources). I didn't get obsessed, but if I could hit a par-time that would give me all A's, somewhere between 75%-80%, I was relaxed and confident. Figure match adrenaline will make you faster, but also add the 'C-hit.'

I didn't set out to grandbag, but the above strategy worked for me. It's a victory to get out of that awful "B-Class is the Bermuda Triangle!", mindset, but I've also had a terrible year otherwise, in matches. <shrug> The lesson doesn't escape me.

[Chris Keen]

I have set up and practiced 2 classifers in the past where the results were dramatic. Area 6 this year (Baseball Standards) and Area 8 last year (Cash N Carry). Both classifiers netted me an 80% or higher but more importantly helped my overall match score tremendously.

[XRe]

We shot Madness at a local match before the Open Nats, and then I practiced it a few times before the Nats. My scores in the local match vs. the Open Nats were largely similar. However, I felt extremely confident about what I was able to do at the big match, and just stepped up and hammered out a 96% classifier - not stellar, but it was good for some match points, and some confidence in the match.

In practice, I shot it over 100% several times, but the runs were starting to get a pushed, sloppy flavor to them. Backing off to the proverbial 80% of max made it a nice relaxing run in the big match

I don't base all of my practice off of classifiers, but it doesn't hurt me at all to throw them in there occasionally as good benchmarks and exercises. Do what works for you - if you don't know what works, try different things and see