You can differ all you want. If accuracy was any factor beyond simply hitting a target with a lead bullet, then we'd have used scored paper targets with scoring areas. Amongst the shooters who hit all the targets, who won? He who was fastest. And even back in the day, that same winner, sometimes missed a target or two... Just that others also missed some, slower! When I started in 1985, (at the first club in the US), pistol targets were usually 6-10" @ around 7 yards, rifle targets were between 8-12" @ between 15-35 yards, sometimes as far as 50, while shotgun targets were sometimes poppers & around 10 yards. And yes, it was about how fast you could go... If you didn't practice and just shot at a monthly match, you were simply an "also-ran".
Various clubs would emphasize different aspects, but speed was always an emphasis... Some have more movement than others... laterally and downrange where practical. I didn't mind that as a 35 year old when I started, but today... not so much... But, it's still challenging, maybe even more so... at nearly 73. Even today, you can't miss fast enough to win. When the fastest shooters are shooting clean stages in less than 15 seconds, it doesn't matter how accurate you are, if you're not in that sub 15 second group, you're an also ran. This is just as true as when we only used one sixgun and fast times were in the low to mid 20s... if you weren't also clean and in the low to mid 20s, you were also in the "loser' category. Relying your competition to have a trainwreck is not the sign of a winner... it's being lucky. The adage that there isn't any target big enough or close enough that it can't be missed is as true back in the 1980s when I first heard it, as it is today. To win, you have to shoot accurately... FAST. It doesn't matter to the fast shooters how small or far away you place the targets... they're still going to be in the winner's circle... the ones that are hurt most are the less skilled shooters, for they will miss more. You won't find many clubs anywhere in the US where they're still using those 4" - 8" targets at far distances... They simply withered away and died, as folks prefer to shoot bigger, closer targets, and clubs that cater to them are still around. I started a club here outside Dallas in 1991, and we have had to go thru this same change. Not everyone likes it, but, like any speed event, younger, faster, better skilled & trained folks come along and displace the old guard.
I could out shoot half the people there even though I only shot at matches. I wasn't there to win. I was there to have fun. If speed is your thing then just show up with you ball cap, t-shirt and sneakers and blast away.
