The motto for IPSC is D.V.C.; Diligentia, Vis, and Celeritas, which stands for accuracy, power, and speed. It is a balance of all three of these that will make you successful in IPSC competitions. It is good to be accurate but not if you are too slow and you do not have enough power. It is good to be fast and powerful but only if you hit the target. No one skill is valued more then the other, a balance of the three is needed.

Diligentia, Accuracy,  is dealt with by assigning scoring values to the target, which gives a premium for center hits, and lesser values for peripheral hits. Points are deducted for misses.

Vis, Power is handled by setting major and minor power minimum power levels and penalizing minor calibers by giving them lower scores for peripheral hits than those given to major calibers. It was determined that firearms of less then 9mm/.38 were not acceptable for competitions. These are the minimum calibers that are allowed to be used for competition.

Celeritas, Speed is measured by timing each competitor or by fixing the time required for a particular event.