ATK Boost??

So I've been playing CQC for several months now, on and off. I can usually do halfway decent but there are many seasoned pilots out there to say the least. I ran across one that I can't explain. He was a beginner–level 4. I'm a level 40 so far. I have never fought a pilot who could totally kill my shields from a 40% over charge(passing through the shields portal) to 0 in 4 shots, multiple times. That seems impossible to me. Eventually I asked him what his secret was–and he said ATK Boost. I couldn't find anything on the ATK boost so I asked him to elaborate. HE said the red circle–which he later said was the target circle. Still makes no sense. The target circle is what you use ti make your shots count so how can that be any different. I'm totally confused how a beginner can be that good–or what he is talking about. Does anyone know what he means by ATK Boost?