I keep getting confused at terminology in batch sparging

Here is how I do it, tell me if this is right. I posted this in an earlier question I think so sorry if you read it.

After the mash is done I collect all the wort into the kettle.
Next I take the sparge water heated to 169F and pour that in until it is at the top
I stir and let sit for 10 minutes then drain that into the kettle
I take rest of sparge water and dump in (whatever's left)
Again I stir and let sit for 10 minutes then drain

Now I'm hoping I figure the sparge water amount correctly but that's another post. What I'm getting confued on is I keep seeing that it should be equal runnings if doing 2 stage (is that what I'm doing? It's two amounts going in). I don't do that for any other reason than the fact that I have a 5 gallon cooler and it can't hold all the sparge water.
Thanks!

what they are refering to is splitting the total sparge in half ie if it calls for 3.5g then use two equal batches of 1.75g.

Now I'm seeing something completely different. I wasn't adding water when the mash was done to get the first runnings to equal half of the preboil wort. I didn't see that in any book. All I saw was just draining the wort and put all the sparge water in. Is there a reason for the descrepancy in the 2 techniques? Aside from using way too much water (and not heating the second amount of sparge water to above 170F) maybe that's why my extraction was so low. Make sense?

misunderstanding,,,
batch sparging usually entails these steps
1.mash
2.drain first runnings
3.add 1st half sparge water(this should take the grain temp up to 165-168)so a little hotter than normally called for in beersmith
4.mix and drain
5.add second sparge this will be no hotter than 168 and mix
6.drain final runnings to preboil volume (see step 8)
7.boil wort
8.use any extra runnings from last sparge to make starter worts(boil them up and cool in sink then bottle into 12 or 22oz bottles)

What I believe you're talking about are efficiency maximizing techniques. The two I think you're confusing are how many discrete runnings you're willing to take, two or three. If you take two discrete runnings, it's best to add some of the sparge water directly to the mash before vorlauf and first runnings such that that runoff volume is about the same as the one after adding the remainder of sparge water. You could call that first addition a "mash out" step if the water is hot enough to get the mash up to 167ish.

However, if you're running a typical mid gravity beer and want to get the highest efficiency you can:

1. mash, vorlauf, drain.
2. infuse half sparge amount, stir, vorlauf, drain.
3. infuse second half sparge amount, stir, vorlauf drain.

That's three runnings and the volumes will be pretty close to 1/3 each. Did you read my primer? It's down there \_

Bobby's primer is also up there ^

read it. Twice; maybe a third time. It was the single document that propelled me to AG. I read Palmer and Papazain several times; but Bobby's AG Primer made me make the jump!