Most woodworkers sand too much, because that seems safer than sanding too little. But a good sanding sequence will guarantee that your stain and finish will look great, and assure that you don't spend too much time sanding. Here's how I do it. AlOx leaves a fine v-shaped set of scratches and works fast.
Open coat means there are spaces between the grit.
The purpose of the 80 grit is solely to remove tool marks. Once that is done, stop, and move on to 120 grit AlOx. Once the 80 grit scratches are out, move on to 180 grit AlOx and use it to remove the 120 grit scratches. Once again, stop when you get them out. If you sand with a block, by hand, sand diagonally, and change direction 90 degrees with each grit.