Handicaps

[Blackarrow]

Hi everyone,

What are people handicaps and do they use there handicap for anything other than seeing if they are improving when shooting different rounds.

I myself have a 32 handicap (unofficially as I haven't shot any tournaments for a couple of years), officially I could enter in a beginners handicap catagory, but that would be grossly unfair .

I don't use my handicap for anything other than gaugeing my performance and avoid entering handicap competitions like the plague! But thats just me

[gunmender]

Until the GNAS can free the handicaps from copyright and distribute it more widely a lot of people (i guess) dont have much idea of their handicap. Records officers should have the data?

Unlike golf handicaps is there any allowances for a handicap differance in shoots?

[joetapley]

A time based graph of handicaps shot can be a useful indicator of development (or not) particularly if tied into coaching activity/form changes.

[Trunkles]

I compile a handicap improvement chart at year end which is good for encouraging beginners/novices/those of us who have not been doing this for very long. With some people you get a nice steady trend of reducing handicap. We also have a club handicap shoot which has been won by a junior for the last two years. I can also see that my current scores are poor for my current handicap.

[Tuck]

You don't have to shoot at a Tournament to score for a handicap - any round shot to GNAS rules counts - ie all club target day rounds - any round shot at a club with witnesses counts.

Youre Club Records Officer should advise.

[Trunkles]

But it can only be counted if you submit it to your club. On a normal club shoot I collect all the score sheets and collate them. But for shooting elsewhere e.g a tournament or at another club or "on your own" then they need to be submitted. Each club will have its own procedure to do this

[Alex Greig]

How is the handicap applied to your score?

[Trunkles]

Your handicap has no effect unless it is a handicap shoot where an allowance for your handicap will be added to your score to "level the playing field". They are often used in leagues to allocate you with people of a similar standard.

[LineCutter]

The problem with handicaps is that they're useful for tracking your performance across different rounds, but not very good at levelling the playing field.

Our club handicap shoot is never won by a "competitive" archer, but always by a novice having a good day. The handicap allowance is fixed, but the spread of scores shot decreases as the handicap improves.

I still enjoy our club handicap shoot, but more for the effect it has on the beginnersthan for my position in the ranking (plus I can always compare scores directly with my peers - like a normal competition).

[Furface]

Yes, "competitive" archers do find it frustrating. Handicap shoots go to those who shoot above their standard, and this is more difficult the better you get. What would improve the system a tad would be some form of "smoothing", where freak scores can be ignored. For instance, if someone steadily progressing through the 50s has a day when the angels are with him, and he shoots a 20 hcap score, then his handicap will decrease massively that day; however, it will not then change (probably) until the reassessment the season after next! (This happened recently at my club) So he will never be competitive in Hcap competitions, despite shooting above his normal standard, nor would he be able to use the handicap as a gauge of progress.
In my view, HCAP competitions are wonderful for beginners/intermediates, but should be also have awards for normal "high score" winners. So everyone can be competitive.