Chasing ratings......Why?

[nashvillebill]

I'm pretty new at this so correct me if I'm off base. Seems to me that classifiers measure your skill's potential, consistantly achieving that potential in a match

is an entirely different skill. Six good ones out of eight will get you a card, but twelve good stages out of sixteen probably wont get you a championship.

[BBoyle]

I think the way it is now is fine. People all shoot for different reasons. Whether to move up in class, beat their friends, beat there closest competition, etc.

Sandbaggers are usually weeded out after a few major matches and I am always in favor of the Grandbaggers. I haven't shot a major match in years but when I was competitive there were only a few masters that I would worry about and any GM I would beat is just icing on the cake.

I have been accused of sandbagging because I might miss a reload or hit a noshoot on a classifier, realize it and then wait till I was done and fire another round a second or two later or hit a NS on purpose so that I would not have a "mediocre to my ability" classifier going in and would ensure that a bad one would.

[Johann the Horrible]

I do IPSC in South Africa. We have no "Classifiers". I just happen to shoot in the same club as 4 out of the top 10 guys in SA.(One of them is the SA champ). I have no way to measure my progress as the top guys are chasing each other and are getting better at an alarming rate.(Alarming to us normal shooters in any case). I would love to shoot "Classifiers" so that I can quantify my progress.

IMHO some people will always try and manipulate the proses, if that is what they want out of the system- good luck to them. If they win "D" that way it must really matters a lot to them so they should have that, and they will get the respect they deserve from other shooters. The rest of the shooters will use it as a tool and use that tool to better themselves.

The best I have ever fared during a Level 2 or higher was 4th "Silver". I was misclassified by the organizers and would have taken 1st Bronze easily. 4th Silver is a lot better to me than 1st Bronze. (And no medal was handed out for 4th Silver)

I`m "speaking" under correction here but I think Bronze= C

and Silver = B.