The Mystery of the Handicap System Almost Explained
People sometimes ask, “How are handicaps calculated for Winter Sculling?” (usually when they believe theirs is wrong).
Good question.
Handicapping for the 2000m sprint events is a difficult and arcane art. At the beginning of the series there is not much to go on – we know some people’s performance from the previous year, but not how fit they are this year, or how many times they’ve been out in a single recently, have they had/do they have COVID. And those people who haven’t rowed in the series before, we have no idea.
Handicaps are based on the time it is expected you will take to row 2000m, this is your ‘base’ time. Once the season gets going and you show us what you can do, we can start to get a bit objective on how the handicaps are set, but there are still factors which change between each week, and in fact within a morning, which affect people’s times. It takes a couple of weeks and we don’t always get it right.
Each week we try to put you in a heat behind someone we believe will be slower than you and in front of someone who should be faster. However, this doesn’t always work out but there is nothing we can do about it. For some, foxing the handicap system is a feature of Winter Sculling – a cat and mouse game between some scullers and the handicappers. Some people think they can have an influence but, at the end of the day, there are so many other factors across the six races – wind, stream, bridges(!), the litter trap, other scullers in your way on the day – that in the overall scheme of things one would be very lucky to influence the overall result.
Don’t forget, each week, we’re working with the times for 60+ scullers. You, on the other hand, only have your time to concentrate on.
And please, avoid the temptation to contact us and grumble about your handicap, it is likely to result in an additional 10 second being added to your time!
Be patient, Winter Sculling is for fun.