MCOP
May 05 2008, 02:29 PM
Simple Poll, do you think ratings are:

Changed the title, since to many people don't read before they vote.

MTL21676
May 05 2008, 02:31 PM
the answer is yes simply b/c disc golf has no standardization of par and / or what is good on a course - a 54 is a great round on some courses and is awful at other places. Also, a 54 on par 60 could be great or could be terrible.

At least ratings give us an idea of the effect of a round without knowing the course's difficulty or par.

But as far as player ratings and etc, they are pointless except for the fact that we determine divisions based on them.

MCOP
May 05 2008, 02:37 PM
I just have a hard tme even deciding that it should be a defining ranking of what division a player should play in when I even have ratings over 150 points different that are counted into the system. Also with old ratings staying current and the fact people pad ratings by DNF and taking a 15 on a hole so it does not count, it just seems ratings should not be a paid for benefit of the PDGA.

krupicka
May 05 2008, 02:50 PM
For Ams, the few isolated incidents of someone trying to pad their rating hurts no one except themselves. If a Pro tries to pad his rating, any sponsor worth their salt is going to notice and take action.

Ratings are one of the biggest draws for amateur players to become members. It's also one of the cheapest services that the PDGA provides. As a TD, ratings are one of the best ways to keep the Am divisions fair.

Are ratings 100% accurate? With the limited data set available they are the best you are going to get. The only way for ratings to be more accurate is to increase the data set 10 fold.

deathbypar
May 05 2008, 03:03 PM
Your poll tricked me...the thread title is "Are ratings worthless or not" so I vote no, but after I had voted, i realized the question is "are ratings worth anything"...to which I should have voted yes.

abee1010
May 05 2008, 03:06 PM
I think the ratings have gotten to the point where they do a good job of quantifying a persons skill level, if they have enough rated rounds at least. When the ratings system started it was a little funny just due to lack of data, but at this point I feel they are accurate and useful at determining a players relative skill level. If I play a round with a person that I have never played with before, I can usually guess within 10 points of their rating just based on my impression of their skill level...

janttila
May 05 2008, 03:24 PM
Is that the "Real" Sinistral Deucer? Or is this an imposter? Regardless, I always find your posts to bee worthy of reading as they provide me with a great amount of insight. And they never offend my highly. Keep up the good work!

abee1010
May 05 2008, 03:33 PM
Don't worry about that imposter. I had him taken care of...

bruce_brakel
May 05 2008, 03:34 PM
Everything Krupicka and Bee said.

frolfdisc
May 05 2008, 07:31 PM
I'll third that.

- JPB

stack
May 05 2008, 07:40 PM
Your poll tricked me...the thread title is "Are ratings worthless or not" so I vote no, but after I had voted, i realized the question is "are ratings worth anything"...to which I should have voted yes.



me too! :o

tiltedhalo
May 06 2008, 06:48 PM
Your poll tricked me...the thread title is "Are ratings worthless or not" so I vote no, but after I had voted, i realized the question is "are ratings worth anything"...to which I should have voted yes.



Don't feel bad -- I did the same thing, then I realized my mistake, but the system won't let me change my vote.

so in this case, the "ratings" for the vote are off because of user error -- view the poll results with a grain of salt b/c some of us (like me) don't carefully read directions.

bravo
May 06 2008, 07:18 PM
the orriginal heading is not worded as the pol question. i never read the question because i answered the heading. my vote for no should also been yes.

sandalman
May 06 2008, 09:06 PM
i think MCOP has a great future in poll-writing :)

krazybronco
May 07 2008, 11:41 PM
i like the ratings becuase then you can look back a year from now or a year ago and see how much you have improved and how others are doing and how they advanced

mikeP
May 08 2008, 09:14 AM
Ratings are great for all the reasons stated above. We would be less of a sport without them. I can think of a couple of areas where the rating system is a bit weak.

First of all, I think the amount of rated rounds you play should somehow be factored into your rating. Many people only play a few rated rounds a year and this makes their rating based on too few rounds. This wasn't such a problem when ratings were more arbitrary, but now that they are used to organized competetive divisions we should think of a better way to address the issue.

For example, I was awarded a rating of 939 after my first tourney (one day) many years ago. I played well at my home course, but I was not yet a 939 golfer all around. For my next tourney I travelled across the state. This tournament used ratings to create divisions and I was forced to play adv/pro 2. I played average to my ability and came in dead last. I never felt competetive the entire round. This dampened my spirits and turned me off of tournament golf for a while. Luckily the many positive experiences that followed kept me coming back.

Another weakness in the ratings, which may be inherent to golf, is that it does not really tell you what kind of player someone is. For example lets contrast two completely different players who could have the same rating: On one hand lets consider a master's player who has been on the course for the last 15 years....He maximizes his potential and makes few mental errors. He never shoots real low rounds, but never blows up either. Very solid approach and putting game. On the other hand lets consider the young gun. He takes risks, shoots 1000+ rounds, but also tanks some rounds here and there. When he is on, he looks like superpro, when hes not, he plays intermediate golf. His putting is streaky and he sometimes loses concentration on his upshots. I wish there was something in the ratings that would differentiate b/w these two players. Right now they are rated the same.

I'm being picky and the ratings are good. That being said, there are always ways to improve things.

halton
May 09 2008, 12:49 AM
Your poll tricked me...the thread title is "Are ratings worthless or not" so I vote no, but after I had voted, i realized the question is "are ratings worth anything"...to which I should have voted yes.



Don't feel bad -- I did the same thing, then I realized my mistake, but the system won't let me change my vote.

so in this case, the "ratings" for the vote are off because of user error -- view the poll results with a grain of salt b/c some of us (like me) don't carefully read directions.



Well, I was not going to vote at all, but after reading about your misguided voting attempts:confused:, I figured I would vote yes in order to help FAIRLY balance out the poll results :D(You can just call me Grandpa GOP Diebold :o)