SteveB wrote:but it sound to me like a trick version of the precision competitions.
Actually, it's a lot like the <i>original</i> freestyle competition from before the days of trick flying. There used to be a competition where anyone could get up and do anything with a kite to entertain the crowd.
But I'm not sure I see the connection with the precision competitions. In precision, you're told what to fly, but in this you get to decide. Or do you mean that it's like precision in terms of scoring?
b) More importantly, this thread had developed out af a desire to have some sort of ladder or grading system that didn't need a full blown competition meeting to progress, but where even if just a couple of flyers got to gether and wanted to compete, they could, and still have their results reflected in some wider context.
Yeah, that would be nice, but I don't know how realistic it is in practice. If you want to have a one-on-one ladder league then you still need at least 3 people to get together to do it (two to fly, one to judge). Realistically you need half a dozen people to make it worthwhile, and then it probably doesn't make much difference if you do head-to-head freestyle or individual. So in that sense, the competition format is orthogonal to the league ranking system, as long as the competition has a reliable scoring system.
What we really want to be doing is organising more smaller competitions, leagues, etc., at grass roots level, like the winter precision leagues (aha, now I think I see the connection with precision comps - is that what you meant?)
And to answer jo's point. A well constructed grading system IS a handicap system. You risk far less against a stronger flyer, and more against a weaker one.
What is the incentive for Simon Hotspank, ranked at #1, to fly against Jonny Newboy, ranked at #128? Surely Simon has everything to lose?
Presumably we have some extra parameters, rules, etc. to account for that?
For most people, grading isn't about finding a national champion. Its about being able to measure your skill against other flyers.
Yep, I'm with you on that. There is only one champion, and no more than a handful of contenders for it. So what do we do to keep all the other people interested?
A