13-10-2011, 11:19 PM
Well, it partly does, but juniors are always given the grade they 'earn' in the previous season. The 'underrated' thing is mostly a function of having a grading system which is (for excellent reasons) updated once a year. Fast-improving players, a disproportionate amount of whom are juniors, are always going to seem (be) underrated, but that's what the additions (and the 200up rule for those of us who fall victim to the highest risers) address.
The additions were presumably worked out according to some vague statistical analysis at one time or another, and it might be worth re-examining that to see if things have changed significantly (if that isn't the sort of thing that goes on anyway), but I'd caution against any assumption that they aren't fair. There's a temptation to focus on what I suspect are the relatively few cases of people improving considerably above the junior addition, while ignoring the less visible cases of plenty of juniors whose ratings are improving 'only' by the standard number of points, or less, a year.
Sure, every now and again we all get sandbagged by someone shooting up at a rate of knots, but that's a) broadly covered by the 200up rule and b) one of those things, I think. Overhauling the entire grading system seems unnecessary.
The junior addition isn't considered in sections as far as I know, no. Don't think it should be either, learning how to win events is a worthwhile skill, and they don't need any more encouragement to enter events above their station =)
The additions were presumably worked out according to some vague statistical analysis at one time or another, and it might be worth re-examining that to see if things have changed significantly (if that isn't the sort of thing that goes on anyway), but I'd caution against any assumption that they aren't fair. There's a temptation to focus on what I suspect are the relatively few cases of people improving considerably above the junior addition, while ignoring the less visible cases of plenty of juniors whose ratings are improving 'only' by the standard number of points, or less, a year.
Sure, every now and again we all get sandbagged by someone shooting up at a rate of knots, but that's a) broadly covered by the 200up rule and b) one of those things, I think. Overhauling the entire grading system seems unnecessary.
The junior addition isn't considered in sections as far as I know, no. Don't think it should be either, learning how to win events is a worthwhile skill, and they don't need any more encouragement to enter events above their station =)