Home Page 1. Why Have Rules Anyway? 2. Competition Formats 3. Scoring Systems - Part 1 4. Scoring Systems - Part 2 5. Determining your Scoring System 6. Discards (Throw Outs) 7. Penalty Scores 8. Tie Breaking Rules 9. Planning for Your Event 10. Recap Tabulation Methods - Part 1 11. Recap Tabulation Methods - Part 2 12. Sport Class Cooperative Competition 13. Behavioristic Windsurfing 14. The Race Committee 15. Preparing for an Event 16. Proposed Event Budget Form 17. International Sailing Federation New Brief Racing Rules for Slalom and Course Racing Including Course/Slalom and Long Distance 18. Hawaii Wave Riding Rules 19. Conducting Your Event 20. Explaining the New Racing Rules 21. Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions

Everything you need to know about Scoring Systems 101 but didn't know who to ask   The RC Help Articles are especially written for people new to the Race Committee. This article deals with the manner in which an Event is scored. The subject of scoring competitive events is many centuries old and the purpose of this article is not to reinvent that wheel! It's not that present day scoring systems are perfect because they aren't. Each has inherent strengths and weaknesses. It's important that you understand each scoring system, its accuracy and ease of use, what it prioritizes and then make an intelligent decision which will make the Event fun and fair for everyone. I hope this series on Scoring Systems will help a lot! A word of caution! Even if you select the best scoring system possible, you can still bias and even invalidate the results by using inappropriate penalty score values or discarding and tie breaking rules! Therefore, be sure to familiarize yourself with these important factors. There are discussed in other RC Help Articles. The most common scoring system worldwide among the windsurfing community is the Low Point/Reverse Scoring System. Low Point Scoring has even been adopted for the 1996 Olympics. The Reverse Scoring feature isn't necessary for the Olympics since competition value is not a relevant factor except in tabulating a series of events. In recent years the Bonus Points Scoring System (the old Olympic Scoring System) and the High Point Scoring System as well as some interesting variations of High Point, have been used but none of these have gained widespread acceptance. Actually, the term High Point may be misleading since the Low Point/Reverse Scoring System, by virtue of the reverse scoring feature, is High Point Scoring. The main difference between Low Points/Reverse Scoring and High Point Scoring is the degree of "point spread" generated and the ease of use but more about that later. To "see" a scoring system's basic structure, just plot the finishing places on a "x/y" graph where x = finishing place and y = points. An "x-y" graph is one of the easiest ways to study the relationship between finishing place and points earned.   Scoring System Design   Each scoring system has an underlying scoring design or structure: "SIMPLE STRAIGHT LINE" "STRAIGHT LINE/CURVED LINE" "CURVED LINE" In a "SIMPLE STRAIGHT LINE" system, the scale of points between all finishing places is a constant, e.g. one point. The Low Point, Low Point/Reverse and the High Point Scoring Systems are all "straight line" systems except when .7 or .75 is used for First Place. They are all equally accurate and give the same results; the latter two also equally reward those who win at the larger events. In a "STRAIGHT LINE/CURVED LINE" system, the scale of points between finishing places diminishes progressively from first to some place before last. The Bonus Points Scoring System (the old Olympic Scoring System) is an example of a "straight line/curved line" system. You award 1st Place = 0 points, 2nd = 3, 3rd = 5.7, 4th = 8, 5th = 10, 6th = 11.7 and 7th on = Place + 6. This system obviously makes sense but the inherent bias toward winners makes breaking into the top spots difficult. In a "CURVED LINE" system, the scale of points between finishing places diminishes progressively from first to last, reflecting the fact that it's harder to move from 3rd to 2nd in a race than from 21th to 20th. The Cox-Sprague Percentage Scoring System, adopted by the Yacht Racing Association of Long Island Sound, is an example of a "curved line" system. The windsurfing community has not generally adopted "curved line" systems because they're too labor intensive when done manually; they ideally require a computer with appropriate software; and there's some question as to whether the resulting point differential is really worth the effort in windsurfing competition. To confuse matters further, there are at least three more variations to the above basic structures: "DUAL STRAIGHT LINE" "REGRESSIVE CURVED LINE" "VARIABLE LINE" In a "DUAL STRAIGHT LINE" system, the scale of points between finishers is a constant (e.g. 1) for one group of finishers and then another constant (e.g. 0) for the balance of finishers (i.e. everyone after 10th Place in Slalom Race heats are scored the same, that is, given the same finishing place). If you use a system like this, expect a lot of unjustifiable ranking reversals! In a "REGRESSIVE CURVED LINE" system, the scale of points between finishing places increases progressively from first to last (indicating it's easier to move from 2nd to 1st than it is from 3rd to 2nd and so on, which doesn't make any sense at all). In a "VARIABLE LINE" system, the scale of points varies between finishing places depending on whether or not the competitor earned bonus points for starting the race, finishing the race or some other reason. I would strongly urge RC's to stay with "simple straight line" scoring! If you ever decide to try to reinvent the scoring wheel, be sure to look at your "revolutionary method" in terms of its basic structure, keeping in mind the downside of that structure.   When Do You Use Reverse Scoring?   If you plan to conduct only one event a year, just use Low Point Scoring. It's accurate, easy and fair. Just give a .7 or .75 to First Place, 2 to Second Place, 3 to Third Place and so on. Add up the scores for each racer, apply discards, break ties and rank. If two or more competitors are tied after you've applied all relevant tie breaking rules, then award all tied competitors the same rank and the next ranked competitor a score equal to the number of competitors ahead of him or her plus one. If you plan to conduct more than one event a year, use Low Point/Reverse Scoring. After you rank the racers, just flip the ranking column upside down. If there's a tie in ranking, award all tied competitors the same points. Then give the next ranked competitor points equal to the number of competitors remaining. Transfer these points (not ranking) for each competitor to the disciplines Regatta or Season Recap. What's the rationale behind reverse scoring? Remember, not all events are created equal. Larger events always have a greater Competition Level than smaller events, since the more competitors you have to compete against, the greater your chances of being defeated. 1st Place in an event of 100 is worth more than 1st Place in an event of 20! You need some way to reflect the Competition Level when adding Event results together for a Regatta or Season recap and the way you do it is with Reverse Scoring which rewards those that win at the larger events.   Differences Between Low Point and High Point Scoring   Earlier, I promised to tell you the difference between traditional High Point Scoring and Low Point/Reverse Scoring: High Point Scoring reverse scores the ranking column for EACH RACE. Low Point/Reverse Scoring reverse scores just the EVENT ranking column. Now, for High Point Scoring, if everybody is totally consistent in performance, the point spread is equal to NRacers X NRaces. If everybody is totally inconsistent in performance, the point spread is identical to Low Point/Reverse Scoring or NRacers. Usually, High Point Scoring's point spread is somewhere between the two extremes. So, Low Point/Reverse Scoring IS High Point Scoring (except not to the extent of reverse scoring all races) and both reward racers that win in larger events (but High Point Scoring rewards them more). Low Point/Reverse Scoring and High Point Scoring are like brothers---same family but different. There are several reasons that the majority of people in the worldwide windsurfing community, including the Olympic Committees since 1996, prefer Low Point/Reverse Scoring over High Point Scoring. It's fast. If you Low Point/Reverse Score, you flip the event ranking column at the end of the day. If you High Point Score, you need someone to convert every race score to points. It's consistent. If you Low Point/Reverse Score, 1st Place is always .7 or .75 or 1; 2nd is always 2 and so on. If you High Point Score, 1st Place is always NRacers in the scoring group and that varies from group to group. It's easily understood. If you Low Point/Reverse Score, the finishing place is the score, easy to read and understand. If you High Point Score, you'll hear racers saying things like, "Let's see, what's 7 points equal to? Oh yeah, that's 6th place. What place is 18 points?..." and so on. The disincentive factor is minimized. If you Low Point/Reverse Score, you minimize the disincentive factor by keeping the point spread equal to the number of racers with just a point separating one rank from the next. If you High Point Score, you maximize the disincentive factor by allowing the point spread to increase. There's no way to totally eliminate the disincentive factor since there's no way to allow everyone to win but at least you can minimize it. It's media and public friendly. If you Low Point/Reverse Score, the results are easy to interpret by spectators and the media since the finishing place is the score. In High Point Scoring, the points can be very confusing. If you're just starting a racing program in your area, keep it simple and use the Low Point/Reverse Scoring System. Meanwhile, remember that an Event conducted properly is more fun for everyone! Best wishes for a successful racing season. >>>