About Ranking

Hurray, I have made it to the top 10 in our Czech Rowing Masters competition.

The final results table shows quite well how this competition works. You basically get 6 points for winning regattas, 5 for coming second, etc. The National Championship wins earn you double points.

My critique on the ranking has always been that it rewards participation more than the quality of the result. I guess, by doing a few more regattas (Trebon, Brandys) I used the system to my advantage.

In 2015 I was eigth as well with 91 points from 12 qualifying races (7.6 points per start). This year I have 108 points from 15 qualifying races (7.2 points per start). On average I scored 94.5% of maximum available points per start in 2015, compared to 87.5% this year.

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A year ago, I also had some thoughts about rankings. Applying the formula that I describe there, to make the reward for starting often a bit less strong, I would have fallen down to 11th place:

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It’s funny, because without doing a  thorough numerical analysis, I considered my 2016 OTW season to be more successful than the 2015 one. I guess the wins in Slovakia and at Euromasters are not reflected in the Czech Masters ranking.

They the key to being happy in life is having low expectations. I don’t entirely subscribe to that philosophy, but it is true that I am satisfied with the 2016 season because the results exceeded my expectations.

At work, I am going through the annual “goal setting” exercise with my team. So I find this playing with rankings and thinking about what success entails quite relevant. Granted, there are differences between being successful in the business of innovative technology versus Masters rowing, but still. I truly believe that many of the things we learn by doing competitive rowing can be applied in our professions, and this is just one example.

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