Like I tell any new players that join my team.... Lose your first match. Everyone games the system in the APA and if you are in it to compete at the national level eventually its the only way you can compete.
This is true (except for the everybody part; there are straight up players everywhere just like the baggers, I like to think that it is mostly straight up and that “most” people are not sandbaggers) and a very sad truth it is it’s just the way the whole pool world works.
APA.. The only League where you want to Lose on purpose?????
I will never understand that one. Why not get in a League where you PLAY TO WIN?
Sorry but you live in fantasy land there is no league APA, TAP, BCA or the like (other than perhaps an in house league or highly localized league) that has an absence of sandbaggers; and once you throw in handicaps and 1,000’s of dollars they will arrive in legions.
Now not all leagues are handicapped and if you find a league that isn’t that certainly lessens the problem but your crack at winning more than a few hundred dollars goes down with it. I am not a bagger but that’s all you can do; just don’t be a bagger yourself. There are avenues you can go down when faced with a bagger and the national leagues are getting more regulated and better at identifying and punishing baggers. It WILL get better with time; when you have the threat of disqualification that is certainly a deterrent to bagging and it’s happening more and more.
Ok on to the OP’s question. The chances of you being able to perform anywhere close to your ability are extremely slim, your Cinderella season will probably be an enormous disappointment to you, let alone your debut. The reason is that when we 1st enter the competitive environment our minds make our muscles react very differently than they do normally. Sometimes this is even true of money players; believe it or not.
The reason the tests don’t pan out is that you are more familiar with the games that you play than you are with the tests; so once you gain experience with the tests they will give you a more accurate assessment of our skill level.
I also have a theory about these handicaps and what they represent; the best way to serve this team (or any) is to get better period! Never loose sight of that simple fact. all these numbers and handicaps are smoke and mirrors to keep it interesting; dont falll under their spell; 2 years from now you will be a 5, 10 years from now you will be a 6 or 7, just let the handicaps wash over you like water off a duck; dont even pay attention to them.
So to sum it all up; you can’t test yourself, you won’t play as well as you can for a while and the handicap you have at this time isn’t important at all right now; in fact it’s smoke that is abscrureing your sight of what the battlefield actually looks like. Just play your best pool and don’t try to be better than anyone else other than yourself that is the key to sustained progress over a long period of time.
Good luck
