Trying to figure out the how's and why's of ones APA handicap will drive a person nuts.
First off...it can and does vary from area to area. I would have to put that reason solely in the hands of the league operators.
Second...you can clearly see discrepancies within your own league division, with some higher skill leveled players being not as good as some lower skill level players. You try to figure out how their SL3 can win two games in 4 innings and your SL5 rarely does it. You want to think that that player just had a really good night, but then you notice the next time you play that team it happens all over again. I myself have spotted players games in 8-ball that after a few racks, I was wondering why he wasn't spotting me a game or two. It just happens and it'll drive you crazy trying to figure it out.
Let me give you an example of something that happens on one of my teams. My wife played as a SL3 (8-ball) in one APA area, with a consistent winning percentage between 50%-60% (lifetime winning percentage at @ 53%. So, we move over to a neighboring APA area and when we sign up on an 8-ball team there, the first night we show up for league she's rated a SL4. After the first night she got beat pretty soundly by a SL3, I messaged the LO (that I personally know very well) and asked her why, after my wife had been playing as @ a 50-ish% winner in the years she played in the other area, why she was moved up to a SL4 in her area. She moved her back down to a three the next week where she went back to her normal 50-ish% winning trend. Then, four or five weeks later she had one of those nights where she shot well and beat a SL5, averaging around 4 innings a game. She was back up to a SL4 the next week and has been there for about 9 weeks now, winning about 25% of her matches (always against SL2's and 3's).
When she beat the SL5 that night, what the scoresheet didn't/couldn't show was that at hill-hill, my wife was down to the 8-ball and her opponent had one ball before the 8 and was shooting a fairly easy out. But he scratched on his shot at the last object ball and with ball-in-hand my wife easily sank the 8 for the win. So basically, my wife didn't so much win that match...her opponent just flat lost it on an easy out. But, it caused her skill level to go up. I can't help but wonder if she'd still be a SL3 if her opponent would have gotten out (like he should have) and won that match?
On the other end of the spectrum, we have a young man that was a SL2 (9-ball) the session before last. He is about as bad a player as a SL2 can be, often missing BIH shots and other short, straight-in shots. No clue about cue ball positioning and shoots everything @ 90 mph. About halfway through the session, he has a spell where he wins three matches in a row (against other SL2's and maybe one SL1). He gets moved up to a SL3. He proceeds to lose his last three matches of that session, goes 0-9 in the last session, and has already lost his only match of this session...and he's still a SL3. So...0 for his last thirteen matches.
Go figure......trust me, you can't.
As for me, I last played 8-ball in the other area as a SL6 for a long time. I just started last week in our new area, and when I added myself to the roster last week I marked down that I was a SL6. Last night we get to the bar/hall and the scoresheet has me down as a SL5. I just said screw it, whatever that piece of paper says we are from now on is what we will play as, no matter how far off it is. So I play a SL6 last night and win four straight in eleven innings (with three defensive shots and a break-and-run).
I felt bad for my opponent, but that's on the APA, whether it's the national office or the LO. I bet I'll be back to a SL6 next week, don't y'all think?
Anyway, the point of my lengthy post is to show a few examples of how absurd APA handicapping can be. It is far more rampant than these few examples illustrate. It is obviously not a perfect system...not even close. My best advice would be to just show up, do not be concerned about what your skill level is, shoot balls in the pockets until one of the scorekeepers yells "MATCH", and try to have some fun.
By all means....don't try to make sense of it all.
Maniac