IMO, sandbagging = cheating! I am the captain of an APA 8 ball and 9 ball teams, both teams have had to deal with skill levels getting too high. i have never told any team member to dump or otherwise play below their true level. i dealt with the problem by bringing in lower skill players to make the numbers work out right. it is a pain and i have had to sit my best sometimes but its the only way i will play, even when i know the team we are playing is doind it. there are always options to deal with the problem without resorting to cheating. JMHO.
Mike
The APA is responsible for the sandbagging mentality! They impose that stupid "23 rule" which forces people to either sandbag or split up their team as the players improve. This is a travesty! It's horrible for the sport of pool! It's actually nothing but a Ponzi scheme where they force the teams to split and hopefully divide adding more teams to draw money from! This is the biggest cause of sandbagging in pool. Most players would rather stay with the teams they play for rather than have to sit out or split off, find someone who's never played in the league before, and form a new team that can field a legal team under the "23 rule"! They sandbag so they can stay together, not so much as an advantage, because it's so prevalent that it's more likely the player you're playing is also sandbagging, but as a defensive measure. I will never again play in APA unless they get rid of that stupid rule! They won't, it'll just cost them money which is all the hiearchy of the APA is worried about! Hasta La Vista Baby!
just more hot air!
Sherm