Rowing NSW Grade Score System

Competition Guide

The grade regatta system has been in place since 2007 and has provided a good platform for club level competition in the Rowing NSW regatta program. The Regatta Commission is dedicated to maintaining the integrity and relevance of the grade system and to that end it will from time to time make suggestions to the Board to alter the Laws of Boat Racing and the administration of the system. These changes will be formally notified to the Constituent Members in the appropriate manner.

The Regatta Calendar

The season will generally be divided into monthly pre and fortnightly post Christmas regatta rotation. The pre Christmas rotation comprises a rotation of Time Trials, Age/Open Regattas, Distance Events and Grade Regattas.

The post Christmas regattas comprise a mixture of both Grade and Age regattas that lead to the Age based State Championships and the Grade Championships at the end of the season.

Age/Open Regattas

The Age competition is targeted at promoting elite athlete development.

The continuation and strengthening of Age based racing is for clubs looking at junior and youth development programs. The Age based regattas are targeted at development programs. The Age based regattas are targeted at developing crews aiming at competing at State and National Championship and Selection Regattas. Age racing also incorporates Masters Competition. It is recognized that within each Masters Age division there are quite diverse levels of ability and hence the Grade System maybe a more attractive option for some Masters crews than Age based competition.

Composite crews will continue to be allowed within Age/Open regattas.

Grade Regattas

Grade racing is targeted at club development.

The rules of Grade racing are aimed at providing for different levels of participation and ability within a club and to promote athlete development within a system which allows different standards of rowers to form a crew from within the one club. Irrespective of age and past performance .This is seen as a more equitable way in which to promote participation and allow closer competition between rowers of similar current ability.

The Grade Competition is seen as providing significant support for Club development programs. It is designed to maintain maximum flexibility in putting crews together by eliminating the situation where one Intermediate rower in a less experienced crew forces the crew to compete at a higher level. Under the rules crews compete at the combined average rank of the individual rowers.

The Grade System also had a Novice Class that allows athletes who are in their first year of rowing, and who have not won a race in this class, compete against other rowers who are of the same ability.

To support the goal of an inter club based competition the Grade Regatta stream does on allow composite crews to competed.

Grade Regattas – How they work

Rowing Grade Score

All registered competing members have (or are allocated on becoming a member of Rowing NSW) A Rowing Grade Score (RGS) for both sweep and scull.

The RGS is based on the member’s competition history and will place them into one of four grades as follows:

Clubs can form crews for competition in different Grades. The RGS will be the average GRS for the rowers in the boat.

For example a crew with the individual GRS of:

Rower 1 – RGS 3.6

Rower 2 – RGS 3.1

Rower 3 - RGS 2.2

Rower 4 – RGS 1.8

Total Crew RGS 10.7

To establish the RGS of the crew for racing purposes the Crew RGS is divided by the number of rowers in the crew, in this case 4.

That is for the above crew the RGS is 10.7/4=2.675. This crew would be eligible to race as a C Grade competitor. A sculler or crew is eligible to race in a higher (better) grade but may not enter a lower grade.

RGS changes

To allow members who compete in age or school regatta to be appropriately graded there are a number of ways in which a competitors RGS may change.

1.       The RGS Formula; The NSW RGS Formula is applied to results in grade events so that any win reduces the GGS towards 0 by 0.15 and any loss increased the RGS towards 4 by 0.03. The formula is based on a win loss ration of 1 in 5 races and should be effective in progressing successful crews to a high grade and uncompetitive crews to a lower level within a reasonable time frame.  It should be noted that the NSW RGS formula does not take into any other factor other than whether the sculler or crew win their race. The RGS Formulas is not applied where there are less than 3 starters in race from different clubs

2.       Winning a Higher Standards of Race; To enable junior and elite athletes who compete primarily in age based regattas to be appropriately graded competitors who win an age category event will have a RGS relevant to that class of boat applies as follows:

Where a competitor’s RGS is lower (better) than the adjusted score they will retain their original score. Scores are only changed on a win and will not change if there are less than three scullers or crews in the race from different clubs.

3.       Competing in School Events; To enable school competitors RGS to be representative of the standard of race they compete in at school regattas , competitors who race in school events will gave a grade score applied as follows for both sculling and sweep;

Where competitors RGS is lower (better) than the adjusted sore they will retain their original score.

4.       CDRA and NRRA; Athletes form rowing associations affiliated with Rowing NSW such as CDRA and NRRA will have their Grade scores incorporated into the Rowing NSW Grade score on a regatta by regatta bases. This will include both Age and Grade regattas.

Entering Crews

It may be the case that updates of the RGS from every regatta may not be available in time for the close of entries for the next regatta. As a result of this lag, entries will be accepted on the on the RGS at the time of lodging an entry

Substitutions

Once the race draw is completed and published, crews may substitute athletes as provided by the Laws of Boat racing, only if the substituting rower does not change the crew’s RGS to a lower RGS. A substitution that changes the crews’ RGS to a higher RGS is permitted but the crew is required to race in the Grade entered, not the higher RGS race.

New Members and Appeals

Where a member does not have an RGS one will be allocated with reference to the scores applied to competitors winning age races and competing in school events. For example if a new member had competed in their school’s first eight and was returning to the sport after a number of years they would receive a RGS of 2.00. New competitors with no rowing experience will receive a score of 4.00.

A member’s RGS is available on the Rowing NSW web site under the competition tab. An individual’s RGS is open to review and all enquiries regarding the change to RGS should be made by club captains or head coaches and should be mailed to the Rowing NSW Regatta Secretary tony@rowingnsw.asn.au

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