APA Handicap System

For those of you who are not familiar with the APA's handicap system, this is how it works. The handicaps range from 1 to 10 with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. A new female player will start out as a 3 and a new male player will start out as a 4. I don't understand why it makes a difference whether you are male of female, but that's just the way it is. Your handicap (ranking) changes based on several different things. Whether you win or lose, how many innings were in the match, the ball count, how many defensive shots, and the rank of the player you were playing against. The amount of innings is how many times did both players shoot during the match. Defensive shots are when you make a good hit on the object ball without trying to make it and intentionally leave a bad shot for the other player. The ball count is how many balls did you and your opponent make. Lets say you are a level 4 and the other player is an 8. You would have to make 31 balls before the other player makes 65. The final score is the ball count. Hope this gives you some basic understanding of how the handicap system works in APA 9 ball.