Standard deviation and upswings/downswing

[DBowling]

i want to understand std dev and how it can affect my upswings and downswings. if anyone could explain this or link me to a good explanation, it would be appreciated. how big of a sample size is needed to determine true std dev?

[Danny H.]

std dev is simply how far you are away from your average. It helps b/c lets say you are +100 per hour and your standard dev is 20, then that means 90% of the time you should be around 80 or 120 per hour. Smaller std dev is good b/c it means your play is consistant. If you can notice when you begin to have a down swing that goes far past your std dev, you might want to stop playing. If you notice that after 8 hours of sleep you go have an upswing of +300, since that's much higher that your std dev, you want to start getting 8 hours of sleep. Std dev is so important b/c given all other condition the same, if you std dev is 400, then going +300 for an hour isn't anything different than your normal play, even though your average could still be +100/hour. I'm sorry I can't make this more unclear. If you have more questions e-mail me at Gocwbys8@aol.com.