How to classify your ability?

[jbearnolimits]

I've spent some time with multiple padlocks now and moved from standard padlocks to "pick resistant" padlocks. I have developed a good feel for the tension and feedback as well. So I am wondering if that would qualify me as intermediate skill level?

I mean, I am not James Bond by any means but I don't think I am still a beginner. But with all of the locks and picking methods out there how do you really know how to classify your ability? I've "mastered" a lot of things in my life but the more I know the more I realize I still have to learn.

[jwrm22]

It's good to know your skill, what you can and can't. But I find it unnecessary to claim a level.
Everyone, even experts, will have their blind spots. A very simple example, where we pick relatively low complexity locks, but they stump the people picking all the highend locks.
Where I can't pick many locks with sidebars, but I do know a lot about mechanical and electronic safe locks.

If you want to compare where you are, and maybe find a next challenge, the lockpicking belt ranking might just work for you.
Just don't let the color dictate how you act to others, it's a skill comparison, not a social picking order. (pun not intended)
The opinion of someone with no belt is just as valuable as one with 20th Dan black belt. They do reserve respect for sticking with the hobby and opening fairly impossible locks, though.

[billdeserthills]

I have found that 'knowing' your skill level & what you can & can't do can only limit your eventual progress.
Being on this forum has helped me try harder to open locks that I used to simply destroy but after reading that some amateur managed to pick a tough lock-- it makes me try harder and in trying, I do manage to succeed every once inawhile

[FranklyFlawless]

I've spent some time with multiple padlocks now and moved from standard padlocks to "pick resistant" padlocks. I have developed a good feel for the tension and feedback as well. So I am wondering if that would qualify me as intermediate skill level?

I do not think qualification of lock picking skill is determined by defeating marketing claims of "pick resistant" padlocks, because there are no standards for pick resistance in the first place.

I mean, I am not James Bond by any means but I don't think I am still a beginner. But with all of the locks and picking methods out there how do you really know how to classify your ability? I've "mastered" a lot of things in my life but the more I know the more I realize I still have to learn.

I classify my ability based on the standard I have personally set for myself. For lock picking, it starts with the Master Lock 3D and ends on the NATO Mersey (14-lever), with 11 other locks inbetween them. Safe manipulation is still a work-in-progress, but at the very minimum is the Sargent and Greenleaf 6730, and somewhere along the way is the Chubb Manifoil Mark IV. The rest, if any, are to be determined another time.

[Midnight Philopicker]

Check out the lockpicking belt list... you can get a sense of what "level" you are at by seeing what belt level locks you can pick

[FranklyFlawless]

Yes, the LPU Belt Explorer is what I currently use as my reference point, although I make a personal few tweaks here and there in order to accommodate products or brands of significance, such as Schlage.