Should judges watch/be influenced by practices?

[patsue47]

I see no problem in judges having a "game plan" for each competitor as it would help them to know what to look for during the skater's performance. But I still don't think they should attend practice sessions. As an earlier poster stated--some, if not most, of the competitors don't do full run-throughs--just do isolated moves. So a judge, viewing that competitor at a practice session, might see him/her doing a move that they have practiced over and over and have become proficient doing. The judge would only be getting half the picture and might be more lenient with marks.

[Joesitz]

It seems many posters are concerned about some judges inability to grasp the whole routine of a skater on THAT night. Maybe the entire competition could be taped so that the judges can re play it and give their results the next night.:D

Joe

[mpal2]

Well Joe,

That has obviously helped all of us. Even years later. I think that's a great idea.

[Joesitz]

mpal - It is not unlike a singer sending in demos to the music bigwigs for that big brake.

Maybe, it's time to evaluate a whole routine by fine tuning, in which case, there should not be a rush to judgement.

Joe

[mpal2]

I was actually being a little sarcastic because you still see so many arguments on competitions that are decades old.

With that being said, I do think that the judges are rushed in giving out scores. I think the judges should have more time to review any element they need. I also think it would help if they were able to pull up 2 skater's for video comparison (using the 6.0 method at least).

If a judge has a question on a skater's 2 axel, 3 ltz, 3 loop, he/she could review each element as long as they needed to. If skater x were the 1st to skate in a SP and skater y was the last, a side-by-side video comparison would be more fair. Honestly, how can you remember everything that far apart.

I don't know how much can be done without torturing the fans of today who are used to getting everything in 5 seconds. I'm quite sure the tv networks would have something to say about longer waits. I would just like to see a little more time and attention to all details in the scoring. I think there could be quite a few bad judgements because someone was rushed.

[Sadie]

Mistakes shouldn't be held against the skaters during practice. It isn't fair. I think as long as they pull themselves together for the actual program.

[Lisa]

Originally posted by Joesitz
But the bottom line is how they skate THAT NIGHT.

Joe

Yes. But they should know their programs and what they plan to do.

[Joesitz]

Lisa - What about last minute changes. Back in 199? when Kwan v. LuChen. Kwan left out the falling leave (I believe) and threw in a triple toe. Would a judge be ok with that?

Joe

[Lisa]

Joe- I don't see any reason why he shouldn't. I didn't mean to say that a skater should skate exactly the way he planned to do (handing a plan to the judge and skate accordingly), but it would be useful for a judge to know what to expect, when and where the important elements are to be expected, so that he might watch the skater instead of look at his papers in decisive moments.


And if a skater skates on a more difficult level than he planned to do (answering his opponents, so to speak), why not reward him? But this is only a suggestion, I haven't really thought it through.

[Ogre Mage]

Yes, I think they should watch practices and to a certain degree I think it's okay for them to be influenced by it. In terms of the technical execution of the jumps, spins, etc. credit should ONLY be given for how the skater performs in competition.

But there is more to a performance than that. There is also the choreography and how the whole of the program hangs together. And it's extremely difficult to grasp how the program "hangs together" by only watching it once. Viewing practices allows judges to examine the details (or lackthereof) in a program. It also gives them a chance to "get comfortable" with the moves and ruminate on the choreography. This way, when competition happens, the judges can really focus on the skater's performance and execution of the elements. But as far as the quality of the choregraphy is concerned, I think it's good for the judges to have done some evaluation of the program before the competition.

[Helen]

I am a judge and practices can be invaluable to familiarise yourself with a large group of skaters. If you have never seen any of them before, watching the practices is mostly about trying to learn their names, so that in the comp you don't have to rely on their dress color (which can be problematic, especially if nearly everyone wears blue or something). Also, one poster mentioned that judges write notes about the skaters - really? I have never seen this happen, judges are advised not to write anything down in practice, to avoid the issue arising of being accused of pre-judging.

[BravesSkateFan]

That judged who watched the practice, and madea note of the triple combo, will consider this a grave error (unless, of course, he is a fan of the skater). Subjectively, he will not think that no error was committed. It was not that way at practice!

Yes, but then again, even if Judges didn't watch the practices, they still attend/watch the other competitions. If a skater does a 3 Lutz/ 2 loop at every competition the entire season and then at Worlds only does a 3/1 or just the 3 Lutz, the judge could still think of it as an error just as he would if he had gone to the practice.