- Joined
- Jan 7, 2011
Well, we may be beating a dead horse here, but gotta make glue somehow, right? My 2 cents on the COP is that the basic framework and premise of the COP is awesome and necessary. Competitors building scores from scratch, with baseline values and everything clearly delineated in a score sheet afterwards. It sure explains a lot more than the unfathomable black box that was the 6.0 score.
That doesn't mean I like how the IJS implements the COP, though. First of all, I loathe the anonymous judging system. Transparency is the most basic ingredient in holding officials accountable. Without it there is no accountability. That's the biggie.
Secondly and secondarily, the IJS too often confuses complexity/busywork for difficulty/achievement. Witness the current death spiral. But the ISU has been curbing a lot of that lately, with the choreographic sequence being a lovely bit of simplification that's working out great. Now they just need to apply some of that to spins, the death spiral, pair and dance lifts, etc.
Thirdly, and this is perhaps most relevant to the topic at hand, the PCS needs to reward artistic performance more. Right now, PCS seems to mainly reflect skating skills, which is only one of the many components. Now I love good skating skills, and I love how much it's being emphasized in every discipline now. But I absolutely hate it when I see a skater or team give a remarkably beautiful or musical or emotional performance and not have the relevant PCS reflect that just because that skater/team doesn't have the greatest skating skills. When that happens, it will naturally encourage more crowd-pleasing performances to emerge, among other kinds of increased artistryacross the board.
That doesn't mean I like how the IJS implements the COP, though. First of all, I loathe the anonymous judging system. Transparency is the most basic ingredient in holding officials accountable. Without it there is no accountability. That's the biggie.
Secondly and secondarily, the IJS too often confuses complexity/busywork for difficulty/achievement. Witness the current death spiral. But the ISU has been curbing a lot of that lately, with the choreographic sequence being a lovely bit of simplification that's working out great. Now they just need to apply some of that to spins, the death spiral, pair and dance lifts, etc.
Thirdly, and this is perhaps most relevant to the topic at hand, the PCS needs to reward artistic performance more. Right now, PCS seems to mainly reflect skating skills, which is only one of the many components. Now I love good skating skills, and I love how much it's being emphasized in every discipline now. But I absolutely hate it when I see a skater or team give a remarkably beautiful or musical or emotional performance and not have the relevant PCS reflect that just because that skater/team doesn't have the greatest skating skills. When that happens, it will naturally encourage more crowd-pleasing performances to emerge, among other kinds of increased artistryacross the board.