- Joined
- Jan 25, 2013
The problem isn't whether you agree or not, it's whether you understand where the scores are derived from. The casual viewer will not understand underrotations or levels, and this makes it hard for skating to thrive as a spectator sport and viewership.
I think this is the case with any judged sports. Usually an error has to be a visible error -- e.g. splashing in diving, a hop on the dismount in gymnastics. But casual viewers won't look at subtle things like if a skater pointed their toes in the dive or went in completely vertically, or whether a gymnast didn't achieve a full handstand or achieved a full split on a leap. In skating, it's been a longstanding thought that if you fall, you lose, so to a casual viewer the immediate reaction is "He fell twice", so they should lose. Many casual viewers would see the Germans skate and think the only error was the fall on the 2nd salchow (i.e. they won't see the doubles as a glaring error, or the foot down on the 3A). They won't be able to tell when a lift was executed with a difficult handhold/entry... they won't realise Peng/Chang did a quad twist, they will probably think D/R's triple lutzes are what everyone else is doing.
I know I might seem like I'm not giving casual fans credit, but I've heard many a time "I don't like skating because even when people fall, they still win. If you're such a great figure skater you shouldn't ever fall." Which is ridiculous to say because it's not like every basketball/hockey player makes his shot and it's not like tennis players never make unforced errors, not to mention ice is slippery and you don't get to take multiple shots to win. :sarcasm: