- Joined
- Jul 30, 2003
I am concerned that the judging system encourages skaters to attempt extremely difficult elements which they cannot complete simply to gain points. For instance, a fall on a fully rotated quad attempt gives the same number of points as a clean 3loop (5.0)! This is stupid. There is a difference between promoting risk and promoting sloppy skating. Right now, CoP encourages the latter.
My suggestion: for flawed elements (step-out, two-footed, etc.) continue to give credit with negative GOE. But for an outright fall, instead of getting -4 points on the element the skater should simply be given no points. This gives credit for a good try while harshly punishing outright disaster. Perhaps then skaters will be less likely to make Hail Mary attempts on difficult moves which they have a snowball in hell chance of completing.
Another alternative would be to give bonus points for a skate without any falls/clean program.
This is not a criticism of the current medalists. They earned their medals fairly based on the rules at this time. But a fall is a fall, whether it is on a 4toe or 2toe. It is an ugly failure to do an element. The system should not encourage falls by giving out points for falling on highly difficult elements. If this continues, people will stop watching skating.
My suggestion: for flawed elements (step-out, two-footed, etc.) continue to give credit with negative GOE. But for an outright fall, instead of getting -4 points on the element the skater should simply be given no points. This gives credit for a good try while harshly punishing outright disaster. Perhaps then skaters will be less likely to make Hail Mary attempts on difficult moves which they have a snowball in hell chance of completing.
Another alternative would be to give bonus points for a skate without any falls/clean program.
This is not a criticism of the current medalists. They earned their medals fairly based on the rules at this time. But a fall is a fall, whether it is on a 4toe or 2toe. It is an ugly failure to do an element. The system should not encourage falls by giving out points for falling on highly difficult elements. If this continues, people will stop watching skating.
Last edited: