I think the idea of the 6.0 system is that it was an ordinal system. It was the responsibility of each judge, at the end of the day, to rank the skaters: this one was best, that one second best, etc. The 5.7s and 5.8s served as a course filter and mnemonic aid, and were not intended to have much meaning standing alone. This is where the idea of "leaving room" came from -- you couldn't score the first skater too high because you can't have any ties and there are only so many possible scores scores higher than, say, 5.8, 5.9.
Thank you, I understand it now. *boggled*
This system had two advantages. First, a human judge can always tell, between two trees, this one is taller than that, even though he cannot tell how tall each is.
Yes, but if a human is trying to judge whether or not the fruit of a tree is ripe (does this skater show good technique on the lutz?), he need not compare it to any other tree. He only needs to know what ripe fruit looks and tastes like (does this skater enter the jump from a back outside edge?).
Second, in so far as figure skating has a performance art component, it is a judged activity not a measured one. Quality is judged, quantity is measured. The prize should go to the skater who skates best, not to the skater who skates most.
As it is today, it's being quantified into a numerical score, so what you say here is actually making a case for deleting the performance/execution component, and replacing it with ordinals, don't you think? I really hated the ordinals :no:
If the goal is to reduce natural ordinal judging to measurement, the only way to approach it is to line up a thousand programs off you tube, from terrible to heavenly, rank them from worst to best, and arbitrarily assign point values to each in small increments.
I understand what you're saying, but let's conduct a very simple thought experiment
Open this video in another tab, and I want you to do only one thing the entire time - look at her knees - ESPECIALLY during the step sequence and jump entrances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K8b7cHXyWc
The component explanation on the isu's website lists the first criteria for SS as "Balance, rhythmic knee action, and precision of foot placement."
Question: do you think she could bend her knees just a little bit more during the step sequence - so be careful not to compare her to anybody else - compare only what you see during the step sequence and jump entrance, to the places in the program where her knees display a greater degree of bend and rhythmic action (like crossovers)?***
This concludes the thought experiment. What I wanted to show is that in order to determine how good Adelina's technique is, there is no need to wonder "But how good is her technique compared to Yuna's?" You need only ask yourself "How good is her technique?". First and foremost should be making sure that the judging criteria is holding everybody to the same yardstick - the textbook - and after that is sorted out, then we can look at how to quantify the quality of execution so that the skaters are automatically ranked (this is basically what they're attempting to do with the system we have now, true?).
Anyway, my hypothesis of how to do this (totally unproven, just Putin it out there ) goes like this: no matter how big your scale is (6.0 or 10.0), if your increments are equal to the number of skaters in the competition +1 (for perfect 10) you will have enough room to accurately score the entire field. That's what I'm working on after I'm done with my alternative component explanations for the improvement thread.
***I can't pretend to know too much here, because I don't have the ice experience, but it's been discussed that she loses speed into the first jumping pass because of the steps, and gkelly gave me some insight on the stupid questions thread that using "rhythmic knee action" can help you generate speed during steps. This made sense to me b/c in a beginner's dance class, the instructor might have you do chasses across the floor, and you will notice that it's harder to do if your knees are stiff. It is easier to do if you bend your knees. So stupid question: could it be that the reason she loses speed in those two passes is because of poor "rhythmic knee action"?