Is the CoP hard to understand?
You get points for all the tricks you do, add them up. What’s hard about that?
Let’s take a look at ONE of those numbers that comprise the total. Here is a line from Caroline Zhang’s Four Continents protocol.
CCoSp4 3.50 0.64 1 2 0 1 3 1 1 1 2 4.14
What does a fan need to know to understand this?
First, what does CCoSp mean? So you look that up. It means Change (of foot I think) Combination (several positions I believe) Spin. Level 4 means that the skater did four of the following 8 things:
1) A difficult variation in a basic or (for spin combinations only) in an intermediate position
2) Another difficult variation in a basic position which must be significantly different from the first one and:
● spin in one position with change of foot – on different foot than the first one
● spin combination without change of foot – in different position than the first one
● spin combination with change of foot – on different foot and in different position than the first one
3) Change of foot executed by jump
4) Backward entrance/Difficult variation of flying entrance/Landing on the same foot as take-off or changing foot on landing in a Flying Sit Spin
5) Clear change of edge in sit (only from backward inside to forward outside) or camel
6) All 3 basic positions on both feet
7) Both directions immediately following each other in sit or camel spin
8) At least 8 rev. without changes in pos./variation, foot or edge (camel, sit, layback, difficult upright), counts twice if repeated on another foot.
Now we look up the base value for this designation: 3.50.
Next come the GOEs. In this example these range from 0 to 3. The criteria for positive GOE go like this: You need 2 of the following 8 bullets for +1 GOE, 4 for +2, and 6 for +3.
1) good speed or acceleration during spin
2) ability to center a spin quickly
3) balanced rotations in all positions
4) clearly more than required number of revolutions
5) good position(s) (including height and air position in flying spins)
6) creativity and originality
7) good control throughout all phases
8) element matched to the musical structure
In this example one judge thought she did zero or one of these, one judge thought she did 6 or more, ant the others are in the middle. Throw out the highest and lowest.
Now convert the remaining +1s and +2s according to the following rule (the rule is different for each element) +1 = 0.5 and +2 = 1.0. If there had been any negative GOEs the translation is different: -1 GOE = -0.3, -2 GOE = -0.6, etc.
Finally average the seven remaining converted scores. This comes to 0.64, rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Add 0.64 to the base value of 3.50. That’s your score for this element, 4.14.
Here’s another, from a different skater.
3F< 4.07x -2.10 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 1.97
This one’s easy. 3F = triple flip
. Look up the base value for a triple flip: 5.3.
< means under-rotated by more than 90 degrees but less than 180 degrees. So we multiply 5.3 by .70. (This time we round only to the nearest tenth, not the nearest hundredth.) 5.3x.70 = 3.7.
But there is also an x. This means the element was done after the half-way mark in the program. Multiply 3.7 by 1.10 (leave the answer in hundredths; do not round). 3.7x1.10 = 4.07.
This time the GOEs are easy. All -3’s. Naturally that means we should subtract 2.1 from our adjusted base value of 4.07. Score for this element is 4.07 – 2.10 = 1.97.
I am not making this up! 
Do this 286 more times (twelve elements for each of 24 skaters) and you will understand the TESs for the ladies long program at Four Continents. (I will omit the PCSs – they are a little tricky.
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, and Tanith & Ben's Elvis Medley, and Lang & Tchernychev's Scorpions' Still Loveing You.
: I liked his 2006 Olympics LP but he didn't skate it well. His "The Swan" is the trandmark of Johnny Weir. It IS memorable though it was too over-the-top for my taste.
