- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
Are you sure you don't like CoP 'cuz you sure do explain it well!
I do like the CoP. Sort of.
The reason I have ambivalent feelings about it is because IN THEORY it should go like this. Figure skating is a judged sport, not a measured sport. The CoP tries to force a square peg (measurement) into a round hole (judgement).
Skatinginbc is an expert at doing just that.
One example that skatinginbc gave earlier is wine tasting. It seems like the only sort of judgement that it is possible to make is, "This wine tatses better than that wine." But if we want winemaking to be an Olympic sport, we have to come up with a way to say, this wine scores 97.2 points and that one scores 94.6 points. And strange as it seems, we can take a somewhat creditable stab at doing that.
(One problem with wine tasting is skate order. The judges might be happier when they get down to the final flight, having tasted 18 wines previously, and thus be in the mood to give out generous marks for the last six. )
Where I grew up livestock judging was a very important "sport." At the county fairs there were competitions among 4-H-ers about who raised the finest calf or lamb (also the largest pumpkin -- but that can be weighed. ) In addition there would be contests in judging these contests.
All the young contestant judges would judge a selection of livestock, and then the professional judges would judge the student judges on their judging ability.
This was serious business, because the best of the apprentice judges could get jobs as livestock buyers for large meat packing outfits and earn big bucks.
Last edited: