Does anyone know if the Goe's are giving for the whole jump or different parts of the jump; like a good rotation vs a smooth flowing landing or the hight of the jump.
Four phases of each jump are taken into consideration: preparation, takeoff, flight, and landing.
To earn the base value, all phases must be completed satisfactorily.
To earn +1, at least three of the phases should be "good" (better than just satisfactory), or the jump should otherwise qualify for base value and have something else special about it, such as varied air position (e.g., arm overhead) or delayed rotation.
For +2, all phases need to be good or very good, and for +3 all phases including the preparation need to be superior.
If any phase is less than satisfactory, that should lead to reductions in the GOE. But if the jump qualifies for +1 by being good in 3 phases and/or by having a special enhancement, then a -1 for a minor problem in one phase could lead to a final GOE of 0 (base value).
The examples given of minor problems worth -1 reduction are
-touchdown with one foot or one hand;
-long entry phase (telegraphed);
-short change of edge in take-off of flip or lutz;
-weak landing (land on wrong edge or toe, etc.)
mathman said:
There are specific guidelines for giving out negative GOEs. On the plus side, I don't know exactly what you have to do to get a +3 GOE. I don't think I have ever seen seen one, even by a single judge, and I have looked at literally thousands of these scores, LOL. For most elements a 0 GOE is quite an acceptible result and a +1 is a sweet bonus.
There have been a few +3s given by individual judges. E.g., in the Torino short programs, Plyushenko got several for his circular step sequence and Cohen for her spiral sequence.
Getting almost all of the judges to give +3 to the same element so that the average would actually be +3 after high and low are dropped is extremely unlikely.
It's especially unlikely for difficult jumps, because even when the takeoff, air time, and landing are gorgeous, the set-up was usually pretty bland. Or when the jump comes from a difficult entry, often the air and/or landing positions are less than ideal even when satisfactory.
Also, with triple axels most skaters who do them skid the takeoff to some degree, so some minor skidding could be overlooked, but judges may well reserve that +3 for a jump with a clean takeoff edge as well as good speed, no telegraphing, great air position and great landing. A special enhancement on the approach, air position, or landing position would also help.
I do think that we should be seeing +2s a bit more often than we have at the elite levels, but +3s should be saved for something really special, sort of like a 6.0 under the old system, only one element at a time.