We'll Be the Judge of That: Judges Needed!

How good is your IJS (International Judging System) knowledge?  Can you tell the difference between a flip and lutz?  Do you look at the results of some of these competitions and think how much better you'd be at judging than the actual judges?  If so this one is definitely for you!

Think you can do a better job than these guys?

I had a lot of fun participating in The Judges' Table for Four Continents.  It was cool to read everyone's thoughts and perceptions about the competition.  It got me to thinking...I love mock scoring events for my own enjoyment because I'm a skating uber and enjoy things like that and I know other people do too.  In the past I've done my "I'll Be the Judge of That" posts where I go back and score the competition.  This time I'm putting together a Naked Ice Blog project very similar to that aptly called "We'll Be the Judge of That."  Rather than just me and my scores it will be a group of fans with different opinions and perceptions all contributing to the scores.

How It Works:

1. Event Selection:  The events will be judged using the International Judging System (IJS).  For that reason we'll be judging events from the 2007-2008 season to present.  No 6.0 competitions (...sorry).  It's just too difficult to apply the requirements of the IJS to 6.0 skating.  If you have an idea of something you'd like to see judged, leave a comment below.

2. Panel Selection:  Ideally I'm hoping to have eight judges per competition. With me also judging that will give us a full panel of nine judges.  The number of judges per event will be determined by how many people want to participate.  There will be no anonymous judging (you're welcome).  Each judge will be identified (by name, nickname, screen name, pseudonym or whatever they want to go by) and assigned a number.  That number will correspond to their scores for the whole competition.

3. Skater Selection:  Watching the performances will take time and I know people are busy and have lives outside of this sport we obsess over.  For that reason we'll judge the top 10 skaters for each event. The maximum will be 12 and that will only be for special events (Olympics or Worlds).

4. Let's Judge!:  I'll send each judge a score sheet.  The score sheet will have the name of the event, the name of the skater and all of the elements for their program (directly from the protocols).  There will be a place to mark GOE for each element and a place to award a score for each program component.  There will also be a notes section for each element and component where the judge can give small notes regarding their scores.  So often we see a score given to a skater but we never get any reasoning behind it.  By giving small notes with their score we'll get a better idea of that judge's perception of the skater's performance.  I'll incorporate the judges' notes into the post when I present the results.

The judge will score each skater for each portion of the competition (SP & FS).  When they are done they will send their score sheet back to me.  Once I receive everyone's marks I'll calculate the scores and come up with the final standings.  The results will be presented in a "We'll Be the Judge of That" post here at Naked Ice.

Scoring Example

Here's an idea of what each judge will do.  I'm going to score Zijun Li's SP from the 2016 Four Continents Championship.



Here are my scores (click here for bigger picture):

I watched the performance and assigned GOE and provided my thoughts on each element.  Then I scored her for each component and gave my thoughts on those scores too.  Each judge will score each skater for the SP and FS. That's pretty much it!

One last thing...

Judge Requirements:

You don't need much to be a judge for this but the following are musts:

1. Skating & IJS Knowledge:  An ideal judge for this knows the difference between all five triples and an axel; knows what makes a good spin; knows what makes a good jump; has a basic understanding of what each component score is for; and knows how to read the protocols for the ladies.  You don't need to be an expert...but you do need to have above average skating knowledge.

2. No Ubers Please:  We all have our favorite skaters.  I know I do.  However, we'll need objectivity to come up with fair and reasonable scores.  If you want to participate just to boost one skater and mark everyone else down, this isn't for you.  For this to be as fair as possible, we'll need people to be as objective as possible.  I'd say a 60/40 split on objectivity to subjectivity is required.



That's it!  So, interested in being a judge?  Sign up here!  Not interested in being a judge but have a suggestion for an event you'd like to see judged?  Leave a comment below!

There's still a lot of skating left to go in this season (junior and senior Worlds, the Team Challenge Cup) so this is something that will be part of my summer Off Season Fun series of posts or perhaps a little earlier if I have time.  I definitely want to start gathering info now so that I'll have time to put it all together and write it up.

Ta for now!