Judges

[Grow Pattern]

Buddy,
             The problem exists just as much at a local contest as at a nationals. A lot of the solution lies in the training. We need a lot more development in our training tools and guides.  However there is nothing that will make sure that every pilot will be a good judge, absolutely nothing

In the past we had dedicated judges who cared about their craft, studied, practiced at local contests and then delivered at the Nat's.

Guess what! Then folks who did not like their own results, slowly but surely wore down and demotivated that group. I'm not talking about the USPJA either. Just a bunch of good guys who kept it going and did the job. Today, if I may parody, we have all of the ice-skaters judging the other ice classes of ice-skaters,  etc...

I was judging twice at this years Nat's and was legitimately giving out a 5 here and a 4 there, To my dismay the judges either side were giving 9's for the same maneuver - Egads and Gazooks!

For fun let's look a few zeros that if you were trained and comfortable you would give out.

Example 1. Maneuver - 2.5 turn spin. A pilot does a 1.5 spin stops, and then  does one more spin. It's a zero - why?

Example 2. Maneuver - a  single rolling loop. Pilot roils slow, stops rolling, rolls slow again, stops rolling and starts again. It's a zero - why?

There are several rules which help you out here. The 15 degree one point rule and the extra point in a roll rule.

In example 1 the spin stopped 360 degrees too soon. 1 pt per 15 = 24 pts, You stop at zero cause they won't let you do negatives. (Now there is a thought!!!)

In example 2 the rule says that if the pilot adds or subtracts a point in a roll you deduct 5 points. Do it twice and its a zero.

If the judges missed the "stops" then they would not give zeros.

What I am getting at is there is skill and knowledge that has to be applied at exactly the same time. It's not an easy job and many fail at it!

So how much would you pay for professional judges???

Regards,

Eric.

Hold up just a second! 

Example 2 logic is bogus. Because the 5pts for an extra "point" in a roll is in the para covering point-rolls. This was a slow roll albeit integrated with a loop. It's still a zero, but only because it stopped too soon and incurred a 1 pt per 15 degree penalty, again, only If it had more than 150 degrees to roll it was a goose-egg. [I'm ignoring all of the other possible errors etc just for this example.]

Now, you decide if I am right or wrong, and to be real you have 2 seconds before the next maneuver. 

We need more than teaching, We need some serious training as well. _ Eric.

  Another note that may shed some light on the subject. Most judges I think make an effort to score maneuvers correctly but what I have noticed is that the new and less experienced ones seem to miss the geometry requirements of certain maneuvers, this can make a huge difference in scores they judge defects but overlook basics, such as hight and width which should match, entry and exit altitude requirements and so fourth. They seem to focus on the fine points but don't see the forest for the trees. This can only be overcome when they have studied and understand the requirements of each manuever. We teach how the downgrades should be applied but may be failing to stress the importance to them of the need to be aware of the geometry requirements. For example I made a point to look at some tear sheets where obvious major errors in geometry were flown very smoothly my score in one case would have been a six at best, guess what, would you believe a nine and one half from two judges and a five from the other. likewise on the other hand I compared  one where the maneuver was performed correctly but with a couple of small errors flown at a faster speed my score would have been eight the tear sheet scores were two, sixes and an eight and a half. I may not be the best judge around but I believe that only one of the scores in each case was correct and these were both four k-factor maneuvers so the pilot in each case if I am correct received about a twenty point bonus on his normalized score but worse yet everyone else was penalized if he won the round. Think about it.one or two rounds where this happens and some pilots best effort becomes his throw away.
  Buddy       
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