Debbi Wilkes's first column of the season

[Artemis]

Talking mostly about the new judging system and "how far we've come."

Oct 25 article. (http://www.tsn.ca/columnists/debbi_wilkes.asp?id=102688)

I hope her optimism proves founded!

[md2be]

She talks about being unbiased, but me thinks she is quite biased toward the new system!

[lilwish]

seems very subjective
and I would feel much better if we were allowed to "see" the element marks that are sent to the magical computer before they were sent there.

[Schmeck]

A question - she says the elements are called by non-judges, but aren't the referees she mentioned in the group part of the old judging pool?

[Snowflake3939]

Poor Debi and Tracy - they think that they'll be helping by agreeing to become callers. They're playing right into the greedy ISU's hands. I still think the ISU offered them that position to shut them up. How can they be objective now, no matter how hard they try.

[robertp]

Thanks for the link. It will be interesting to see if any changes really do occur. The "calling" that is described in this article is one of the controversial elements of the new scoring. Again, because of the confusion and problems the USFS issued a warning type of informational post on their website. They suggested holding elements for four seconds to avoid a ruling of less than three. They suggested changes to entries of lifts to avoid any appearance of two positions, etc.

I wonder how Torvill and Dean would have done with all the "rules". I am not an expert on this subject, but it is my understanding that they stretched the rules to the limit and beyond. We are grateful that they did. But, could this type of thing happen again with this new system, to the benefit of the sport?

Ok. that was a confusing paragraph. The question is...are the rules possibly too stiff in the dance area, such that innovation and creativity are diminished?