Trial Judging Tommorow, Help!

[Justine_R]

Im trial judging tommorow at my clubs testday.

Im hoping to take my Juvenile clinic in June but they have advised me to get as much experience as possible, at competitions/testdays.

The thing is, im not too sure what Im doing. What is involved? Do I get to sit with the judges and mark papers? Any help would be appreciated.

Thankyou.

[slusher]

I've never trial judged, I've gone the coach route but had to do several things around judging as part of that. I've a close friend who is a judge so she took me under her wing. The judges will be extremely friendly and helpful, there are not enough evaluators in the system and anyone who shows an interest in it is very welcome.

Call your club and tell them you are trial judging, talk to the test day chair if possible. As who is coming, they might or might not tell you until the day of the test. They should on your behalf notify the evaluators that you will be trialing.

Observe mostly and save your questions for the breaks. You don't discuss things as they are being tested but you'll probably sit together. You should attempt to evaluate the tests, using the standard sheets, this is something that you should ask the test chair for, because ordinary members can't download test sheets.

Know the standards of the tests you are evaluating. (it would really help to have the evaluators manual). This is the key. This is also what you should be prepared to ask the judges about. Why did you think a test was good and they failed it? It is more than just missing a step or two, they look at the overall skating ability. What are the primary focus elements of the test, did they meet that? Really you should start with primary tests (preliminary and junior bronze) so know the patterns, elements, focus required for each of dance, freeskate and skills.

You might also want to ask the evaluator what they feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the club as a whole. Are they good at jumping and have lousy stroking because the club doesn't have mandatory stroking sessions? Are all mohawks bad because there's only one dance guy that gets flown in for weekend test days and they've not been taught properly? Probably the most surprising thing is how low the test standards are. A 3 rev backspin with a scratchy exit will pass a junior bronze freeskate test and that is absolutely nothing like you would see in competition at that level.

Write positive comments on your test sheets. I remember the infamous "test ok" that one judge wrote as the comment on every sheet one test day. yeah sure, that really helped! Feedback is essential but must be as positive as possible.

After you've reviewed your sheets with the evaluator, has him/her if it's okay to speak to the coaches. You might not have a chance or they might not want to, but it's interesting to hear what the judge was looking for and what the coach had in mind as to what was most important to focus on.

Thank the evaluators, profusely. Thank the test chair, also profusely. Leave all your discussion in the test room, you can't talk about anything you have seen, written or overheard to anyone.

Good luck with it, I hope you have fun and enjoy!

[Justine_R]

Thanks for all that advice slusher! :)

It really helped alot.

I know our test chair pretty well and she was delighted when she heard I was going to become a judge/evaluator.

I also know a lot of the judges that come to our testdays so it should be a great atmosphere. Hopefully I do get the standard test sheets, not just a regular piece of paper.. as I think I need to get to as close to the real thing as possible.

Im pretty excited by the overall experience, i've always wanted to watch skaters and i've never really had the chance.

I know pretty much all the coaches at my club, so I probably could talk to them about the results/test/skater, im sure they'd appreciate it seeing as most of them have been my coach.

Thanks for the help! :)

[phoenix]

I've got to say I don't agree w/ writing only positive things on the comment sheets. I'm not saying to be mean, but constructive criticism is helpful, & lets someone know what needs to be worked on. Things like: Not enough knee bend, needs more expression, mohawk too flat, step #13 off pattern, etc.--all help to know why a test failed, & what needs to be improved for the next time. (I only test dance, so those are the sorts of comments I'm used to seeing)

I know a girl who has failed the same test numerous (and I mean *numerous!!*) times, yet the judges always write nice things on her sheets. So in her mind, it should have passed, yet it didn't. There are some very obvious things wrong w/ her test, but it's not my place to comment on them to her. However, if the judges would point them out, it would go a long ways towards getting her through this one.

[Erica Lee]

I think the 'write positive comments' thing was just emphasized because often it's easy to sit there and point out the things that were wrong with a test, but as judges, it's also our job to encourage skaters in what they are doing right :)

But of course you have to give a skater something to work on - if they don't know why they failed, they won't get any better next time!

[jenlyon60]

One of the most important things I was told, when I first started trial judging, was to make sure that my comments justified my mark.

In other words, if I was writing positive comments but marking the MIF or dance below passing average, that's wrong.

Conversely, if I mark the MIF or dance at or above passing average and write only negative comments, that's not good either.

[slusher]

Hey Justine, how did it go?

About writing positive comments, I didn't mean that the evaluator only write things like "that was the best mohawk I've ever seen " (cough cough, would like to see that on my test sheet) but instead, point out the improvement needed or the shortcomings in a positive way.

To use an example from above, instead of writing "not enough knee bend, needs more expression" it could be written as "more knee bend is required to convey the expression of this dance". Says the same thing in a more neutral way. Evaluators are expected to make comments and skaters want comments, but they must be expressed in a positive manner because it's in writing and that lasts forever.

We spent a lot of time on this in coaching courses. It's okay for me to say as a skater, "geez that jump I just did sucked wind" but my coach will say something like "..........(sometimes there's a very long pause)...........good attempt, try that again and remember your arm position." Not positive, but not soul-crushing either.

[phoenix]

Evaluators are expected to make comments and skaters want comments, but they must be expressed in a positive manner because it's in writing and that lasts forever.

We spent a lot of time on this in coaching courses. It's okay for me to say as a skater, "geez that jump I just did sucked wind" but my coach will say something like "..........(sometimes there's a very long pause)...........good attempt, try that again and remember your arm position." Not positive, but not soul-crushing either.

Geez, my coach definitely missed that seminar!! :roll: :lol:

I get comments like, "could you possibly skate any slower?" Or, to demo the fact that I hold a step for a split second too long, he skates the steps, then holds that offending step for a loonnnnng time while pretending to smoke a cigarette...... And my personal favorite: "I want you to do the lunge in the corner instead of the middle, because I do not want to show the judges your a**." :lol:

[icedancer2]

Justine -- How did it go?

[Justine_R]

To cut a long story short- Everything went awesome.

There was another trial judge there too.. and I had the most amazing evaluators working with me.

It was hard to keep up at first.. but I got better at it. And I really enjoyed the day, Im doing some more in Sept. so that should be fun.