Bring back the perfect 6.0???

[Spider68]

We were watching a competition with some of my friends who know little to nothing about skating but love to watch the shows. They made some interesting comments about the scoring that made me begin to wonder...

How many 'lay' people have we lost because of the new scoring system? My friends say the liked the old 5.8, 5.9, 5.7, etc. and the second set for the artistic. Granted, sometimes you didn't understand the logic behind it, but to them, anything that got 5.8's and 5.9's must have been good and they could easily compare skater to skater. Now, when they flash the 192.65 or 188.80 and the comment that the score is so-an-so's personal best, it doesn't register with them.

The new system does seem to be better for all of us in the sport, but for 'Joe-the-Plumber' who contributes the ratings, if they can't relate and tune us out, it doesn't bode well for the sport. As one friend asked, after a particularly high score was posted: "Is that the same as a 6.0?"

JMHO.

[Artemis]

No no no! The new scoring system has its flaws to be sure, but it's still a zillion times better than 6.0. It gives technical value to every part of the program instead of just the jumps, and the incidence of "she/he wuz robbed" has gone down by about 90% since its introduction. (Totally unscientific statistic there, just my general sense.)

I frankly don't give a cr@p what Joe the Plumber thinks, and to make an important decision based on what the uneducated masses think is really throwing the baby out with the bath water. Sure, the total scores might be a tad confusing even to those of us who know what goes into the marks. But it's still not rocket science -- it's pretty easy to tell who has the highest score. The TV broadcast usually include a leader board, and the commentators will say "she needs a 98.4 to move into the lead ..." etc.

Plus if I were Joe the Plumber, I think I'd be even more confused the ordinal system, particularly when the flip-flops happen. With points, the one with the most wins. Couldn't be any simpler.

[icedancer2]

Plus if I were Joe the Plumber, I think I'd be even more confused the ordinal system, particularly when the flip-flops happen. With points, the one with the most wins. Couldn't be any simpler.

I'm also quite sure that Joe the Plumber never understood the 6.0 system at all and that is based on the observations of my husband, not a plumber. He could never understand the system.

I have to admit though that we sure got used to seeing those numbers go up (like a big row of 6.0s through the years with the greatest skaters) and it was exciting.

This will be my first nationals under the new scoring system (I'm only going for a couple of events) - it will be interesting to see how it works at the audience-level.

[sk8rdad59]

ABSOLUTELY NO!!!!! COP is far superior to the 6.0 system. No one every understood the old system because there were no real rules governing what mark came up.

Yes the rules are complicated but so is the sport. I would suspect that very few people know ALL the rules for most of the sports they watch. Baseball for example has 11 chapters of rules, far more than the scoring rules for Figure Skating. Figure Skating is more like Gymnastics, Diving, Ski Jumping or Snowboarding than Baseball or Football.

It is encumbant on the broadcasters to explain the sport, imagine a football game with no explanation of why a penalty is called the offending team would simply lose ground and we would all be left wondering why. This is currently what is happening with skating broadcasts, in the US in particular. In Canada this has improved somewhat although not to the extent I would like to see. At least the Canadian commentators understand the system quite well.

As I have said many times in this and other forums it's the broadcasters who need to learn the system then impart that knowledge to their audience. They need to explain the differences between well executed and poorly executed elements and set the viewers expectations on what marks should be expected to take the lead.

[Isk8NYC]

I don't need to listen to the broadcasters any more than is necessary. They already squeal and blather on too much for my taste.

What would be better, IMO, would be to have the broadcasts aired with a "ticker" at the screen top or bottom calling each jump/spin and the points earned, along with a running score tally. A "1/2 way 10% jump bonus" note would be fine - I don't need to hear the announcer say it during every program.

Obviously, this won't work for live broadcasts, but if NBC is going to sit on a broadcast for two weeks, they have the time to add the graphics.

I liked the 6.0 system. It was simple and easy to understand - who did the judges like the best? lol.

[sk8rdad59]

I would necessarily what them "blathering" during the actual skate but there is no reason they cannot run an education segment as part of the broadcast. Many other sports educate their viewers why not figure skating?
ITA with the ideas of some ticker info that is pertinent to the actual skate there could be a small graphic to indicate that the skate is now in the bonus.
Running score talleys would only work on non-live obviously but might be interesting.

I disagree about 6.0 being easy since there were so many unexplained flip flops when the ordinals were worked out frequently leaving even the experts at a loss to explain the outcome.