Fair Judging

[DragonMike]

What are some ways that governing bodies of point fighting tournaments can insure fair judging? I'm not going to name names, but I have been to several tournaments where I thought the judging was biased and unbalenced. I know these organizations do not certify their judges, so what do you think could be done?

This applies to both forms and sparing.

[MasterH]

You can do nothing besides point out your concerns with whoever is in charge. I would also say do not attend the tournements in which these problems might exist. And when you do not go, send a letter to whoever stating why........they might go the distance and work with you.

[Aodhan]

You can do nothing besides point out your concerns with whoever is in charge. I would also say do not attend the tournements in which these problems might exist. And when you do not go, send a letter to whoever stating why........they might go the distance and work with you.

It's a problem, and it will probably always be a problem. Talk to the Tourney director, and possibly write a letter outlining what you saw and why you think it was favoritism and send it to the national governing body.

I have a judge in my region that judges biased towards his own students at regional competitions, and biased towards his region at national comps.

Case in point: He was center judging me at a regional (Center judge looks at overall form and presentation), and scored me at a 9.5 (We score from 9.0 to 9.9). ONE WEEK later, at one of our National comps, he score the same form (That I though I did worse on) at a 9.8.

He also really mucked up the sparring scoring in my favor in one round too. I sent the tape into our HQ for evaluation on that one.

Aodhan

[cleung]

I've been competing since 1985 and have seen my share of unfair judging. I'm not sure if anything can be done. There have been attempts by many promoters but nothing significant really improves. I guess this is just part of the overall sport of martial arts that one must accept as a competitor.

[Aodhan]

Just take a look at the Olympics, especially the gymnastics over the last few Olympic competitions. Even they (At the top of the sport) are biased and have wierd scores.

Irish dancing theoretically doesn't allow teachers to judge their own students, or if one of their students is also a teacher, they can't judge them either.

Probably the best system I've seen is again from the Olympics. They have 9 judges from different nations that sit on the judging panel (For most sports that are judged, gymnastics, diving, etc.). The highest and the lowest scores are thrown out, and the rest used.

There still is some bias that shows up, but that at least mitigates it somewhat.

Aodhan

[aefibird]

I think that there will always be poor judgement and bias in tournaments. It's just one of those things.

For example a few weeks ago I came 3rd in Traditional Forms at a competition. The lady who was in 2nd Place had actually stopped half way through her kata and walked off as she couldn't remember it. However, her instructor and a friend of her instructor were 2 out of the 3 judges...

This lady was very embarassed about it and actually came to apologise to me afterwards for me 'only' getting 3rd.

I didn't mind - bad judging is one of those things and if that instructor really wants to promote his student so much and let her win then OK. It's no biggie to me if someone is going to be obviously so biased!

Anyway, there are some competitions where the judges really try to be fair and to judge everyone equally on that performance at that moment. Some judges, however, think they can get away with murder.

That's life I suppose... :-/

[cleung]

Yes, it's part of the game if one wishes to compete. It makes me want to train even harder in order to maximize the odds against any biased judges.

[aefibird]

Yes!

At least because I always train hard and do my best I can be proud of myself regardless of what judges think.

It would be if I slack off in training and perform weak in competition that I should get angry - with myself.

[KK]

I remember once I was entering a tournament and because the referees were biased the tournament runners decided to let a green belt referee instead - he was worse than they were not to mention he was best friends with the tournament organiser.

[karatekid1975]

I seen my fair share of bad judging. BUT I have also judged myself. Sometimes it's not bad judging, but an honest mistake. I made a mistake during a sparring match. I gave the point to the wrong person, but I intended to give it to the one that deserved it (we have to look down at times to write down the scores). I just simply marked the wrong box. But the center judge caught my mistake after looking at my sheet, thank goodness.

Anyways, if it obviously bias judging and not a mistake, then that's totally different. I have seen it. And I honestly don't think there's anything that we can do about it. Other than give the bias judge a "boot to the head." Ok, bad joke, but you know what I mean LOL.