Heres a vid on youtube of me

[DancingSteve]

In ITKF competion they stop the fight when theres a point scored, or there MIGHT be a point scored. If you watch again. The center ref will hold his hand out to either side if he sees something that could be a point. Then he'll look to the flags(corner judges) for support.

He held his hand out towards me about 4 times, but got no love from the corners so he waved them off for things like, timing, stance, distance, etc.

Watch again and see how many times he has his hand towards me, facing up signifying I 'got' the opponent with a technique.

[bushido_man96]

That is something I never liked about judges sitting in the corners. The action moves, but they don't, making it difficult to see everything that goes on.

[obiwansbane]

judges are actually encouraged to move but just on the edges

bottom left judge is urged to shuffle between |_ to get the best views at all time, and top right is urged to shuffle --| to get the best view.

If there are five judges however, basically everything is covered... having 5 bad judges is possibly the worse sparring situation in the world, it makes you just want to give up the fight and walk off

[bushido_man96]

That has been my experience, obiwansbane, but in his video, the judges are seated. They ain't moving too much...that is the way I have seen it at some tournaments I have been to as well. If I ever run a ring, I will move the chairs away, and tell my judges to get up and move around a little.

[DancingSteve]

I've never seen a corner judge move in my days. I have competed in WKF (or old school WUKO) tourneys where there were two judges in the ring with you, facing one another and keeping the combatants in between them. But in my experience ITKF judges have always been seated.

The trouble doesn't really lie in not being able to move. Because if Judge A --top left corner--cant see it...then Judge B, bottom left corner should be able to.

I've judged before..and I've taken the seminars for judging...and it takes a long time to really be confident with what your calling. It also takes a very (for lack of a better term) 'big eye' vision of the fight. You can't be waiting for that gyaku zuki, or sweep, or what have you. You cant see into the mind of the fighter so you have to simply react to their techniques when you see anything that scores. TOo many times judges get used to seeing one or two techniques that score...and they look for those. If they dont see them. They dont throw the flag. 10 years ago when I competed a lot, backfist was a big technique to catch people off guard and if you did it right...BAM it was right there. I was told after this tournament that it most likely wouldnt score and I should replace it with a jab. *shrug* We shall see. I should have some more videos next month of Nationals.

[bushido_man96]

I think you nailed it there, Steve. However, I don't by the "if one missed it, then the other should catch it" school of thought. I have been in and seen too many tournaments where seated judges don't see a damn thing, regardless of where the alleged point took place.

You are right about how they need to be looking for the points, though. You have to be in a "see everything, focus on nothing" state of mind to do it effectively. You also have to be confident when calling your points. If you are going to call it, call it, and be proud that you did, and make sure everyone heard you call it.

[P.A.L]

from what i could see you won the fight.

[jaymac]

I enjoyed the music halfway through, what was that all about? Good clean fight by the way. It is tough to be judged.

[DancingSteve]

We only had half the gym. On the other side was some crazy russian lady coaching some half-terrified pre-teen girls in rhythmic gymnastics.

Im not kidding..one time I looked around the curtain and saw this little girl stretched over two mats..one leg on each in forward splits. And the lady was pushing her body downward to make her hips drop below her legs. The little girl was on the verge of tears. I can't make this stuff up..it was kind of disturbing. Especially since I just put my son in gymnastics this year.

But yeah...we were all joking around about the music too.

Nationals is June 9th and 10th at University of Texas @ Dallas, Saturday and Sunday. Im competing in Kata only, so I'll have some more video. If anyone is in the Dallas area, it would be worth coming to watch. No spectator fee!

[bushido_man96]

Good luck to you!