Offseason 2004: Let’s Talk About Judging

Now that the summer freestyle season is winding down, let’s trade ideas about how to be better judges at competitions.

Have you ever judged a competition and been dissatisfied with the marks you handed to the head judge? Have you ever felt the marks you got from the judges didn’t match up to what you did on the field? Have you been asked to judge but not felt qualified? Ever wonder what we would measure if we wanted to certify judges? Ever had an obscure question about the judging system and didn’t know who to ask? Have ideas about better ways to do things? This is a place to address these issues and talk about all aspects of judging.


Let’s have a constructive conversation/debate about judging. Interested in a particular topic? Click on the ADD A STORY link at the top of the site and submit it – you will need to be logged in to do this. Try to keep to bite-sized topics; that is, the more focused each conversation is, the more effective and creative we can be in finding answers and coming to consensus.

Have an opinion about an existing topic? Click the TALK ABOUT IT or ADD A COMMENT links and speak your mind. If you want to illustrate your point with a photo and know how to link photos using the [img] or [a href] tags, that’s great! In the newly international sport of freestyle, we may have some language barriers, so if you can translate articles or comments to your language, send the translation to me and I will add it to the site.

By trading ideas during the offseason, we can make next season even better. Who knows? We may even discover some changes to make in the judging instructions, Competition Manual or even the judging system itself.

One important note. Though I am the FPA Judging Director, this is not an official FPA discussion. I will of course pay attention to what people talk about, but this is not a forum or vote on making official changes.
– Arthur