Do it for the Judges

If there is one thing that can make or break a comp it’s Judges.

It’s very often a thankless job and is something we really only hear about when something has gone wrong.

“The Judge never told me those were no reps.”
“The Judge marked our score incorrectly.”
“The Judge got in our way.”

While things happening is inevitable there are two things that we can do from an event planning perspective to help make the Judges life as simple as possible. 

They are - setting clear movement standards and having Judges review meetings.

Movement Standards are something that is well within our control as event coordinators and there are certain things that we can do to help keep things black & white instead of gray. 

Take Box Jumps for example, it’s a simple movement however the standard of making sure the Athlete stands up all the way and opens their hip is something that often gets shorted when someone is trying to move fast. Box Jump Overs on the other hand are a similar movement but the standard for judging it is more straightforward...get from one side of the box to the other side.

As part of the Movement Standards we also want to take into account the staging of equipment, particularly if you’re planning on doing Wall-Ball, Dumbbell or Kettlebell work where people like to ghost ride the equipment on their last rep. This is something we can help control by creating a designated zone within their workout space where the object must be placed.

In addition to having the movement standards be as clear as possible, setting a time to have a Judges walk-through, before the day of, should be incorporated into every comp. Ideally this is a meeting that happens at least a day before the event...preferably more if possible. Whenever the meeting is it needs to be at a time when things can be reviewed, demonstrated, and discussed before the event starts. 

This is an opportunity to work out any details or movement standards that might not be clear. It’s always better to deal with the initial round of questions prior to the event instead of while you’re trying to get the day started. I promise you the Judges will have questions and valuable insight that can help make both the athlete workout review, and overall competition run smoother.

At our Judges meeting we review the event drawings and score sheets with the available Judges & Volunteers. We do this on the event floor with the equipment setup just like we do for the mock-up. The Judges should see an athlete / team do a dry run of a round in order to see the movements, range of motion standards, placement of equipment, where competitors will be standing, as well as any transitions. 

It’s not based on any science or data but I honestly believe that every minute spent reviewing the workout + scoresheets with the Judges is 2 minutes saved the day of the comp.