Parents Judges : do they and can they hate your child and give them bad scores?

[gothgymmom]

there is a judge in pa, that everytime she judges my DD, she gives her the lowest scores! i swear she either hates my DD or is judging her poorly because of the way I look. I am gothic and have some facial piercings (not all out like some people though). Last season she did her floor routine perfectly! kept straight legs, toes pointed, and even finished on time with the music! best FX routine all season! It was the last meet of her season, so I was hoping for some good scores to be able to move up a level. This judge gave her a very low score, and she didnt place at all! she was very upset, but (and i loved that my DD did this) waited until we were outside and on the way to the car that she broke down, saying that she didnt want to do this anymore and that the judges were mean (her words, not mine lol). I talked her into staying in the sport as she would miss it greatly if she wasnt doing it and she agreed with me. But everytime she is at a meet that we are at, she always gives my DD a low score. No matter what meet it is. Its like she really hates my DD. I dont think I can request not to have her judge my child, but is there anything I can do?

 

[AmandaLynn]

How on earth would a judge recognize which parent belongs to which child over the hundreds of gymnasts that they judge on any given weekend. I would almost guarantee that there is another reason for the score.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

I have found that each judge tends to have a particular bug-bear, it could be that she is not doing something that this judge is very hot on

 

[Faith]

Also there are usually two judges. Any big discrepancy between the two scores would be noticed.

I'd ask the coaches for some feedback on why she got those scores. Maybe go through a video if you have one. I'd be willing to bet her coaches would give her similar scores.

Not being rude, but unless you're a coach or a judge yourself, you're probably seeing a whole different routine.

 

[skschlag]

I do think that some judges like a style of gymnastics that may not be what your child does. My son has learned over the years that one judge doesn't like the arch in his back and will deduct for it. So he has to be extra conscious of that (should be anyway). Another loves his style and he scores higher with this judge. That could be what you are seeing.

 

[gothgymmom]

@AmandaLynn , considering at this one particular meet, i was sitting pretty much above the judges on the balcony, and after my DD was done with the routine, I kinda got excited so Im pretty sure the judge knew I was the mother..

And the coaches for that meet thought she did wonderful too, but I did not hear any feedback as to the low scores. The HC thought our level was in line for a team win, since we were getting 2nd place at all of the other meets, and we recieved nothing at all.

 

[gymmomtoo]

Judges don't give bad scores because they hate the gymnast's parents or even the gymnast herself. They give bad scores because they are marking off for some portion of the routine that they don't like. What level is your daughter? If she's a compulsory (up to level 5), then she may not be doing the routines the way the judge thinks they should be done. And while you might have been sitting right by the judge, I doubt she had time to notice who you might have been cheering for during the meet--they tend to block stuff out like that and focus on the routine.

 

[gymmomof1]

The judges I've worked with at the meets dds gym hosts usually discuss routine elements if their scores are far apart. Also If the coaches feel there is a real discrepancy between the score and routine dds coaches would talk to them immediately. This happened this year with my dd.

 

[GYM0M]

In compulsory routines, there are soooooo many things to get deductions. Several deductions are up to x amount of points. Some judges take partial deductions and some take the full amount. That could be a reason you see a difference in scores. Most floor scores for seemingly flawless routines score about a mid 8. It's little bitty things that will add up that we normally don't notice. An extra step, fingers in the wrong place, head placement, etc.

 

[Quadqueen]

I think the OP's daughter is in a low level which requires only one judge.

Since you are saying this judge seems to be targeting your daughter, how do her teammates score with this judge, compared to how they usually score?

When my DD was in compulsories, there was one judge who scored quite low on vault - about .5 lower than at any other meet. But, it wasn't just my DD - it was across the board. So, it could be something like that, or as others have said, it could be something your daughter is not doing correctly, or something that particular judge is a stickler about.

 

[txgymfan]

In gymnastics ( as in many other sports) there will always be judges just like there will always be referees in others (even Olympic swimming can have video reviews). You can't control the judges or their bias you can only control your performance and your reaction to you performance. Next year your DD may never have that judge. Even if she does it's a good life lesson. Do your best, practice hard, accept the results and move on.

 

[gymdog]

It's highly unlikely. More likely that other judges are inflating the scores across the board and this one isn't. You would still notice consistency in the placements. If you have a video I'm sure someone can tell you what range it should score.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i don't think so. but i suppose you could take out all your piercings and put regular clothes on and see if anything changes.

if something changes, that would be very sad...

 

[GYM0M]

I'm not goth, but I do have facial piercings and visible tattoos. I do not feel that DD has ever been 'judged' based on my appearance, but I suppose it could happen.

 

[gothgymmom]

she was old level 3 at that time. unfortunatly i cannot remember all the scores for the teamates at this time, but they were all pretty low as harldy anyone from my gym placed at that meet.

 

[Muddlethru]

I believe there are judges that give in to their biases. There was a beam judge that just seemed to like my daughter. My daughter's highest beam scores are when this judge is present. At one meet, there was a big discrepancy between the two judges scores. She got the other judge to raise her score by almost 2.5 points. Hers was a good 4 points higher. But my daughter has also received seemingly undeserved low scores from some judges, which her former coach was never too timid to ask for an explanation. So I think biases occur. But I also think it is more of an exception than the rule.

Some of the mothers at our new gym has said, in the beginning, the team was being scored low because our coach had tattoos all over his body. So our coach started wearing shirts that covered his tattoos. They said there was an increase in their scores. He used to wear sleeveless/tank top t-shirts. Now he wears collared long sleeves. After a little thought, I think it is not his tattoos that may have been bugging the judges but maybe his apparent lack appropriate and professional attire. Judges can and seem to deduct for everything.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

@AmandaLynn , considering at this one particular meet, i was sitting pretty much above the judges on the balcony, and after my DD was done with the routine, I kinda got excited so Im pretty sure the judge knew I was the mother..

And the coaches for that meet thought she did wonderful too, but I did not hear any feedback as to the low scores. The HC thought our level was in line for a team win, since we were getting 2nd place at all of the other meets, and we recieved nothing at all.

=
no no no..... Judges don't judge parents....

 

[gymdog]

How would you know about a 4 point discrepancy ? And the judge couldn't just raise her score 2.5 points because they'd still be too out of range. How could one judge be in the 3s or 4s and one in the 8s or 9s? I've never seen anything like that. Maybe you meant tenths.

 

[Muddlethru]

How would you know about a 4 point discrepancy ? And the judge couldn't just raise her score 2.5 points because they'd still be too out of range. How could one judge be in the 3s or 4s and one in the 8s or 9s? I've never seen anything like that. Maybe you meant tenths.

Oops! I meant .250 and .4. One judge gave my daughter a 9.6 and the other judge gave her a 9.2. To me that was significant. She ended up getting a 9.525. I tend to focus a lot on the numbers behind the decimal and sometimes refer to them as whole numbers. After all, those fractions can make the difference between a 34-35 AA and a 36-37 AA. But good catch gymdog. It certainly does not make sense the way I had put it.

 

[wnl256]

she was old level 3 at that time. unfortunatly i cannot remember all the scores for the teamates at this time, but they were all pretty low as harldy anyone from my gym placed at that meet.

There was a meet years ago where just about every girl on our team got horribly low scores on the vault. I don't mean 7s instead of 8s. I mean like 6s and 5s. Best we could conclude was that the judges were looking for things that our coach at the time was not emphasizing in practice. Some of the parents were incensed. I'm sure that the coach got an earful the next week (not from us, tho!).

Could be there's something like that going on. But as others have said, if there are two judges and the scores aren't close it would be noticed. In that case it wouldn't be one judge: it would have to be two.