Parents Level 8 Regional Judging?

[pagymmom]

Hello,
My daughter just competed at L8 regionals and did well. My question is about the judging discrepancy. There are four judges at regionals (two on each side). She had drastically different scores - at what point do they need to do a judges conference. For example - on vault she had a 9.3 and the judges were pretty consistent but on every other event they were not. On beam the scores ranged from 9.35 to 8.6 (three judges above 9). On bars, the scores ranges from 9.4 to 8.65 (again three judges at 9 or above), and on floor the scores ranges from 9.5 to 8.8 (two judges above 9, one right at 8.95 one at 8.8). These seem to be wildly different to me for the same routine at the same meet.

Not saying the top judge was the most accurate one but that would take her AA from mid 36 to mid 37 - big difference.

 

[ZB55]

I don't know what triggers a judging conference, but do realize that they throw out the high and low scores, so the score given is the average of the middle two scores. So at least for your examples where you had three judges over 9, the one low outlier down in the 8s didn't actually calculate into your daughter's score.

I thought it was really fun to see all 4 judges' scores. My daughter had one event with a big range, with two judges low and two judges high. My guess is that she was borderline getting credit for a skill, and two judges gave the credit and two didn't. Of course her score landed in the middle which seems fair enough to me since it was obviously questionable.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

They throw out high and low, so I wouldn’t worry. Last year on beam my daughter had a low score of 8.6 and high of 9.6 LOL. I’m fairly sure the low score judge didn’t credit her series, but I didn’t pay attention to the SV card at the time. In a normal meet with only 2 judges they would have to talk and adjust their scores to be in range. I don’t remember the in range numbers off the top of my head, but the higher the score, the closer the two judges have to be.

 

[JBS]

I believe this is still correct...

This shows how scoring can be so different. If you have a 2 judge panel and you get 2 high judges together versus 2 low judges.

 

[pagymmom]

Thanks for that image. That is helpful. It is just mindblowing to me how different the scoring was between the judges. It is not like she was questionable on getting credit for a skill that would reduce the SV or something.

Anyways, she has come a long way this year in 8 and already pivoted to level 9 skills in practice yesterday!

 

[LJL07]

Hello,
My daughter just competed at L8 regionals and did well. My question is about the judging discrepancy. There are four judges at regionals (two on each side). She had drastically different scores - at what point do they need to do a judges conference. For example - on vault she had a 9.3 and the judges were pretty consistent but on every other event they were not. On beam the scores ranged from 9.35 to 8.6 (three judges above 9). On bars, the scores ranges from 9.4 to 8.65 (again three judges at 9 or above), and on floor the scores ranges from 9.5 to 8.8 (two judges above 9, one right at 8.95 one at 8.8). These seem to be wildly different to me for the same routine at the same meet.

Not saying the top judge was the most accurate one but that would take her AA from mid 36 to mid 37 - big difference.

I am assuming you mean level 9/10. The scoring at regionals for region 8 seemed much more fair. Someone correct me, but don't they use judges from across the region and not just in state for regionals? It does get tricky at those levels bc some judges for instance might give credit for a connection and others will not. We were initially baffled by my daughter’s beam score at regionals—it seemed very low but two judges did not give credit for leap back tuck connection. Then it made sense.

Our state meet judging on the other hand was bananas. Several girls qualified for regionals who were missing entire skills and connections on beam, not close to hitting handstands, grossly inflated scoring. My own daughter’s score on one event was about .5 too high. All 4 judges missed that she was missing an important element in her routine. It was pretty funny. The crazy scoring all came out in the wash at regionals though.

 

[LJL07]

Ok, I just misread this entire post! You meant level 8 regionals! I haven’t had my coffee yet. I would think the same type of thing applies with the judging though. Sorry for the confusion!

 

[Dahlialover]

I believe this is still correct...

View attachment 8640

This shows how scoring can be so different. If you have a 2 judge panel and you get 2 high judges together versus 2 low judges.

So what happens if the range of scores is outside of the allowable range?

 

[gymgal]

So what happens if the range of scores is outside of the allowable range?

the judges conference to figure out the reasoning for the deductions, SV, etc

 

[gymgal]

Our state meet judging on the other hand was bananas. Several girls qualified for regionals who were missing entire skills and connections on beam, not close to hitting handstands, grossly inflated scoring. My own daughter’s score on one event was about .5 too high. All 4 judges missed that she was missing an important element in her routine. It was pretty funny. The crazy scoring all came out in the wash at regionals though.

If I recall, you are from a R8 state that doesn't have many high level gymnasts, right? No proof here, but I often wondered whether the judges in those couple of states were more lenient in order to qualify as many as they reasonable could, especially with the 35 qualifying score for Region 8.

 

[LJL07]

If I recall, you are from a R8 state that doesn't have many high level gymnasts, right? No proof here, but I often wondered whether the judges in those couple of states were more lenient in order to qualify as many as they reasonable could, especially with the 35 qualifying score for Region 8.

Absolutely possible!

 

[3rd_time_around]

Thanks for that image. That is helpful. It is just mindblowing to me how different the scoring was between the judges. It is not like she was questionable on getting credit for a skill that would reduce the SV or something.

Anyways, she has come a long way this year in 8 and already pivoted to level 9 skills in practice yesterday!

It also matters where the judge is sitting. A tumbling pass on floor from the side can look amazing, but from the back the legs apart on each skill can be clearly seen. That could make one score .6 lower than the other. I like the 4-judge panel, because I feel it gives a more accurate score: the highest and lowest are thrown out, and the middle 2 are averaged.

 

[3rd_time_around]

So what happens if the range of scores is outside of the allowable range?

Conference!

 

[LCsMom]

My kid had a beam routine at L8 Regionals in which just one judge gave her a 9.5 start value. The judges didn't have a conference but the coach questioned the score, and it turned out that judge had noted that her back-handspring combination was supposed to have two different elements in it. It was news to us, and I guess to the other three judges...or maybe they didn't notice.

 

[3rd_time_around]

That would only be true if she had already competed a back handspring in the routine before the series. Otherwise, a BHS-BHS series is fine, and probably why the others didn’t lower the start value. At least the high and low scores are dropped, so it probably didn’t factor into her score.

 

[LCsMom]

That would only be true if she had already competed a back handspring in the routine before the series. Otherwise, a BHS-BHS series is fine, and probably why the others didn’t lower the start value. At least the high and low scores are dropped, so it probably didn’t factor into her score.

Thanks! I'll let her know. I think she's moved on to a BHS-back tuck. At any rate, this is why I leave scoring to judges--I stop at "hey, you didn't fall off, good job!!"