The long and winding road to become a certified judge…

With the lackluster public opinion of figure skating judges, and even competitiors frustration with judge’s scores (whether rightful or selfish) little thought goes into the time and dedication it takes to be a figure skating judge.

USFS  judges are volunteers. They are not paid. They may get their expenses paid for lunch, travel and hotels when necessary. But, they are there for their love for the sport and for skating. You’d have to love the sport: generally if you sit in an ice rink for several hours in a row with no space heaters, it becomes freezing! Additionally, few judges really make it into the elite ranks of judging national and international competitions. But, they love and know their sport. Either by years of formerly skating themselves, or by meticulously studying, judges know the sport inside and out and generally can identify a slight technique errors  otherwise only identified by instant replay video.

Judges have to go through an extensive trialing process at their own expense, which often requires travel of 200 miles for me personally—and much greater distances for those that do not live in an area with a wealth of large figure skating training facilities. Judges have to put in well over 100 hours of trial judging time as well.

100 hours? Doing what, exactly? Well, first, you have to trial. What’s trialing entail? You have to show up to a test session (anywhere from your local ice rink to hours away), and evaluate each skater’s test performance. You have the same evaluation forms that the real judges have, except your forms do not count for whether a skater passes or fails. Your forms are turned into your mentor, an actual active judge that oversees your progress. Once you are ready to apply for your appointment (judging certification), all of your forms are turned into the governing body.

There are 3 basic levels of certification for judges. The bronze level judge is approved to judge the first 4 levels of competitive skating. The silver judge is approved to judge the first 6 levels, while the gold level judge is approved to judge all 8 of the competitive levels.

There are two tests in skating: freestyle (jumps and spins performed in a program set to music like you see on TV) and moves in the field (patterns of footwork and moves that replaced figures and are use to prove you can really <i>skate</i>). In order to receive your certification, you have to trial judge each of the two tests at least five times, in all 4 of the levels. That’s a minimum of 40 tests, assuming the world is perfect. But it’s not, so a candidate often ends up trialing several more tests in order to experience all 40 tests, since test sessions occur only about once a month in a given area and generally there are only a few tests occuring at each level.

Now, just simply trial these tests means that you are not automatically a judge. You have to attain a standard of accuracy with the entire judging panel, and individual judges as well. The accuracy standard hovers around 70-75%.

Once you have trialed the minimum number of tests, and reached the accuracy standard, you then have to also take a judges exam to prove your knowledge of the sport. Additionally, there are various judging schools and seminars that one must attend throughout their service as a judge.

I’m currently over half way through my trialing process, and hope to be certified by the end of this summer. (Career permitting).

~ by rochelleonice on February 26, 2008.