mro sandan, on Oct 21 2009, 08:04 AM, said:
My congratulations to everyone who participated in this event !
Although it has been repeatedly made clear on this forum that kata has not been designed to become a competition event, under the current circumstances it does serve credit to judo in this form.
Judges and their opinion always is half of the matter. Even more important than the opinion of the judges and the final result in the event is how you are feeling under it yourself. What did YOU think of your performance. Judges are looking at things from a number of perspectives, some not even from "the book". You can not even begin to understand how judges work. In detail, they sometimes or even most of the time, do not themselves either. Judges are trained to look at certain things, but they still do this through their own eyes, which they for instance can not shut for all kinds of personal flavors.
They will try, but they will still be human.
I was once present as an instructor in a conference where judges were trained in a completely different sport (so not judo) where decisions of who wins are made by judges solely now for decades already.
The speaker was the head of the judges nationwide, a former world champion. He showed all judges a video with a performance of it. Before he started the video tape, he asked the judges: "I will now show you a video. You need to watch it very closely and observe the performance. Then, come back to me and tell me everything you can remember that was wrong and you would criticize on." The video started, and, being not only an instructor there but also a former Dutch National Champion, I instantly recognized...... myself in the performance. You could not tell directly because of the distance that the video was made, but I recognized the whole setting and ofcourse, my "ways of doing". As I made myself scarce, the speaker blinked an eye to me, as the video tape proceeded.
After the tape was finished, every judge in the room was asked to give his comments about what all was wrong and out-of-place for whatever reason.
I was shocked to hear the first commenting judges and my face turned red, especially when I looked at the speaker who sort of "confirmed" what the judges told him by nodding...... when he saw this, again he blinked an eye to me over the table, to assure me to stay calm and not mix in the conversation. Suddenly I understood what he was doing.... and waited.
When the last judge had spoken, it was completely clear to everybody that this was a very, very, sad example of a performance where much was wrong, and although the performer obviously had some experience, they, as experts, knew better and could extract lots of small detailed errors from the performance.
The speaker stood up and started with asking if everybody was feeling confident and secure about his/her conclusions and if someone wanted maybe to change something, which nobody would.
At that point, all judges looked pretty comfortable to me, they probably would have felt great that they picked up so much flaws from the performance!
The words from the speaker were something like this (I do not remember exactly because I became red in the face again but now for quite the opposite reason):
"You have all judged this performance not based on reality and objectivity, but in the way I just steered you to do, and you did not even notice it. The most difficult thing for any judge is to keep your objectivity and do not let your judgement be influenced. The performance you just saw, was the only performance I have ever seen of any performer that got close to 100 percent of the attending judges, one even gave a score of 100%. This performance was top-of-the-line. I could not find ANY flaw or error in it even how hard I looked. Nobody of you even understood the degree of harmony and communication that was showed here. You were all just looking for flaws, and were you could not find one, you just made one up, seeking support for it amongst each other".
The question was made in a way the judges (of which some of them with a vast experience!) were pushed in the wrong direction. They all took the bate and started to see errors and flaws that were not even there.
A small story just to tell you, that judging a performance is a complex thing and needs to get matured over the years. It can not be done to the maximum possible at once or even within a few years. Experiences in other sports learn us, that it will take years and years before a well balanced corps of judges is established that know where to look for according to standards internationally agreed upon.
And everyone who practices kata knows how hard it is to get any agreement on any standard or style of interpretation. Look at the "Busen Kata" in the Netherlands, which says it all.
Hence, as a practitioner, it is very important what YOU and your partner think of it. Are you happy with the overall performance? Did you see the points where YOU and your partner think you need to improve.
Even if the judging was not in your favor, be happy with the result if you yourself were satisfied with it given all its flaws and imperfections it might have. It only proves that you even saw them, which is at your level of competition difficult enough. Looking at other competitors shows THEIR kata, which at this level will not be yours. But it can learn you something, it can provide insights from different angles, and it surely gives you information as to where the competition stands......
Congratulations again !
Exceedingly interesting-and good advice, this deserves a thread of its own
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