Re: Wrath of a teacher/judge after you leave for another. Does it exist ?

Sunday, 17 February 2008 10:21

Re: Wrath of a teacher/judge after you leave for another. Does it exist ?

Friday, 14 March 2008 06:08

Unfortunate but true.

  When my partner and I left our instructors of three years we wanted it to be on friendly terms.  We were ready to move up the next rung on the ladder and thanked them for their help.  They and we knew it was time for us to move on but the next time we saw them we got the cold shoulder.  One of them was a judge at the next competition and she gave us barely any recalls in the semi-final, compared to all recalls from the other judges, then last in the final whereas the other judges gave us mostly firsts and a few seconds. 

 We did not complain as we did not know her real motive.  Did she see something the other far more experienced judges did not see?  Was she just not experienced enough?  Or, was it getting back at us for leaving?  Who knows but one thing is for sure is that if she chose the last option then she has to live with it and can never say she is a clean judge.  She will be tainted forever. 

 The next year some friends of ours changed from them to our present instructors as they felt they were ready for the change.  A few months later at the next competition she did the same thing to them as she did to us.

And thus is one of the reasons that the Olympic Organizers are not crazy enough to make Ballroom Dancing an Olympic event.  Like one of them said, "Do we want another skating on our hands"?

Re: Wrath of a teacher/judge after you leave for another. Does it exist ?

Friday, 14 March 2008 13:23

Probably right ?  If Rugby wrote it, she was truthful and right.  Why probably ?

Hi Keggs,

with 5 judges on the floor,  by eliminating 2 scores you would give the remaining 3 judges an unprecedented power,  and if two judges worked/ cooperated together- you know- from the same club, one teaching in another's studion, one teaching an offspring of another, type scenario....it would be a mess. And having many more judges may be too expensive.

There need be scrutaneer whose job is to accept complains/grievances in a form of facts/ score sheets/ evidence ,  without the need to have the grievance signed, without the requirement to identify the grieving person(s) so as to eliminate possibility of reprisal by the judge(s) .  ( A small fee could be levied for such a invetigation,  the fee which could become refunded and payable by the offending judge in a worse case scenario. )

This scrutaneer should be impartial,  able to look at the marks, even marks from several competitions, and consider if the judging was out of line and the judge should be given a stern warning, ;ater penalty, even be excluded from the panel of judges.

Forget not, that even in the World's  the German judge scored Sasha higher than Italians, Italian judge placed Arunas in 3rd,  while Italan Paulo first, and Lithvanian judge put Paulo down just to be sure Arunas was not challenged, and the Russians played to their own.

Even if there are 20 judges,  such favoritism need be irradicated to make dancesport judging credible.

I agree with Rugby's observation, and yours Keggs,  there need be improvement in judging.

But which Nova Scotian judge  would not favour their own dancers when the championship takes place for example in Halifax ?

Is that personal, or just a fact of life ?

Re: Wrath of a teacher/judge after you leave for another. Does it exist ?

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 01:32

One judge has become known by the competitors as unfair due to a seemingly obvious favoritism toward this judge's own couples.  Someone even heard some of the judges and teachers complain about it and wonder why nothing is done. 

 At one large competition even spectators were pointing out that this particular judge never looked at any of the couples except for one.  They noticed that dance after dance this judge watched none other than the one couple.  At the end of the last dance this judge must have realized that they had not written their choices down and quickly wrote down the numbers of whomever turned their number toward this judge first.  I was at this competition and noticed this myself.  I also knew the one couple watched was this particular judges couple. 

 Is the judge partial or not is just heresay but in one of the last competitions they placed the top competitors (in the view of the other judges) at the bottom and the lower ones were placed at the top.  I heard someone say this judge may have been trying to knock the top ones down to move up their own.  Would I say that was true would be yes but then thats just my and other people's opinion.  Perhaps this judge's opinion is just different time and again from the other judges and that is all. 

One thing I know for sure is most of the competitors I have spoken to no longer feel the system is fair and some have wondered if the only way to get good marks is to have to take lessons from all the judges.  This to me is a form of blackmail toward the competitor and I know I have mentioned to every one of the judges that all I expect from them is honesty.  If we danced well mark us so but if we danced poorly then the mark should reflect this.  If they like us as people or not should not be reflected in the marks.  We are couple number whatever and thats it, not so and so.